#cofton

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Cofton Woods in the Lickey Hills, Worcestershire, England

After what has seemed like an age, a long awaited weekend away with the lads had arrived, our first full fishing weekend. My best friend, Adam has family that own Cofton Country Holiday Park in Dawlish, South Devon. It is a popular place that has been constantly improved over the years and is a fantastic holiday destination for a family or perfect for a long fishing weekend!

They have five well stocked lakes for residents to fish and offer free fishing between November and mid March, which we had just missed! We were staying in Adam's parents caravan, pitched right next to entrance to the lakes, so after a few ales on Friday night, alarms were set and an early morning beckoned.

There were a few fuzzy heads in the morning but after a quick coffee and some toast we set up around 8am on Mamhead lake, to the right of the bridge. It's apparently full of small carp and silver fish.

My other companions for the weekend were old friends, Graham and Simon, both who have not fished in a long while. In our merriment the evening before we deiced to liven things up with a little competition and had drawn teams, I was with Simon and we were 'Team Maggot'. There were prizes (i.e. a pint) for each win from the following; biggest fish, most species and largest quantity of fish.

So after a quick tutorial session, I got Simon to plumb his swim, cast nicely and bait up his swim, we were ready for the off.

Saturday

Both teams started fishing at 9am, Simon was on the float, fishing maggot over hemp. I decided to go back to the method feeder after a long spell of float fishing lately. My bait was to be 'Martin's Magic Meat!' a secret concoction that involves luncheon meat, spices and another secret additive. So the meat was on the hook and I packed the feeder with dampened 3mm Super G pellets.

Our swim was wide and easily fitted both anglers, I was fishing tight to the island in front of me, whilst Simon fished on the bottom to the left of me. It was quick action for me as within five minutes of casting I was into a fish, a little mirror of about 3 lbs. Simon then got going with a skimmer and a succession of roach. Over on our opponents swim, bites were proving hard to come by – much to Team Maggot's delight!

The next few hours saw another mirror carp to me and our opponents began catching, lots of roach falling for their single red maggot approach.

Skimmers were now beginning to show on my peg and a switch to double corn on the hook saw a fish of about a pound safely banked followed by a couple more. Simon was catching steadily with roach and skimmers keeping him busy. Then things began to slow down on the method while Graham and Adam were almost getting a fish a chuck.

As the weather turned from bright sunshine to hail storms and back again, conditions were interesting and with the lack of action, I decided to boost our tally by changing to the float. It proved a good switch as a nice skimmer fell to my double red maggot , followed by a few decent roach.

Things were looking pretty even on day one and as the sun began to set, I could see a few carp showing on the surface, I decided to stalk a few and cast just past them with a well shotted wagglier dropping the maggot slowly through the water column. A few casts in, WHAM! It had worked and after a great battle on light gear, a chunky mirror carp came to the net to seal victory for day one to 'Team Maggot'!