Cob House Fisheries 26-27 September

Well what a weekend, i dont think i could have made any more right decisions!!! my left bicep is positivley aching from all the hauling that i.........................................

NO NO NO, i cant do it! had a mare, fished like a complete muppet. but i'll cary on in my usual manner and tell you all about it!

Right Saturday, Cob House open on Laugherne Island Pool. coming into this match i was seriously full of confidence, and wanting to get my venue record back after Chris Cameron smashed it on Wyatts pool with 253lb. Gutted!! (mistake number 1, over confident, couldnt see the wood for the tress!!!)

Drew Peg 9, next door to last week so was reasonably happy, although there are better areas at the ends of the pools.

Learning from last weeks performance i decided that the pole was my primary tactic with the method to the island backing this up. So i set up the following gear: -

- 3 rigs for down the shelf

- 1 - 0.3 SP1 (pencil float), 0.18 mainline, 0.16 hooklength to a 16 B911. Spread bulk with 2 droppers.

- 2 - 0.5 SP2 (fatter pencil float) 0.18 mainiline, 0.8 hooklength to a 14 B911, Spread bulk with 2 droppers.

- 3 - Homemade paste float, self cocking, 0.18 direct to a 12 B911.

Rigs 1 and 2 were plumbed up at 14.5m slightly to the right as i'm left handed and i didnt want to retrieve my method over the same line and at 8m just at the bottom of the near shelf where it was the same depth as 14.5m. Rig 1 was plumbed at dead depth and would be my main rig. Rig 2 was plumbed at 2" over depth. The SP2's are made the exact same size as the SP1's but using a fatter dowel. This means i can use the same size float but get more shot down the line and hold it steadier if the conditions deteriorate or i start bagging and want to get the bait down them quickly.

Rig 3 was to be used at 8m only as i didnt want to have to fish the paste to far out and plumbed to dead depth.

I then set up a further 2 rigs -

- 4 - SP3 small for the margin, 0.20 mainline, 0.18 hooklength to a 14 B911

- 5 - SP5 for shallow, 0.18 mainline, 0.18 hooklength to a 16 B911

Rig 4 was plumbed to a small bush to my left in the margin about 7m away so i found another line to the same place but to my right to give me another line to go at.

Rig 5 was set at 12" for shallow over the 13m line. incidently for some reason you cant catch shallow on laugherne even though there are loads of signs up in the water!!

Finally, a maver powerlite feeder system @ 11ft, 6lb mainline, small preston inline method feeder, 0.20 hooklength to a 14 carp feeder barbless, clipped up 2ft off the island under a small bush.

Bait for the day was 2 pints of micros, soaked for the method and 6 pints of 4mm's dampened down slightly for the pole lines. on the whistle i fed half a large preston cup of 4mm at 13m and a full pot at 8m then chucked the method for 10 minutes to let it settle.

Then it all started to go wrong when my brain stopped working and i stopped thinking about what i was doing!

For those first 10 minutes and 4 chucks on the method i was catapulting some pellet over the pole line to really generate some interest. i had liners on the method but no real takes to promptly binned it and got on the pole.

The long line was bubbling nicely and had a fish after 2 minutes. I then went MAD with the catty as i had the venue record in my head and wanted to get bagging which promptly brought way to many fish in the peg and i was suffering from liners and plenty of foulhooked lost fish. My accuracy with the catty was pretty poor too and feed was spreading way to much!

Also my elastic wasnt right, as i had the newer preston slip (couldn't get hold of any original slip in time) number 8 doubled in my kits and just doesnt work. Its really sticky no matter how much you lubricate it and i'm sure i was pulling out of fish because of it! The original black 8 is sooooo much better!

The first hour passed and i'd only put 5-6 fish in the net and my main 14.5m line was like a jacuzzi and going no where!

So i had half and hour on the method and was nicely suprised to see it pull round virtually straight away and had 4 fish in half an hour to make me a bit happier. I cant sit still while on the tip so i made myself only catapult 3 pellets at a time over the pole line, MAXIMUM!! but after half an hour i actually had fish swirling on it so i put my shallow rig on and hooked a fish straight away! Brilliant, my first laugherne shallow fish! 10 minutes alter i had a second shallow fish but it was very slow.

