Cob House Open Wyatts Pool 25/7/10

Hi Folks, back fishing this week after a weekend off but with no club matches on me & stav decided to fish the open at Cob House as we could have a bit of a lye-in due to the 11am draw fishing 12-5. We fished a club match on a different pool a few weeks ago which was our first visit and we gave the fishery the thumbs up so we were hoping for more of the same this time. After a few phone calls and questions about tactics it seemed to be a bit of a fish race with small stockie carp from around 4oz-1lb the main target with a few bigger fish in the 3-4lb bracket showing up now and then. On the bait front it seemed to be all pellet and paste with some catching on maggot if you take enough of them.
There were 12 of us that turned up for the match which made it nice and easy 6 pegs each side of the pool, with no one saying that there were any better areas than others i wasn't really bothered when i pulled out peg 19 as it meant nothing to me. The peg was around 3-4 pegs down from the top end on the left hand side of the pool, Stav had drew peg 27 which was on my side of the pool and looked good for a few fish as it was the end peg.
On the tackle front i set up 3 rigs one for top kit+ short no4, one for down the edge and a shallow rig. Bait wise i had around 3 pints each of 2 & 4mm pellets for feed and some 4 & 6mm expanders for the hook plus a few 6mm hard pellets for banding or lassoing i was going all out pellet attack!
On the whistle i put a 4mm expander on the hook shipped out to my 3m line threw a few 2mm pellets around the float while feeding my right hand edge with the same and started flicking a few 4mm pellets at 6m. As i looked up around 4 people on the other side were playing fish already, it took a couple of mins for me to get my first bite and a 60z carp was the culprit. After around 45 mins i was catching a few fish but seemed to be waiting a lot longer than the people on the other bank for bites so a change was called for, i re-plumbed up taking off the short 4 so i was down to fishing at 2m. While i started feeding a bit shorter for the new line i had a quick look on my shallow line at 6mm where i had been feeding from the off, Bob Baker on the opposite bank was catching very well shallow and after only 20 seconds my elastic shot out and a carp was netted. Next put-in the same result but after another 5 mins bite-less it was time for a look on the 2m line, i was catching fish on the new line and the odd better fish also in the 2-3lb bracket. The fish seemed to be coming in short bursts of 3-4 fish then i would have to wait a long time for another, after a while Scott in the end peg opposite Stav was talking to Carl in the next peg saying they were on 60-70 odd fish each that was bad news as i had only got 30 odd! That seemed to set the theme for the day i only had around 6 fish all-day form both my margin and shallow line, my 2m line came in fits and starts all-day try as i might with changing feeding, shotting and hook-baits i couldn't make the fish come any faster. Evey time i looked over Bob, Carl & Scott were all hammering the fish one a bung with Bob seeming to be catching fish very fast shallow, Phil the gaffer sat on the grass watching Bob catch for a bit then went away for a time came back and Bob was still having one a bung. Word on the bank was that Scott was now catching bigger fish short on paste with Carl backing him to break the current match record which stands at 254lb by Chris Cameron? All to soon the all out was called and while i had enjoyed it i thought that i had not got the best out of the peg, when you fish a new pool for the first time it is always going to be hard to be up to speed straight away. Stav was the first to weigh with a good 140lb on the scales but had to put up with Scott and Carl bagging opposite all-day, i think there was 65lb,92lb & 82lb weights coming up the pool i put my fish on the scales and Phil gave me 118lb 8oz the guy to my left had 98lb 14oz. The first guy on the opposite side had caught but put back so was recorded a D.N.W, Bob was next and after many weigh-ins and adding up his total was an astounding 294lb 150z a new lake and venue record. Trevor on the next peg had 159lb 5oz, Carl was next and he had 181lb 9oz, Scott was the last to weigh and he looked to have another big weight as his first 2 of 4 nets were over the limit at over 60lb odd in each ( hope you gave yourself a telling off for to many fish in your nets mate?) after lots of weighing and adding Scott had a brilliant 234lb 15oz. Sorry i think i missed a weight out on the other bank somewhere was a 96lb.
What a great match and a great venue:
1st Bob Baker 294 - 12 Peg 9 NEW VENUE RECORD

2nd Scott Jones 234 - 15 Peg 3

3rd Carl Jones 181 - 9 Peg 5

4th Trev Hodges 159 – 5 Peg 7

5th Jon Baker 140 – 3 Peg 27

6th Simon West 118 – 8 Peg 19

7th Carl Falconer 98 – 14 Peg 17

Back-ups 96, 92, 82, 65, DNW.

This place is solid if you haven't been there already get yourself down there a catch a few fish. Going back to the weigh-in it is nice to see a sensible attitude to net limits, there is a 50lb limit imposed on nets here but there were one or to that had a few more than that but rather than knock the excess off we were just weighed in as normal ( well done Phil ). Some of the fishery's now a days are getting a bit silly and petty, i know it's all for the welfare of the fish but especially with small fish it is very hard to guess what you have got. You end up more worried about what fish are in what net and how many instead of concentrating on fishing and enjoying the day. Penalizing someone for having a few to many fish in his net is getting a bit silly it might be someones best ever day or breaking a club record cut short by a few pound because he had 2 fish to many in his net!!! Ok enough of me on my soap box.
Cheers to Phil for a great day with plenty of fish in nice clean surroundings hope to see you all soon.
Well done to Bob for emptying the pool and breaking the venue record.
Bad luck Scott there are not many times you can have 234lb and come second? (must try harder mate?)