29 June 2012, Trewaters (White Acres)

To cut a long story short I drew the same peg as Tuesday, only set-up two matching 30g pellet feeder rods and won the match with 60-2-0 - when you're on a roll you're on a roll!!!

28 June 2012, Acorn (White Acres)

If you’ve been reading the preceding 2 or 3 blog entries you’ll know that I started this match at the top of the leaderboard of this year’s Old English Cider festival – tied on points with Chris Haywood and Mo Brown but ahead on overall weight. I’m going to admit that as a result I was properly nervous for the first time ever about fishing a match – after all would I ever get the opportunity again to start a match knowing that all I had to do was win a five peg section to win a White Acres festival (albeit one that is not as significant as the 180 spring and autumn versions)?

Acorn*

Link to the Acorn page on White Acres website

The rotation saw my section move onto Acorn and Canal today – 2 sections and 10 anglers on each. Clint held the bag and in went my left hand (with my left foot off the ground) – well it had worked all week so why risk not doing it again? Out came Acorn peg 11 – I was happy with this as I’d fished Acorn in numerous pleasure sessions over the years and had in fact fished the very same peg in a Rover during a week Bagger and myself had had at the end of May. (That day I weighed 53-0-0 – the majority of which came in the first two hours down the edge.)

I’d learned a lot that day – but I knew that I’d have to catch a great deal more than 50 odd pounds to beat venue expert Ricky Lale (who was in my sub-section and sat two pegs to my left on peg 9). Past experience had shown me that catching down the edge would be crucial – however as with many venues things don’t normally kick-off properly in the margins on Acorn until the last 90 minutes or so. As a result my main line attack of initially would be tight to the central island and I once again set-up two rods with matching 30g Preston pellet feeders to fish with 8mm pop-ups or 6mm hard pellets over softened 2mm White Acres fishery pellets.

Pole floats used today



Plan B was the margin and I set-up similar rigs to yesterday – a 0.1g Mo Brown Rio for fishing under my feet and two 4x10 Preston Dura Plus 6s for fishing left and right at top kit plus one section. (All rigs were tied on 0.19 Reflo Power straight through to a size 14 Guru MWG for fishing double worm on the hook.) Pegs 9, 10 and 11 are actually quite wide and there is a reasonable amount of water between the island and the bank – as a result plan C would be the long pole shallow at 13m. I set-up two rigs with 4x10 KC Carpa Shelf floats – one a lighter version with 0.13 mainline into a hooklength of the same with a size 18 Kamasan B911, the other a heavier version with 0.17 mainline into a hooklength of 0.15 into a size 16 B911.

I started on the pellet feeder and I was into a fish no longer than 10 seconds after the hooter had blown – I could see all of the other anglers in my section and for the first three hours I’m sure I was ahead by at least 2 or 3 fish as the fish kept on coming on the pellet feeder.

At around this point the island line started to dry-up dramatically so it was time for the long pole shallow – I wasn’t sure it was going to work but after a few minutes of feeding 6mm pellets and slapping my float on the surface of the water I was soon into a few fish. In total I caught four carp and four good F1s – enough to maintain a section winning position with an hour of the festival to go.

Ricky Lale in action on Acorn from a previous year*

Unfortunately this is the point in what had been a glorious week that the wheels came off – the island line had died, the long pole shallow had dried-up and I simply could not get a bite in the margins (I’d fed a good amount of Sonubait’s Supercrush green to the left at around 1400 and I’d been frequently loose feeding 6mm pellets to my right since the same point). At times I could see good carp over both lines but for one reason or another they wouldn’t take my hookbait. Out of desperation I employed a strict 2 minute rotation between the feeder to the far side, the left margin then the right margin – but I could see Ricky bagging from his left margin and every fish he caught hammered another nail into the coffin of my attempt to secure the title!

By the time the hooter went for the ‘all out’ and Steve appeared with the scales I knew Ricky had beaten me fairly and squarely – and in all fairness no quarter had been asked for and no quarter had been given! (On reflection I was more than happy with my own performance and I couldn’t have tried any harder – I was simply beaten by a better angler on the day!)

Ricky was first to weigh and tipped 77-14-0 onto the scales – my two weighs were close but not good enough as they only pulled the needle around to 70-8-0. News soon filtered through that Chris Haywood had clinched his fourth section win in a row and hence had clinched the festival with a perfect 20 point score. Mo Brown could only produce a third in section dropping him down to a still very credible fifth allowing yours truly to take second, Ramzi King third and Andy Poole fourth.

