Cob House Pairs Match 22-11-09

With the winter league not happening over the winter the dates are being used to hold opens in various guises. this week it was to be a pairs match, with one person on Laugherne (me) and the partner to be on Wyatts (my mate John Watson).

The weather agian leading up to this match had been shocking with lots of rain and high winds. Pete Bailey must have half enjoyed his last visit to Cob as he asked if we could find him a partner he'd come and have a go!

I also managed to persuade Pete out for a few beers Saturday at the German market in Birmingham and a good day was had with a fair few beers drunk by us and and fair few Gluehvien's drunk by the girls!

A bit of a bad head got Sunday morning started but sausages sandwichs when Pete came to pick me up soon perked us up and we arrived at Cob House in good time for the draw and a little walk round laugherne to see what activity there was. and there was plenty with fish crashing pretty much all around the pool. we were both pretty confident of a good day, but with the weather forcast to deteriorate over the day we both new we had get as much action in early as we could.

With John running the match and me helping we had a draw bag each and got the draw underway in good time. John managed to draw the peg which had won the previous days open on Wyatts and i drew peg 10. Although peg 10 is not noted for anything, its in the middle of the left hand bank with the island infront of it. with out sounding to cocky i absolutely love Laugherne and i'm totally confident no matter what peg i draw.

the wind wasnt to bad when i got to my peg and i was happy to stick to my main line of attack which would be at 16m in front of me, just where the island shelf starts, a margin line where i can find 3-4ft of water and the island attacked with a rod and line.

Pete managed to draw directly opposite me and the island must be slightly closer as when he was plumbing up he was using rigs at 4ft deep at 16m when i had 5.5-6ft at 16m.

Tackle for the day: -

RODS

- 11ft Maver Powerlite Feeder System @11ft, TD-R 3012 with 6lb sensor to drennan carp feeder and 0.16 hooklength, size 15 B711

-11ft Maver Powerlite Feeder Ssytem @11ft, TD-R 3012 with 6lb sensor to micro drennan cage feeder, 0.18 hooklength and knotless knotted 18 drennan carp feeder with a quick stop

-12ft Daiwa SR3 match rod with a 3AA insert wag, 0.16 hooklength and knotless knotted 16 b911 with a pellet band.

the feeder rods were clipped 1m off the island and the waggler rig plumbed in the same spot. this is the first occasion i have plumbed to the island with a waggler and was suprised how far the sheld came out. it came a good 2-3m out and gave plenty of room to cast the waggler and sink the line before it got pulled off the shelf.

POLE

Rig 1 - 1g fat pencil with 2mm tip, 0.15 powersilk mainline to 0.14 powersilk hooklngth and 16 B911

Rig 2 - 0.5g Slim pencil with 2mm tip, 0.15 power silk mainline to 0.12 powersilk hooklength and 18 B911

these were both plumbed at 16m in front of me with the heavy rig 3" overdepth for when the wind got up and rig 2 just touching for when conditions were reasonably calm and good presentation could be achieved.

Rig3 - Preston PB float set at 3ft for fishing up in water if conditions allowed (with carp crashing all day i had to set one up)

Rig4 - 0.2g fat pencil with 2mm tip for the margin in 4ft of water 9m to my right just down the inside shelf.

Bait for the day was simple with 2 pints of softened micros, 2 pints of hard 6mm's, 1 tin of corn, 1 pint of reds with lots of maize and red atomic, and some 4 and 6mm expanders.

On the whistle i cupped in 1/4 of a small preston pot of mircos with a scattering of expanders and corn on my 16m line, the same on my margin line and catapulted some 6mm's to the island ready to prime the waggler/feeder line.

with the weather at this point very manageable i went straight onto the pole line get as much in the net as possible. after 2 minutes of lifting and dropping the float dipped and fish number 1 was on. at around 1.5lb it was small for Laugherne but a great start and proved to me my choice of pole line is totally correct. (i have to blow my own trumpet at this point and say i'm really pleased with the performance of my floats. they shot up really nicely, are very sensitive as the profile is nice and slim, but they are really stable considering the conditions i've used them in)

the next 3 chucks produced fish, but they were all of a smaller stamp than i'm used too for laugherne. but it was fish in the net.

