Cob House Open Wyatts Pool Wensday 22/9/10

Day 3 of our fishing week took us to the open at Cob house on Wyatts pool this is the in complex at the moment if you want big weights, the last time we came down here Bob Baker broke the match record for the first time since then Bob himself broke his own record then Scott Jones took the match record to a massive 396lb! While Bob had 311lb off Laugherne Island Holy Shit! The new cafe is massive and very clean ( it felt almost too clean for scruffy anglers) there is also a new on-site tackle shop. There was 12 anglers booked in for today's affordable open and after talking to Scott & Craig who work at the fishery it seemed that the top tactics are short, shallow & down the edge. Into the draw bag and out popped peg 10 for me & Satv drew 24 but i don't think it matters on here at the moment as the place is solid all over.
I set up 4 rigs 2 for the short line (3m), 1 for the edge & a shallow rig.
Rig 1, 0.30gr Maver invincible series 7, 0.18 main to a 16 pr27 0.16 h/l with a lasoo for a hard 6mm pellet, 11 Preston hollo elastic for the 3m line.
Rig 2, Maver Jona 4x14, with the same line, hook & elastic as the first rig just a heavier if the wind got up which was blowing down the pool.
Rig 3, Preston durra 10 4x12, 0.16 straight through to a Tubertini 175 size 3, 13 nollo elastic for the edge.
Rig 4, Maver Jrassic dibber 0.30gr 0.14 to a 16 pr27, 13 hollo elastic, a lassoed 6mm pellet for the shallow line at 6-8m.
For bait i had got a bag each of 2mm & 4mm fishery feed pellets, around 4 pints of dead maggots (i will use the maggots up i took to arena pool) plus some various soft & hard pellets for the hook.
On the whistle i started on the 3m line throwing 20 or so 2mm pellets at the float and it sailed away with carp no1 a 1lb fish, i caught steady for the first hour on the 3m line before they started to slow up a bit so i switched to the margin line and was rewarded with a few fish of a slightly better stamp with the odd 3-4lb fish thrown in. To be honest most of the match is a blur as i have fished a few match's on venues like this before and all you can do is to put your head down and just try to keep the bites & catch rate ticking over, if you take to much notice of the people around you it can distract you as every where you look all you can see is people playing and landing fish. During the match i tried to catch shallow at 6m but it was too slow and only accounted for 4-5 fish, i was going back and forth from the edge line to the 3m line to keep bites coming. The fish on the maggot down the edge seemed to be of a better stamp so i fished this for most of the match plus as i use a lasso for a hard pellet i was wasting time putting new hook-lengths on when the fish broke the lasso off in the landing net, when using the lasso you need to use a fine micro/hair landing net to stop the hard bait falling through the holes and snapping off when the fish goes mad in the net. Unfortunately at Cob House the nets they provide you with have got big holes so i all but gave up on the lasso after the first hour as i lost three hook-lengths during that time. Like i said earlier its hard to keep track of who's catching and who's not when everyone is catching but i new Stav was having his fair share so was a guy on the same bank on peg 18 but that is only because they were opposite me someone on my bank could have 500lb and i wouldn't have seen them. At the all out i had somewhere in the region of 132 fish but new i had a better weight than the first time i had fished the lake with 120 fish for 120lb this time i had some better stamp fish.
When Scott & Carl came with the scales the first to weigh on my bank had 120lb, next 101lb then 90 odd on the next peg to my right, i thought that i had 150lb - 160lb but i was quite shocked when Scott gave me 192lb 6oz to put me in the lead, the guy to my left had 105lb then the lowest? weight of the day 70lb? the guy fished the feeder all day, the last peg on my bank had 144lb. Over on the on the other bank the guy next to Stav had 166lb, then Stav ( uncle festa) had 189lb 8oz ( phew that was close i nearly had to give him a quid back), we were lying first and second with 2 left to weigh but the guy on peg 18 had caught well all day and put 198lb 50z on the pellet & paste, a mate of mine Lee was in the corner peg and put 144lb on the scales. What a cracking match with ton's all over the place & only 10lb separating the top 3, so with me second & Stav third the jobs a good un' ( 2-0 up Stav get your gold coins ready). So if you haven't already been and want to catch lots of fish in great surroundings get yourself down to Cob House the cafe is great and the staff Scott & Carl will always put you right, thanks lads we had a great day Cheers.