Day 3 Fishing Week Cob House Open 3/8/11

Today we had booked into the open match at Cob House Fisheries which was on Wyatts pool and we were looking forward to it after yesterdays disaster at Clattercote , Wyatts pool is absolutely solid with fish and you are guaranteed to catch lots of fish at this time of the year the hardest part is trying to hit the bites as there are so many fish in the pool. The day started off with the usual full English in the excellent Mayfly Cafe then off around the tackle shop to pool up, there was 15 booked into the match which would give us a bit of room on the 30 peg pool so some big weights should be on the cards. I pulled out peg 5 which Stav had won our knock-up off seven days earlier and then Stav pulled out peg 3 the next peg in so we were going to have another peg to peg battle, after getting to the peg and setting up my platform in the water I decided to set up the usual 3 rigs to keep it nice and simple.

Rig 1, 3m deck rig a 0.30gr Maver Invisible series 7 float, 0.18 mainline to 0.16 hooklength with size 2 Tubertini 175 hook, Preston 13 hollo elastic, all the shot bulked up 6inches from the hook in 3ft of water.

Rig 2, 3m down the edge, 4X12 Preston Durra 10 float, 0.16 line straight through to size 3 175 hook with the same 13 elastic and shotting in 18 inches of water.

Rig 3, 3m shallow rig, 0.30gr Maver Jurassic dibber, 0.16 to Preston PR27 hook for a lassoed pellet, 13 hollo elastic.

For bait I had decided just to go with pellet and corn as feed I normally take a few pints of dead maggots to feed down the edge but as I was on a weeks holiday from work I couldn't be bothered to fetch any, along with a few 4&6mm expanders for the hook was all the bait I had brought for the day. A lot of the big weights on here have been coming on the paste but I am not the best when it comes to this bait so I tend to fish to my strength's instead of pulling my hair out trying to hit the bites, I know I should fish it a lot more to get my head around it and I have won a few match's on it in the past but I prefer to fish it when I am targeting bigger fish. Scott (the local hero) Jones had drawn peg 20 and with one guy ringing up just before the draw to say he couldn't make it there was one peg that was going to have a lot of room!, yes you've guessed it with every other peg in it was nice and easy pegs 1,3,5 and so on 15 blokes on 30 pegs Scott on peg 20 had got 4 spare pegs from 16-19 to himself up to the end of the pool after the guy had cancelled, not only does Scott know all the fishes individual names as he works on the fishery but he knows how to catch them too and would be very hard to beat today from that peg. With Scott aside I had to concentrate on beating Stav off the next peg as if I let him take 3-0 lead in our traditional £1 side bet it would be all over, we had only planned to fish 2 more match's this week and he would be hell to sit next to with all the bragging rights going back home in the car.

At the start of the match I set off on the usual 3m deck rig with a 6mm expander on the hook and feeding 6-8 4mm feed pellets every put-in, it took only a few seconds to hook the first fish of the day and the first hour took on a familiar pattern with 23 in the net I was just hoping that they would keep coming this time and not slow down as they had on my last visit. It was another very hot day with the mercury rising to 30'c the same as yesterday but as on my last two visits after the first hour the bites on the pellet became very hard to hit, I started to miss a lot of bites and suffer from some foul-hooked fish so out came the shallow rig but I put on the long no4 instead of the short one to put the rig into slightly deeper water. This solves the problem of the liners and foul-hookers as most bites just hook themselves at this short a distance and the fish tend to be of a slightly better stamp, Scott was catching well as expected but with the weather so hot and a lot of fish basking around on the surface he said that they may well be getting ready to spawn again as some were swimming around in pairs( this is August!). I could here Stav catching but with the water level down there was a bush in-between us so I couldn't see him or how fast he was catching so I just got my head down and tried to extract as many fish as possible from the peg, for the rest of the match I caught most of my fish on the shallow rig and again failed to catch much from the edge the same as my last visit but this time we had got room so I was at a loss as to why they wouldn't settle there.