Pete managed his first fish when i lifted into my third and he was off the mark. but no ne else on the pool was doing much with people fishing the pole short because of the conditions or chucking to the island.

NOTE - i managed to get hold of some middy hi-viz latex to try and put the 6-8 in 3 top kits in stead of my usual slip number 6 on some recommendations and i have to say its really nice. As smooth if not smoother flowing than the slip and Hi-viz colours really do stand out. the 6-8 although a little soft for the stamp of fish in Laugherne gave me total confidence to ship back from 16m and not risk yanking the hook out of the fish all of a suddne went on a run. I will be getting the 8-10 stuff to finish off the rest of my kits.

the long swim would slow off every so often so i would rest it with a 1/4 cup of feed and try some of my other lines. i manged to keep a steady flow of fish coming ot the net for the firs thalfof the match and felt i was leading the pool but Pete was also putting fish in the net and wasnt too far behind. i was catching all my fish on a 4mm expander and couldnt get a bite on a 6mm.

During the rest periods i did manage to get i small 12oz fish off the island on the wag and a better 6lb fish from the margin but apart from those all my fish came from the 16m line. the weather did deteriotate during the second half of the match and i had to spend a bit of time on the tip to the island because the pole was unmanageable, and we had a horrible rain/hail storm for 10 minutes which i just hunkered down from with the tip to the island fishing itself.

the 3 and 4th hour were very quiet and i think i lost some focus as i spent too much time flitting between lines not catching fish when a dedicated approach to making a specific line work would have been better.

But a break in the weather in the last hour meant i managed to put a few last fish in the net from the long pole line and boost my weight by a good 10lb's. Pete had had a good last hour catching some better fish from the margin including playing a fish on the whistle, which is always pleasing.

I knew i had done very well and thought it would be close between me and Pete for the pool win. i just now hoped John has done the business on Wyatts.

My nets went to 60lb exactly which i fell any other day should have been worth 80-90lb but i'd managed to find a smaller stamp of fish. Pete won the pool with a cracking 80lb weight. he had probably 10 less fish than me but the proper fish down the margin had really bumped him up. i got second with 44lb third. i found out he'd used corn on the hook in the margin and i hadnt tried it. must remember to remove those blinkers and put some variation into my hookbaits!

wyatts had fished hard considering its potential and the wind had much more of an effect on this pool. 89lb won the pool with John coming 5th. Pete's partner had managed 4th so we were already 2 points behing them.

We finished 4th overall with pete and Co winning the day and putting £140 away between them , a great and well earned result. me and jonh had £50 between us, but i think everyone agreed it was a great days fishing with everyone getting bites and fish.

Silvers matchthis week, come back to see how i get on!!

Cob House Fisheries - 15/11/09

Well another session at my favourite Cob house was on the cards this week, specifically on Laugherne Island!

The weather leading up to this match was shocking, very wet and extremely windy but still holding quite mild considering the time of year!

my preperations for this match revolved around ensuring i had rod and line coverage if the pole was not going to be an option on the day, although the pole was definately ready and waiting!

A top Suasage and Bacon sandwich was consumed on my way over and i arrived in plenty of time to get some pellets and get my shuttle loaded and pool side.

QUICK NOTE - Mrs P treated me a Preston Shuttle and i have to say (after only the second time of using it) i dont know how i managed to get around without one previously. i had a fox trolley which when loaded properly was ok, but the shuttle blows it away and i now no longer need to carry anything on my shoulders!

With only 5 anglers braving the conditions today the right hand bank of Laugherne was used with the wind off our backs as best as possible, and i managed to pull out peg 37 out of the bag. this was end peg with the corner of the pool 18-19 meters away to my left.

The wind was pretty much coming straight across the water right to left but the corner to my left was looking quite calm and with the angler in this area last week caught in the margin, so i was quite confident of catching towards the corner.

