Old Hill Canal Sunday 15/7/12

After a couple of weekends off due to decorating duties I was itching to get back to it as I was on one of the best runs of my fishing career if not the best, I had fished 7 matches since the end of our pairs league at Blythe and winning 5 of them!
This match had been taken off the river Severn at Hampton Loade due to around 6ft of flood water coming down so we switched it to a local section of canal that I had not fished since I was a teenager, the idea being that the two short sections we were going to fish are off the main arm of the canal so hopefully we wouldn't be affected by boats. The main canals we use if the river is out of sorts the Staffs-Worc & Birmingham-Worc are a no go areas in the summer due to heavy boat traffic, the two sections we were going to use today are off-shoots of the main Dudley canal No2 one a dead arm called the Bumble Hole and the other an arm that takes you to Hawne Marina eventually, both of these sections are controlled by Old Hill Legion which sell day tickets on them. As most of the lads had never fished these stretches or like me not for 15-20 years it was a bit of guess work as to what we were going to catch or how to approach it, after a word with one of the lads who has fished it who came into the shop I work in it looked like a bread, worm and pellet attack for Roach and Skimmers with the odd Tench if they feed. I drew the end peg nearest the road bridge at the back of an area called Darby End this is the stretch that runs down to Hawne Marina, for as long as I can remember this bridge has been called the PAP PAP! bridge and I was going to find out why it got its name big style. As you can guess this is a humped back bridge that is only wide enough to take one vehicle at a time so every time they approach it they sound the horn!!!, as we were setting up before the match even started I reckoned I had at least 50 PAPS some of them were single long PAPS while some were going for a more short rapid fire burst of PAP PAP PAP PAP PAP!!!!! F**K me has anyone got any ear defenders by the end of the match it was driving me up the wall and as I lay in bed that night I could still hear them PAP PAP.
Anyway back to the fishing my peg was around 13m wide up to the rushes which run along the whole length of this stretch and are probably around 1m thick sticking out from the far bank, after plumbing around a bit  I found there was around 4ft down the track but still 2 1/2ft over by the reeds I decided on a 3 pronged attack. I was going to fish worm & caster over by the reeds, bread punch down the track as the water colour is quite clear due to the lack of boat traffic, I was also going to put a pellet line in 13m down the canal at a 10 o'clock angle just coming up the shelf out of the track.
Rig 1 was my 13m line with a 4x10 Drennan caster float 0.08 line straight through to a 18 Preston pr322 hook with no5 elastic.
Rig 2 was at 10m down the track a Tubertini Styx float 4x12 0.08 straight through to size 20 pr31 hook with 4 elastic.
Rig 3 was the pellet line down the canal at 13m just coming up the shelf out of the track with the same float, line and elastic as rig 2 but a 18 pr322 hook.
For bait I had brought 1/2 pint of casters, 1/2 kg of worm, 1 loaf of liquidised bread and 1 pint of 1mm micro pellets I also had a couple of rounds of bread for the hook and some 4mm expanders for the hook, no squatts or pinkies as I was going for quality fish.