At the all out I had managed 113 fish and a quick walk down to Stav revealed he had around 95 fish so unless he had a lot of bigger fish i might have pulled one back in our series? A quick shout over to Scott before we started to weigh in revealed he was claiming 150-160 fish and the rest of the anglers on the bank saying he had won it out of sight, a lot of the other anglers said they had caught but had not counted the fish so we would have to wait for the scales to see how well. It might sound a bit daft catching so many fish but in the heat with a lot of the fish sunbathing it had fished harder than I thought I was thinking there would be more fish caught as it's not uncommon here for there to be a few double tons. The scales started on peg 1 but the angler on it failed to weigh I think he was just out for the day fishing from a carp chair on top of the bank and looked to tip back 30-40lb, Stav's 95 fish went 126lb and my 113 fish went 150lb 140z and the most important part of the day had been done pulling it back to 2-1 in our side bet series. The guy on peg 7 had 103lb and pegs 9 & 11 had 115lb & 129lb receptively there were no more big weights on our bank then Scott put 209lb 8oz to take the match, the next best weight on the other bank after Scott was 125lb so that left me in 2nd place so I was happy to coin and beat Stav at the same time. Stav had missed out on 3rd place by 3lb (must try harder mate), so well done to Scott for giving us all a good battering (on the end peg flier) and we had to drive all the way home only to come back again in the morning to do it all again (it's a hard life). Scott had organized a match on Laugherne Island, we had planned to go to Manor Farm the next day but after a long consideration the Cob House breakfast won hands down.

Cob House, Worcester Open 3rd August 2011

Wyatts - 3rd August 2011
Peg 3 Baker John 126 7
Peg 5 West Simon 150 14 2nd
Peg 22 Jones Alan 125 10
Peg 13 Waters Len 96 8
Peg 15 Cannon Martin 63 4
Peg 20 Jones Scott 209 8 1st
Peg 24 Evason Graham 89 5
Peg 9 Silke Derek 115 3
Peg 28 Gray Jamie 71 15
Peg 30 Fellows Luke 72 4
Peg 11 Nobbs Sam 129 2 3rd
Peg 26 Tudor Alan 68 12
Peg 7 Browning John 103 4
Peg 1 Nixon Michael DNW

Day 2 Fishing week Clattercote Tuesday 2/8/11

Today's match at Clattercote Reservoir was only a knock-up between 6 of us as a bit of practice for a forth coming Halesowen club match on the venue, there was only one of us JB who had fished the place before so after a bit of homework Stav and I had decided to take rods only and leave the poles at home. We have fished most of the other British Waterways venues like Boddington, Drayton & Earlswood which are all no go areas for expensive carbon poles and are home to method feeders, pellet/baggin' waggler and straight lead methods. Me and Stav decided to have a go on the baggin' wagg for a change as it is a method both of have not used to any great effect over the years, after watching the Guru DVD with Steve Ringer fishing it on the same venue at was all we needed to have a go at it after all that's what a practise session is all about. We both dug-out some old baggin' wagg's that we had made ourselves a few years ago but they looked short stumpy jobs made from pike floats so we decided to buy a few off the bailiff John Bonney, we had arranged to meet John on the car park before we started to buy some pellet and baggin' wags off him after hearing that so many of the top flight anglers like Steve Ringer, Grant Albutt and Andy Neal all use his home made pellet waggs. I had heard of these pellet waggs last year when a friend of mine Ian Giddins had made it to the last 4 of the Drennan Knock out cup at Boddington and he said that they were all using them as they fly straight in windy conditions which most of these big waters suffer from, I had wanted to get my hands on some of these pellet waggs for some time but as Clattercote/Boddigton where John is the bailiff is some 60 miles away from home it has took until now to get some. I know I am waffling on a bit about some bits of balsa but trust me after using them they are well worth buying, so if you get the chance to get some do it , you have been told. Right back to the day, John put us on some pegs in the 30's where we could all fish in a line as there were 6 of us he was going to let us use our nets so we could fish for the holy £1 side bet between us and more importantly pride, Stav and I sat on pegs 31 & 33 leaving the spare peg in-between us to park our barrow's on as the boards you walk on around the lake are quite narrow. We both set up the baggin' and pellet waggs I also set up the straight lead to fish over the top of the pellet line Stav later set up the method feeder, we both used 1.75lb barbel rods to chuck the baggin' which weigh around 3oz when fully loaded matched with 8 or 10lb mainline and hook-lengths of 0.22 or stronger. On the bait front I had gone for a mix of ringers red and red standard g/bait with a pint of micro's and a few expander pellets, hook bait was white or red 10mm boilies, I had also brought 3kg of 10mm halibut pellets for the pellet wagg. When we were all ready we shouted the all-in and Stav and I started on the baggin' wagg while starting to feed the pellet line and it took half an hour before I got my first bite and carp no1 was hooked which slipped the hook at the net (shit), around 20 mins later and carp no2 was hooked which kitted to my right towards Stav and ended up leaving the hook in the leg of the empty pallet in-between us (double shit) Carp 2 Westy 0 at least I had hooked fish all the rest of the lads were dry, Stav had been straightened on the strike on the baggin' wagg but that was it (that's what you get for striking like Zoro?). To cut a long storey short it was crap it was very hot 29'c and the carp were cruising in the middle of the lake not wanting to feed just sunbathing, Stav got fed up of no bites so went into the holdall to assemble a method feeder rod I went for a walk to see how the lads were getting on but it was not good all 4 of them were dry? Not a bite between them. Ade was fishing the candle/doggy casting into a ball of carp that were cruising about but they wouldn't even take the freebies let alone the one with the hook in so what chance have you got of hooking one, no chance. Stav was the first to put a fish in the net a small skimmer before he hooked and landed a carp then started to get odd skimmers on his method rig, I went on to hook and land my only fish of the day a 10-12lb carp on the pellet wagg Stav ended up with 1 carp and around a dozen skimmers to win all the £1's. The only other one of us to get a bite was Ollie who had 1 small 5lb carp the other 3 went dry? You couldn't believe it with so many carp swimming around that you couldn't get any bites we could only put it down to the very hot weather, John the bailiff confirmed that the whole lake had just switch off with the best on the opposite side in a match from Tesco was 3 carp. Lets hope the conditions are better for our match in a couple of weeks, the rest of the lads stayed on for another hour after we packed in and Ollie ended up with 3 carp the best around 7lb but the others remained dry. The worst of all was that I was now 2-0 down to Stav in our mini series (anybody want to buy some tackle?).