Ramzi King, Chris Haywood and yours truly!*

The final top ten is:

1. Chris Haywood (20 points, 185-10-0)
2. Phil Morris (yours turly) (19 points, 319-17-0)
3. Ramzi King  (19 points, 145-11-0)
4. Andy Poole (19 points, 137-1-0)
5. Mo Brown (18 points, 256-14-0)
6. Ricky Lale (18 points, 214-10-0)
7. Kevin Sims (18 points, 178-13-0)
8. Les Hills (18 points, 140-10-0)
9. Will Sweeney (17 points, 200-2-0)
10. Kevin Wingfield (17 points, 175-9-0)

Link to official results from White Acres website

All-in-all I was more than pleased with my second placing – especially as I’d managed 3 sections wins, 3 lake wins and a second, plus the highest individual weight of the week prize!!! Congratulations to Chris who was a very worthy winner – and well done to the rest of the field who have no doubt already started thinking about their plan of attack for next year’s festival already (I know I have)!!!

The White Acres Team*

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Clint, Kirsty, Steve, Karl and Rob for once again organising a great festival – how anybody can even consider moaning about any element of a holiday at White Acres is beyond me! (I would thank Ricky but he was fishing the festival as opposed to running it.)

Roll on next June!!!

Why not follow me on Twitter? @philip_r_morris

*Photos courtesy of facebook and the White Acres website

27 June 2012, Twin Oaks (White Acres)

Well what can I say? Today saw my section rotated onto Twin Oaks (with 2 sections/10 anglers on each of the two lakes) – and I’ve only gone and drawn peg 16!!! (For those of you that don’t follow the results from White Acres peg 16 is the most prolific peg on the most prolific lake on one of the most prolific venues in the country!)



Twin Oaks*



Link to the Twin Oaks page on White Acres website

As you can guess from the name Twin Oaks are actually two lakes – the lake that has pegs 1-18 is often referred to as the ‘low numbers’ and the other (with pegs 19-36) as the ‘high numbers’. Both lakes are essentially 25m wide rectangles with the pegs on one side and a far margin (with overhanging foliage and typically an undercut bank) to cast to on the other. The slight exception to this is that the low numbers has a dog leg with peg 16 effectively on a point and pegs 17 and 18 at a right angle to pegs 1-15.



A very old photo of Twin Oaks pegs 16 and 17 from the far bank*



Having drawn peg 16 I can now see why it is such a good peg – the bend in the lake gives the angler on it twice as much water to fish than any other peg on the lake and it creates a large bay on the far bank where the fish seem to like to congregate on the back of the prevailing south westerly wind. Funnily enough the wind was blowing the ‘wrong’ way today – rather than blowing along the lake from peg 1 towards peg 16 it was mainly blowing the other way, though there was a strong element blowing from peg 18 into peg 16 (from right to left as I looked at it).

Pellet waggler and straight lead gear

On recent matches on Twin Oaks I’d struggled to catch on the method feeder so my initial decision was to fish with the straight lead and pellet waggler to the far bank in conjunction with 8mm pellets fed via a catapult. (My thinking was driven by the fact that these pegs are literally fished every day of the year and the fish are hammered by the method feeder they are starting to become wary of it.) The pellet waggler was a 4SSG Gold Valley model fixed in place by two double SSG weights and an extra AAA – whenever I’m fishing tight to a feature with a pellet waggler I prefer to use a heavy model so that the float doesn’t bounce back towards you when it hits the clip. Main line was 6lb Daiwa Sensor and the hook length was 0.19 Reflo Power with a size 16 Guru Pellet Waggler hook. The straight lead gear consisted of a two thirds of an ounce Guru square lead with a hook length of 0.19 into a size 14 Guru QM1. Both featured a hair rigged pellet band.

Pole rig components

In addition I set-up a rod with a 30g pellet feeder and two pole rigs – the first a 0.1g Mo Brown Rio to fish literally 6 inches from my left foot next to the concrete platform to the side of my keepnets, the second a 4x10 Preston Dura Plus 6 for tight to the bank on my left at top kit plus one section. Both rigs were on 0.19 Reflo Power straight through to a size 14 Guru MWG. (This is as heavy as I go on the pole but I was looking to catch big (8-10lb) carp on double worm over groundbait in heavily coloured water so durability really was the key!)

On the whistle I fed a large handful of 6mm pellets next to the concrete platform under my feet and started on the pellet waggler (but without feeding anything). Despite a dozen surprisingly accurate casts to the far bank I was still biteless after 10 minutes when I saw a large tail waving at me from the side of my keepnet – so I quickly picked-up my top kit with the Rio rig, attached two large dendrabenas and dropped-in next to the platform. After no less than 3 seconds I was attached to a double figure carp that was quickly tamed on Preston 15h Hollo elastic!

