Friday 28 June 2013

28 June 2013, Bolingey (White Acres)

Following yesterday’s final match of the Olde English Cider festival it was eventually time for the last match of our 2013 White Acres odyssey – and what better way to finish than with another Friday residents match at bagging water Bolingey?

Welcome to Bolingey!!!

My draw today saw me on the lake furthest from the car park – peg 40 to be precise. This is apparently a pretty average peg with the only obvious feature being the aerator (not switched on) moored in front of overgrown peg 39 to the right. In fact fishery owner Andy Dare described the peg as being ‘disappointing’ and set me an ambitious target weight of just 80lb!!!

Looking left towards the famous Bridge swim



As ever the first thing I do when I get to my peg is sit on my box and come-up with a pre-match plan. Today’s intended approach was very simple – spend the first part of the match (anything up to 4 hours) catching on the straight lead towards the aerator (feeding and fishing 8mm pellets) and on the pole at top kit plus two on the deck (with 6 and 8mm pellets), then empty it down the edge in the last hour with worm over groundbait!!!

Looking across to Chris Haywood on peg 36

The first hour of today’s match started fairly slowly with only 2 medium sized F1s falling to the bomb and pellet towards the aerator – however a change to the pole on the deck at 5m with hard 8mm pellets saw two proper carp in the net in quick succession.

Unfortunately these were to be the only fish that fell to this line all match and the second and third hours were even more disappointing as I could only manage three further carp and an F1 on the bomb – despite the constant pinging of pellets and experiments with PVA bags and Goo! (To make matters worse two additional carp that were hooked on the straight lead fell-off for no good reason – not what you need when bites are hard to come by!)

Familiar gear for the edge

Fortunately things started to pick-up in the fourth hour with three commons and my first ever grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) falling to the tip. (When I first caught sight of the grass carp I actually thought it was some kind of weird looking chub – however on closer inspection the torpedo shaped body, huge mouth and beady little eyes clearly marked it out as a grass carp.)

As ever I’d been holding back on feeding or fishing my margin line for as long as possible, but with an hour an a quarter to go it was time for four full cups of Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait to be deposited at top kit plus two tight to the wall of foliage overhanging my left margin. (As there was a small bush tight to the left of my platform I had to stand-up to be able to access this swim – however I actually quite like doing this as it seems to improve reaction times when striking at bites.)

This final spell resulted in four good (8 to 10lb) fish on double dendrabena – though as ever I managed to foul-hook and lose two further carp! (This is even more annoying than normal as each missed opportunity at Bolingey can see double-figures making its way out of the swim never to be seen again.)

Some were more interested in Bagger’s weight than others!!!

As a little experiment I’d kept the straight lead and margin fish in separate nets – those from the first 3 and three quarter hours went 42lb and those from the final hour and a quarter tallied 35lb, once again highlighting the importance of those final hour edge fish.

This gave me a total of 77-4-0 – not quite the 80lb target I’d been set but incredibly this was exactly the same weight as the 2012 Olde English Cider festival champion Chris Haywood who had been fishing on the peg directly opposite!!! Ultimately, as a result of two 80lb plus weights, this left us joint third overall.

Nice to finish on a high!

All-in-all this was a great way to finish-off an amazing fortnight in Cornwall – I think I’d struggle to fish five times a week all year ‘round, but personally I can’t think of a better way to spend two weeks holiday. In total I fished 9 matches, picked-up money in 7, finished eighth in a festival, broke the 100lb barrier for only the second time at White Acres, framed in a 100 peg match and won at Trewaters – but most importantly I only managed to lose one pellet feeder in the far bank bushes all holiday!!!

Until next year …


Thursday 27 June 2013

27 June 2013, Trewaters (White Acres)

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 …

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.

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.

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.)

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 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.

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:
  1. Jon Cook, 20 points, 203-9-0
  2. Will Sweeney, 19 points, 299-3-0
  3. Brendan Turner, 19 points, 169-10-0
  4. Ian Carley, 18 points, 273-0-0
  5. Maurice Brown, 18 points, 189-6-0
  6. Bradley Hancock, 17 points, 246-9-0
  7. Danny Edwards, 17 points, 204-13-0
  8. Phil Morris, 17 points, 197-12-0
  9. Ricky Dennis, 17 points, 174-2-0
  10. 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!

Everybody was keen to check their final placing

As ever the final reckoning was incredibly tight, with every angler (except Jon Cook) left thinking what a difference an extra point here and there would’ve made! On a personal note my final day sub-section win left me on 17 points, with Lady Luck seeing fit to allow me to take the 8th and final overall festival placing – my prize was a nice feeder rod and a few beer tokens to spend on a night out in Newquay! (I can’t help but note that an extra 10 pounds on Canal on Tuesday would’ve seen me third – I really must try harder next year!!!)

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 …


Wednesday 26 June 2013

26 June 2013, Python (White Acres)

In golf the third day of a major is often referred to as ‘moving day’ as traditionally it is when the likely victor moves-up the leader board. I’m not sure if the same applies to fishing festivals, but there is often a change in approach from many of the anglers – those that have had disappointing opening days will be looking to fish out-and-out for a lake win and a brown envelope to make-up for a lowly overall placing. Those that are doing well in the league will be looking for sub-section wins – in short, everybody is looking for a good draw!!!