Tackle for the day consisted of: -

RODS

Maver Powerlite feeder system @ 11ft, 3012 TD-R, 6lb sensor, with a drennan carp feeder (maggot) to 0.16 and a 15 B711, clipped 1m off the island.

Maver powerlite feeder system @ 11ft, 3012 TD-R, 6lb sensor with micro drennan cage feeder to 0.18 and a knotless knotted 16 B911 clipped at 16m over my long pole line.

Daiwa SR3 12 match rod, TD-R 2508, 0.18 genesis, 3AAA maver waggler, 0.16 hooklength with a pellet band on 16 B911 for 1m off the island.

POLE

Rig 1- Heavy pellet rig, 0.9g fat pencil with 2mm tip, 0.18 mainline to 0.15 Ultima Power Silk hooklength and a 16 B911. plumbed up at 16m where the island slope just startes to kick in.

Rig 2 - Light pellet rig, 0.5g slim pencil with 2mm tip, 0.15 power silk mainline, to 0.14 power silk hooklength, size 18 G-Point Pellet plumed the same as rig 1.

Rig 3 - Margin rig, 0.2 fat pencil with 2mm tip, 0.18 mainline to 0.16 hooklength and a size 16 B911, plumbed at 16m to my left up the margin in 3ft of water.

Rig 4 - Margin Rig as above but plumbed at 11m to my right to marginal reeds but found 4ft of water on this line. (this was set up 2 hours after the whistle)

the bait table for the day was very simple. 2 pints of softened micros for feed, 1 pint of reds and white maggots and some 4 and 6mm expanders.

It may seem crazy plumbing the pole line so far out considering the conditions but experience over the last few weeks has told me thats were the fish are and i could always chuck my little cage feeder over the line if it was really bad.

On the whistle i potted a 1/4 small preston cup of pellets with a few expanders mixed in on my long out line and long margin line then chucked the maggot feeder just off the island. i gave the maggot feeder 20 minutes with regular chucks but only managed a few liners with no positive pull rounds.

with nothing positive happening and a few fish coming out down the bank i needed to try some thing so out went the pole in front of me and i could hold it pretty well in the very strong wind, but the water was towing quicker than the Severn and after 5 minutes i knew it wasnt going to happen (yet, i'm always hopefull!)

My next port of call was the long margin to my left and shipping out the wind was still blustery in the corner but i was happy with the presentation. with a small CAD pot attached with a few micros potted in and a 4mm expander on the hook, the float went under after a minute and carp munber 1 was on and in the net afer 2 minutes. Again double number 8 slip is doing the business for me and keeping all my carp from 2lb to 8-9lb perfectly under control.

Catching on this line early put a smile on my face and i managed to put another 4 fish on the net over the next half an hour. i really didnt want to ruin this line and wanted to make it last all match. so another 1/4 pot of pellets went out on this line and my maggot feeder was sent ot the island. second cast on this session and the tip dropped back and a 3lb carp was quickly netted

ANOTHER QUICK NOTE - i've been looking for a good maggot hook for maggot feeder work as i feel the B611, although a perfect shape, is just a tad under gunned, so someone on Matchfishing-scene.co.uk recommended the B711 so i gave them a try. well they handled this carp with ease so so far i'm very happy!!!

With no more wraps in the next 15 minutes i felt the margin had had time to settle so i gave it another try and another 4 fish in 1/2 an hour kept me settled and i felt i was now doing well in the match. at this point with the margin working well i felt the margin to my right looked inviting and stood a chance of holding fish so rig number 4 was set-up , plumbed and fed with a 1/4 pot of pellets.

the magority of the match followed a cycle of catching 2, 3 or 4 fish from the long margin then a rest and where i'd try elsewhere to catch some thing else while the corner settled. incidently i only managed 1 foulhooked fish from the newer margin line. the hour brough a settled period in the weather and the long pole line looked quite calm so i potted some more bait in and had another session in the margin for another couple of fish.

