This was a Halesowen club match at Hawford Bridge on the new lake called Reddings pool this would be a new one for me and 95% of the lads, this pool was dug out around 3 years ago but had been closed by the owners Trev & Sue when the fishing was below par and had only recently been reopened when they were sure the fish were in tip top condition. I had asked around a bit and found out that most of the fish were small from a few ounces to around 4lb there were a few bigger fish taken from the other pools by not many, the key to winning seemed to be trying to sort out the bigger fish which I was told responded to corn over pellet as pellet on the hook gets attacked by the smaller fish.
I caught fish from the off at 13m feeding 4mm pellets with a hard banded 6mm on the hook small Carp at first with a few better fish thrown in while feeding quite heavy with pellet & corn at 6m, I had a lot of the better stamp of fish on the corn when I switched to the 6m line. Later on the fish came up shallow on the 6m line where in one spell I had a run of 9 Carp in 9 puts all the better fish 2-4lb without having time to feed before the elastic was being pulled from my pole. I had a fantastic day catching fish of all sizes all day until the last half hour when the peg went quite on me but as far as I could see around the pool I had done well, I ended the day with 121lb which was enough to give me the match win and continue my unbelievable run of form. There were 4 weights between 70-78lb and most of the lads in the club agreed that they would book it again as there were plenty of fish caught with a lot weighing in 40-70lb, thanks to Trev & Sue for a great day with a few fish thrown in.
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Monday, 24 September 2012
Woodlands View Open Saturday 4/8/12
In an attempt to catch up with my blog I am going to run through the next few matches in brief.
This was the last day of Stav and I's fishing week and we were going to fish separate matches as he had a club match on Barley pool which is a Saturday club I am not in because I normally work Saturdays so I was going to fish the open, the open was to be fished on back Dean's and after winning the open on Tuesday I was looking forward to catching a few fish. I drew peg 44 which is 4 pegs out of the corner on the left hand side of the pool and not a bad area I planned to fish the worm and caster on a long pole line and pellet & corn short, to cut a long story short I failed to catch on anything much on everything I tried all I could catch was odd fish until the last hour when I had around 6 good Carp on the pellet shallow at 6m. I finished up with 61lb 4oz and while I beat the guys either side of me and the two guys opposite the top end of the pool fished a little better with peg 56 winning the match with 101lb there was a 90lb+ and 2 80lb+ weights at the top end of my bank which took my section.
Stav won his club match with 78lb on the pellet wagg & margin fish late on but as we were fishing separate matches he decided to end our fishing week at 4-0 at Curborough and brought the breakfasts as payment shame that as he finally beat me but had to fish another pool to do it! Lol, cheers mate for a great week of fishing
This was the last day of Stav and I's fishing week and we were going to fish separate matches as he had a club match on Barley pool which is a Saturday club I am not in because I normally work Saturdays so I was going to fish the open, the open was to be fished on back Dean's and after winning the open on Tuesday I was looking forward to catching a few fish. I drew peg 44 which is 4 pegs out of the corner on the left hand side of the pool and not a bad area I planned to fish the worm and caster on a long pole line and pellet & corn short, to cut a long story short I failed to catch on anything much on everything I tried all I could catch was odd fish until the last hour when I had around 6 good Carp on the pellet shallow at 6m. I finished up with 61lb 4oz and while I beat the guys either side of me and the two guys opposite the top end of the pool fished a little better with peg 56 winning the match with 101lb there was a 90lb+ and 2 80lb+ weights at the top end of my bank which took my section.
Stav won his club match with 78lb on the pellet wagg & margin fish late on but as we were fishing separate matches he decided to end our fishing week at 4-0 at Curborough and brought the breakfasts as payment shame that as he finally beat me but had to fish another pool to do it! Lol, cheers mate for a great week of fishing
Sunday, 23 September 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Cob House Open Wednesday 1/8/12
Today Stav and I had decided to fish the open at Cob House which was booked on Laurel pool for day 3 of our fishing week I was looking forward to today as I have only fished this pool once before a few weeks ago on a Cradley club match winning it with 134lb, after another cracking breakfast in the onsite Mayfly Cafe we headed for the tackle shop to do the draw there were 14 booked in for the open and I drew out peg 22 which is one out of the corner and Stav drew peg 12. When I got to my peg the wind was blowing quite strong into the corner to my left where there is a nice overflow pipe feature and with a good chop on the water I fancied it for catching a few fish, Stav's peg is on the bank with his back to Wyatts pool and he had the wind blowing off his back but to be honest the fish are all around on this pool and the winner can come from any peg there are no out and out flyers. I was going to attack the peg in the same way as I did in the club match as I always say " if it ain't broke don't fix it " so I had brought plenty of dead maggots and pellets for bait, I set up 4 rigs to cover the peg, on the deck at 4m, down the left hand edge at 4m and 2 shallow rigs 1 for pellet with a bait band and the other for maggots.