The all important day 3 draw

Day 3 of the 2013 Olde English Cider festival saw my section (A section) rotate onto one of the older lakes on the White Acres complex today – Python.

Python is a strangely shaped lake – half of it (the part known as the ‘Narrows’) is a standard snake lake with the far bank margin generally accessible with 14.5m of pole. However the other half is significantly wider and at the far end from the tackle shop there is a large bulge known as the ‘Wides’, with the far bank reeds probably 30m from the platforms.

Part of the Python bait mountain

Python is much more of a mixed fishery than most of the lakes at White Acres – there are very few proper carp and other species such as F1s, tench, skimmers and perch tend to form the bulk of catches. As a result today’s bait allowance was made-up of the following:
  • 2mm pellets (2 pints)
  • 6mm pellets (2 pints)
  • 4mm expander pellets (0.5 pint)
  • 6mm Marukyu JPz pellets (0.5 pint)
  • Corn (1 pint)
  • Red maggots (live) (1 pint)
  • Worms (approx. 0.5kg)
  • Sonubaits Supercrush Green groundbait (2kg)
  • Boilies (tub)

Such a combination would enable me to fish approaches such as the pellet feeder and long pole shallow for F1s if I drew on the Wides, but also much more refined pole-based tactics for silver fish if I drew on the Narrows.

Sub-section pegging


Following yesterday’s disappointment I needed a good draw to get my festival back on track – luckily I managed one when the bag of dreams yielded peg 14. This is in the middle of the Wides (generally the best area on the lake) and is probably the widest peg on the lake – it is impossible to get tight to the central island as the far bank reeds protrude several metres into the lake, but peg 14 still gives a good 30m chuck on the feeder.

The width of the pegs in this area normally see good numbers of F1s gathering and lend themselves to the long pole shallow – peg 14 also features overhanging marginal bushes left and right (likely looking homes for perch). As a result my pre-match plan was to start on the pellet feeder tight to the rushes before moving onto the long pole shallow and finally cleaning-up down the edge at the end – simples!!!

Python, White Acres

The first hour of today’s match is best described as ‘mixed’ – whilst I got off to a good start with an early carp and an F1 on the pellet feeder, the second carp I hooked became tangled in some discarded line attached to the far bank and eventually fell-off. This seemed to kill that line, but some nice perch on the pole from my left margin on worm over chopped worms and maggots kept me in contention.

(Tackle for the tip was my usual 20g small Preston Innovations pellet feeder with a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band. Feed was simply soaked 2mm pellets with a hard 6mm pellet on the hook. My margin rig consisted of a 4x12 Durafloat 10 on 0.15 mainline to an 0.13 hooklength with a size 18 Kamasan B911 – elastic was blue Hydro.)

Looking right from peg 14

The second and third hours saw a switch to the pole shallow at 13m – tackle was the same as yesterday (a self-cocking KC Carp Slap on 0.15 mainline to a 15cm 0.13 hooklength with a size 18 Kamasan B911 with a hair-rigged pellet band) but with lighter blue Hydro.

Sport was hardly hectic, but 15 or so 1lb F1s was enough to move me towards the top of the sub-section with 2 hours to go. (Once again feed and hookbaits were hard 6mm pellets and slapping the rig on the surface of the water seemed to make a big difference.)

The inviting left margin

The start of the fourth hour coincided with the shallow line fading so it was time for another look at the margins. I’ve always believed that every peg on Python is worth 5lb of perch from the margins – these fish are relatively easy to catch and can make a huge difference when 20lb is a good final weight!!! I’d already caught some of the perch in the first hour from my left margin and the fourth hour yielded some more – this swim also produced a massive bonus in the form of a 5lb koi carp too!!!

The presence of that koi carp led me to feed some groundbait on my right margin – this was a good move as in the final hour I caught a big (2lb) perch, a similarly sized skimmer and another bright orange 5lb koi carp from this line!!!

Bagger in the money again!!!

We had the honour of White Acres head honcho Clint Elliott weighing-in our section today – I can’t be sure if this brought me any luck or not, but fortunately my pleasing 32-6-0 was enough to clinch the sub-section from second placed John Smith’s 20-12-0. This was also good enough for fourth on the lake, just 2 ounces behind Bagger’s third placed 32-8-0 (a result that a surprisingly large number of people took great pleasure in reminding me of – my argument that it’s ‘all about section points’ falling on deaf ears).

