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!
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