At the start of the match I fed the margin line with 2 big pots of dead maggots while I kicked off on the 4m line with a 6mm expander on the hook feeding a few 4mm feed pellets over the top but after the first 10mins went by without I was getting worried as you can normally catch straight away here, 5mins later I was on the shallow pellet rig I was shocked at the lack of bites on the 4m line as I could see fish already swirling over my maggots down the edge but I wanted to leave them as long as possible before going for them. I went out to 11m and started feeding a few pellets while spinning the rig to make a noise it didn't take long before the elastic shot out of the pole and Carp no1 was soon in the net, it was very slow going as by the end of the first hour I had only got 4 Carp for my efforts I had started to feed maggots at 6m for a shallow line but my margin line was alive with fish and I couldn't wait any longer. I went down the edge and started to hook fish straight away with some of them good fish in the 3-4lb bracket as most of the fish are 1-2lb as I began to put a few fish in the net I made a big mistake, as I started to loose feed maggots down the edge instead of potting then in the wind was blowing some of the bait into the grass and into the very shallow water the Carp were in only inches of water and becoming very difficult to hook in the mouth I began to foul-hook fish! Try as I might I couldn't get the fish in the mouth there were too many fish down there every other fish I was loosing so I stopped feeding by hand and went back to feeding with the cupping kit, while I was fishing down the edge I had been feeding the shallow 6m maggot line all the time and when the sun came out from the clouds I could see fish taking the maggots with my sunglasses on most of them were the better stamp of fish. I began fishing the shallow line with good success catching some good fish and by switching between the two lines managed to keep the fish coming until the end of the match, as I packed away I felt that I had done well on the pool but felt that the first hour and half would cost me as you cannot afford to go that long without catching. I walked around to Stav's peg as the scales came around and I asked him how many fish he had got "92" he replied I told he it looked like he had pulled a £1 back as my fish counter only read 68 he said I had bagged all day but I told him that I had lost too many foul-hookers, when the scales got to Stav there were a couple of weights over 100lb with the best 114lb Stav's fish went 143lb to put him in the lead I did notice that a lot of his fish were on the small side most of which he had caught shallow on the pellet slapping and spinning the rig, the guy next to Stav had 120lb and the guy on corner peg had 188lb which looked like being the winner today all of which he said he had caught down the edge all day. The next couple of guy's failed to break the ton before it was my turn my fish went 157lb which was good enough for 2nd on the day and Stav 3rd putting me 3-0 up in our week of fishing ( it's becoming a one horse race this one! Lol ), I had lost too many fish from the margin which would have put me over 200lb and getting off to a slow start didn't help but I was happy to have come 2nd today getting another one over on my mate but I also learnt a lesson. Feeding maggots down here has won me some money this year but loose feeding them down the edge is a no no as it is taking the fish into too shallow a water to catch them even putting the shallow rig on 6 inches deep failed, I think that I might start trying to feed the maggots in balls of groundbait too try and get the Carps head down? I will have to experiment with this, feeding maggots shallow has now twice caught me bigger fish than feeding pellets maybe they have been caught a few times on pellet and have become wary of it or is it just a different bait?