With 45 minutes to go i gave the long out pole line a try and the tow had disappeared and the light pellet rig held nicely and actually went under and a fish was landed. i'd got double 6 on this rig as i wanted some security if the fish ran whilst shipping back from such a distance and breaking down twice that the fish could go quite easily with out pulling the hook out before i realised anything was happening.

Going into the last 15 minutes i'd 2 more touches on the out line so wanted sneak a last couple of fish out on the margin line! at this point Phil, the fishery manager turned up on the quad and parked about 20 metres away from the corner and i could only manage 1 more fish before the whistle went and the match was over.
I still felt confident and was happy i'd made the most of my peg. the scales confirmed i'd put 76lb 10oz in the nets with 57lb next weight i'd earned a vistory. i say earned because i spent 4 out of the 5 hours fishing 16m down the margin which was pretty hard work as it pretty blustery down in the corner.
I'm not sure i'd do anything different if i re-ran the match i's done enough to win and i only lost 2 fish. i could have tried the long out line earlier which may have put 2 or 3 more fish in the net, but i didnt need them.

Cob house again this Sunday with a pairsmatch to replace what would have been the second round of the winter league. See you all soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cob House Fisheries Open, 08-11-09

Well this was supposed to be the first round of the teams of 4 winter league but unfortunatley due to a lack of teams the league was cancelled and dates used for opens instead.

With Laugherne island (my favourite) the venue for the day, is was hoping for a good match and nice day after the Blythe disaster! as it was a Sunday and the sandwich lady wouldnt be on the Powick Island so i made myself 4 thick slices of egg bread from a fresh crusty loaf and they went down beautifuly! althoug the aroma got Mrs P out of bed and she nicked a slice! but i was ready to begin the day!

On my way to the venue and at the cash point i came a across a 'lost' Pete Bailey who'd returned early from an unsuccessfull foray at Stafford moor so after some persuation he decided to join us and boost numbers to 11 on the day!

it started off, weather wise as a very reasonable morning but over the day conditions were all voer the place with sporadic wind rain and cloud cover! i managed to draw end peg 3 on the far bank with the end of the island slightly to my left.

Tackle for the day was: -

Rods

Maver powerlite feeder @11ft, TD-R3012 to a small drennan carp maggot feeder, 0.16 hooklength to 16 B911

Maver Powerlite feeder @11ft, TD-R 3012 to a small preston in line method, 0.20 hooklength to 16 knotless knotted B911

Pole

Rig 1 - Light rig, 0.14 Power silk mainline to 0.12 power silk hooklength with an 18 G-Point Pellet. float is one of my onw fine patterns featuring a 1mm hollow tip, 0.8 carbon stem. Shot were spread over the last 3rd of the rig. Double 6 latex

Rig 2 - Pellet Rig, 0.18 Genesis mainline to 0.14 powersilk hooklength with an 16 B911. Float is a slim pencil with 1.5mm tip. spread bulk with 2 No.10 droppers. Double 8 latex

Rig 3 - Shallow Rig - 0.15 powersilk direct to 16 B911 with a preston PB2 (i think) set at 3ft deep. Double 6 latex

Rig 4 - margin Rig - 0.18 genesis, 0.18 hooklength with a fat pencil with 2mm tip. spread bulk 12" from the hook. Double 8 Latex

I plumbed 2 lines at 13m, one for pellet alone and one for pellet and maggot if it was real struggle. i plumbed 7m down the bank and found a nice plataeu with 2.5ft of water.

Bait for the day was 2 pints of red and white maggots (with loads of maize and red atomic cloud), 3mm/4mm softened fed pellets, 1 tin of corn and some 4mm and 6mm expanders.

On the whistle i fed a large CAD pots worth of micros on the left hand 13m line and the same of micros and maggots on the right hand 13m line. i then filled the maggot feeder and chucked it 1m off the island into slightly deeper water than tight over.