Start of Fishing Week Cob house Monday 1/8/11

This is fishing week for me and Stav which this year we have moved forward from the middle week in September to this week due to Stav booking a holiday on our normal week. Today we had booked into an open arranged at Cob house fishery to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the Mayfly cafe opening (and celebrate the cafe we did in the usual plate full manner, burp!), today's match was to be on the old Victorian pools which as the name suggest are very old which neither of us have fished before. We went for a walk around the pools last week when we fished a knock up on Wyatts and there were some very nice fishey looking pegs on them they are quite small and narrow with only around 12 pegs on each pool, there was around 20 fishing on 3 of the 4 pools to give us a bit of room these were Pips Willow, Jade's Island and Ryan's pool. These pools contain all sorts of species from eel's to 20lb carp and are more natural pools as apposed to the other carp filled 100lb+ pools on the complex which would be interesting and a nice change from the norm (better than work!), i drew Pips Willow peg 1 and Stav got Jade's peg 5 my pool was further away than Stav's so i could have a look on the way around at his peg. Stav's peg looked great with the point of an island to fish to right in-front of him it looked well nice and when i got to my peg it looked just as good in a corner all on my own with a nice left-hand edge which was the end of the pool i could even reach the other side of the pool with 16m of pole. With us not fishing the pools before and more of a mixed fishery we both decided to bring worm and caster as well as the usual pellet, corn & paste bait's. After sitting down for a while to asses the situation i decided to keep thing simple with a 3 line attack.

Rig 1, 13m worm line a Maver Invincible series 7 0.20gr set just 2'' overdepth in 3ft of water, 0.16 main to 0.14 h/l and size 2 Tubertini 175 hook, 13 hollo elastic.

Rig 2, 13m worm line down the edge to a brick wall which was the end of the lake and 1ft deeper than out in-front of me the only thing different to the above rig was a 4x12 Preston Durra10 float.

Rig 3, 6m paste line, 0.18 line straight through to a size 5 175 hook, a Preston size 1 self cocking paste float just touching bottom in 2ft of water and black hydro elastic.

I fed both worm lines with a mixture of chopped worm, caster, pellet & corn with a splash of predator plus liquid and the paste line got pellet & corn.

