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!!
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