I fed half a pot of worm & caster over by the reeds at the start and a full pot of bread down the track, the pellet line got just a 1/4 of a pot of micros with 3-4 expanders in, I kicked off on the bread line with a 4mm piece of punched bread on the hook. It took around 5mins to get bite which was a Roach of around 3oz then I missed a couple of bites before hooking another Roach of around 1oz, two more small Roach followed in the next 5mins and while not setting the world on fire but at least I was catching which Chris on my left had failed to do yet as he had set his stall out for Bream, Tench & Carp fishing big baits and strong tackle. Then around 20mins in I hooked a better fish on the bread which pulled my no4 elastic out a few feet which surfaced as I steadily shipped back it was a nice skimmer, that's a nice bonus I thought as I slipped the net under the 1lb fish as shouts of jammy git came down the bank from Steve Robson who was two pegs away. Another couple of Roach were in the net before I hooked and landed another skimmer of around the same size on the half hour mark and it was all going well, I had three more small Roach and a small 3oz skimmer over the next 15mins before hooking and landing another skimmer of around 12oz this was going well I was just hoping that they would keep coming. With the first hour gone I was sitting pretty with around 3 1/2lb in the net already but the last 10mins had gone by without a bite so I made the decision to re-feed as I had only put that one pot in at the start, the bites came back after I put another pot of bread in but only Roach were showing at the start of hour two but I wasn't complaining. The second hour went passed without any more Skimmers just odd small Roach as the bites slowed right up to a stop and it was time for a change, I put a small worm head on the 13m line rig which I had been topping up throughout and shipped over to the reeds. I had been on the worm line for around 5mins before the float slid away which turned out to be a 3oz Rudd and on the next put in a 1oz Perch was in the net at least I was catching again, I was wrong because that was it for this line despite trying caster on the hook, jigging the rig with the worm on altering the depth I failed to get on this line. I switched to the pellet for 10mins but with no signs on this I was starting to scratch my head as I couldn't get a bite on any of my three lines, Chris to my left had only a couple of small fish to show for his efforts with his big fish attack but Steve was catching a few small fish to his left after a slow start. My peg had gone totally dead with only two 1oz Roach on a new bread line I had opened up on my right hand side down towards the bridge in the track at 11m, I was swapping and feeding between all my lines and with around 1 1/2 hours left I was on the pellet when out of the blue the float shot under and another good Skimmer was on, this one turned out to be another of around 1lb and I was hoping that they had decided to feed again. I was wrong as that was my only bite on the pellet line despite sitting on it for a good half hour after that last Skimmer we were now into the last hour and after doing the rounds again on all of my lines all I had was another two small Roach on my first punch line, while the first 2 hours were good the rest of the match had been a real struggle I was now praying for the whistle as the Paps on the bridge were giving me a headache I couldn't believe how busy a small road at the back of nowhere could be on a Sunday. I sat on the pellet for the last 20mins as I thought that if I had a bite on this it was more likely to be a Skimmer than anything else and with 5mins to go Steve shouted down asking if I had any more bites on the pellet, before I could answer him in a split second the float shot under and I struck into fresh air as I missed the bite S**T I blamed Steve for putting me off but despite willing the float to go under before the whistle it didn't. I had a match of two half's one good one bad with most of my fish coming in the first 45mins, had I caught most of the fish in the swim in that short time? Had the fish just stopped feeding? Had the Skimmers stopped feeding as the sun got up as it was 20c+ and bright? I hadn't got the answer but just had a gut feeling that there were more Skimmers in the swim, Steve spoke to one of the locals who said that he normally catches a few Skimmers & Tench up to 4lb but on a night after work? No Tench had been hooked or landed on this stretch today. I was first to weigh-in and was given 6lb 1oz by Baz on the scales which I was happy with but thought it would have been a lot more after that first burst on the bread, Chris next to me only had 13oz after sitting for big fish for 5hours but failing to hook any on another day 2-3 bites could have seen him with 10lb+?, Steve had more small fish than me with 3 small skimmers in amongst his Roach for 4lb 4oz, I went back to my peg to carry on packing up as the next peg Baz was quite a bit away and I didn't want to leave my tackle as the local kids were on the bridge waving the cars over the bridge towards each other! There was a big screech of tyres as a car and van ended up bumper to bumper! Baz had 5lb 3oz and there were a couple of 2-3lb weights passed him so I had the best weight off this section I was just hoping the dead arm had not fished I can remember catching 13 Tench from this section in a day some 15 years ago so they are in there. When we got back to the dead arm we soon found out that JB had won this section with 3lb 15oz of punch Roach off the peg that joins the main line canal most had 2-3lb weights, so I had won again I don't know what I am doing lately but it seems to be working but I still cannot get those 6 numbers up on the lottery. We all retired back to the local pub for couple of sherbets to chew over the fat of the day.

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.