At the start of the match I fed the margin line with 2 big pots of dead maggots while I kicked off on the 4m line with a 6mm expander on the hook feeding a few 4mm feed pellets over the top but after the first 10mins went by without I was getting worried as you can normally catch straight away here, 5mins later I was on the shallow pellet rig I was shocked at the lack of bites on the 4m line as I could see fish already swirling over my maggots down the edge but I wanted to leave them as long as possible before going for them. I went out to 11m and started feeding a few pellets while spinning the rig to make a noise it didn't take long before the elastic shot out of the pole and Carp no1 was soon in the net, it was very slow going as by the end of the first hour I had only got 4 Carp for my efforts I had started to feed maggots at 6m for a shallow line but my margin line was alive with fish and I couldn't wait any longer. I went down the edge and started to hook fish straight away with some of them good fish in the 3-4lb bracket as most of the fish are 1-2lb as I began to put a few fish in the net I made a big mistake, as I started to loose feed maggots down the edge instead of potting then in the wind was blowing some of the bait into the grass and into the very shallow water the Carp were in only inches of water and becoming very difficult to hook in the mouth I began to foul-hook fish! Try as I might I couldn't get the fish in the mouth there were too many fish down there every other fish I was loosing so I stopped feeding by hand and went back to feeding with the cupping kit, while I was fishing down the edge I had been feeding the shallow 6m maggot line all the time and when the sun came out from the clouds I could see fish taking the maggots with my sunglasses on most of them were the better stamp of fish. I began fishing the shallow line with good success catching some good fish and by switching between the two lines managed to keep the fish coming until the end of the match, as I packed away I felt that I had done well on the pool but felt that the first hour and half would cost me as you cannot afford to go that long without catching. I walked around to Stav's peg as the scales came around and I asked him how many fish he had got "92" he replied I told he it looked like he had pulled a £1 back as my fish counter only read 68 he said I had bagged all day but I told him that I had lost too many foul-hookers, when the scales got to Stav there were a couple of weights over 100lb with the best 114lb Stav's fish went 143lb to put him in the lead I did notice that a lot of his fish were on the small side most of which he had caught shallow on the pellet slapping and spinning the rig, the guy next to Stav had 120lb and the guy on corner peg had 188lb which looked like being the winner today all of which he said he had caught down the edge all day. The next couple of guy's failed to break the ton before it was my turn my fish went 157lb which was good enough for 2nd on the day and Stav 3rd putting me 3-0 up in our week of fishing ( it's becoming a one horse race this one! Lol ), I had lost too many fish from the margin which would have put me over 200lb and getting off to a slow start didn't help but I was happy to have come 2nd today getting another one over on my mate but I also learnt a lesson. Feeding maggots down here has won me some money this year but loose feeding them down the edge is a no no as it is taking the fish into too shallow a water to catch them even putting the shallow rig on 6 inches deep failed, I think that I might start trying to feed the maggots in balls of groundbait too try and get the Carps head down? I will have to experiment with this, feeding maggots shallow has now twice caught me bigger fish than feeding pellets maybe they have been caught a few times on pellet and have become wary of it or is it just a different bait?
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Woodlands View Tuesday 31/7/12
This was my first visit to Woodlands since our last fishing week back in last September I was looking forward to it as I have always liked Woodlands fishing many opens, club and winter leagues here over the years, there are many fishery's I have visited over the years and although I have not fished here a lot the last couple of years I have always said that if I was only allowed to fish one place Woodlands would be the place for me. I have caught plenty of fish from here which while Carp are dominant there are lots of other fish to be caught here and at certain times of the year or when the Carp don't want to play ball the other fish are vital to doing well, whether it is this mixed fishery or it is just a nice place to be I don't know but I just like the place and Mike, Ade & Denise have always made me welcome even after nearly 12 months away.
Today's Open was to be fished on Arles pool which suited both Stav and I as this pool contains lots of the other fish I was talking about ( to call them silvers would be wrong as in my eyes as Barbel, Tench and Crucian's are not strictly silvers! ), this was good for us as we had both come armed with worm & caster as well as the usual pellet & corn. I was rattling to a couple of the Starlets Vets who were fishing on Deans & High pools when the draw took place so I was left with the last peg in the draw box, peg 34 was left in the bag and Ade's face was a picture he commented " ain't been here for 12 months and gets left peg 34, flier"!!! Now for the people that don't know Woodlands View peg 34 on Arles has won a lot of matches over the years and is a very good peg probably due to it being the only peg on the pool where you can reach the island with the long pole (16m)! for the other pegs on the pool it's a wagg or tip job to reach it, I have drawn the peg twice before in the passed winning off it the first time and then blowing out the second time due to strong winds ( if the wind gets up fishing at 16m is a no go and the peg losses its advantage ). Like all good pegs it never fishes all the time I was just hoping that they would have a feed today as I was in the form of my life I was confident of catching a few kippers! Stav had drew peg 38 just to my left which is a decent draw as well, there are a number of good pegs on here which can all win at any time pegs 4,8, 10-14 & 16 can all throw up winning weights, I like pegs 8 - 14 as they are good pellet wagg pegs which for some strange reason is not an over used method here with peg 10 being my favourite.
I set four rigs to cover me for today the first was for fishing the deck over by the island which was around 3 1/2ft deep a bit deeper than I can remember as the foliage has grown out a bit further from the island because it was only around 15m to get there, most of the pegs on Arles have a wooden board on the island with your peg number on to stop people random casting across other each other, on peg 34 you used to fish right over to this board but now there must be 3ft of reeds in-front of the board stopping you from getting right close to the island. A shallow rig was set up for the 16m line, a rig for a 6m pellet line and the final rig was for my left hand margin where I could get to the empty pallet on peg 35 which is one of the favoured ways of catching here in the latter stages of the matches, I won't bore you with the rig details as if you have read my blog before my float, hook,elastic & line set up don't differ a lot during the summer months. For bait I had brought 1kg of worms, 4 pints of (rank!) caster, 4 tins of corn, 1 bag each of 4mm & 6mm fishery feed pellets plus the usual array of expanders for the hook, the rank casters Stav and I like to use are just older casters that the shop sells off cheaper which we have used for a number of years and have found them not to affect catches in fact we think for Carp fishing they are better than the fresh expensive casters, must be the smell? When fishing the worm I just grab a hand full of worm ( 1/2 pint' ish ), I wash off 1 pint of casters taking off any floaters in the process draining off all the water with a maggot riddle, chop the worms to around 1/2 inch pieces add the casters, then add around 1/2 a tin of corn, then the final ingredient which I have faith in and have used for years a good squirt of VDE predator plus, weather its the smell or more likely the red cloud that hangs in the water I like it and put around 1/3rd of a bottle per mix, then just give it all a good mix up, make sure you take a good towel as this stuff goes all over the place normally after a good worm session my pole has a red tinge to it.
