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!
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