Our visits to White Acres seem to follow the same pattern – you spend all year looking forward to them and then before you know it they are nearly over!!! This year’s Olde English Cider festival was no different and in the blink of an eye it was onto the fourth and final day …
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| All set for the final day |
As noted yesterday there were 8 anglers queuing for the decisive match of the festival with a realistic chance of winning – 3 (Danny Edwards, Jon Cook and Mo Brown) on maximum points and 5 just a single point behind.
The current top three were all bound for Python whilst my group (A section) were off to a venue where I’d actually won on each of my three most recent visits – Trewaters.
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| Trewaters top lake |
Today’s bait allowance was made-up of the following:
- 2mm pellets (2 pints)
- 6mm pellets (2 pints)
- 8mm pellets (1 pint)
- Corn (1 pint)
- Red maggots (live, but bagged so dormant) (1 pint)
- Worms (approx. 0.5kg)
- Sonubaits Supercrush Green groundbait (2kg)
- Boilies (tub)
This is a very similar allocation to the combination that I took to Twin Oaks on Monday and reflects the three main tactics I’d normally consider at Trewaters – pellet feeder tight to the central island, long pole shallow and down the edge later on.
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| Sub-section pegging |
Many of the pegs at Trewaters are very similar as both lakes are essentially ovals with platforms situated all the way around the banks – however I was lucky enough to draw one of the more unique swims today. Peg 25 (on the top lake) is unusual as it is on the long bank opposite the narrow point at the end of the island – as there is no platform directly opposite this point peg 25 has a lovely long margin to the corner of the lake to the right.
This near margin offers two cracking options – the pole at 13m right into the corner and a nice feeder chuck to the bank opposite the point of the island. (Plus of course there is the usual option of casting to the margin of the central island.)
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| The end of the island and far margin to the right |
Prior to the start of the match I set-up two rigs – a 20g small Preston Innovations pellet feeder on one of my trusty 10’ Mini Carp tip rods and a 4x12 Durafloat 10 on 0.17 Guru N-Gauge with a 15cm hooklength of 0.15 to an eyed Kamasan B911 size 16 on a top kit fitted with black Hydro. (I could get away with only one tip rod today as the length of line clipped on the reel for casting to the island straight in front just happened to be the same distance as the near margin opposite the point of the island at an angle of 45 degrees.)
The first three and a half hours of today’s match were spent rotating pellet feeder swims between the island directly in front and the one at 45 degrees to the near margin, picking-up the odd carp and F1 at a reasonable rate. On previous visits to Trewaters I’ve relied purely on the pellets loaded into the feeder to fed the swim – however this time I fed the line I wasn’t fishing with 6mm pellets via a catapult. This seemed to work well and often a bite came first cast after switching back to the swim that had been rested.
The first three and a half hours of today’s match were spent rotating pellet feeder swims between the island directly in front and the one at 45 degrees to the near margin, picking-up the odd carp and F1 at a reasonable rate. On previous visits to Trewaters I’ve relied purely on the pellets loaded into the feeder to fed the swim – however this time I fed the line I wasn’t fishing with 6mm pellets via a catapult. This seemed to work well and often a bite came first cast after switching back to the swim that had been rested.
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| The long margin to my right |
With 90 minutes to go I felt I was in touch with, but behind Ian Carley who was sat two pegs to my left. As a result it was time to switch to the 13m margin line and in went 4 full cups of groundbait tight to the bank to my right. This tactic ultimately led to 5 nice carp (including a near double figure fish) and five or six decent (2lb) skimmers on half a worm.
Steve was soon ‘round with the scales and two weighs later I was sitting pretty with my third sub-section win of the week – my 60-10-0 being enough to take the sub-section from Ian Carley’s 45-6-0, and also good enough for second overall behind Rich Britton’s seventy pounds plus return.
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| The final overall top 3: Jon Cook (centre), Will Sweeney (right) and Brendan Turner (left) |
After a quick drive back to the White Acres complex it was time for a quick shower and the main event of the week – the final presentation! The daily pay-outs in the bar of the club house are well attended affairs, with the majority of competitors attending and saving their loudest applause for those that enjoy the ‘social’ aspects of the festival (and hence don’t pick-up as often as they might)!!! However I’d be surprised if any of the 80 anglers fishing the festival didn’t attend tonight’s event, which included prizes for the top 8 overall, a pay-out for the biggest individual weight and two £50 mystery weight prizes!
Final overall top 10:
Final overall top 10:
- Jon Cook, 20 points, 203-9-0
- Will Sweeney, 19 points, 299-3-0
- Brendan Turner, 19 points, 169-10-0
- Ian Carley, 18 points, 273-0-0
- Maurice Brown, 18 points, 189-6-0
- Bradley Hancock, 17 points, 246-9-0
- Danny Edwards, 17 points, 204-13-0
- Phil Morris, 17 points, 197-12-0
- Ricky Dennis, 17 points, 174-2-0
- Nigel Lale, 17 points, 159-4-0
Huge congratulations must go to the top three, but especially to Jon Cook, a well liked and much respected festival regular – once again the only angler to manage a perfect score with 4 hard earned sub-section wins from 4!
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| Everybody was keen to check their final placing |
Once again a big ‘thank you’ must go to the White Acres fisheries team for laying-on another great festival – talking with Clint after the presentation it seems that 90% of the field have already booked-up for next year’s event, a fact that pretty much speaks for itself!!!
Until next time …
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