Bockamin pools Sunday 24/6/12

This weekend saw us at the Brockamin Pools near Worcester we had the bottom pool booked for a Cradley heath club match, one of the lads had fished here the day before on another club match saying that 66lb was the beast weight with a few 40-50lb backing weights. I had not fished these pools for around 3-4 years but they contain some real big monsters in the 15-25lb bracket so if you fish this pool on the pole you have to gear up, there are 2 islands on this pool with around 50 permanent pegs and around 70% of them have an island to fish to. I peg 24 which is down the left hand side of the pool with the last peg able to throw to the island, the wind was blowing down the pool towards corner peg 29 which looked really good as it has lots of room to itself, the wind was quite strong blowing right to left and a jacket on jacket off day as some heavy showers came over but in-between them it was quite warm. I was going to attack the point of the island with the method feeder & pellet waggler and set up a heavy pole rig for the margins,
The method feeder was a 28gram Guru X-safe with 8lb mainline, 0.20 hooklength to a 14 pr27 hook with a bait spike for mini boilies although I had others set up with bait bands for pellets.
The pellet wagg was a 4ssg job with a Mayo connector and gripper stops, 5lb maxima mainline to 12 pr27 hook and a 0.20 hook length with a lasso set up for the pellet.
The margin pole rig was 4x12 Preston Durra 10 float in the 4ft deep margin, 0.22 line straight through to a size 4 Tubertini 175 hook finished off with red hydro elastic.
For bait I brought some micro pellets for the method feeder, 4 pints of 8mm pellets for the wagg and 4 pints of dead maggots for the margin, I had also brought some corn and meat but they stayed in the bag when I drew an island peg, plus various boilies for the hook.
I started the match on the method feeder cast 30m to 2 wooden stumps that stuck up from the end of the island while pinging the odd 8mm pellet over the top, it took around 15mins to get my first bite a nice 5lb common was safely in the net took on a white 10mm boilie. By the end of the first hour I had managed 5 carp all in the 3-5lb bracket all on the white boilie and from what I could see around me I was doing ok as there were odd carp coming out but no one with the amount I had, so if it ain't broke don't fix it!, I stuck with the method for hour 2 and ended with 3 more carp and 2 nice bream of around 4lb each. Over the next half hour I only had 1 carp and I felt it was time to have a look on another line, Colin to my left had around 4 carp, Kev 2 pegs to my right was having a few skimmers on the pole line but Mark in corner peg 29 was starting to put a few fish together after losing the first 4 carp in the margins to a tree root!
All the time I was fishing the method I had been pinging 8mm pellets over the top and while I was on the method when the sun came from behind the clouds I could see the odd fishy swirl or shape just under the surface, I was only going to give the wagg 10mins as the wind was quite strong blowing down the pool from right to left and I didn't want to waste too much time if I couldn't get the presentation right. I put a 8mm pellet under the lasso and cast out towards the stumps after feeding 5-6 pellets before the cast,( I think this feed first and cast over the top is most important on the pellet wagg as most of your bites will come in the first 20 seconds after the float has landed you are holding the rod instead of messing around with catty and will end up hitting more bites than someone who casts and feeds later ending up with more fish in your net! ), 5 seconds after the float hit the surface it settled and slid under I was in straight away a nice common of around 8lb was my reward, this was I herd moans & groans from the other side of the pool (christ he's catching on the wagg now!). A few minutes later while I was playing carp no2 on the pellet waggler I saw Barry who had made the jealous comment scrambling around in his gun sling setting up the pellet wagg, too late I thought to myself as I had got the fish my side of the stumps after feeding them for half the match before going for them.
The 2 corner pegs to my left were now starting to catch strongly as the match wore on there empty pegs and wind blowing into them started to bring them some big fish, I was catching steady on the wagg but with no big lumps the first fish being the biggest most of them in the 3-5lb range. With half an hour to go I tried the margin hoping for one or two big lumps to top up my smaller fish, I had fed the margin from the beginning with big pots of dead maggots every now and then with 4 maggots on the hook I lowered the rig in and awaited the action, after around 15mins down the edge with nothing to show but a couple of roach I thought I was wasting time so I spent the last bit of the match on the wagg hooking my last carp 5mins from the whistle. I ended a very enjoyable match with 22 carp and 2 bream while I thought I had done well Mark Farley on corner peg 29 had caught lots in the last half of the match big things from down the edge as well but he had lost a lot also, Colin Knock to my left had caught well from his margin in the last hour playing one real big fish for a long time with shouts of "look at the size of that" from the opposite side as he netted it meant it was going down to the scales to sort this out at this end of the pool.
By the time I had packed up my gear the first half a dozen pegs had been weighed in with Chris Owen being the best so far with 88lb from peg 4 mainly margin fish caught in the last hour, there were a couple of 30-50lb weights before Ollie on the top point of the second island had 65lb. Kev Clarke had a cracking bag of fish off peg 22 fishing pole and worm all day for 19 Bream and a solo Carp for 78lb ( the carp was around 8lb ). My bag went 122lb which put me in the lead, Colin on my left had 95lb with fish to 15lb and then the guy who I thought had won the match Mark Farley put 105lb on the scales he told me he must have left at least another 50lb in the water due to a combination of starting off too light and some tree roots in the water! Baz opposite me had 56lb then a 64lb and a 72lb it was looking good for me, Stu was the only other weight of note off the first island with 64lb, Stu said he lost a Carp of 12-13lb after playing the fish for a good while he netted the fish only for the landing net to rip and the fish drop back into the water breaking him in the process on the frame of the net as it swam off!!! OOPS or words to that effect. I had a great days fishing and I was happy to have won although I had drawn a good peg 1st, 2nd & 3rd were all in a line at the wind assisted end of the pool, the end of a good day was finished off with us retiring to the Fox pub to talk about the one that got away.

