Earlswood Engine Pool 1/8/10

Hi Folks, today's match was a Cradley Heath club match on the council bank of the engine pool, we had got from pegs 50-80 but with only 15 booked in we had a bit of room to go at. The question most of us was wondering was that if everybody would turn up after some of us had gone to Ollie's the night before for a BBQ & a few beer's??? Yes just the odd beer just to be sociable? To be honest we were more worried about dodgy guts after Stav had brought some meat on sticks, yes just meat! that we all found very funny when someone said they reminded them of dog shit? the colour was right too? Stavi's Shit Sticks? Although there are plenty of fish in Earlswood i was a little worried that there had been an open match on the pegs we were using the day before, a quick phone call to a mate of mine had reveled that it have fished well with weights of 220,189,171,170 and so on. I was a little concerned that the fish might have had a belly full the day before. For the benefit of those that have not been to Earlswood it's a BIG lake 25 acres with 105 pegs, the carp were stocked in around 2000 with over five tons of carp 8-10 oz each. They are now 8-12lb with the odd one to 20lb+, so you don't need many to build a big weight. At the draw i was hoping for one of the hot pegs around 75-80 on the point which are a few meters in-front of the rest or around peg 60 were there was 189lb the day before. Out of the draw bag i pulled peg 66! Great in the middle of no-mans-land, still i was confident of a few fish as the lake responds to a very well to an attacking approach something a few anglers fail to get on with when faced with a big expanse of water. I have had a few good weights from here in the past and one of BW's other water Boddington buy putting plenty of feed in, bait and tactics are simple the pole stay's at home on here unless you want a 17 section 13m pole, the water is shallow and the fish are big and only run one way when you hook them OUT!. The main line of attack is to fish the pellet wagg at around 30-35m with the lead set up to fish underneath it if the wagg fails or the wind is to strong, i bring around 8-10 pints of 10mm halibut pellets as you can fire these further than standard carp pellets. I also bring some stiff halibut paste to wrap around the pellet plus some different sizes and colours of bollies for the hook. Your gear needs to be strong as it will be tested to the max here so i set up 3 rods.
First is a Maver reactolite 12ft 2 piece, 6lb daiwa tdr line, 5ssg stryo foam wagg, size 12 pr27 hook to 0.20 silstar hook-length.
Next my old barbel rod a silstar traverse-x heavy feeder rod, 8lb maxima mainline, 1oz fox lead set up as a running rig, size 10 Maver mt5 hook to 0.22 silstar.
I also set up a splasher wagg on a Prseton carbon-active 13ft power float rod, 6lb maxima, 10 gr middy splash wagg, 12 pr27 to 0.22 line, this can pick up odd fish on windy days.
With me set up in no time as all my rods were all made up in my fox 4 rod gun sling it was time to walk the bank and take the mick. I decided to take a few pics of all the gang so you can put faces to the names, some of the lads were a bit reluctant to smile for the camera i think they were a bit worried in case they ended up in the wrong hands CRIME WATCH?
I had decided to start on the pellet wagg as there had been a few fish caught on it the day before
but after the first hour with out a bite it was time to try the lead. Stu on peg 68 had 1 carp on the method after fishing the wagg for 45 mins without a bite on the wagg, Mark on peg 69 had got 1 carp on the wagg first chuck and had added another on the feeder. To my left Ada was the same as me biteless and Stav on peg 63 had got one fish on wagg, i threw out the lead on the same line as the wagg with a 10mm hali pellet and paste wraped around it. But after around 45 mins on the lead all i had to show for my efforts was a 6oz skimmer and with no line bites on the deck it was obvious that there were no fish in the peg. Swapping back to the wagg and trying the splasher wagg i managed to get my first carp bite on the 2 hour mark a typical 8-9lb mirror carp falling to the splasher, but after another 30 mins without another sign it was time to switch back to the lead. By now we were half way through the match the word on the bank was that Steve & Martin on the point pegs were catching as expected so was Bash on peg 59, it looked like the fish were in small pockets in the same areas where they were the day before but not feeding as well. I was loosing the plot feeling that there were no fish in my peg yet 2 pegs away Mark & Stu had around 4-5 fish each, as Stu was getting bites only a spare peg away from me all i could do was hope that if i kept up the heavy feeding regime they might move into my peg.