Day 3 A section, sub-section winners:
  • Ian Carley, Python peg 9, 38-13-0
  • Phil Morris, Python peg 14, 32-6-0
  • Ian Turner, Python peg 27, 19-10-0
  • Mick Hudson, Python peg 37, 35-3-0

Overall top 10 after day 3:
  1. Danny Edwards, 15 points, 189-3-0
  2. Jon Cook, 15 points, 166-2-0
  3. Maurice Brown, 15 points, 159-4-0
  4. Ian Carley, 14 points, 227-10-0
  5. Will Sweeney, 14 points, 181-7-0
  6. Brendan Turner, 14 points, 120-4-0
  7. Ian Turner, 14 points, 119-8-0
  8. Rick Broadway, 14 points, 115-1-0
  9. Mick Hudson, 13 points, 153-1-0
  10. Nigel Lale, 13 points, 123-1-0

Going into the final day we’re down to three anglers on the 15 point maximum – once again Danny, Jon and Mo managed to draw in different sub-sections and we have the unique position of 3 anglers from the same section topping the table. Recent festivals have all been won with perfect 4 sub-section wins from 4, but the five anglers on 14 points will all fancy their chances if those above them slip-up (especially Ian Carley who has a significant weight advantage).

Today’s sub-section win has moved me back up the table from 24th to 12th, though I’ll still need a final day sub-section win and a great deal of luck tomorrow to claim one of the overall prizes paid-out to the top 8.

Until day 4 (Trewaters) …


Tuesday 25 June 2013

25 June 2013, Canal (White Acres)

Following yesterday’s fortunate sub-section win on Twin Oaks it was soon time for the all important day 2 draw – especially significant today as A section would be split across two very different lakes in Acorn and Canal!!!

Day 2 pre-draw nerves effected many!!!

Whilst I have fished Canal a dozen times previously and had some decent results I’ve also had some real shockers – a last in section 2-1-0 in the 2008 edition of this festival certainly springs to mind!!! (This result was doubly disappointing as it was the first day in my first White Acres festival.)

So whilst I was prepared for a draw on Canal my preference was certainly for Acorn – I’d fished there twice in the previous week and the successful methods (feeder tight to the central island and down the edge later on) suit my style of fishing.

Sub-section pegging


Of course having expressed a preference for Acorn the bag of dreams duly presented me with the chance to spend the day on Canal – peg 14 to be precise!

Canal is a unique lake as the anglers cross a spit to reach a central island and basically fish from the inside out – I tend to think of it as a 16m wide strip bent into a circle. The stocking has changed over the years but currently the lake is full of decent sized F1s with the odd rogue proper carp. Despite normally having the far bank within 16m pole range I’ve had most of my recent successes fishing up in the water at 10 or 11.5m, and as the weather today was pretty warm and sunny that approach formed the basis of my pre-match tactical thinking.

Canal, White Acres

Prior to the draw I’d prepared two very different sets of bait (one for Acorn, another for Canal), but having drawn Canal today’s bait allowance was made-up of the following:
  • 2mm pellets (1 pint)
  • 4mm pellets (2 pints)
  • 6mm pellets (2 pints)
  • Corn (1 pint)
  • Red maggots (live, but bagged so dormant) (1 pint)
  • Worms (approx. 0.5kg)
  • Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait (2kg)
  • Boilies (tub)

The weighting towards 4 and 6mm pellets reflected my intention to fish the long pole shallow – the other bait was only really there if I had to fish the near or far margin as a plan B.

All the gear …

Prior to the start I set myself a target of 50 fish – normally enough for 50-60lb and good section points. Simple – all I had to do know was catch 10 F1s an hour for 5 hours …

The first hour went well and I actually managed to put 11 nice F1s in the net, all taken on the pole shallow at 11.5m at a slight angle to the left – the rig was a very simple combination of a self-cocking KC Carp Slap on 0.15 mainline to a 15cm 0.13 hooklength with a size 18 Kamasan B911 with a hair-rigged pellet band. (Elastic was white Hydro.) The float was generally set at a depth of 18” and there was also an 18” lash – I’ve found this to be the ideal length of line between the pole tip and float when fishing the very fashionable slapping method!

Looking right from peg 14

Despite being within my target of 10 fish an hour at the start of the second hour I could already sense the anglers to my left (Paul Hardman and the legendary Colin Ellaway) pulling ahead of me. At this point I should’ve kept my head down and stuck to feeding 4/6mm pellets and regularly slapping my float onto the surface of the water, but instead I switched to a rig with a spade end hook (for a section of worm) and started feeding a mixture of sloppy groundbait and Perfect Peach Goo at 11.5m slightly to the right.

Now whilst this did have an immediate effect of sorts (on feeding my second drop of bait from my pole pot 2 F1s stuck their heads out of the water right in the middle of the cloud) I basically had only a solitary foul-hooked F1 as a return for 30 minutes fishing!!!

When I finally returned to my senses and started fishing the original line and rig again I managed 13 more F1s in the next 90 minutes, leaving me on 25 after 3 hours (5 behind my pre-match target).

Components of the edge rig

I’d love to be able to say that in the final 2 hours I stuck to my guns, made-up my shortfall and ended-up with exactly 50 fish and a close section win – however it is my duty to report that once again I lost my head and only managed a total of 36 fish!!!

Ultimately my undoing was trying to catch the fish that I could clearly see moving over the groundbait I fed down the edge. Not for the first time I suffered badly with foul-hooked fished and lost a lot of fish in the Canadian pond weed that has started to grown in certain areas of the lake – however the longer I fished down the edge the longer I had to fish down the edge as the stamp there was much better than those I was catching shallow – and was the only was I could pull back a decent section placing.