Woodside Canal Sunday 17/6/12

This was a Cradley Heath club match that was rearranged from the end of April due to bad weather on our local canal we call Woodside, I drew peg 75 which is a good peg but in a good area with any peg 57,58,59,69.71,73 & 77 capable of winning. With no Roach showing from the canal in the last few weeks since spawning I based my attack around chopped worm & caster for Perch & Skimmers, I fed 2 lines with with this down the track and a caster line over at 14.5m I also put a pellet line just up the shelf at 11m. I caught a few perch from the worm lines for first half of the match before I stopped getting any bites at all the fish had just switched off, the lads either side of me had the same just like someone had flicked the switch off even JB who was on peg 71 came for a walk and said he was the same catching then nothing? In the last 45mins we had a boat come through and I lost my hook on a snag so I sat on the 14.5m caster line for the rest of the match, with 10mins left to go the float shot under and I was connected to a better fish I thought it was a Chub but at I netted it after a good struggle on no4 elastic it was a Tench around the 3lb mark a proper bonus fish. When the scales came I put 6lb 6oz on the scales with the Tench exactly half my weight at 3lb 3oz but with the fliers in the bay and 3 Chub pegs in 51, 44 & 43 I thought I might win the section, Brian Smith was the next best weight on peg 69 with 5lb 7oz but when we got back on the car park I found out that no one had caught a Chub and I had won the match???? That Tench in the last few minutes had won me the match and I was truely on fire with 3rd Cradley club match win on the bounce.

Hill View canals Sunday 3/6/12

This weekend saw us at Hill View which I had not fished for a few years we had got 3 of the 4 canals booked for a Halesowen club match, we had got canals 2,3 & 4 and the weather had took a turn for the worse after 2 weeks of glorious sunshine the rain had come back with a vengeance which never stopped all day with temperature in half from 25-28c down to 14-16c?
The match was hard for most with just odd fish coming now and again I drew canal 2 and just picked off fish from here and there for a modest 41lb but enough for the section/pool win, the top 4 weights all came off canal pool with Baz Robson winning with 66lb on paste and we were all happy just to get out of the rain. I can only put the low weights down to the sudden down turn in temperature putting the fish down?