A few quick chucks in the first 20 minutes got a few signss but no wraps so a quick look o nthe pole was needed. second drop and a bite was met with resistance and carp number 1 was on and in the net in no time and at 4lb was a nice start. 15 minutes later with no more bites it was back on the feeder.

i was very hopeful of fish off the island and wanted to keep it topped up regularly so was happy to leav ethe pole line to improve. second chuck o nthe tip resulted in a positive pull and carp number 2 on its way over. this stint on the tip resulted in 3 fish with 1 proper fish of 8lb and 2 small fish for 1lb total!

I kept a pattern going over the middle stint of the match and didnt spent more than 30 minutes on any one line. i could get 1 maybe 2 fish off the tip line before it went quiet but didnt manage another fish or bite off either the 13m pole line or margins. i fouled one fish shallow at 13 m when i started flicking a few micros out but that was the only indication.

With 2 hours to go i decided a change was needed and got all my extnesions out and plumbed a new line at 16m in front of me and fed it with a handfull of micros and a few expander samples. i left this for 20 minutes to settle and had a biteless spell on the tip.

With my pellet rig on set 1" overdepth and a positive shotting pattern i shipped out to 16m and waited. i half filled a the smallest CAD pot and kept a sprinkling of bait going in. After 1 minute there were a few signs and then it dipped and fish on! i managed to put 4 fish in the net before it went iffy. i topped it up with some more pellets and tried the tip agian for 1 6oz carp.

Going into the last hour i had a run of 3 fish lost on the 16m pole line and came back with 2 big scales, but i kept my head together and kept plugging away and ended up with 12 proper carp and 5 bits with 75% of my fish coming from the 16m pole line. the sun was becoming a problem as it was straight in front of me, but it actually highlighted the dimple my dotted down float was making on the waters surface. when the dimple disappeared i lifted!

At the weigh in i put 48lb 12 on the scales and was happy with that although i knew it wouldnt get me far as 3 people on the other side of the pool and a guy 2 down had caught more than me so i knew i wasnt in for any envelopes. but i really enjoyed it as i like this time of year when effort and hard work are paid of with bites and fish.

Next time i will be starting at 16m and feed a couple of lines nad rotate them to keep fish coming all day as the bottom gently starts to slope up to the island there. i've also made some more floats to suit long long pole fishing a bit better and have made some slim pencils with a very long stem for stability and thick 2mm tip for visibility at range!

I hope they work as i'm going to laugherne again this Saturday to try them out!

Come back again and see how i get on!!!

Manor Farm/Blythe

This is a bit of catchup so will keep this extract short and sweet.

Manor Farm 24-10-09



I managed to get myself on a club Match with Matchbox A.C. to be fished at manor Farm Fisheries in Harvington. this is a great place with plenty of water and fish although its seems to have had a harder year this year but i suppose its justone of those things.


The match was supposed to be on Ash pool, but with the numbers that turned up it was split onto Ash and Windmill. Now Windmill is my favourite at Manor (as i like winter fishing) as its got nice deep water and plenty of features to islands and margins.


I managed to draw windmill pool and cracking a peg in the form of peg 24. this is behind the second island away from the cafe


Bait for the day was micros and 4mm pellets, softened for feed with 4&6mm expanders for the hook and 1/2 pint of red maggots if it got hard.

I set up rigs for the front of the island 1 meter off, front of the island tight (using my own fat pencils with 2mm tips) round the side of the island tight (slim pencil with 1.5mm tip), a shallow rig and a margin rig(fat pencil with 2mm tip). the front island rigs and margin rig used double 8 latex, with the shallow and side island rigs connected to double 6 latex. I'm still completely sold on double latex for pretty much all my commercial work! even with big proper fish i'm completely in control and i believe this is down to using half lengths of elastic rather than a full top kits worth!!!

A quick note on the float front. iIve now made a good few different patterns with variations on a theme so i've scrapped my SP numbering system for now and will review it when i've stoppped playing about!!! i will re-do my blog with the new floats soon!!

On the whistle i CAD potted some micros to the front 'off the island' line and 'round the side' island line and kicked off to the front of the island. Now i've never been very confident fishing on a slope but i just couldnt find any flat spots anywhere near the island in a decent depth (between 3 and 4ft) of water so this was going to be a real test of my own confidence in what i was doing!