I started the match putting a pot full of worm mix over to the island and down the pallet and a pot full of 4mm pellets and corn on the 6m line, I caught steady for the first hour with a few small Carp in the 1-3lb bracket with the odd silver fish I was catching but not setting the world on fire. A quick look on the pellet line for 10mins produced just 2 skimmers so I was soon back over to the island, I could only see pegs 36 & 4 as the island obscures your view to the other side and a bush that stopped me from seeing what Stav was catching, so all I had to go by was the 2 pegs I could see and while I was only catching odd small Carp it was steady and I was catching better than them. Two hours into the match it was time for another look on the pellet line but after only 5mins without a bite I had my first look on the pallet line but this only got me one small 1lb Tench and a couple of Perch, the 3rd hour I started to get fish swimming through my peg up in the water coming to the worm mix falling out of the pot but try as I might I couldn't catch a single fish on the shallow rig which is strange down here as I can normally catch a few up in the water? I could only see the odd fish being caught by the others anglers so I just stuck to fishing by the island catching odd small Carp with a few skimmers and Roach mixed in, I hit a bit of a purple patch in the fourth hour landing around 6 Carp in a 20mins spell while only small they were most welcome and by the end of the hour I guessed I had around 50-55lb in the net. Into the last hour I had a quick look down the margin and this time at last there were signs of life down there as I potted some mix in there were Carp ripping up the bottom swirling and clouding up the water, it took all of 30 seconds before I hooked my first margin fish of the day and soon a nice 6lb common Carp was in the net I was hoping there was a few of his brothers and sisters down there for me. I hooked and landed another 6 fish in the last hour from the margin in the 4-6lb class along with a nice Tench of around 3lb and a couple of Crucian's but I did loose 3 more Carp which I think were foul-hooked, I had used my fish counter today to roughly guess the weight of my Carp and it read 65 and I guessed my silvers at 20-25lb so I was looking at around 85-90lb. Ade had started to weigh-in from peg 4 so by the time I had packed some of my kit away he had already done the side of the pool I couldn't see so when I asked him about the weights he said peg 8 was the best with 88lb, my Carp net went 67lb ( not a bad guess with the clicker! ) and my silvers went 27lb so combined with the ounces he gave me 95lb 10oz with the guy on peg 36 having 60lb odd there was only Stav left to weigh. Stav said he had caught well all day at 6m with a good few silvers after 1 early Carp on the pellet wagg his Carp net went 43lb but with a good 40lb of silvers gave him 83lb for 3rd overall leaving me with my 5th win on the bounce!!! I which I could bottle what I am doing lately if I knew what IT was???? Brilliant, I had a great day at a great venue but more importantly this put me 2-0 up in the fishing week series, this was one of those days that shows you the importance of fishing the worm here during day matches as the guy in-between Stav and I had fished pellet but caught next to no slivers, this obviously does not always work as there are lots of matches won here on pellet & corn especially afternoon matches but if you fish a day match on here with a lot of people on a lot of pegs you could do worse than fish the worm & caster.
Today's Open was to be fished on Arles pool which suited both Stav and I as this pool contains lots of the other fish I was talking about ( to call them silvers would be wrong as in my eyes as Barbel, Tench and Crucian's are not strictly silvers! ), this was good for us as we had both come armed with worm & caster as well as the usual pellet & corn. I was rattling to a couple of the Starlets Vets who were fishing on Deans & High pools when the draw took place so I was left with the last peg in the draw box, peg 34 was left in the bag and Ade's face was a picture he commented " ain't been here for 12 months and gets left peg 34, flier"!!! Now for the people that don't know Woodlands View peg 34 on Arles has won a lot of matches over the years and is a very good peg probably due to it being the only peg on the pool where you can reach the island with the long pole (16m)! for the other pegs on the pool it's a wagg or tip job to reach it, I have drawn the peg twice before in the passed winning off it the first time and then blowing out the second time due to strong winds ( if the wind gets up fishing at 16m is a no go and the peg losses its advantage ). Like all good pegs it never fishes all the time I was just hoping that they would have a feed today as I was in the form of my life I was confident of catching a few kippers! Stav had drew peg 38 just to my left which is a decent draw as well, there are a number of good pegs on here which can all win at any time pegs 4,8, 10-14 & 16 can all throw up winning weights, I like pegs 8 - 14 as they are good pellet wagg pegs which for some strange reason is not an over used method here with peg 10 being my favourite.