The first half hour of the match went by with just a couple of small Rudd to show before i landed a small 1lb carp and then a small Tench of around the same size, i had 1 small 6oz skimmer before i hooked and landed a Bream of around 3 lb just on the hour mark as things were starting to get better. Scott had said before the start that he thought that a weight of around 40-50lb would normally win most matches on here so i was happy that i had around 5-6lb in the last half hour as long as things kept going, the second hour i managed 3 carp plus odd silvers but the carp were on the small side in the 1-2lb bracket but at least i was having a few bites. I had a couple of carp from my edge line on the worm but yet again they were on the small side around 1lb each plus a couple of small eel's, we were now at the half way point in the match and i was falling behind on my target weight i guessed my weight at around 12-13lb and needed to find some bigger fish. A look on my paste line produced another carp of around 1 1/2lb before i hooked a much better carp which turned out to just what i was looking for a nice 5lb'er but it was a false dawn as all i had on this line in the next 20mins was a couple of small skimmers, back on the long worm line and i had 3 nice roach in the 10-12oz bracket before i hooked a much bigger fish which tore off down the lake before the hook pulled (crap) that totaled the line which never recovered for the rest of the match. I could here Scott on the opposite side but out of sight on my pool doing a bit of swearing saying he was loosing a lot of fish but all i could see were the two guy's too my right which seemed to be having around the same as me just odd carp now and then, i caught 2 more small carp from the margin swim before i decided to sit on the paste for the last half hour in an attempt to try and find a couple of bigger carp as the guy to my right had landed 2 or 3 bigger carp from his margin line. I had nothing until the last 10mins when i landed a carp of around 2lb and pulled out of a 3lb fish just before the all-out which proved to be costly when the scales came round, my 31lb 3oz was just 1lb short of the pool & section win which was won by the guy next to me with those late better carp and 32lb 3oz (close but no cigar), Scott weighed 28lb but said he had lost in the region of 15-20 fish which were burring themselves in some tree roost under his feet losing lots of rigs, elastic and a top kit (oops). Stav said he had got 30-40lb which was a good guess when he put 40lb 1oz and the section/pool win so at least 1 of us had coined on the first day of our fishing week but worst of all i was 1-0 down in our daily £1 side (shit), the top 2 weights came off the pool right by the car park Ryan's with a 48lb & 46lb which turned out to be a good prediction by Scott from the start with a 40-50lb estimate. It had been a good fair match with lots of close weights and a change from trying to catch 100-200lb which is the norm at this venue this time of the year, i for one wouldn't mind fishing the pools again as the fish need catching and don't jump on the hook, a thoughly enjoyable day out in the sun ( better than work any day).

The short fat hairy one with the red shirt on is Stavros and the good looking guy in the background is yours truly!

1. Cob House 1st Birthday Open on Victorian Pools

   Thanks to everyone who took part today today.
   
   Birthday Match - 1st August 2011, Pips Willow, Jades Island, Ryans
   Peg No Surname First Name Telephone Number lb oz Position
   
   Peg J2 Baker John 40 1 Section Win
   Peg J5 Davenport Martin 27 14
   Peg J10 Legg Ken 32 4
   Peg J6 Powell Keith 18 14
   Peg J9 Allen Ross 31 0
   Peg J8 Stanko Rino 29 10
   
   
   Peg R2 Boden Danny 48 14 1st
   Peg R7 Kitson Mel 46 10 2nd
   Peg R8 Lloyd Mark DNW
   Peg R9 Reynolds Colin 25 13 Section Win
   Peg R3 Sanders Derek DNW
   Peg R4 Swain Rob DNW
   
   
   Peg PW2 Dugmore Martin 32 3 Section Win
   Peg PW6 Evason Gra 8 15
   Peg PW 7 Jones Scott 28 15
   Peg PW 4 Jones Alan 19 4
   Peg PW5 Melville Kevin 31 14
   Peg PW 1 West Simon 31 3
   Peg PW 8 Wood Bob 23 0
   Peg PW 3 Humphries Josh 23 15

   Attached Thumbnails

   jpg" title="Cob House 1st Birthday Open on Victorian Pools-cob_house_1st_birthday_match.jpg" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; max-width: 800px; ">