POOL HALL SESSION 13th - 15th NOVEMBER (2013)

It's Been Over A Week Since My Last Session So I'm Pleased To Be Setting Off For Another Session In Search Of A Carp

And On This Session It's A Trip Down Memory Lane For Myself And Good Friend ( Nick Rudge ) As We Are Heading To A Venue Which Neither Of Us Have Fished For Over 10 Years

That Venue Is Called '' Pool Hall '' Situated In Lower Penn And Not Far From The Well Known Himley Hall Where Bankside For 48hrs 

We Awoke Wednesday Morning To The First Real Frost Of The Year So Straight Away Our Thinking Was That This Session Was Going To Be A Challenging One, But As I Always Say You Can't Catch Them At Home And A Bait In The Water Is Half The Battle

ARRIVAL

We Both Arrived About 1.00pm And Were Greeted To An Empty Car Park We Where The Only Anglers Present, Shortly After Roughly 10 Mins? Another Car Arrived And A Young Lad By The Name Of Scott Hughes Appeared From His Car

Scott Has Not Been Carp Angling For Long And Is Local To The Area He Was Planning On Doing The Day On Friday And Had Come For A Look Around To See What Was What, Myself And ( Nick ) Also Wanted To Have A Good Look Around So With Out Further A Do We All Set Off For A Good Look Around With The Added Bonus Of Some Inside Knowledge From Scott

There Are Two Lakes On The Complex One Being A Lake Of Around 5 Acres In Size? Holding Around 400 Carp And Carp Up To 30lb That Lake Is Called Lower Lake, The Other Lake Is Called Meadow Lake Which Is Slightly Bigger In Size Holding Slightly Smaller Carp But A Lot More Just Over 1000 Apparently?

We Had A Really Good Look Around And A Really Good Chat With Scott And Took On Board Some Very Useful Information Then Scott Left For Home And Myself And ( Nick ) Went Off To The Club House Which Was Based On The Car Park To Pay Our Fees And Have A Chat With The Complex Owner

After A Short Chat With The Owner He Told Us That Lower Lake Had Been Without Doubt The Most Prolific Lake That Had Produced Some Good Results Through Out The Year So With That In Mind That's Where Me And ( Nick ) Headed To Bivvy Up And Start Our Session

THURSDAY MORNING

The Picture Above Set's The Scene On The First Morning Of The Session But The Evening Before For Me ( Matt ) Sadly That Went With Out Event, ( Nick ) On The Other Hand Did Have Some Action But Is Was Brief And Ended On A Sour Note

I Had A Shout From The Swim To My Right Saying '' Fish On '' Scrambling From My Sleeping Bag And Trying To Get My Boots On Super Quick I Finally Got Round To ( Nick ) Where I Found Him With A Rod In Hand And Tip Bent Over, He Told Me He Had A Single Bleep Then The Rod Melted Off, When Pulling Into The Run He Felt Resistance But Then The Tip Flicked Back, He Had A Real Cluster Of Canadian Pond Weed Moulded Around His Terminal Tackle Hoping There Was A Carp Submerged In It Was What We Both Were Hoping For But Sadly There Was Not '' GUTTED ''

RIGS AND TACTICS

As I Mentioned In The Previous Paragraph '' CANADIAN POND WEED '' And By All Accounts This Lake Was Stuffed With It Through Out The Summer, I Was Hoping It Had Died Down But We Soon Found Out That It Was Quite Active Still And Thick All Over The Lake, One Thing I Will Add When Walking Around The Two Lakes Meadow Lake Had Very Few Wildfowl On It Where's Lower Lake Had Plenty So That Tells You Something Regards The Weed


'' RIGS AND TACTICS '' Me ( Matt ) I Had Opted To Fish One Rod On A Naked Choddy Using A Single Hookbait Which Can Be A Very Good Tactic To Use In The Colder Months, Also I Could Use That Rod As A Roving Rod And If I Saw A Fish Crash? I Could Easily Wind In And Drop A Bait On It

My Other Two Rods Were Presenting A Snowman Rig And A Pop Up Rig On A Braided Hooklink Which I Had Over Shoted, I Masked All Of The Hook Points On My Rigs With Rig Foam Ensuring That All Presentations Fell Perfectly On Top Of The Weed, The Two Rods Were Both Peppered With A Few Free Offerings '' Enough For A Bite '' Were Not Over Doing It At This Time Of The Year And I Complemented The Two Rods With A Small PVA Bag Of Chopped Boilie

SWIM SHOT

THE WEED

Here's An Example With What We Were Up Against With The Weed, But Saying That Canadian Is A Very Good Weed To Present A Bait In Don't Be Put Off By It, With A Little Thought Rigs Can Be Easily Presented In It And With Out Doubt It's More Of A Natural Surrounding For The Carp Appose To A Clear Spot Full Of Sand, Shale, Gravel?

THURSDAY EVENING

After Consuming Some Hotdogs We Listened To The Weather Report For The Evening Ahead And I Was Surprised To Hear That A Frost Was Not Forecasted, The Sky Above Us Was Very Clear But The One Thing They Did Get Right Was The Drop In Temperature We Had Lows Of Just 2 Degrees And By 8.00pm We Had Both Retreated To Our Bivvy's To Keep Warm And Get Comfortable For The Long Night A Head, We'd Both Been Up By 7.00am So Dropping Off To Sleep Did Not Take Long

I'd Slept Really Well Until Around About 11.30pm When I Was Awoken By A Single Bleep I Stuck My Head Out The Bivvy Door To See The LED On My Delkim ( Right Hand Rod ) Lit Up I Placed My Head Back On My Pillow Closed My Eyes When BLEEEEEEEEEEEEP That Rod Melted Off I Was Out My Bag In A Flash I Got Out That Quick I Had Put My Boots On The Wrong Feet

When Pulling Into The Rod I Heard A Coot Scuttle Across The Water Close By But My Tip Was Over And I Maintained Steady Pressure Was I Picked Up By The Coot? Or Was There A Carp Attached? Like             ( Nick ) I Brought Back A Mountain Of Weed But Sadly No Carp, Again '' GUTTED '' What Happened There Is A Mystery! But My Gut Feeling Was I Had Been Cooted, It Got The Old Heart Thumping I Can Tell You

Just For The Record The Rod That Went Was The Over Shotted Pop Up Rig

I Re Baited Then Re Spotted Then Re Entered My Sleeping Bag And Slept Straight Through Until Morning

HAD I BEEN COOTED?

The Following Morning And By 8.00am We Were Both Packed Up And Ready For Home, Scott Had Arrived By 7.30am And Headed Over To Meadow Lake For The Day So Before We Left Myself And           ( Nick ) Popped Over To See Him.

Another Session Comes And Goes, Despite The Blank We Both Really Enjoyed It And It Was Great To Re Visit An Old Venue And To See How It Had Changed And For The Good I Must Add

We Are Both Hoping To Return Very Soon

Until The Next Blog TIGHT LINES AND HAPPY ANGLING
                                                                                                                      Matt

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