Cob House Wednesday 30/5/12

Just 3 days after winning our club match down here and I was back with Stav for a knock up on one side of Wyatts which had been booked by a mate of ours Matt (baldy), Stav had missed the last couple of club matches so it was good to catch up. We had 15 pegs booked on the back side of the pool (16-30) the fish were up in the water all over the pool but as they were still spawning on here Sunday they might be just sun bathing in the 27c heat recovering, I drew peg 19 which didn't matter as there were fish all over the place.
I started and finished the match up in the water at 13m hooking a Carp first put in so there was no need to worry about them being shagged out, feeding 4mm's with a 6mm on the hook I ended the match with 112 fish with some of them a lot bigger than I had caught from this pool before. Right on the whistle Stav was playing a fish and as the all out sounded I shouted to him how many fish had he got 100 he replied I shouted he was F****d I had got 12 more. My fish went 191lb 4oz for the 2nd win in 3 days I was on fire!!!! Stav was 2nd with 144lb (must try harder?) and Baldy 3rd with 138lb (must get more hair!).

Cob House Sunday 27/5/12

Back to Cob House Fishery this weekend for a Cradley Heath club match on Oak and Laurel pools both of which I have not fished before, we were going to split the match in half in-case one pool fished better than the other. I was hoping for a draw on Laurel as after a bit of fishing around for info this pool seemed more likely to produce the bigger weights and after winning the last 2 club matches down here I was looking to make it a ha-trick, I got my wish and drew Laurel peg 19 the only problem was that the fish were or had been spawning this week so there was a 2m ban on to stop anglers fishing for them while they are doing there business.
I worked hard all day switching between all my lines to keep fish coming from up in the water between 13-3m picking off 2-3 fish from each line before they faded away, I had fish also from 2 deck lines both at 3m one on pellet the other on dead maggots at 10 and 2 o'clock. I had a good run of fish in the last 45mins from my 3m maggot line as I saw fish coming up off the bottom taking the maggots in mid water, so I cut off the hair from one of my 2 shallow pellet rigs and put maggots direct on the hook they took it sweet as a nut.
I finished the match with 72 Carp for 134lb 1oz and my 3rd Cob House win this season so I was well pleased with more beer tokens for the Bell pub up the road, Kev Clark was 2nd on the peg to my left with 98lb and Steve Robson 3rd with the best weight from Oak pool with 88lb.

Boddington Res Sunday 13/5/12

Hi folks sorry for the long period of non blogging but I have been decorating both the living room and my sons bedroom which has been taking up a lot of my spare time ( No I have not finished yet before you ask ). I have managed the odd club match in-between bouts of plastering and door hanging so I am going to run through these matches in brief to try and bring you up to date before Stav and I embark on our fishing week which starts next Sunday.
I had been looking forward to this match as I have not fished Boddington for 2-3 years but we all had a few concerns that the match had been booked a little too early in the year as waters of this size take a lot longer to warm up than your usual commercial fishery. We had the last 30 pegs booked down the right hand side of the Res to the bottom and the word was that you would need to draw the bottom pegs on the natural bank to catch a few fish, I drew 4 pegs up from the bottom so was happy with the draw.
To cut a long story short it fished absolutely crap with only 40 lb odd winning and half the field blanking I think there were 20 odd fishing and there was not even enough Carp caught to share them out one each! The bottom 3 pegs were 1st, 2nd and 3rd sadly the didn't swim around the corner to me I had 1 bite half way through the match on the method feeder for 10lb 2oz which done me no good at all with Ollie on the next peg winning the section as his 1 fish was 11lb odd?
Too say the lads were disappointed would be an understatement 120 mile round trip from home for that I don't think they will be booking it again.

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!