Anyway after 5 minutes with lots of lifting and dropping i latched into my first fish, a nice F1. over the next 20 minutes i fot 5 more with no real problems. i had to really work the bait to keep the bites coming (probably because of my lack of confidence on the slope and fishing the bait to far over depth!!!!!)

Then it started to go wrong. the first line was really slowing off and i didnt want to pillage it totally so i went round the corner (which i had topped up twice) to try there. i was getting plenty of bites, not missing them, but bumping at least half of the fish i was connecting with. i could bump one fish within seconds, the next half way back and the next near the net and all the places inbetween! I was pulling my hair (well stubble) out! i tried to alter my rig as much as possible from shirt button over the whole rig to a bulk 6" from the hook.

Looking around me no one was really catching anything, although i couldnt see that many people and i was still putting fish in the net so i struggled on. when a line slowed i would go to another and caught fish from all 3 lines around the island. I didnt have a bite from the margin or shallow, but to be fair didnt give them that much time as the island was producing.

the last hour setteld a bit for me as i stuck to the side island line which had been the best all day (as its open ot the rest of the pool) and fished a positive rig with a spread bulk 12" from the hook feeding after every second fish, and put 10-12 fish in the net with only a couple of lost fish! I also managed a few decent skimmers around the 12oz-1lb mark. they have really put weight on in the last 12 months!

At the weight i didnt really know what i'd got in the net as i'd lost a hell of a lot of fish but put a fair in the net too! 79lb was winning the pool when the scales got to me and i knew i didnt have that much. i put 68lb in the bag and got 2nd on the pool. with the fish i lost i should have doubled that weight!!!!!!!!

The payout was split over the pools so i picked up £30, which i was happy with. In hindsight i'd fed micros all day in 4ftof water and the fish were all over the water column so i should have either dumped it and fished it out or swapped over to 4mm to try and keep them on the bottom, but i didnt see it when the blinkers were on during the match.

Solihull Summer League - Blythe Pools - 01-11-09

Finally the last round of the summer league was upon us and a day at Blythe was on the cards. Historically i've done well at Blythe with either section wins or seconds so was pretty confident. the league standings were tight wit hthe top 4 having only 4 points between them with my team in 3rd!

Unfortunately this is going to be really brief as i had a shocking day.

The wind was gail force with driving rain and pretty much in my face. drew peg 10 on bridge with a lovely method chuck to the island so was pretty happy. i did set up a pole at 11m for the pellet and a margin line as it had been very mild coming into the match, but i didnt expect to use them. the method set up was Maver powerlite feeder system at 11ft, with 3012 TD-R, 6lb sensor, small garbo elasticated feeder, 0.20 hooklength to drennan carp feeder for either meat corn or dead red.

On the whistle i just about managed feed some corn and pellet on the pole and a maggot line then chucked the method tight and settle for a wait! an hour and a few chucks later not even liner was had. other chcking ot the island had had fish so iwas confident of getting wrap. another hour passed with 1 liner so i tried the maggot line to get a fish in the net and was immediately rewarded with a 2oz roach.

With a fish in the net i went back to the method as 3-4 fish had been caught off the island. still no wraps and after nearly being blown off my box a good few times, and various bits of other peoples luggage blowing across the pool i was thoroughly bored and annoyed going into the last 45 minutes.

So to make time pass and get warm i re-fed some maggots on the pole and gave it a try. the floats didnt stay still and small roach came steadily for the last 20 minutes.

I managed to weigh 1lb 2oz and beat 1 in my section. the rest of the team did pretty average and we lost out on third place by 2 points.

Again mr hindsight had a very important lesson to learn because if i wasnt so lazy and set up a close whip type line and fished for silvers i know i could have beaten another 2 anglers in my section and got those points the team needed. but with the occasional fish coming off the island i sat there waiting for the wrap that never came!! GUTTED!

Anyway roll on to next years league, more teams and i should be able to fish all the matches as the wedding is done and dusted!!

Tight lines!