Pellet feeder gear



I fed some more pellets at my feet then picked-up my straight lead rod, cast to the far bank and started loose feeding 8mm pellets. However it quickly became apparent that the increasingly strong wind was going to make loose feeding via a catapult almost impossible so it was over to the pellet feeder rod with an 8mm white pop-up. This was the turning point in my match and before I could sink my line I was attached to an angry carp! This pattern continued for the best part of the next three and a half hours – I’d cast out my pellet feeder (intentionally two or three feet from the far bank as opposed to really tight to the grass) and if I was going to get a bite I’d do so as I sunk my line.

Things did eventually slow down at around 1400 – but by this point I was confident of having over a hundred pounds in the net and enough to win the section – so I went for broke and fed a good amount of Sonubait’s Supercrush green groundbait on my left hand margin line and returned to the tip to allow the swim to settle. First drop in on this margin line (double worm again) saw another double figure fish in the net and I probably caught another 5 or 6 good fish from this swim before the ‘all out’ was called.

Rob was soon ‘round with the scales and my three nets eventually went 153-9-0 – far and away my biggest match weight ever and proof (as if it was needed) that Twin Oaks 16 really is a titanic peg!!!

My catch was indeed enough for a third section and lake win in a row so I’m going into the fourth and final day of the festival at the top of the leader board and as one of the three anglers on maximum points! (The other section winners in my rotation were Dave Parkinson (85-4-0), Kevin Sims (84-0-0) and Andy Leamon (50-2-0).)

The current top five is:

1. Phil Morris (yours truly) (15 points, 249-7-0)
2. Mo Brown (15 points, 228-8-0)
3. Chris Haywood (15 points, 146-5-0)
4. Kevin Sims (14 points, 146-5-0)
5. Danny Edwards (14 points, 133-14-0)

Why not follow me on Twitter? @philip_r_morris

*Photo courtesy of White Acres facebook page

26 June 2012, Trewaters (White Acres)

Today was a trip to Trewaters – this venue consists of two lakes and is a fifteen minute drive from White Acres along the A30 and a short stretch of the A39. Both lakes have a central island at 20-25m and about 20 pegs each. It’s a nice venue but can be very exposed to the wind – they knew what they were doing when they built the wind farm just along the road!!! Stocking is mainly proper carp (in the 2 to 4lb bracket) and F1s.

The bottom lake at Trewaters*

My draw saw me on peg 41 today – this is on the bottom of the two lakes, and as there were only 10 anglers on each lake we all had plenty of room. In fact I had a spare peg either side – if only the pegging was as generous on some of the venues I fish at home!

Another photo of Trewaters' bottom lake*

As with yesterday I fancied my peg for a few fish on the tip so I set-up my matching 10’ feeder rods with the same pellet feeders as the day before, and softened some 2mm White Acres pellets to go with my 6mm hard pellet and 8mm fluro pop-up hookbaits.



Pole rig components

As a back-up I also set-up some pole rigs – 2 4x10 KC Carpa Shelf rigs on 0.13 Reflo Power for fishing shallow (one rig was set to 18 inches deep the other 12 inches, but both had 18 inches above the float so I could effectively slap the float on the water), a 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp for fishing on the deck at 5m and a 4x10 Preston Dura Float Plus 6 for fishing the left and right margins.

One of the things I’d struggled with on my previous 2 visits to Trewaters was fishing effectively in the margins – the bank simply seems to slope at a 45 degree angle with no inkling of a shelf or flat spot to be found anywhere! As a result I simply decided to set my margin rig at 18 inches deep and plumbed-up left and right at top kit plus two sections to find where it was 17 inches deep.

Once again it was a relatively simple match – the bulk of my 49-14-0 fell to the 30g pellet feeder rig and I was fortunate enough to have a swim full of decent sized carp  as I didn’t see an F1 all day. I started to the island straight in front of me and caught well from the start – as bites dried-up I simply took some line out of the clip and cast a little further to my left or right, and every time I did so it led to a run of fish. (Unlike yesterday every single fish on the tip was caught on a 6mm hard pellet and I didn’t have a single bite on a boilie.)

At one point I tried fishing shallow on the pole – this did get me one bite but that fish fell-off on the way in so I quickly returned to the tip. I didn’t even try the 5m but I did have a few smaller fish (two carp, two tench and skimmer) on worm over groundbait from the right hand margin in the last hour.

Luckily my catch was enough for another section and lake win so I’ll be going into day three as one of the five anglers on maximum points! (The other section winners in my rotation were Ricky Lale (45-4-0), Kevin Sims (44-9-0) and Dave Parkinson (29-7-0).)