Mr Brain then went potty again and i over did it with the catty and lost the shallow fish and created the jacuzzi again! IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The middle of the match was spent losing fish to the tune of at least 15, both to foulhookers and a rubbish elastic set up (must remember to hoard any original slip i can get). There were definately plenty of fish at 14.5m but the feeding wasn't right and they were all over the place. and i really didnt need to go to 14.5m. 11m would have been plenty and a lot easier to be more accurate with the catty.

All the time i was feeding my margin with small handfulls of pellet and eventually with 90 minutes to go I finally got some signs in the form of tail petterns! The margin rig was sent out and the fish disappeared from the left hand line. So i tried the right hand line and they disappeared from there but the left line came to life again! So started more fun and games. Neil Macinnon after the match said the margin fish were unbelievably finicky! In the end i lost 1 foulhooked fish in the margin and that was it!

So totally disheartened i spent the last 45 minutes on the method for another run of 5-6 fish.

At the wegh in I only managed 59lb for easily my worst weight at Cobb House by a country mile. My mate John Watson of Total Coarse Fishing fame, fished an absolute blinder to win with 187lb and found some proper lumps down the margin. Neil Macinnon was second with 147lb and 2 more tons got 3rd and 4th. overall the venue fished really well as usual.

In hindsight my brain switched off and i didnt put any thought into what i was doing and i was still in summer mode, banging the feed in trying to force the peg into a winning position. Next time i'll get my winter head on and try to build the peg a lot more carefully. I think the catapult will go away and the cad pots come out to play! Or at least limit the catapult to 2-3 pellets at a time.

Sunday

Sunday morning was started with a nice suprise as the Mrs felt like she wanted to do a load of stuff for work and i could please my self, so after the Sunday big shop at Tesco's (after a wicked Tesco breakfast). I got my gear together and headed to Cob House again for a relaxed no pressure pleasure session.

I decided to fish the waggler on Oak pool as it was empty and didnt really want to fish the long pole. I did set the pole up to fish a lovely margin line at 9 metres but that was it. armed with 2 pints of 6mm and 2 pints of 4mm i had a lovely few hours chucking a little 2.5AA wag to 25 metres in 4ft of water sprinkling 6mm pellets around it and catching a few carp to 4lb. it wasnt hectic by any means but thoroughly enjoyable. I then finished the afternoon off with an hour in the margin catching carp to 6lb.

I came home nicely relaxed and happy again following saturdays nightmare!!!!

No fishing next weekend as i'm off to the races on Saturday with the father-in-law and taking the grandparents to see my moms canal barge on Sunday down in Reading!

My Floats

Well this weekend was the fishingless for me - my car died on Tuesday, and is going to cost a fortune and i wasnt feeling in the best of fishing moods!!

I did manage a quick walk around cob house to watch on old friend catch a fish a chuck on Wyatts and win his club match with 114lb. BUT - i also found out while i was there my venue record had been smashed the previous day with 250lb odd, so was a bit gutted, but its spurred me on to have a really good go this weekend!!!
Anyway as promised i thought i'd show you my own home made pole floats.

In the last couple of years i've been getting more and more disheartened with shop bought pole floats, having so many patterns in my box, and getting through them when they break so easily, so i thought i'd get some bits together and have a go at my own floats.

I started by just getting enough stuff to made about 10-20 floats just to see how hard it really is. i used one of our small Schaublin lathes at work to turn and drill out the dowel into a simple shape then experimented with finishes to get the float smooth and looking right and also hard enough to be durable and also get tip and stem lengths proportioned right to get the floats behaving properly.

I then used our CAD machines to 3D model the floats, enter the material properties - density bouyancy etc, to give me a dimensional drawing for the various shotting capacities i wanted - NOT REALLY, i just played about until i got something that 'looked' right!!!!!!!!!!!!

When i was happy i then bought some more materials and set about stocking my box with floats that i wanted to suit the various situations that i find myself in. So far i've got 3 patterns.

First of all we have the SP1 - This is a simple pencil type float.

