Curborough Open Thursday 2/8/12

Today Stav was going to take me to a fishery that I have not been to before Curborough fishery which is near Lichfield Stav has fished here before saying that they don't have mega big weights but plenty of small fish most of which are Carp & Goldfish of all colours, there are a couple of lakes that are full of bigger Carp but today's match was booked on the canal lake which is full of these pretty fish. I drew peg 33 which as I had not fished the pool before meant nothing to me Stav drew nearer the access but the peg number escapes me, when I got to my peg it looked good to be honest it was 13m wide which seemed to be around standard for the pool with the corner of some reeds to fish to and plenty of vegetation down the inside for the margin line. There was no more pegs to my left as the pool seemed to go into a dead end and the pegs began again on the opposite side with the wind blowing down there it looked really good for a few fish, there was a guy opposite me but well out of the way with his own reeds to fish to the pool was not at traditional snake type canal pool but more like big offset diamond shape with 50 pegs. We were told by the gaffer that most of the matches on here are won with around 50-80lb which are made up of 200-300 fish with the odd Carp, he said it was better to fish for every thing that swims and not sit it out for Carp alone but you might catch odd Carp in the margins the last hour. As Stav had fished here before we both decided to fish the worm as this will catch fish of all sizes and a great bait for shipping to the far side due to it staying on the hook as you are likely to get loads of bites with the amount of small fish in the pool, I decided to fish the worm over and down the edge with a pellet line down the middle.
There was a good depth over by the reeds at 13m with around 3ft of water so I set up a shallow rig for over in-case the fish came up in the water I set up 4 rigs to cover the peg.
Rig 1, 13m deck rig 4x12 Preston Dura 10 float, 0.16 mainline to a 0.14 hooklength and a size 2 Tubertini 175 hook, 13h elastic.
Rig 2, 13m shallow rig 4x10 Maver Jurassic dibber, 0.14 straight through to a size 2 Tubertini 175 hook and the same 13h elastic.
Rig 3, 6m pellet rig Maver 0.4gr Invincible Series 7, 0.16 to 0.14 to a size 3 175 hook, j-range 6-10 elastic
Rig 4, 3m margin rig 4x12 Preston Dura 10 float, 0.16 straight through to a size 3 175 hook & 13h elastic.
For bait I had brought 4 pints of casters, 1kg of worms, 2 pints each of micro & 4mm pellets and some 4 & 6mm expanders for the hook.
At the start I put a pot full of chopped worm & caster down the margin and a pot full of mixed micro & 4mm pellets down the track I started on the 13m line but feeding with just a kinder pot every put-in to try and gauge the fishes response, I had a small F1 around 4oz the first put-in followed by a small carrot coloured goldfish on the next ship across. I had around 8 fish in the net in no time before a series of missed bites had me taking a couple of inches off the depth and on the next put-in I hooked a better fish which had me shipping back a bit quicker, the fish tried to make a bid for freedom through the reeds but I managed to get it down the track and was soon netting a Carp of around 3 1/2lb which must be worth a lot of carrots I thought. I had a good start to the match but I was missing a few bites as the carrots were taking the bait on the drop so I was soon reaching for my shallow rig, I was soon into a rhythm of shipping out tipping out half of my kinder pot of worm & caster with some predator plus liquid in to create a cloud and shipping back with a fish. Most of the fish were 3-4oz with the odd better one thrown in for good measure the fish were of all colours bright carrots, yellow things, white things some brown goldfish all weird and wonderful fish it was more like fishing an aquatic centre, I had a quick look down the margin with around 1 1/2 hours gone but it took too long get bites so I just stuck to the 13m line but after around 2 hours my bites began to tail off a bit so I reached for the track rig which I had fed with a few 4mm pellets by had since the first pot. I shipped out with a 6mm expander on the hook and lowered the rig in the float dipped and I struck with around 6m of elastic out I had hooked something a bit better, the fish ripped straight through the reeds on the point I was fishing to but luckily for me it turned left into open water without my rig or elastic getting stuck in the reeds the fish was still running! As I managed to get my pole back to the top kit I began to gain some control over the fish while using the puller kit to tighten the elastic up a tell-tale zig zag on the elastic gave the fish away as a foul-hooker, with a lot of elastic out of the puller kit I netted the fish which was around 5lb I had  hooked it right in the tale no wonder it had gone where it wanted with the light 6-10 laccey but it was still a welcome bonus. That Carp must have been a loner down the track as all I could catch after that was Gudgeon on a 6mm expander there were no goldfish down there so I was back to the 13m line but as I soon found out the fish were not there in the same numbers as they were earlier, the goldfish were harder to come by but with around 3hrs gone I had a good run of better fish with a couple of 2-3lb Carp and a few f1's up to 1lb. The guy to my right was struggling a bit, the guy opposite had sat down the margins all day so far and was catching but I thought I had got more than him, the young lad that had drew up the wind dead arm was catching well but because of the reeds I couldn't see if he was catching goldfish or Carp? With around 1 1/2hrs to go I had another look down the edge and the fish were now there with a lot of goldfish but also the odd better Carp, I was losing the odd Carp as well as there was some snags down there which I think were tree roots but I was now catching at the same rate as I was the first hour but without having to ship 13m. Before to long the all out was sounded and I had really enjoyed my first visit to a new fishery I had not used my fish counter today but I had caught a lot of small fish and around 30lb of Carp I was guessing at around 60-65lb which was a busy day. I had no idea what Stav had caught as the pool twists and turns I could only see 2 anglers properly and I had beaten them two so that was all I knew until Stav appeared around the corner with the gaffer weighing in, Stav was top weight on the scales so far with 64lb there was a couple of 40-50lb weights the guy to my right had 28lb, the gaffer pulled my first net out giving me 34lb and saying that I needed 30lb+ to beat Stav as he new about our week of fishing and our £1 side bet, I looked at Stav as the gaffer pulled out my 2nd net and I think his words were B*****D as it looked like there were more fish in this net the gaffer gave 40lb for net 2 and with the oz's gave me a total of 75lb 5oz, that was it 4-0 to me and joking to Satv I said that if it was a boxing match he would be on the canvas now with the ref stopping the match. That put me into the lead for about 5mins before the young lad around the corner put 91lb on the scales apparently the same peg he broke the pool record off on Saturday with120lb he's only 16? But there was some good news as he is so young he only pays his peg fee and doesn't enter the pools BOUNS I thought, the gaffer said he has only fished 4 matches winning 3 of them and coming 2nd on the other! I think someone needs to lend him a few quid on 50/50 split you might earn a few bob? Looking at the peg it screamed fish to be honest up a corner with the wind blowing into it but fair play to the lad you have still got to catch em', the guy opposite me had 54lb and we heard of a 70lb further up the pool later on knocking Stav into 3rd with me winning although by default I wasn't complaining. My first visit to the fishery had resulted in a win and I had really enjoyed myself as it was busy fishing with plenty of bites and fish of all different colours, we went for a walk around the new pool after the match which looked good which is apparently stuffed with pretty fish as well! I will be looking forward to fishing Curborough again soon hopefully.