Cob House Sunday 6/5/12

This weekend saw us back at Cob House Fisheries for a Cradley Heath club match on Laugherne Island pool and after winning the Halesowen match down here a couple of weeks ago on Wyatts pool I was hoping for more of the same, after Stav and I had another great breakfast in the Mayfly cafe we assembled for the draw on the car park there were 24 of us all eager for a good draw I drew out peg 26 on the right hand bank and Stav got peg 36 on the same bank but closer to the car park. I was happy with my draw as I was only a couple of pegs away from where I had won the same match from last year and only 1 peg away from where I had pleasure fished a few weeks ago with my old man and emptied it, peg 26 is in the middle of the last Island next to an aerator rope to my right I had a good mate of mine John Morgan, Kev Clarke had drawn the corner peg 21 and would be hard to beat today I thought and the other side of the rope on peg 28 was Gary Mason so at least we would have the crack if nothing else. When I fished peg 27 a few weeks ago I had 18 Carp in the first 2 hours on the method feeder tight to the Island while I knew it wouldn't fish like that today with 24 on the pool it would still be the opening method as the fish seem to push out to the Islands with all the early bank-side disturbance, I set up 4 pole rigs to cover the peg and the method feeder.
Rig 1, 13m on the deck a 4x16 Maver Jona set just touching bottom in 7ft of water, 0.18 mainline to a 0.16 hooklength to a size 3 Tubertini 175 hook, 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 2, 13m shallow rig a 0.30gr Maver Jurassic dibber around 18" deep 0.16 line straight through to a 16 Preston PR27 hook with a bait band, 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 3, 5m line on the deck a 4x14 Maver Jona set just touching bottom in 4ft of water, 0.18 line straight through to size 4 175 hook, black hydro elastic.
Rig 4, 5m to my left hand edge just before the rope a 4x12 Preston Durra 10 float set 3" over-depth in 2ft of water a size 3 175 hook, black hydro elastic.
The feeder rig was a simple small 24gr Guru in-line method feeder ( in-line only rules at Cob House ), 0.23 Maver Dual-band line, 3" hooklength of 0.20 to a 16 Preston PR27 hook with a bait band.
For bait I had brought a 3 pint bag of fishery 4mm pellets, around 2 pints of 1mm fishery micro pellets for the method feeder, 3 tins of corn and 4 pints of dead maggots, I had also got various 6 & 8mm expanders  for the hook a few live maggots and some 6mm hard pellets for the bands.
On the whistle I fed a pot of 4mm pellets and half a dozen grains of corn at 13m and a pot full of dead maggots down the edge the 5m line I would feed now and again with 4mm pellets and corn by hand, I loaded the method feeder with micro pellets and a 6mm pellet on the hook and cast it the short 20m to the shallow water sat back and awaited my first bite. There were odd fish being caught around the lake but it took around 30 mins before I got my first bite a little 2lb job John to my right had a couple and Gary to my left had 3, around another 10mins I hooked and lost fish no2 I had noticed from around 5mins into the match there were odd fish coming and mopping up my maggots from down the edge but in order to give them a little confidence I had resisted going for them too early. With around an hour gone and only 2 fish in my net I was going nowhere fast as Gary had around 5-6 fish so had JB on peg 30 I couldn't wait any longer I put 3 live maggots on the hook and lowered the rig in amongst the fish I could see churning up the mud searching for my dead maggots, I had re-fed the line 3-4 times before trying it before long the float slid away and I was connected to a good fish I had to keep the pole low as the fish swam under the rope and before long I got the better of the fish a nice 8lb common. Next put-in I struck and missed a bite so I re-fed and soon hooked fish no2 around the same size as the first these were good fish, I missed another bite next put-in which marked the end of the margin line for a long time as the fish spooked and scattered. There were a few people around the pool catching a few fish like Kev in the corner who had caught a few fish from the off and was slowly building a weight along with Gary and JB I was a bit behind, things didn't get much better as I tried both the short and long pole lines which produced just a single 1/2lb Carp and two 6oz skimmers then I tried the 13m line for the second time and foul-hooked 3 Carp in as many put-ins. I was now getting worried as we were approaching the half way point in the match so I picked up the shallow rig despite not seeing any fish activity in the upper layers shipped out with a 6mm hard pellet in the band and before I could grab the catapult the elastic came out of the pole, the fish was around 5lb and very welcome the next drop in I fired around 6-8 pellets at the float and the same again a 4lb Carp hooked itself against the pole tip BINGO I had finally found the fish they were up in the water all along while I had been messing around on the deck and feeder. Around 20 mins later before I hooked shallow Carp no3 and it was not a solid as I first thought another 20 mins later without a bite it was time to try another line a quick look on the 5m line I had a couple of missed bites before I hooked a 5lb fish on the corn, the fish had returned down my edge but they wouldn't settle there I would have a couple of bites a fish or two or miss a couple of bites then they would go missing for 5-10mins. With the match entering the last hour I had got 9 Carp and 2 skimmers so I was going to concentrate on the margin and short line switching between the two trying to keep the bites coming as the fish on these lines seem to be bigger, Gary next to me had also caught some good fish from the edge on worm over g/bait and JB was hooking some margin fish as well I had another 4 fish in the next 30mins in the 4-8lb range before I hooked a proper tool from down the edge which tried to hit the Island after around 5mins I started to get the upper hand and landed a common around 12-13lb. The last 30mins saw me land another 4 Carp from the edge with 2 of them going around 7-8lb there seems to be a good head of fish this size in this pool finishing me with 16 Carp and those 2 skimmers, JB ,Gary & Kev had all caught well and it was too close to call I was estimating around 80lb for my fish as I had some big fish but also had 3 for around 5lb with most of the fish from 4-8lb.
We started the weigh-in from peg 1 on the opposite side of the pool with Big Ritchie putting 60lb on the scales and all the way down that side of the pool weights were close from 35lb to the best weight on the bank was Mark Farley with 62lb, around the corner to Kev the first peg on our bank went into the lead with a good 81lb, John next to me had struggled all day for bites putting 45lb on the scales and I was shocked to see my fish go 108lb 12oz I honestly thought around 80lb'ish, Gary the other side of the rope had 91lb and then there was a 60lb next to him before JB pulled his net out and I new he had a few fish his two nets went 95lb, Stav said he had not got that much nor had anybody else up the top end of our bank, Stav had 75lb to win his section there was a 50lb next to him and the last to weigh was Steve on the end peg with 60lb. I was honestly gob-smacked to have won the match I knew the fish were big but I really thought Gary and JB had more then me but I was not complaining more beer tokens to spend in the Bell pub at the end of the road CHEERS!