Unfortunately the scales could only confirm my worst fears – my 41-0-0 only being enough for fourth in sub-section behind Ian Carley’s whopping 102-13-0, Colin Ellaway’s 51-13-0 and Paul Hardman’s 50-0-0. (If I could’ve stuck to my original approach and target I would probably have had enough for second.)

Well and truly battered!!!

Day 2 A section, sub-section winners:
  • Reg Barras, Acorn peg 8, 53-13-0
  • Ian Turner, Acorn peg 15, 59-4-0
  • Rob Frost, Canal peg 10, 59-6-0
  • Ian Carley, Canal peg 20, 102-13-0

Overall top 10 after day 2:
  1. Danny Edwards, 10 points, 124-7-0
  2. Jon Cook, 10 points, 123-2-0
  3. Will Sweeney, 10 points, 121-11-0
  4. Maurice Brown, 10 points, 105-12-0
  5. Bradley Hancock, 10 points, 104-14-0
  6. Rick Broadway, 10 points, 56-11-0
  7. Ian Carley, 9 points, 188-13-0
  8. Robert Judson, 9 points, 123-8-0
  9. Rob Frost, 9 points, 119-8-0
  10. Ian Turner, 9 points, 99-14-0

So after 2 rounds we are left with only six anglers on perfect scores and less than three pounds separating the top 3’s total weight! How many will be able to maintain their perfect record tomorrow? (Interestingly 3 of the top 4 (Jon, Danny and Mo) are all in the same section but have managed to avoid being in the same sub-section so far – will that pattern continue?)

On a personal note I’ve dropped like a stone from 8th to 24th place with 7 points – my only hope now is that I can finish with 2 section wins and 17 points for an outside chance of the eighth and final overall prize.

Until day 3 (Python) …


Monday 24 June 2013

24 June 2013, Twin Oaks (White Acres)

Outside of the five major 180 peg spring and autumn festivals, White Acres also run a number of smaller festivals each year. The one that I’ve had the pleasure of fishing over the last 5 years is currently known as the Olde English Cider festival – though in previous years it has been referred to as the Virgins, Daiwa and Gaymer’s festival (as the sponsors have changed).

As I understand it the original intention of this festival was to act as a springboard into the big festivals – however it has evolved into a friendly, social festival for club anglers with many people returning year after year and a handful proudly proclaiming that they’ve fished every event since its inception about 10 years ago!!!

A section anglers and lake rotation

Since 2011 the number of competitors has been set at 80, with anglers split into 4 sections of 20 rotating through Twin Oaks (both lakes), Acorn or Canal, Python and then Trewaters (both lakes) over 4 consecutive days. (Note: whilst the order is the same it is A section that starts with Twin Oaks – B section starts with Acorn/Canal, C with Python and D with Trewaters.) Each section is further split into 4 sub-sections – 5 points being awarded for a sub-section win, 4 for second, 3 for third, etc. Unlike the major festivals there is no concept of dropping your worst result, so each day counts and hence the maximum score is 20 points.

This year I’ve been randomly drawn into A section and believe you me there are some very good anglers in there with me – so good in fact that the general consensus was that section A was one of the features of every festival: the ‘group of death’!!!

Twin Oaks (high numbers), White Acres

Being in A section meant that today I’d be fishing one of the two lakes that form Twin Oaks, so as a result I decided to split my bait allowance in the following fashion:
  • 2mm pellets (2 pints)
  • 6mm pellets (1.5 pints)
  • 8mm pellets (1.5 pints)
  • Corn (1 pint)
  • Red maggots (live, but bagged so dormant) (1 pint)
  • Worms (approx. 0.5kg)
  • Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait (2kg)
  • Boilies (tub)

Hopefully this combination of bait will allow me to cover a number of options, the main approaches that are successful on Twin Oaks being the method or pellet feeder/pellet waggler tight to the far bank, the long pole shallow and down the edge in the latter stages of the match.

Sub-section pegging



The first dip into the bag of dreams saw peg 29 float to the surface – this is in the middle of the lake informally known as the ‘High Numbers’. My feeling was that this was a pretty decent peg for some good section points, but that end peg 33 would be hard to beat given the fact that 34, 35 and 36 aren’t included in this festival. However on the plus side I did have a spare peg to my right and the slight breeze that was blowing was doing so from left to right.

Looking right from peg 29

On the whistle I cast my pellet feeder (a small 30g Preston Innovations effort with a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band for a 6mm hard pellet) tight to the far bank and had a quick look around the lake – to my amazement virtually everybody else was fishing down the edge!!! I can sort of understand the logic behind this (i.e. to try and get off to a good start with a lump from the margin early doors) but personally my basic plan is to start long and move closer and closer to my own bank as the match progresses, only fishing down the edge at the very end.