I've used a 1.5mm hollow bristle with a 1mm carbon stem and a spring eye on the tip. The floats range from 0.1-0.5g although i havent worked out exactly what each float takes. The tips are delightful and you can easily adjust the amount of tip showing with no.11 stotts. I used one of these floats to set the (now old) venue record at Cob house with 207lb, using the second smallest on 3ft of water and the smallest in 1ft of water. i also managed 116lb using the second biggest float in 6ft of water.

This is now my nuber 1 pellet float in reasonable conditions for small and big fish. i will be using it come summer or winter and totally love it.

Then there is the SP3, a proper rugid margin float

This float uses a 2mm hollow bristle, with a 1.5mm glass stem. The smaller floats takes just a few no.11 stotts and the bigger takes 5-6 no.10 stotts. The thickness of the tip allows it to be dotted to a pimple and the few i've made for friends have been used very effectively in combination with a corn hookbait. I've been using them with pellet in the margin and been giving them a right old beasting with excellent results. The only issues i've had is the spring eye distorting, but the floats have all remained in tact when tput through reeds, pandox and all sorts of branches. I think the 3 sealing and sanding cycles and 3 coats of varnish help with that.

Finally (so far) we have the SP5. A simple dibber

This uses the same diameter dowel as the margin floats but i've turned the tip down to a reasonable diameter and put a rad on the bottom, them glued a 1.5mm glass stem in the base.

They pretty much self cock and could be used with 1 number 10 as a shallow float with plenty of bristle showing, or i've been using them in the margin with corn with 5 or 6 number 10's down the line in a bulk. i havent put any form of eye on these and use silison on the stem and body (stick floats style) to keep them in position. nothing to rip out then!!

All of the floats have the tip glued into the stem for supreme strength and as mentioned have been sanded and sealed 3 times with 3 coats of varnish over the top. So far i only mangled 1 or 2 spring eyes, with the floats themselves still in perfect condition.

I'm now planning to knock up some rounder, thicker bodies floats for when the weather deteriorates and a bristled float for shallow work.

I love making these floats and its brilliant if you manage to get a result using them. my friday afternoons and lunchtimes are now spent sat at a lathe making the bodies and doing all the smoothing and sanding, with all the glueing and varnishing done at home!!

I'll hopoefully never be without the right float for the job again!

Cob House Fisheries Open, 12-09-09

Right, first of all a llittle introduction to Cob House.
I've only discovered the place a couple of months ago whilst searching for somewhere to fish local to my Worcester home. I first replied to a thread advertising a pairs match down there which turned into a normal open in the end. After that outing is was hooked on the place. i weighed 113lb, which was made up over 150 fish. a very very busy day and £30 quid in my sky rocket!

The venue is (or was) primarily a fish farm where all species of fish are bred, but mostly true carp including some beautiful crucians. By the way if you do ever visit, do not mention or ask about F1's as its a dirty word down there. Phil, the fishery manager, only deals in true breeds of carp and does a very good range of ornamental kio's in all sorts of colours.
The fishery is still in quite a raw state, with the match pools still quite bare. when they have developed like the victorian pools used for pleasure anglers, it will be a stunning place to be. There are 4 main match pools, Wyatts, Laugherne Island, Oaks and Laurel pools.
Wyatts pool is where ive managed to set the venue record with 207lb 14oz and is stuffed with small carp from 6oz to 1lb 8oz and a few bigger specimens mixed in. Laurels is much the same as Wyatts but has a decent stocking of silvers mixed in with the carp. Oak has bigger carp and Laugherne Island (my favourite) is stocked predominantly with carp in the 4-6lb bracket, with specimens to double figures. there is also a good number of skimmers in there too. In six visits my worst weight there is 113lb, so its pretty consistent!
Any way, back to Saturday. Unfortunately numbers have dwindled recently and only 5 were booked on for the match (this is something i dont understand as its a fantastic place, excellent weights and a brilliantly run fishery, but Phil is working hard trawling the net spreading the good word, although the match results speak for themselves).

