Cob House

It's been a few weeks now since we made our trip to cob house fisheries. After the visit, I went on a self-imposed break from fishing for a few week, I've still not been out since actually. I never intended for the break to include my writing on here but as it happens it did.

So to catch you all up, a few of the lads from Pem Central plus some others known to the trip organiser went for a 3 day jolly boys outing to cob house fisheries from 24th to 26th September. We had all been looking forward to this trip as with a lot of talk of massive weights, expectations were high.  Unfortunately the fishery was having some trouble with one of the lakes we were supposed to be on for the Thursday and Friday, so a last minute change saw us move from Wyatts lake to a match across 2 waters, oak and laurels, with the idea being that we would split across the 2 waters and then swap round the following day. However, on the Wednesday we were on Laugherne Island.

Wednesday 24th September. Laugherne Island.

With the expected tactics of short pole apparently dominating the other waters, the option of fishing the feeder on Laugherne Island was not to be refused. If nothing else but to give me a bit of variety on the trip.

My peg was a nice looking one with the point of an island within casting range.  With my main focus of the trip bring fun rather than serious competition, I planned on a simple approach.  Pellet feeder to the island, pole down the edge with corn and groundbait and finally pole at 6/7 metre with corn and pellet.

I started on the pellet feeder and had one carp early but it was slow and only one other had shown by the end of the first hour.  I had started feeding groundbait down the edge from the start and with the slow going on the feeder I decided to take an early look down the edge.  A single grain of corn on the hook produced a few small roach, not quite the intended quarry so I tried a switch to double corn on the hook but the roach were persistent and still all I could manage from the edge.  The other pole swim produced one carp and one roach but never felt right for reasons I can't explain so I quickly abandoned it and went back to persevere on the feeder. A golden hour on the tip boosted me to 10 carp before it slowed again and left me waiting.  2 more carp followed in last hour. The massive weights we were expecting didn't materialise and only 2 weights over 100lb were recorded on the whole match. My 78-8 was enough to win my section.

Thursday 25th September. Oak

Day 2 and my draw saw me on Oak lake and I must be honest, it didn't thrill me as the lake didn't look nice and was nothing more than a square hole.  Not a huge water and my peg was close to a corner so my tactics were simple. Margin pole line at 5 sections in deeper water and 5 section pole line in front.  I had heard that the fish in this lake were larger than we had seen the day before so it planned on corn down tbe edge swim and pellets on the short line - feeding 6 mm and using banded 6 or 8mm on the hook.

The match was quite a simple one to be honest and doesn't make much to write about.  Rotating through the swims kept fish coming but corn line was by far the best. Generally the best tactic was to hook a fish and feed straight away before playing and landing the fish.  A steady match saw me put 152 lb on the scales, a good weight but only enough for 4th on the lake.

Friday 26th September. Laurels.

After match talk on Thursday described similar fishing on laurels as I experienced the day before only a much smaller average stamp. My draw saw me pegged next to a wooden jetty style platform. On the Thursday, Mark had fished this peg and he had told me he caught between the platform and a bush to his left, in a small hole but he said he had to stand up a lot to see his float. With this in mind, I based my attack on the same area with back up swims to my right margin. This match was another straight forward one and from the all in I settled into a rhythm of 'stand up, lay rig in, bite, fish on, feed, sit down, land fish'. This was simply repeated for near enough 5 hours. I had a couple of issues where some fish had gone to the jetty and I was wrapped up but steady pressure saw me get all those fish out bar one. I must say that is not really my preferred style of fishing and I got a bit bored at one stage and went for a little walk. Even with that break, as soon as I sat down the same rhythm was off again. At the end of the match, I was knackered and knew I was in with a good weight but with the average stamp being about 2lb, and my biggest only being about 4lb, I didn't expect my weight to go as big as it did. I weighed in 248lb to set a new personal best match weight and win the match. A red letter day? Maybe but not a way of fishing I could cope with all the time.

Now what?

So, to bring us up to speed. Since the cob house trip I've had a break, I was ready for it but in honesty it was largely born out of other commitments.  Pem Central have also since had their last match at Heronbrook - I'm not sure who won but will do a run down of final results when I know. 

So it's all down to my winter campaign now. Not sure what my plans are yet but a sea fishing trip is defo next on the agenda and then I'll see where I go then.