Re-Opening of Cemex Blue Pool

[Chesh]

Had the privelidge of fishing the 1st weekend of the newly refurbished Blue Pool on the Cemex waters. a group of 7 hit the banks on Friday just gone till sunday 10am.. having fished the place before we knew that we had a very chance of catching fish. The management have made some vital repairs to the Burghfield Main lake bank and to be honest it has slightly spoilt that side of the lake as it was totally over grown and a superb side for stalking. The management had also taken an additional 150 fish out of the 400 stocked SIMMO'S.. with the recent floods and potential loss of fish the stock was possibly around the 200-220 mark

on my arrival (i was slightly later than the others due to taking daughter to school) i was in swim 2.. nice little swim with access to some awesome over hanging trees with a margin of about 5ft.. i didnt place too much bait out as i knew i would be moving the following day so i settled down to the social with two Perfection GroundBait 14mm Choc Orange hookbaits cast out with pva bags.. no action to me on the friday night.. but plenty of other fish were caught including fish to 27lb..

On saturday (after an enourmous breakfast) i moved into a swim vacated by Woody (he was off to see the england game at wembley) and it was a swim i have fished twice before.. swim number 7.. lovely little corner spot with over hanging margins, 4ft of water and a gorgeous clear spot.. which i baited heavily with 6kilo of particle and a few crumbled boilies..

I knew i was going to be on the fish in the afternoon

i went stalking in arguably a stalkers dream swim.. very tight.. enough room for one little 6ft stalking rod and a net.. i baited this swim with a couple of handfulls of particle and baited with double maize on a size 8Owner hook with a 15lb mono hooklink. in hindsight the mono choice was wrong as the roots were crawling with zebra mussels and this proved costly as after 10minutes of watching a group of massive 25lb+ carp feeding on the particle the rod ripped off, taking line off a very tight clutch! the mono parted soon after and i lost a very very big fish gutted.. i put another couple of handfuls of particle back in and within seconds the fish were back (thats simmos for you lol) this time a 15lb stealth hooklink was tied with all the coating left on.. within 2nds of the bait going in i was playing a very angry Simmo.. i knew it wasnt particular big as i saw the little critter take the hookbait and tear off.. it was soon in the net and was roughly 10lb in weight!

I decided to go back and see what was happening with the main swims.. sure enough after seeing the margin swim being attacked by fat simmos.. i put one more handful in the swim.. this scared them off and gave me enough time to get a hookbait on the spot.. the bait was in.. the 2nd rod was cast to a smooth silty patch 45yards out and spodded 2kilo of particle and akilo of boilies on top.. (yes these simmos love there food) i cast ontop of this with a pva bag of pellets and 2 peices of maize.

at about half 1 i had my first blistering take from off the margin spot.. and a beautiful 15lb commom was soon gracing my net.. result i was back round amongst the trees with the particle and deposited anouther kilo of particle and chopped boilies into the swim.. all around me the lake was on fire and all 7 of us were catching.. Dean had the please of catching the known fish "the uncaught common" it weighed 33lb sadly for dean he foul hooked it..

my margin rod was soon on the go again and this time i knew i was into a much bigger fish.. it plodded around and kited left and right.. after some precarious moments i realised that this fish maybe my first 20 of the sessionso with help from Pat Farr he soon netted this for me.. it was touch and go as to whether it would go 20.. the scales soon settled and YES !! 20lb 2oz of simmo.. not your characteristic simmo though.. this one had scales

after a few pics the fish went back and the same baiting ritual this time with the afternoon drawing on i put in an extra 2kilo of particle and half a kilo of chopped boilies.. the social carried on with fish after fish coming out to the others.. some true simmos where nailed, some mutants.. some absolute stunners.. (for those of you who can remember the Queen Simmo from my stag weekend we were praying she would grace our nets sadly it wasnt to be) at about 10 past 5 my other rod signalled a tentative bite.. instantly we knew it was bream.. i soon had it in the net and without it being weighed we estimated it at around the 10lb mark.. i should of taken a pic however my curry was getting cold and the footie was on the portable TV hahaha so i quickly took the hook out and slipped her back in! the best was yet to come!

at half 7 i had a complete 1 toner of a bite from the margin swim which saw me immediatley holding onto the clutch.. big fish!! after a few minutes it went deep.. (the lake in most places is around 11-13ft deep and quite weedy) i had to play this carefully, Pat was by my side and he was saying that it had the characteristics of a big fish and sure enough he was right.. wallowing around in the dimming light we could tell it was a mid 20.. safely in the net the others were called and the scales pinged round to 26lb 8oz.. my biggest fish for quite a while.. with the pics taken and the fish safely back in.. i went back round to the margin spot and put in a further 3kilo of particle for the night and 1kilo of boilies.. at 9p, it rattled off again.. and i was soon battling with an angry carp.. it was going mental.. and at one point literally flat rodded me.. some gentle persuassion led me to coaxing a fine common over the net... the scales tipped round at 17lb 14oz.. (the commons when you look at them you wouldnt of thought they were simmos)

that was my action then for the whole weekend.. i didnt get a sniff during the night and i think that was down to me not getting back on th emargin spot in the dark.. it was a tight cast and i think i left it about 1 foot short and in a small patch of weed.. gutted !

in total i had Mirror 10lb, common 15lb, common 17lb 14oz, mirror 20lb 2oz, mirror 26lb 8oz and a 10lb bream.. for the entrie weekend we must of caught approximately 50fish between us.. with the average being 17-19lb.. the biggest 'official' carp was 28lb, and dean has admitted that his foul hooked 33lb common wont count.. theres was quite a few lost fish as well.. and an obscene amount of bait used! Mick barnes told us that if the simmos want it.. give it to them.. i used roughly 15kilo of particle over the 48hours and 5kilo of boilies..

the pics will be attached as soon as i crop them to the right size!

if any of you get the chance to fish the Blue Pool.. do it! if you blank on there you are doing something seriously wrong.. the carpology boys were on a few days before us and they nailed the same amount of fish.. dont believe what the RMC website says about using small beds of bait.. give them some.. and you you will catch.. no questions!

[Blue]

Well done Chesh, sounds like you had a top weekend pal Good write up, look forward to seeing them pic's mate

[chukie]

Really good read that one and well done how much is it to fish the Blue pool

[Julian Grattidge]

Great read, top bombing mate.

Well done to all involved.

I had a good session up here as Chesh hauled down there, we were swapping catch texts every few hours at one point!

Nice to see you having a few mate - richly deserved.

Can't wait to see the pics!