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

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