Luckily my tactic seemed the right choice as whilst one or two did catch an early margin carp my run of F1s, skimmers and a lone proper carp saw me off to a steady (if unspectacular) start. However after 45 minutes a change was in order so out came the pellet waggler, my choice of tackle featuring 6lb Daiwa Sensor mainline to a 25cm hooklength of 0.17 N-Gauge and a size 18 Guru Pellet Waggler hook with a hair-rigged band. The waggler itself (a slim, self-loaded 6g Preston Dura version with a disk) was attached using a Preston Innovations kit consisting of 4 float stops and a swivel – I find this set-up preferable to using unloaded wagglers with large locking shot as it is much easier to change depth and the line is not weakened in any way.

This approach did lead to a nice 5lb carp and a few F1s on 6mm pellets, but following a switch back to the feeder for a few more F1s I finished the first two hours (1100 to 1300) with a very slow thirty minutes (in fact I don’t think I but anything in the net during this period).

Gear for the long pole shallow

The next two hours were essentially spent fishing up in the water at 13m with a rig that centred on a 4x10 KC Carpa Slap on 0.15 mainline to a 15cm hooklength of 0.13 to a size 18 Kamasan B911 (eyed) with a hair- rigged pellet band. (Elastic being that great all rounder white Hydro.)

Sport was hardly hectic, but three good runs of 5 or 6 big F1s in a row fell to my 6mm pellets, meaning that I’d be going into the all important final hour with about 40lb in the net – from what I could tell enough for second in section at that point.

A little gardening gave me access to my right margin

So far I’d resisted the temptation to fish or feed my edge swim, but with 60 minutes to go it was ‘now or never’ so in went 4 full pots of Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait at top kit plus one tight to the bank to my right – you can probably see from the photo above the small indentation in the bank here, plus a nice looking collection of overhanging grasses.

This saw the hoped for response and despite losing a few foul-hookers I did manage to land four good carp that took a liking to my double dendrabena hookbait before the ‘all out’ was called!!!

(Tackle here was my usual heavy set-up of a 4x10 Durafloat 10 on 0.19 straight through to a size 12 Guru MWG with 17h elastic.)

I managed to pip Mick Hudson by exactly 2lb for the section

In the end my two weighs put a decent 63-12-0 on the scales –  surprisingly enough for a narrow section win as I’d managed to sneak past Mick Hudson on end peg 33 by exactly two pounds!

Day 1 A section, sub-section winners:
  • Paul Hardman, Twin Oaks peg 4, 66-12-0
  • Robert Judson, Twin Oaks peg 17, 87-6-0
  • Rich Britton, Twin Oaks peg 21, 88-9-0
  • Phil Morris, Twin Oaks peg 29,63-12-0

Overall top 10 after day 1:
  1. Rich Britton, 5 points, 88-9-0
  2. Robert Judson, 5 points, 87-6-0
  3. Will Sweeney, 5 points, 81-14-0
  4. Chris Gay, 5 points, 79-13-0
  5. Bradley Hancock, 5 points, 79-7-0
  6. Ian Copeland, 5 points, 73-4-0
  7. Paul Hardman, 5 points, 66-12-0
  8. Phil Morris, 5 points, 63-12-0
  9. Maurice Brown, 5 points, 56-11-0
  10. Jon Cook, 5 points, 48-15-0

Like 15 others my festival is up and running with that all important section win. Rich Britton currently sits at the top of the table on weight count-back – a remarkable result considering he spent the early hours of Sunday morning in Newquay A&E!!!
 
Until day 2 (Acorn/Canal) …


Friday 21 June 2013

21 June 2013, Bolingey (White Acres)

For cricket it’s Lords, for rugby see Twickenham and for football look no further than Wembley – whilst Bolingey may not be the official spiritual home of match fishing it has become a mystical venue, hidden deep in the Cornish countryside and only to be match fished by the country’s elite anglers in the major spring and autumn festivals …

Welcome to Bolingey!!!

… until now that is! Whilst it has always been possible to book a pleasure fishing trip to Bolingey via a weekly White Acres fishing permit, 2013 has seen the introduction of regular Friday White Acres residents matches at the venue. Numbers are limited to 32 and by the time we booked-in at about 9am on Saturday nearly half the places had gone already – so it’s obviously proving popular, with those in the know booking their places early!!!

Bolingey plan and pegging

The Bolingey complex is made-up of 3 lakes – to my knowledge each  is officially nameless so I normally refer to the them as ‘the one nearest the car park’, ‘the one with the island at the back’ and ‘the other one’! In total there are 50 pegs (though a couple are intentionally overgrown and unfishable) and as of last year there is now an on-site clubhouse serving teas, coffees, bacon sandwiches, soft drinks, etc. and small items of terminal tackle.

I feel it’s also worth pointing-out that the entrance fee today was £21 - £15 pools and £6 day ticket. Some anglers have questioned this pegging fee as a Bolingey pleasure session doesn’t attract any charge (over and above that for a weekly White Acres fishing permit) – my view is that there are 2 options: pucker-up and pay the £6 to fish the match or do something else instead!!!

The point of the island opposite peg 26



Over the years Bagger and myself have fished Bolingey on four occasions – each time on ‘the one with the island at the back’ somewhere between peg 8 and peg 22 (the widest parts of the lake). Each time we’ve absolutely bagged-up with estimated weights (easily) between 150 and 200lb  – though as we all know doing so in a pleasure session when the lake is half empty and you can choose a couple of flyers is very, very different to doing it in match!!!