I set four rigs to cover me for today the first was for fishing the deck over by the island which was around 3 1/2ft deep a bit deeper than I can remember as the foliage has grown out a bit further from the island because it was only around 15m to get there, most of the pegs on Arles have a wooden board on the island with your peg number on to stop people random casting across other each other, on peg 34 you used to fish right over to this board but now there must be 3ft of reeds in-front of the board stopping you from getting right close to the island. A shallow rig was set up for the 16m line, a rig for a 6m pellet line and the final rig was for my left hand margin where I could get to the empty pallet on peg 35 which is one of the favoured ways of catching here in the latter stages of the matches, I won't bore you with the rig details as if you have read my blog before my float, hook,elastic & line set up don't differ a lot during the summer months. For bait I had brought 1kg of worms, 4 pints of (rank!) caster, 4 tins of corn, 1 bag each of 4mm & 6mm fishery feed pellets plus the usual array of expanders for the hook, the rank casters Stav and I like to use are just older casters that the shop sells off cheaper which we have used for a number of years and have found them not to affect catches in fact we think for Carp fishing they are better than the fresh expensive casters, must be the smell? When fishing the worm I just grab a hand full of worm ( 1/2 pint' ish ), I wash off 1 pint of casters taking off any floaters in the process draining off all the water with a maggot riddle, chop the worms to around 1/2 inch pieces add the casters, then add around 1/2 a tin of corn, then the final ingredient which I have faith in and have used for years a good squirt of VDE predator plus, weather its the smell or more likely the red cloud that hangs in the water I like it and put around 1/3rd of a bottle per mix, then just give it all a good mix up, make sure you take a good towel as this stuff goes all over the place normally after a good worm session my pole has a red tinge to it.
I started the match putting a pot full of worm mix over to the island and down the pallet and a pot full of 4mm pellets and corn on the 6m line, I caught steady for the first hour with a few small Carp in the 1-3lb bracket with the odd silver fish I was catching but not setting the world on fire. A quick look on the pellet line for 10mins produced just 2 skimmers so I was soon back over to the island, I could only see pegs 36 & 4 as the island obscures your view to the other side and a bush that stopped me from seeing what Stav was catching, so all I had to go by was the 2 pegs I could see and while I was only catching odd small Carp it was steady and I was catching better than them. Two hours into the match it was time for another look on the pellet line but after only 5mins without a bite I had my first look on the pallet line but this only got me one small 1lb Tench and a couple of Perch, the 3rd hour I started to get fish swimming through my peg up in the water coming to the worm mix falling out of the pot but try as I might I couldn't catch a single fish on the shallow rig which is strange down here as I can normally catch a few up in the water? I could only see the odd fish being caught by the others anglers so I just stuck to fishing by the island catching odd small Carp with a few skimmers and Roach mixed in, I hit a bit of a purple patch in the fourth hour landing around 6 Carp in a 20mins spell while only small they were most welcome and by the end of the hour I guessed I had around 50-55lb in the net. Into the last hour I had a quick look down the margin and this time at last there were signs of life down there as I potted some mix in there were Carp ripping up the bottom swirling and clouding up the water, it took all of 30 seconds before I hooked my first margin fish of the day and soon a nice 6lb common Carp was in the net I was hoping there was a few of his brothers and sisters down there for me. I hooked and landed another 6 fish in the last hour from the margin in the 4-6lb class along with a nice Tench of around 3lb and a couple of Crucian's but I did loose 3 more Carp which I think were foul-hooked, I had used my fish counter today to roughly guess the weight of my Carp and it read 65 and I guessed my silvers at 20-25lb so I was looking at around 85-90lb. Ade had started to weigh-in from peg 4 so by the time I had packed some of my kit away he had already done the side of the pool I couldn't see so when I asked him about the weights he said peg 8 was the best with 88lb, my Carp net went 67lb ( not a bad guess with the clicker! ) and my silvers went 27lb so combined with the ounces he gave me 95lb 10oz with the guy on peg 36 having 60lb odd there was only Stav left to weigh. Stav said he had caught well all day at 6m with a good few silvers after 1 early Carp on the pellet wagg his Carp net went 43lb but with a good 40lb of silvers gave him 83lb for 3rd overall leaving me with my 5th win on the bounce!!! I which I could bottle what I am doing lately if I knew what IT was???? Brilliant, I had a great day at a great venue but more importantly this put me 2-0 up in the fishing week series, this was one of those days that shows you the importance of fishing the worm here during day matches as the guy in-between Stav and I had fished pellet but caught next to no slivers, this obviously does not always work as there are lots of matches won here on pellet & corn especially afternoon matches but if you fish a day match on here with a lot of people on a lot of pegs you could do worse than fish the worm & caster.