With only 5 of us we had a little rover and could pick our pegs along the far bank of Laugherne Island pool. I draw number 4 but wasnt worried as we had 20 pegs to pick from!
I setteld on peg 8














As you can see i had a nice gap in the island to chuck a method to, and plenty of water to plumb a couple of pole lines in and 2 nice margin to my left and right. one thing i have noticed is that the pegs have deep spots directly in front of them to accomodate nets so thats always a prime area.
So tackling up i set the following gear up -
- maver powerlite feeder @ 11ft, 6lb mainline, small method, 0.20 hooklength to a size 14 QM1
- maver powerlite match 1 @ 11ft with a 6gr middy popper waggler, 0.18 hooklength to a 14 mustad meat hook with hair rigged quick stop.
On the pole: -














From top to bottom -
1. Preston tyson for shallow, 0.18 direct to a 16 B911
2. Home made margin small, 0.20 direct to a 14 B911
3. Home made pencil No.3, 0.18 to 0.16 to a 16 B911
4. Home made margin big, 0.18 to 0.18 to a 16 B911

I will be doing a little write up of my own floats very soon.

Rig 2 was plumbed in front of the next pallet to the right, and set so i could fish on, touching or off bottom on the nearside slope in 18 inches of water. i wanted signs of fish to be present before i started fishing this line, and 18 inches of water would make that happen.
Rig 3 was plumbed at 13 metres in front of me (well at about '1 o'clock' as i never like to reel in floats or feeders over my pole lines) in 5-6ft of water. this was set at dead depth with a spread bulk and a couple of droppers.
Rig 4 was plumbed at 4 section in front of me just at the bottom of the nearside slope. i didnt intend to feed this line from the off, only bringing it into play if i was struggling on my other lines.
Bait fo the day was 5 pints of 4mm feeders, 3 pints of 2mm feeders, 1 kilo of GB and a good couple of handfuls of 6mm expanders for the hook.
i was ready in good time and looking forward to the whistle. so 2 minutes before the off i got my method loaded up with an expander on the hair and GB moulded with a preston method mould. a quick note, as you have to use inline methods at cob house i bought some korum quick change beads to try, in the normal size. as i was getting my clip sorted (you have to chuck very tight to the island) i put the method in the bush on the island. i didnt mind as i could get my clip absolutely spot on. when pulling to free the feeder (i left the hooklength on) something broke and i lost the lot! on investigation the quick change bead had broken before my line had gone! this worried me big style so i didnt use one when i re-rigged up and used a swivel instead! i dont think i'll be using them again!
So on the whistle i put a small preston pot full of 4mm's (didnt use a big one as the night time temperatures have been around 4-5 degrees and didnt want to over do it) on my 13 metre line, a small pot full of 2mms over my margin line and cast the method out tight to the island.
I didnt take long to get indications and my first 5 chucks resulted in 5 fish hooked but only 2 in the net! this seriously knocked my confidence in the QM hooks, so much so i changed it for a drennan carp feeder barbless. with these lost fish bolting my method line really slowed, so i moved to the pole after 45 mins.
i'd been catapulting 20-30 pellets over this line very regularly and the line was showing lots of signs with plenty of bubbles. first drop the float settled lovely to about 10mm showing then dipped under after a few seconds and a 3lb carp was lifted into! i was really pleased! i managed another 10 fish over the next half hour from 2-8lb a piece. it then started to go really finicky with lots of missed bites. i'd unconsciously upped the feed and was catapulting pellets all the time which, i think, brought the skimmers in. the fish on Laugherne just dont seem to feed shallow for some reason!! so i put another full pot over the line and popped back on the method for another couple of fish and made sure i properly regulated the amount i was feeding. i didnt use a pole mounted pot today as i didnt want these relatively big fish fedding in a small area so i spread the feed a bit with the catapult.
i did lose a few fish over the day to broken hooklengths, which in my mind broke way to easily. my box did get a thorough drenching a few weeks ago after 5 hours of constant rain and i didnt dry my lines properly so i can only think they have have deterioriated and lost some strength. tackle shop trip for me!
the middle couple of hours were spent swapping between the pole and method putting some good fish in the net. i had been regularly topping my margin line up with 2mm feed and with 90 minutes to go a started getting signs in the shallow water.
This signalled the start of a very poor ending to the match. i manged to completely do my own head in chasing fish all along my margin. Starting on my plumbed margin swim i caught some proper fish to 8lb but realised if i stayed on it i'd ruin it so started dropping some pellets in a couple of metres down the bank. within minutes fish tunred up on this line and slightly further on then to my left where some bait had fallen in. I was surrounded!!!!!!!, but for some reason i decided to chase all the swirls with my rig and never let it settle properly to wait for a bite!! what a loser!!!!
i did catch a few in the last half hour after a few words with myself but the damage was done. I was playing a fish on the final whistle which is always nice!!
i managed to weigh in 116lb, which was more than i thought as i'd caught so sporadically, and that got me 3rd, but i was done for second with 125lb. 200lb 3oz won, which is way to close to my record for comfort!!
In hindsight i should have easily managed second and got a lot closer to the winner. i should have totally ignored the island and fished 2 pole lines out and rotated them to keep them going, but the island looks so inviting. the pole should be my primary line with the method backing it up if desperate. there is a killer hookbait for the method line as pellet takes to long, but i havent found it yet. and i need to sort my head out with my margin fishing as i easily wasted half of those last 90 minutes chasing swirls!!!!
Anyway it was a lovely day, lots of bites and action and barely a cloud in the sky!!!! theres a cob house winter league to look forward to, teams of 4 with a £1000 payout for the winners, so bring it on!

