Larford Arena Pool? Sunday 19/9/10

This is the start of fishing week for me & Stav as week have both booked the same week off work and plan to go fishing 3-4 different venues through out the week. This match was a Cradley Heath club match booked on Arena pool but when we fished the C.I.U team match last week we thought we had got the match moved onto the Speci lake but we found out Friday that the other pools were booked so we would have to put up with it. Now before i start my write up on the match you will be well aware of the bad press that Larford has received in recent weeks and i agree with some of the comments on T/A and totally disagree with a lot of them, Yes there is a problem with the fishery what it is i don't know because i am not a fish doctor/ scientist and i think that a lot of people that surmise what is going on should keep there uneducated guesses to themselves that's how nasty rumors start! Yes we tried to get our match moved off the pool because it is fishing poorly and the staff at Larford to there credit tried to move us but got the dates mixed up with a cancellation so we were stuck with it. While i thank the staff & Phil Briscoe for trying to move us but when they know there is a problem and still charge £7 a peg with no compensation or another date when it is fishing better that's wrong! Now i have known Phil for a few years now and he assured us on Sunday that the Match and Arena pool's are going to get restocked very soon ( no good to us today ), but i know that Phil has put his heart & soul into building up the complex and its reputation over the last few years not to mention £100's of thousands of pounds and to have it go bad on you in this way must be gutting.
Enough of me on my soap box but there is still a match to fish which might be a struggle but someone has to win it, i had spoke to 2 mates Dan & Ian who as i said last week fished the Larford festival about how to go about tackling the hard Arena pool and they both said fish maggots 3-4m on the deck. They also said that during the festival week the fishery rules of no leads or feeders was in place(Arena pool is normally a float only pool) but as they had relaxed the rules in an attempt to boost weights they had both said they would fish the method at short range (on the pole line). Only 16 brave souls had turned out for this match so at least we would have a bit of room with 40 odd pegs on the pool, Dan & Ian said the hot draw is peg 24 on the end of the natural bank that has got lovely looking set of lily pads it had won the pool 4 out of 5 days on festival. Into the draw bag and out popped peg 30 on the burr which looked no worse than sum & not as good as others, i have only fished the pool once before on a late December fur & feather so i was none the wiser.
To tackle the peg i set up 4 pole rigs & a method feeder.
Rig 1, maver 1.ogr f1 float, 0.16 mainline to 0.14 h/l & 16 tosciro hook, set around 8ft deep at 5m & 11 hollo elastic.
Rig 2, same float 0.16 straight through, a size 3 175 & 13 hollo elastic ( incase the carp turned up in numbers???).
Rig 3, Preston durra 10 4x12 float 0.16 straight through, 3 175 hook for down my left margin to the next empty pallet.
Rig 4, Maver 4x12 Jurassic dibber, 0.14 to a 16 pr27 for lassoed 6mm pellet, 13 hollo elastic for up in the water.
For bait i had brought a gallon of feeder maggots half alive & half dead (the dead's are for up the edge so they don't crawl away), a bag of 4mm feed pellets for shallow, some g/bait for the method + some hook-baits.
For company on peg 28 i had Steve Robson who was the last peg on our the burr bank ( corner peg flier) & the other side on peg 32 was our leader Ollie, at least if we were not catching we could listen to Ollie's radio as he is a Man U supporter and they were playing Liverpool today.
On the whistle i put a pot of dead maggots down to the next pallet and started on the maggot at 5m, i stared to catch odd silvers after around 10 mins small roach & perch then after 20 mins i had a small carp of around a pound. There was no one catching carp so after the first hour i had got 2 small carp + a few silvers, i new Satv was catching silvers as well on maggot but i new to only 1 carp caught on the feeder by Ada on the opposite bank. So with next to no carp being caught it was just a case of getting my head down on the silvers ( if it ain't broke don't fix it).
After 2 hrs i had not had anymore carp on the pole but i was happy catching silvers most of which were swingers but the odd one was a netter, then Ollie had a carp on the method in the 4lb range and 10 mins later another i now had to go on the method as all my hard work on the silvers had all but gone. I threw the method out on the pole line at 13-14m where i had been firing the odd 4mm pellet for a shallow line with 2 dead reds on the hook, it took around 30 mins on the method to get a bite a nice 8lb carp was in the net. Ollie had 3 carp and JB on peg 34 had 1, the odd carp was now showing all over the pool and at the end of the 3rd hour i had another carp of 3-4lb on the method. Then JB done the same as Ollie he had 3 carp on the method in 3 chucks, i had a go shallow on the pellet for 10 mins as there was a few fish showing up in the water but it didn't feel right as the fish were shying away from the pole tip in the clear water even with a long line on. I went back on my 5m maggot line and caught a few silvers plus another small 1lb carp, i now had a choice to make stay on the silvers & hope for a carp or two on that or stick on the method till the end? I decided to sit on the method as the fish seemed bigger but i had no more bites at all, Ollie had 2 carp on the bounce on the end of his rod, JB had a carp on his pole line and another on the method. We were now into the last 20 mins of the match when JB hooked & landed a carp from the margins, i had been putting the odd pot of dead maggots down there from the start but hadn't tried it due to the water clarity & Steve had fished his corner margin from the start with a nice set of lily pads as well without a fish although he could see carp down there! I thought why not have a go as there was no action at all on the feeder not even a liner, i had a bite first drop in from a small roach then a small carp of 1lb oh no what had i been doing not trying it earlier but with 10 mins to go i never had another bite down there?
It had been a very hard but strange match as you got the feeling there was a lot more fish in the pool than had been caught, i had ended up with 6 carp 1 skimmer + a few silvers, JB & Ollie had around the same number of carp with no silvers but 4 of my carp were 1lb fish and there's were normal 3-4lb fish. I think JB had 6-7 carp as did Shaun on flier peg 24 so it was going to be tight at the weigh in, Steve in the corner was first to weigh who had a bad match having only 1 lump carp & bits for 11lb odd. I was next to go with 26lb 4oz which i reckoned had around 7-8lb of silvers in it, Ollie on the next peg had 22lb odd then JB putting 32lb on the scales to go into the lead. Stav had a busy match on the silvers with only 1 carp & a couple of chub fishing shallow long with maggot for 22lb odd just beating Ollie but a few oz's , Brian on the next peg having mainly carp for another 22lb weight ( that's 3 so far). John Bab on the end peg 44 on the burr had another 6-7 all carp haul for 28lb odd putting him in second place so far, the opposite side on the natural bank had fished a lot harder with 16lb the best weight until we got to Shaun on the flier peg 24 and his carp haul going 27lb to just beat me for 3rd place. The Arena had fished as hard as we had been told it was going to but at least it was a close match with no one running away with big 100lb+ weights, i don't know that if fishing the maggot was the right way to go or should i have fished the method for 5hrs? and just waited? Ollie had fished most of the match on the feeder and i had beat him but lost out to JB who had a couple on the pole but most of his fish on the feeder but at least i had plenty of bites on the maggot.
At least me & Stav Hadn't got to go to work in the morning we had just got to spend the day getting the tackle right for the forthcoming 3 days of fishing!