Today the bag of dreams chose me peg 26 – this is on the same lake and is an end peg (if you can have end pegs on a rectangular lake with swims on all four sides) opposite one of the ends of the central island. The peg is actually quite narrow with only about 20m to the island (however it really opens-out to the right and pegs 23, 24 and 25 have more like 30m to work with) – though it does offer a great deal of open water and a nice long margin to the left.

All the gear …

Bolingey is revered as a venue where luncheon meat rules the roost – however its overuse has seen quantities limited to 2 pints in the major festivals and a complete ban in pleasure sessions/the new Friday residents matches. Other than that the rules are the same as for the regular Monday, Wednesday and Thursday White Acres residents matches – here’s how I split my 8 pint bait allowance (once again only using 7 pints to ensure I was well within the limit):
  • 2mm pellets (2 pints)
  • 6mm pellets (1 pints)
  • 8mm pellets (2 pints)
  • Corn (1 pint)
  • Red maggots (live, but bagged so dormant) (1 pint)
  • Worms
  • Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait

As you can guess my favoured approaches are based upon the use of pellets and worm over groundbait, with the corn and maggots only really there as a plan B.

Components of the heavier 5m rig

It is no exaggeration to say that I was into a carp within 10 seconds of the whistle blowing – as ever I’d loaded my 20g pellet feeder with a minute or two to go before the ‘all in’ and a waiting fish nearly pulled the 10’ tip rod from my hands as I was stinking the line!!! So by 1203 (today’s match was fished from noon until 5 o’clock) I had 5 pounds towards my total and I was wondering if I was going to fill my 3 nets with feeder-caught fish – however the answer was a definite ‘no’ as by 1230 I’d only added a tiny F1!!!

During this opening half an hour I’d been throwing 6 and 8mm pellets by hand to my 5m line and as the feeder to the island had pretty much died after that mug carp it was time for the pole. Whilst setting-up before the match I’d been in two minds as to go with a lighter or a heavier rig for fishing hard pellets on the deck on this line – in the end I’d settled on a lighter rig consisting of a 0.1g Mo Brown Slim’o (2mm tip) on 0.15 mainline to a 15cm hooklength of 0.13 with an eyed Kamasan B911 size 18 and a hair-rigged pellet band (elastic was white Hydro).

However within 3 seconds of hooking into a typical Bolingey carp on this rig I knew I’d made the wrong choice!!! Despite dragging me through some tricky foliage to my left I managed to land the fish but it took so long that straight after dropping it into the net I was off my box setting-up a heavier rig – this time with 0.17 mainline to a hooklength of 0.15 with a size 16 Guru MWG (elastic was black Hydro). A few minutes later I was into another carp, and with the stepped-up rig I was able to land it without any drama – meaning that by the end of the first hour I was on 3 carp and an F1 for about 15lb.

Looking right to the end of the island in front of peg 23

After a decent enough opening 60 minutes the second and third hours can only really be described as ‘very slow’! I did manage a third carp on the 5m line pretty early-on, but this soon dried-up and all I could manage after this was an additional carp and 3 tiny F1s on the pellet feeder to the island – meaning I would enter the fourth hour with only about 25-27lb to my name. (Did I mention catching fish is much harder in a match than in a pleasure session?)

The left margin

So with 2 hours to go it was clear I was going nowhere and my patient approach with the pellet feeder and hard pellets at 5m certainly wasn’t going to get me in the frame (though of course I still had the margins to try yet).

In order to ‘try and make something happen’ I decided to blast the margin of the island with 8mm pellets – this worked to a certain extent as it produced a carp on the straight lead (which was a nightmare to cast tight to the far bank given the overhanging foliage and the problems caused by fishing a 12” hooklength) and two more on the pellet feeder.

Recently I’ve been trying not to feed/fish my margin swims until as late as possible – feeding early seems to draw a few fish, but the sooner you feed the quicker they disappear!!! With only an hour and a half to go I’d waited as long as I possibly could so in went 4 full cups of Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait. This had an impact almost immediately – I could see tail pattern after tail pattern – but after 30 infuriating minutes I’d not received a single bite!!!

Not quite enough this time!!!

By now the clock had ticked ‘round to 4 o’clock and my estimated 40lb wasn’t going to get me in the history books – time for one last roll of the dice and another 4 full pots of groundbait!!! (I was loathed to do this as experience has taught me that too much bait fed into a margin swim can lead to a nightmare with foul-hookers, but what choice did I have?)

Anyway, the gamble paid-off to a certain extent as I was able to land four big carp – three hooked nicely in the mouth and one in it’s side – for going on 30 pounds. However, as predicted, I had a shocker with foul-hookers and trashed rigs – I lost 6 or 7 good fish clearly not hooked in the mouth that screamed out of the peg at 100 miles an hour never to be seen again!!!