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Hillview Canals Sunday 29/8/12
This weekend saw us back down Hillview for a Cradley Heath club match on canals 2,3 & 4 and I was hoping it fished a bit better than it did a few weeks ago where canal 3 took all the money, low weights were caught that day for this venue 66lb and I won canal 2 with 41lb but to be fair the weather was a lot cooler than today. I was hoping to continue my run of very good form winning 5 of the last 6 Cradley matches on the bounce I was on fire I don't know what I am doing lately but it is working! This was also the first day of our annual fishing week were Stav and I go fishing to different commercials around the Midlands, there is also the pride and prestige of a £1 side bet each day to play for. After a message to Nev (2 METERS) who helps run the matches down here and catches a few kippers too I felt that if I got a decent draw I would do well with the run of form I was in, I had tied a few rigs up for the coming week and got my kit sorted out so after getting some fishery feed pellets I was primed and ready for the draw. I drew a peg in the middle of pool 4 one peg away from the aerator ( the permanent peg number escapes me ) and Stav drew in the middle of pool 3 where all the weights came from a few weeks ago, the peg looked ok as I could get to the bare bank and into the very shallow where I had been told to look for failing this it was going to be a fishing shallow job. My margins were very deep at around 3 1/2ft as the reeds came out a long way from the bank and as I had been told maybe too deep to catch well so I was going to fish shallow there, I was going to set up a short line a 2 meters in-front of me as a back up in-case all else fails. I set up 4 pole rigs too cover my peg.
Rig 1, up against the far bank at 13m around just over 1ft deep a 4x10 Preston PB Carp 1, 0.18 mainline to 0.16 hooklength with a F1 band for hard pellet & black hydro elastic.
Rig 2, the same as above but with a Tosciro 175 size 3 hook for meat or corn hookbait.
Rig 3, shallow margin rig Maver 4x12 Jurassic dibber set 18" deep with 0.16 line straight through to a size 3 175 & Preston 13h elastic.
Rig 4, top kit rig at 2 meters 4x12 Preston Durra 10, 0.16 line straight through, to a size 3 175 hook & black hydro.
For bait I had brought a bag each of micro & 4mm fishery feed pellets, 4 tins of corn & 4 tins of 6mm chopped meat plus a few different hard & soft hooker pellets.
Today for company I had Chris Owen to my left and John Bab to my right so at least we could have a good laugh if we didn't catch a lot, before the all in I had to go on the bait tub scrounge as I had left all of mine in my shed at home (plank!), just to go and show you that old age and forgetfulness creeps up on us all John Bab had forgot all of his keep & landing nets having to borrow some dodgy looking well worn things from the fishery.
On the all in I fed a pot full of mixed micro & 4mm pellets on my 13m line and I was only going to feed corn on my 2 metre line and meat to my left by hand just odd pieces now and then for later on, first put-in on the 13m line with a 6mm hard banded pellet I began to get liners straight away as there were fish over the feed pellets. I missed the first 2-3 bites as there seemed to be a lot of fish already in the peg and it took around 5mins before I hooked my first fish of the day a nice 1lb f1 and I was off the mark , with me missing another couple of bites before hooking another f1 of a similar I knew there were a lot of fish in the peg but it looked like I had fed too much at the start! feeding for Carp with a full pot of pellets were normally when I fish for f1's I would only feed with a kinder egg pot of pellets. The next couple of fish were Carp in the 2-3lb bracket which must have eaten most of the opening pot of pellets as the bites/liners began to get less as I began to feed small amounts through the kinder pot, the rest of the first hour was good as I hooked and landed a few fish from the far line while those around me were only having odd fish. Most of the fish were F1's but with the odd Carp thrown in now and then so I stuck to this line for the second hour while I was putting some fish in the net, after a couple of hours I had quick look on both my 2m line and down the edge but apart from one small 1lb Carp from the margin swim I couldn't get any bites at all so I was soon back out over the 13m line. I was catching both on the deck and up in the water taking odd fish here and there with the same rig (rig 1) if I pushed the rig right up the far bank where I had shallowed up to less than 1ft deep I was taking fish there or if I pulled the pole back to around 12m I was having odd ones shallow were the shelf dropped off to around 3ft deep. With around 3 hours of the match gone I thought I had got around 50lb in the net when it started raining heavy and you could hear the thunder in the distance getting closer, when the storm came right over the