My new Blog

This is my first attempt at blogging, so i will kicking my page off with a match fished last sunday at Packington Somers on Molands Mere Pools. This match was round of The Solihull Angling teams of 3 Summer league, with the team consiting of me, my old mate mark Franklin and guesting this week for us was non other than super star Pete Bailey
This was my first outing since getting married and getting back off the honeymoon, so a fair bit of prep had to be put in on my kit and elastics were changed, new rigs were made and plenty of bait was prepared.
This is my second visit to the venue and i won the round last year in the same league with 21lb of skimmers on the feeder to the far bank and a number of talks with Pete had confirmed that same sort of tactics would be needed for this years match.
On match day Pete kindly offered to drive us to Packington and we arrived in plenty of time, enough time in fact to have a sandwich and a leasurly walk around the pool. Plenty of carp were showing on the far banks around the islands, with only a few smaller fish topping.
At the draw i picked an envelope and lets the lads pick the peg numbers out the envelope. Mark had permanent peg 17, Pete had 6 and I got 52.
Last year i won off peg 48 so was confident i was in a decent area. On arriving at the peg i set up the following gear: -

-Maver Powerlite feeder system @ 11ft, No.3 tip, 6lb senor, medium drennan cage, 18" of 0.16 to a 16 B911.
-Maver Powerlite feeder system @ 11ft, No.4 tip, 6lb sensor, small method feeder, 3" of 0.20 to a 14 QM1
- 3 top fours off my Maver 401
- Rig 1 - 4x18 DC11, bulk of No.8's with 2 no.11 droppers, 0.14 mainline, 0.12 hooklength to a 16 B611
- Rig 2 - 0.4 homemade pencil float, well spread bulk of no.9 stotts and 2 no.11 droppers, 0.14 mainline, 0.10 hooklength to a 18 B611.
- Rig 3 - 0.5 PB23, bulk of 8's with no.10 droppers, 0.14 mainline, 0.14 hooklength to 16 B911.