With a minute to go my float dipped one last time (tackle by the way was a 4x12 Preston Innovations Durafloat 10 on 0.19 Reflo Power straight through to a size 12 Guru MWG and 17 Hollo elastic, bait was two whole dendrabena worms) but even though they are a rarity nowadays I was hardly over the moon to finish on a 12 ounce eel!!!

A crowd gathers to watch the winner weigh-in

In the end my two weighs gave me a total of 69-6-0 – a respectable return for a first match on a venue, but quite a way behind the 93lb that won the section! Overall results:
  1. J Vernon, 141-8-0
  2. A Longton, 117-2-0
  3. K Baxter, 114-2-0

Heave!!! Bagger and Bolingey co-owner Andy Dare in action

Conclusions: an enjoyable day at an amazing fishery but I can’t help but feel I could’ve put a much bigger weight on the scales from what was after all a very good peg! The second and third hours are the obvious starting point – whilst the pellet feeder and the 5m line were decent options, I can’t help but think a 14.5m line (either on the deck or up in the water) to the left into the open water would’ve produced a few fish. Then of course we have the problem of foul-hooking fish over groundbait down the edge – as soon as I figure this one out I’ll let you know!!!

Until next week’s Olde English Cider festival …

Thursday 20 June 2013

20 June 2013, Acorn (White Acres)

White Acres regulars will know all about the Thursday ‘Rover’ match, but for those that haven’t experienced one I’ll give a brief explanation. Essentially each angler in the match draws a number from the bag and this defines the order in which each person can select their peg from those available – number 1 gets first choice, number 2 second, etc., etc. All of the non-specimen lakes are included (this means that 13 lakes and about 300 pegs are available) but it is worth noting that White Acres residents not in the match can choose to pleasure fish on any peg as long as they are in place by 0830 (when the fishery staff do a circuit of the complex noting which pegs have been taken). This normally means that large swathes of Jenny’s Lake are already taken and can sometimes mean that the flyers on Twin Oaks and the High Bank of Pollawyn have gone before the draw begins.

The conventional wisdom is that a draw within either the top or bottom 5 is best – being in the first five to choose normally guarantees an out-and-out flyer and being one of the final anglers to draw means you can select a peg with lots of room safe in the knowledge others aren’t going to fill-in the swims around you.

Pre-draw excitement …

There were 108 anglers fishing today, but to accommodate late comers there were 130 numbers in the bag – considering what I’ve just written above you won’t be surprised to read that I drew 64, absolutely slap bang in the middle!

Prior to the draw I’d decided to try and get a peg on the furthest bank of Acorn (the area we pleasure fished on Saturday) – ideally peg 11, but realistically anywhere between 9 and 12. These aren’t normally the best pegs on the complex, but they are decent pegs and can sometimes offer a bit of room – unlike the hot-spots around Twin Oaks 16 and Pollawyn’s High Bank that can suffer badly from having every peg within a hundred yards taken!!!

By the time it was my turn to select a peg Acorn 11 had gone but 9, 10 and 12 were still available so having fished peg 10 on Saturday and having learned a few lessons I decided to plump for it again. (Incidentally Bagger drew number 119/130 but was still able to squeeze onto Acorn 12.)

An aerial view of 4 of the lakes at White Acres from Google Earth



I’ve included a bird’s eye view of Twin Oaks, Canal and Acorn courtesy of Google Earth above – the two lakes that form Twin Oaks are the long thin lakes at the top of the shot, Canal is the lake below on the left (the pegs are on the central island so the fishing is from the inside out) and Acorn can be seen in the bottom right. Peg 10 is in the middle of the bank on the far right – to give an idea of scale the chuck to the margin of the central island is less than about 25m.

As we got to our pegs with only about 45 minutes to go before the ‘all-in’ I settled on a simple plan consisting of catching on a small pellet feeder cast tight to the far bank for as long as I could before switching to the margins later on. (In all fairness if I’d have had 3 hours to set-up I’d have gone with the same plan as in my experience the match winning carp live tight to either bank, and I’ve never had any real success on the short or long pole.)

Sonubaits 50:50 for the edge

Personally I’ve always found the White Acres rule book to be a very fair and sensible one, and many fisheries have adopted rules initiated here – for example the idea of leaving keepnets drying on the bank until 15 minutes before the start of a match is one that I first encountered at White Acres but has since spread to venues I fish at home.

One of the main rules centres on your bait allowance, which (outside of 2 kilos of groundbait, a kilo of worms and a tub of boilies) is a maximum of 8 pints (in total) of pellets, corn, meat, hemp casters and maggots. Some people may disagree but to me this is tonnes of bait and more often that not I only end-up using 2 or 3 pints. For this match my allowance was made-up of:
  • 2mm pellets (2 pints)
  • 6mm pellets (2 pints)
  • 8mm pellets (1 pint)
  • Corn (1 pint)
  • Red maggots (live) (1 pint)
  • Worms
  • Boilies
  • Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait

The eagle eyed among you will notice I’ve only used 7 of the 8 pint limit – this is intentional as if checked I want to be 100% I’m within the maximum. The 2mm pellets are for the feeder; the 6mms are for feeder hookbaits and in case I need to fish the long pole shallow; the largest pellets cover the options of the straight lead and pellet waggler; the corn is for the edge and the maggots are for if I’m in real trouble and need to winkle-out some silvers to keep things ticking over. Regular readers will know I’m a big fan of worms over groundbait down the edge and hence the Sounbaits 50:50 – which I reckon is great value at £6 for a full 2 kilo bag (don’t forget many ‘standard’ bags of groundbait are £4 for only 900 grams).

