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!!!