top of us the and the lightning was all around I was just holding my top kit with the shallow rig down the margins not wanting to hold 13m of carbon! I hooked a good Carp of around 4lb on red meat which I prefer on the hook while feeding plain meat but as I was playing it I had noticed that the better stamp of Carp that were in my left hand net had all come to the top of the net, the smaller fish in my other net didn't react the same, even when I put the new edition into the net the others seemed not bothered they were all just swimming around the top 1ft of water! Weather it was oxygen the rain was putting in or taking out I don't know but I had never seen fish react like that before? I know that big thunderstorms like this can de-oxygenate the water and cause fish fatality's but what ever it was the fish were up and feeding as the next put in produced another Carp, in fact while the storm was over us I had my best spell of the match and in around 45mins I had around 12 Carp all in the 2-5lb bracket shallow in the margins with the meat putting around 40lb in the net. At one point in the middle of this purple spell the rain turned into hail and it got that heavy that I thought I was going to have to pack the pole away before it got broke! I was playing Carp but as the hail was hitting my top kit it sounded like it was breaking. When the weather broke and the storm moved on the sun came out it was back to t-shirt weather, we were now into the last hour and Chris to my left was now bagging down the edge he too had caught well through the storm but my margin fish had stopped feeding and vanished. I just picked odd fish off from over and one more from the margin just before the all out sounded and at around 3lb it was my last fish of the day, as I started to pack away getting all the water from my luggage which was swimming I thought I had got around 95-105lb which I was happy with after catching 41lb from canal 2 a few weeks ago. There were some good anglers on canal 3 which had produced the better weights on the last match and the word on the bank was that Martin had caught well from opposite me but due to the trees and bushes I couldn't see him, while I was giving all the bait boxes back to the lads I had borrowed them off Barry in the right hand corner said he had caught well all day and was around the 100lb mark. We started to weigh-in from the corners of canals 2 & 3 as you can weigh both pools at the same time coming down the middle and it soon became apparent that canal 2 had not fish very well again with Steve Robson winning this lake with 54lb, canal 3 was better with most weights 50-70lb with Martin Yardsley being the best with 81lb, Stav next to him had 65lb and I knew I was 1-0 up in our side bet before I had even weighed in. As Baz in the corner peg pulled his nets out it was obvious that he was going to take the lead the scales read 110lb 8oz, there was a couple of 50-60lb weights before it was my turn and as I pulled my nets out I knew it was going to be close to Barry's weight, I was given 111lb 10oz to take the lead there was only Chris who I thought would come close as he had some good margin lumps in the last hour, Chris was given 84lb for 3rd and I had won the match by 1lb 2oz, GREAT!!! this was now my 6th win on the bounce with Cradley out of the 7 matches we have fished this year. I have never had a run like this before I must be doing something right, I have been match fishing since the age of around 12 (now 43) and never had a run like this, I win, fame or section a few times each season but this run is above all this.
More importantly I was 1-0 up on Stav for the start of fishing week. Talking to Baz after the match he had also experienced the same with all his big fish coming to the top of his net during the thunderstorm? strange that one. Thanks to Nev for the info I owe you a pint mate,cheers.
Rig 1, up against the far bank at 13m around just over 1ft deep a 4x10 Preston PB Carp 1, 0.18 mainline to 0.16 hooklength with a F1 band for hard pellet & black hydro elastic.
Rig 2, the same as above but with a Tosciro 175 size 3 hook for meat or corn hookbait.
Rig 3, shallow margin rig Maver 4x12 Jurassic dibber set 18" deep with 0.16 line straight through to a size 3 175 & Preston 13h elastic.
Rig 4, top kit rig at 2 meters 4x12 Preston Durra 10, 0.16 line straight through, to a size 3 175 hook & black hydro.
For bait I had brought a bag each of micro & 4mm fishery feed pellets, 4 tins of corn & 4 tins of 6mm chopped meat plus a few different hard & soft hooker pellets.
Today for company I had Chris Owen to my left and John Bab to my right so at least we could have a good laugh if we didn't catch a lot, before the all in I had to go on the bait tub scrounge as I had left all of mine in my shed at home (plank!), just to go and show you that old age and forgetfulness creeps up on us all John Bab had forgot all of his keep & landing nets having to borrow some dodgy looking well worn things from the fishery.