Acorn peg 10 (again!)

The first three and a half hours of the match (from 1030 to 1400) went amazingly well with a constant stream of proper carp falling to the pellet feeder – tackle was my usual 8lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, a small 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder with 10cm hooklengths of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to either a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band (for 6mm pellet hookbaits) or a size 14 QM1 with a hair-rigged bayonet (for 8mm pop-up fluro boilies).

In order to keep the fish coming I alternated between two different spots on the far bank – however one of the biggest influences was the way the anglers around me fished. On the day pegs 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13 were all taken – though fortunately only Bagger on peg 12 chose to fish the feeder extensively, meaning I had the pick of the fish next to the island.

Best hookbait on the day was certainly a 6mm hard pellet – I had a few on pop-ups but I’d say the use of a 6mm pellet led to a quicker bite. Pellets for the feeder were simply prepared by pouring half a pint of pellets into a tub and covering with lake water without draining – I find this approach yields nice spongy pellets which are ideal for the pellet feeder. (Unlike yesterday the addition of Tutti Frutti Goo made zero difference and if anything put the fish off – funny, eh?)

My standard summer bagging edge gear

The weather forecast for today was for heavy rain (also known as ‘liquid sunshine’ in Cornwall) in the morning but clearing-up in the afternoon. However it can be seen from the video embedded above (which was taken around noon) that the first part of the day was dry and still – however at about 1 o’clock the heavens opened and believe me all 108 anglers fishing this match were given a right old soaking until about 1600!!!

At around 2 o’clock things on the tip had started to slow somewhat so as a plan B I fed 4 full pots of groundbait into my right margin at top kit plus one tight to the bank. I had intended to leave this to settle for a little while, but 10 seconds after re-casting my feeder to the far bank I was frantically reeling-in and reaching for my top kit as the bottom was clearly being ripped-up by hungry carp!!!

I had three good carp (including a Barney Rubble) from this initial feed on double dendrabena (gear was my usual heavy set-up of 0.19 Reflo Power straight through to a size 12 Guru MWG, the float was a 4x10 Durafloat 10 and elastic Preston Innovations 17 Hollo). However re-feeding didn’t have much of an impact and ‘only’ led to a further small carp and a 3lb perch hooked in the tail (hence the quotes around only!!!).

Looking left towards pegs 8 and 9

With an hour to go I re-fed the right margin again and opened two new margin lines – tight to the bank to my left at top kit plus one with groundbait and another area really close to the platform next to a clump of overhanging grass slightly to my left with rain soaked 2mm pellets and corn.

Of these three margin lines the only further fish came from the swim closest to my feet – the advantage of such a spot is that you can clearly see when a fish moves in as more often than not you’ll get a nice tail waving at you!!!

Fortunately during this final 60 minute period the fished returned to the margin of the central island and I was able to keep catching steadily through to the end of the match.

Beer tokens!!!

Eventually the final whistle blew and Ricky Dennis and my good friend Dave Woolgar (who had been press ganged into helping with the board) were soon ‘round with the scales. Despite using a clicker my first net exceeded the limit by about a pound so was knocked back to a level 60lb – there was no such problem with the second however leaving me with a stonking 112-5-0!!! This was by far my best weight of the year so far and only my second tonne at White Acres (where I’ve visited 2 or 3 times a year for about 10 years).

Despite (or because of) the stormy conditions the lakes had fished very well and my weight was only one of four 100lb plus weights on the day – however it was good enough for second overall, an amazing result considering my rather awkward draw of 64/130!

Overall results:
  1. Ian Fisk (Complete Angler), Trelawney 29, 120-0-0
  2. Phil Morris (Godalming AS), Acorn 10, 112-5-0
  3. Ian Sutton (Iffers), Eery 12, 101-14-0
  4. Tony Corbet (Wytharll Legers), Twin Oaks 30, 100-6-0
  5. Andy Fentom (Matlock AC), Eery 11, 97-12-0
  6. Dave Thompson (Kerfoot), Canal 12, 96-1-0

Looking at the top 6 pegs on the day it is interesting to see some unfancied lakes featuring – did Eery 11 and 12 cancel each other out? Well done to Ian Fisk on winning his second White Acres residents match of the week – don’t forget he won Monday’s match with nearly 140lb!!!

A nice addition to my non-existent trophy cabinet!!!

Conclusions: well what can I say? Today was one of those days when my very simple approach worked brilliantly and I was able to fish a peg and methods that suit my strengths as an angler. Ultimately this is why the Thursday Rover is so popular – and why you see so many people walking ‘round the lakes on a Wednesday with pen and paper in hand making a list of the pegs they’d like to fish!!!

Until tomorrow’s match at Bolingey …