For most of the match when fishing the wagg i tend to feed more often probably 4-5 pellets 2-3 times every cast, but when i fish the lead i really pile the bait in not putting the catty down feeding 6-8 pouch fulls every cast. When i have told some of the club members how much bait i have put in they seem to scoff saying that you don't need that much bait to catch? OK if you draw on a lot of fish then you don't have to get them there you just have to keep them there, Earlswood is a big expanse of water and as i have said the fish run big so if you think you will catch a lot of fish on 1 bag of pellets you are sadly mistaken. I won this corresponding match last year with 129lb using my first 1kg bag of pellets after only 45 mins not putting the catty down until they had gone in, i look at these waters as a big open fields and the carp as big grazing cows moving up and down the field eating so when they pass by me i want enough fodder down for them to stop and have a munch? I have seen it here and other places when someone a few pegs away has started catching, then the guy next to him then the next guy and so on as the fish move up or down the lake feeding.
I foul hooked a fish on the lead after around 2 3/4 hrs in that ripped the rod around tore about 30m of line off the reel but as i put the brakes on the hook pulled out GREAT, i was starting to think that it was going to be one of those days when on the 3hr mark i started to get something that i had not had all day LINERS. I cast out the lead again and within seconds the rod started to pull round then jump back, little nods and twitches on the tip signaling there was life in the peg at last. A few seconds later i was into carp number 2 about bloody time too all i was hoping was this was not a loner, no around 5 mins later and carp no3 was in the net. At long last the fish had turned up but after a 3hr wait for them to come i was thinking that it was too late for me as Mark and Stu were still catching odd fish Ada still had not got off the mark and Stav had around 4 fish. In the 4th hour i had managed to land 6 carp so i was now on 7 and was hoping that they carried on coming during the last hour as you only normally need only 10-11 fish to break the ton barrier. The last hour went the same as the one before landing another 6 fish all of them the bigger mirror carp, some of the carp in here are commons but were stocked a few years later and are much smaller ( a mate of mind once had 26 carp on a match here for only 120lb odd which is unheard of we thought he would have 230-250lb).
Both Mark & Stu were calming 12-13 fish, Ada next door managed 2 in the last half hour and the only other person i could see was Stav who ended up with 6. The word on the bank was that Martin on peg 78 had got 16-17 big fish, Steve on peg 75 was calming around a dozen fish, Bash on peg 59 had 13 so only the scales would tell as that put 5 of us on around the same amount of fish.
We started the weigh-in from the bottom end which was Martin on end peg 78 his fish going 159lb 8 oz which we all new then and there was too much for anyone else so we were all playing for 2nd place all ready! Steve on peg 76 was next to weigh putting 109lb 8oz on the scales. The next pegs from 75-70 failed to produce any fish Mark was up next on peg 69 with 104lb 2oz and Stu on peg 68 just missing the ton with 94lb 20z both he and Mark having some of the smaller common's. I was next my 13 fish went 122lb 12oz putting me into 2nd place so far with only Bash left to go with double figures of fish he too had a couple of stockies putting his weight to 112lb 10oz for 3rd. Stav's 6 fish went 57lb and JB on the end had 74lb, i had managed 2nd from nowhere in the last 2 hours and was helped by the fact all my fish were the bigger mirrors. You can see where all the big weights come from here if you could catch early 200-300lb weights are possible and done a few time per season, it is not always the same as i have fished match's here with only 3-4 fish to show for 5hrs as they say" if they ai'nt there yo car'nt cath 'em"? I was happy to have caught in the end but i was also left wondering what might have been if the fish had moved into my peg earlier?