On the all in I fed a pot full of mixed micro & 4mm pellets on my 13m line and I was only going to feed corn on my 2 metre line and meat to my left by hand just odd pieces now and then for later on, first put-in on the 13m line with a 6mm hard banded pellet I began to get liners straight away as there were fish over the feed pellets. I missed the first 2-3 bites as there seemed to be a lot of fish already in the peg and it took around 5mins before I hooked my first fish of the day a nice 1lb f1 and I was off the mark , with me missing another couple of bites before hooking another f1 of a similar I knew there were a lot of fish in the peg but it looked like I had fed too much at the start! feeding for Carp with a full pot of pellets were normally when I fish for f1's I would only feed with a kinder egg pot of pellets. The next couple of fish were Carp in the 2-3lb bracket which must have eaten most of the opening pot of pellets as the bites/liners began to get less as I began to feed small amounts through the kinder pot, the rest of the first hour was good as I hooked and landed a few fish from the far line while those around me were only having odd fish. Most of the fish were F1's but with the odd Carp thrown in now and then so I stuck to this line for the second hour while I was putting some fish in the net, after a couple of hours I had quick look on both my 2m line and down the edge but apart from one small 1lb Carp from the margin swim I couldn't get any bites at all so I was soon back out over the 13m line. I was catching both on the deck and up in the water taking odd fish here and there with the same rig (rig 1) if I pushed the rig right up the far bank where I had shallowed up to less than 1ft deep I was taking fish there or if I pulled the pole back to around 12m I was having odd ones shallow were the shelf dropped off to around 3ft deep. With around 3 hours of the match gone I thought I had got around 50lb in the net when it started raining heavy and you could hear the thunder in the distance getting closer, when the storm came right over the top of us the and the lightning was all around I was just holding my top kit with the shallow rig down the margins not wanting to hold 13m of carbon! I hooked a good Carp of around 4lb on red meat which I prefer on the hook while feeding plain meat but as I was playing it I had noticed that the better stamp of Carp that were in my left hand net had all come to the top of the net, the smaller fish in my other net didn't react the same, even when I put the new edition into the net the others seemed not bothered they were all just swimming around the top 1ft of water! Weather it was oxygen the rain was putting in or taking out I don't know but I had never seen fish react like that before? I know that big thunderstorms like this can de-oxygenate the water and cause fish fatality's but what ever it was the fish were up and feeding as the next put in produced another Carp, in fact while the storm was over us I had my best spell of the match and in around 45mins I had around 12 Carp all in the 2-5lb bracket shallow in the margins with the meat putting around 40lb in the net. At one point in the middle of this purple spell the rain turned into hail and it got that heavy that I thought I was going to have to pack the pole away before it got broke! I was playing Carp but as the hail was hitting my top kit it sounded like it was breaking. When the weather broke and the storm moved on the sun came out it was back to t-shirt weather, we were now into the last hour and Chris to my left was now bagging down the edge he too had caught well through the storm but my margin fish had stopped feeding and vanished. I just picked odd fish off from over and one more from the margin just before the all out sounded and at around 3lb it was my last fish of the day, as I started to pack away getting all the water from my luggage which was swimming I thought I had got around 95-105lb which I was happy with after catching 41lb from canal 2 a few weeks ago. There were some good anglers on canal 3 which had produced the better weights on the last match and the word on the bank was that Martin had caught well from opposite me but due to the trees and bushes I couldn't see him, while I was giving all the bait boxes back to the lads I had borrowed them off Barry in the right hand corner said he had caught well all day and was around the 100lb mark. We started to weigh-in from the corners of canals 2 & 3 as you can weigh both pools at the same time coming down the middle and it soon became apparent that canal 2 had not fish very well again with Steve Robson winning this lake with 54lb, canal 3 was better with most weights 50-70lb with Martin Yardsley being the best with 81lb, Stav next to him had 65lb and I knew I was 1-0 up in our side bet before I had even weighed in. As Baz in the corner peg pulled his nets out it was obvious that he was going to take the lead the scales read 110lb 8oz, there was a couple of 50-60lb weights before it was my turn and as I pulled my nets out I knew it was going to be close to Barry's weight, I was given 111lb 10oz to take the lead there was only Chris who I thought would come close as he had some good margin lumps in the last hour, Chris was given 84lb for 3rd and I had won the match by 1lb 2oz, GREAT!!! this was now my 6th win on the bounce with Cradley out of the 7 matches we have fished this year. I have never had a run like this before I must be doing something right, I have been match fishing since the age of around 12 (now 43) and never had a run like this, I win, fame or section a few times each season but this run is above all this.
More importantly I was 1-0 up on Stav for the start of fishing week. Talking to Baz after the match he had also experienced the same with all his big fish coming to the top of his net during the thunderstorm? strange that one. Thanks to Nev for the info I owe you a pint mate,cheers.
Monday, 20 August 2012
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.
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.
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