Following his massive 145-6-0 from Twin Oaks today Mo Brown is currently top of the overall leader board. The full top five is: 

1. Mo Brown (10 points, 175-0-0)
2. Will Sweeney (10 points, 147-6-0)
3. Phil Morris (yours truly) (10 points, 95-14-0)
4. Chris Haywood (10 points, 86-15-0)
5. Ricky Lale (10 points, 68-6-0)

Why not follow me on Twitter? @philip_r_morris

*Photo courtesy of White Acres facebook page

25 June 2012, Python (White Acres)

Today was the first day of the Old English Cider festival at White Acres – in this festival the 80 competitors are split into four sections of 20, and each section is then split into 4 sub-sections of 5 anglers with a sub-section winner scoring five points, second place four points, etc., etc. It is a four day festival and the points gained each day go towards your final total with no concept of dropping your worst score (as is the norm with the five day spring and autumn festivals). My lake rotation was to be Python, Trewaters (both lakes), Twin Oaks (both lakes) then Acorn or Canal.

The famous Python Wides*

Python is one of the older lakes on the White Acres complex and is wedged between Jenny’s Lake and Pollawyn. It is a snake lake with about 40 pegs – the majority of the pegs in the twenties and above (plus those with single digits) have the central island within reach on the pole, though there is a bulge in the lake from peg 12 to 18 where is it up to about 30m to the island. This area is known as the ‘Wides’ and is the best part of the lake as you can catch to the far side on the tip and down the middle shallow on the pole. Python is mainly stocked with F1s, fantails, tench and skimmers, with proper carp being quite few and far between.

Link to the Python page on White Acres website

I drew peg 10 – last peg on the Wides (well just about), with rushes on the far side, and some on the inside to the right as well (the bank on the left margin was featureless). I was pretty happy with this draw as peg 11 was the only peg to my left in my section (so I wasn’t competing against the better pegs in the Wides proper) and the 3 pegs to my right didn’t have any far bank features and it narrows quite considerably as you follow the path to the tackle shop.

20 and 30g pellet feeders set-up today

Whilst setting-up my box and side tray I could see a few fish topping and moving about in the rushes opposite, so I fancied this as my main line of attack and tackled-up my two Preston 10’ Mini Carp rods with a pellet feeder on each – both with small Preston inline models, but one with a 30g version the other a 20g model. (I normally prefer the 30g version as it is better for casting, but in the past I’ve found you lose a lot less F1s on the retrieve with a lighter method or pellet feeder.) Hooklengths were on 0.19 Reflo Power and featured Guru QM1 hooks with a hair rigged pellet band – size 16 for a 6mm hard pellet and a 14 for an 8mm fluro pop-up. (The fluro pop-up hooklengths also included two number 8 stotz an inch from the hook to keep the boilie fairly close to the mouth of the feeder.)

Both pole rigs were straight through on 0.13

I also set-up 3 pole rigs – a 4x10 KC Carpa Shelf for fishing shallow, a 4x12 KC Carpa Chimp for fishing in front of the reeds to my right and a 4x10 Preston Dura Float Plus 6 for fishing tight to the bank on my left. All rigs were tied to 0.13 Reflo Power – the shallow rig included a hooklength of 0.11 with an eyed Kamasan B911 size 18 and a hair rigged bait band, the other 2 straight through to an eyed B911 size 18 again. (Python isn’t stuffed with double figure carp so I felt 0.13 line combined with an eyed hook provided a good balance between strength and finesse.)

I’m pleased to say the match itself went surprisingly well – I started on the 30g pellet feeder to the rushes on the far bank and in total landed about 30lb of small (one pound or less) F1s and tench on a pretty consistent basis during the first 4 hours or so. (I didn’t even pick-up the 20g version, and the fish seemed to take an equal liking to my 6mm hard pellet and 8mm fluro pop-up hookbaits.) As sport on the tip slowed during the fourth hour I switched to the pole for the last part of the match. I fed a couple of balls of Sonubait’s Supercrush Green groundbait on both margin lines and fished a worm over the top – this led to some small perch, a 1.5lb perch and 2.5lb tench on the line to the right in front of the rushes and a double figure carp (that took me nearly 20 minutes to land on Preston 11h Hollo elastic) tight to the bank on my left!!!

That carp was of course a massive bonus and boosted my weight to 46-0-0 – I was up and running with a very pleasing section and lake win! (The other section winners in my rotation were Ricky Lale (23-2-0), Claire ‘Bagger’ Hollis (17-9-0) and Brendan Turner (15-0-0).)

After day one there were always going to be 16 anglers tied on 5 points at the top of the table, but currently the top five is:

1. Will Sweeney (5 points, 102-4-0)
2. Paul Hardman (5 points, 76-1-0)
3. Rich Britton (5 points, 64-15-0)
4. Clive Hamilton (5 points, 64-6-0)
5. Alan ‘Big Hair’ Symonds (5 points, 52-14-0)

Why not follow me on Twitter? @philip_r_morris

*Photo courtesy of http://wiganangler.blogspot.co.uk