The 2 feeder rods were cast and clipped up about a metre off the far bank, where there was a good 3ft of water. It went down to 18" tight ot the island.
Rigs 1 and 2 were plumbed up at 13 metres where there was at least 9ft of water. Rig 1 was set 2" on the deck, and rig 2 set dead depth.
Rig 3 was plumbed at 5 sections were the inside shelf just started to drop off down to the middle of the pool.
Bait for the day was 1/2 kilo of worm, 2 pints of casters, 1/2 pints of dead red maggots, 1/2 pint of dead red pinkies, some micro and 4mm pellets, some 4 and 6mm expander pellets pumped for the hook, a kilo of Super G green and a kilo of Voodoo mixed for the feeder and method.
The day didnt start massively well for me. i got my box sorted but managed to walk off the side of the platform and give my left foot a right good dunking which stayed soggy all day. i then realised i'd left my landing nets in Petes car with my stink bag as you have to use the fishery nets. these 2 factors meant i was struggling for time and only just got myself ready for the start (but my side tray would need organising after the whistle).
I dont know if anyone else is the same but my head really goes if i'm not ready for the whistle and can't cast a line or at least feed something when the whistle goes.
Anyway when the whistle did go, 5 feederfulls were deposited on the feeder line with the feeder packed with worm and caster, 3 big balls were cupped in on the pole line with a sprinkling of caster, then half a pot of neat worm and caster over the balls. i then hand fed some pellet and castor over the 5 section line.
I was going to start on the feeder and first chuck gave a suprise slight wobble on the tip and skimmer number 1 @ 6oz was in the net after 5 minutes. this was a much better start than anticipated so i was chuffed to get off the mark. next cast resulted in another bite and another skimmer of roughly the same size.
The first hour (by far the best hour of the match) went brilliantly with 4 skimmers, 2 crucians and 2.5lb tench in the net. I was flying.
But things slowed down and the next 4 hours was where the hard work came in and bites had to be worked for.
The feeder slowed just after the first hour and i noticed my pole line was fizzing nicely so i had to try it. rig 1 was baited up with a nice chunk of worm and despatched out on the line. things werent quite right on this line though, i had a few tentative touchs and finally latched into a decent bite that resulted in a small crucian. out again but i couldnt get another decent bite on that line and used 20 minutes trying. this line was topped up with a handfull of worm and caster and the feeder line was tried again. but same as the pole i could only get 1 or 2 fish on this line too. the pole line was regularly topped up with neat worm and caster only, no more groundbait as Pete advised they didnt like groundbait over there heads.
So i stuck to a pettern of catch a fish or 2 and swap lines to at least keep something going in the net.
I did have a run of 3 decent skimmers at just over pound a piece on the feeder after about 3 hours, but had to resort to swapping lines for the remainder of the match.
The feeder line definately died with 45 mins to go, so i spent the last part on the pole line and actually managed to get 3 crucians in that time and a skimmer on the whistle.
Its always nice to be landing a fish when the final whistle goes!!!!!
Overall i was fairly happy with the match, although i didnt know it at the time a couple of lost fish on the feeder and pole would cost me points in a fairly tight section. i ended up with around 25 fish with the tench being by far the biggest in the bag.
Only 20 minutes after the final whistle a very frustrated Pete was already behind me, fully packed up and waiting to go!!! on investigation it turned out he'd had a mare and lost 8 carp to the nearside lillys, but got 2 carp and some bits in the net. he left the net to be wieghed in by someone else such was his frustration!!!
When the scales arrived round to my peg, Pete learned he'd actually weighed 17lb and secured 3rd in his section!! his misery started to lift and he seemed a lot happier with himself. for him its one of those days to leave behind and not worry about. i'm positive it wont affect him at all!
we also learned that mark had won his section with a pole caught 21lb. i thought i'd got 11-12lb and 9 and 18lb had already been wieghed in my secton. my net pulled the needle round to 16lb 3oz, and i was pleasantly suprised. no more wieghts followed until the penultimate peg who put 19lb on the scales to push me to third. I'm sure the 2 fish i lost were worth the points for a section win.
In hindsight it didnt matter as we won on the day as a team by a clear 4 points and (eventually) took £30 home each for our efforts.
On reflection i fished a decent match, but lost fish cost me the section. i felt the pole was worth more fish as it was fizzing nicely for most of the match but i could only muster minimal bites from it. i fished rig 1 from 6" over to dead depth with worm, caster and maggot but couldn't improve things and i was more than happy with the presentation. Rig 2 was even worse than rig 1. i didnt try my 5 section line at all, and in fact stopped feeding it after 1.5hrs as i was getting through my casters quickly between the pole and feeder and didnt want ot run out. another pint of caster in my bag would have been very handy!!!!
Packington is a lovely venue and one i'd like to fish more but its a bit of a jaunt from home.
One final note, the fishery staff weigh you in at your peg and toally handle the weighing in process. They tip the fish into the weigh sling over the water with the sling in the water then lift it out to registe the weight. But water is constantly draining out of the sling when they call the weight!!!!! i cant see how this is any way accurate! but i suppose they do the same for everyone!
Anyway, Cobb House fishery this Saturday, my local, so hopefully i should have some excellent news and pictures next week!!!!!