All the Gear, No Idea: May 2017

Monday 29 May 2017

29 May 2017, Old Lake (Willinghurst)

Well it was back to Willinghurst today and my famous 'left hand, right foot' combination continued its superb run at the drawbag (Twin Oaks 16 last time out don’t forget) as out popped Old Lake 13, an end/corner peg with great recent form. (In fact this was the peg that my Guildford Bait-Tech teammate Pete Franklin won the open match from last Sunday with a whopping 181lb – no pressure then!)

Another day, another flyer!!!

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

Despite seeing lots of fish moving before the start, somehow after three and a half extremely tortuous hours I only had two carp, one rudd and one skimmer (for no more than 10lb) in the net and steam was coming out of my ears as my brain went into over-drive trying to come-up with some decent excuses as to why I'd ruined yet another flyer!!!

Nice new platforms!

Luckily a few fish belatedly returned towards the end and by pinging 6mm pellets onto the top of the shallow bar (which was well within pole range at just over 13m) and by dumping big pots of mushy and 7mm meat at 16m into the corner to my left I was eventually able to get amongst a few decent carp – though surprisingly I’d say that only 20% came from the corner with 80% coming from the shallow bar.

Two envelopes today!

In the end and I managed to put 116-15-0 on the scales, a pretty good score but miles behind two other anglers on my lake as Paul Gibson (151-9-0) and Claire ‘Bagger’ Hollis (117-9-0) both smashed 'em on the pellet waggler from pegs 9 and 26 respectively!!! As a result I was third on lake and fifth overall, with Andrew Quarmby winning from Top Lake 22 with 208lb and Dave Guntrip finishing third from Top 19 with 132lb.

Until next time …

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Friday 19 May 2017

19 May 2017, Twin Oaks (White Acres)

Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!! Twin Oaks 16!!! Twin Oaks sixteen!!!

Twin Oaks 16!!!

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

Twin Oaks 16!!!

In the end my bag of carp from the best peg in the country went 98-10-0, enough to win the section by 30lb and enough for second on the lake as I was only beaten by a 115lb weight from Trelawney. That gave me a total score for the week of 25 points (dropping 3) and a final placing of sixty-eighth out of 180 – hopefully enough for an invite to the Preston Innovations festival in October!!!

Until next time ...

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Thursday 18 May 2017

18 May 2017, Pollawyn (White Acres)

Guru festival day 4 today and after three rather indifferent performances a flyer and a confidence boost were definitely the order of the day, especially as having already fished for nine out of the last eleven days was really starting to take its toll!

Spot the banana!

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

My dip into the bag of dreams saw Pollawyn 15 become my allocated home for the day – unusually me for this is actually a peg on the infamous High Bank and nice one too as it offers access to the left-hand end/point of the central island and has a bit of extra room (when compared to the pegs to the right where every peg is included for 10-12 pegs) as number 14 isn’t included in the major festivals.

A nice day for it

Before the start I could see a few fish cruising through my swim, but in fairness there seemed to be lots more to my left in front of pegs 12 and 13! As Pollawyn has been somewhat ‘moody’ of late I wasn’t sure what was going to happen so I was relieved to get one on the waggler inside the first 5 minutes, then when no further signs appeared in the next 10 minutes a switch to the hybrid feeder to the island got me a nice F1 – happy days!

Pollawyn festival pegging

Soon after that F1 hit the net Dan White (on peg 16 to my right) landed two decent carp on the long pole shallow so I quickly followed suit – it was hardly solid but over the next few hours I managed a total of five carp on the pole, four by flicking my long line swinger rig into the area I’d been pinging 6mm pellets, the other by flicking my rig at a nice big fish that cruised by just under the surface. I also managed to nick another carp by dropping my hybrid feeder over the area I’d been feeding for the pole shallow and one final carp (one of the new stocking) by casting the same hybrid feeder to the point of the island.

The view to the left

In the end my bag went 47-0-0, enough for second in section (8 points) behind Carl Williams (peg 23, 68-11-0) but satisfyingly ahead of Dan White’s 41-0-0 – as Dan finished in the top 3 in last week’s Milo festival I’m considering that to be a nice scalp!!!

Until next time ...

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Wednesday 17 May 2017

17 May 2017, Bolingey (White Acres)

Day 3 of the 2017 Guru festival today and the mighty Bolingey was to be our destination – despite being a fantastic venue a good draw is definitely needed so I was in two minds when peg 27 appeared from the bag of dreams!

Long range view of the Bridge Peg

The Bolingey regulars amongst you will know that peg 27 is the famous ‘Bridge Peg’, a swim in the far corner of the right-hand lake with a bridge in it!!! The bridge is to the right and crosses the link to the back lake – this channel used to be open (so the fish could swim between the two lakes) but nowadays it is fenced-off, preventing such movement.

Bolingey festival pegging

The peg is certainly a good looking one that offers many options – the usual margin, short and long lines, plus the option of fishing the pole to the far bank to the left of the bush next to the bridge and potentially under the bridge itself. However a quick look at recent results shows that it is not one of the in-form pegs on the lake – when we were at Bolingey last Monday it only yielded two points, and so far this week the anglers that have sat on it have returned 6 and 4 points.

Looking across towards peg 45

Having plenty of time to set-up I set-up pole rigs to cover the following options:

The right margin at TK+1
The left margin (top kit only)
The secret 3’ line at TK+1 at angle to the left
The bottom of the near shelf at TK+3 straight in front
On the deck at 14.5m, slightly to the right
14.5m to the far bank, at an angle of 45 degrees to the right
A shallow rig to be fished at 14.5m

(I managed to set-up this lot and I had time to eat one of Andy Dare’s bacon sandwiches, something of a record!)

Bolingey’s famous bridge

As it happened I caught fish from 6 of these 7 tactics (the only one that didn’t produce was the shallow rig). The most productive lines were probably the ones at the bottom of the near shelf and on the deck at 14.5m, the lines that I really hoped would produce (the right margin and across to the far bank) never really got going, leaving me with 64-0-0 for fifth in section (5 points).

Until next time ...

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Tuesday 16 May 2017

16 May 2017, Porth Reservoir (White Acres)

Day two of the 2017 Guru festival today and it was time for another trip to a venue that has become something of a nemesis, Porth Reservoir! (On my first visit I actually managed a section win and on my second match there I came third in section – since then (3 matches) I’ve been stuck in the bottom three!!!)

Looking towards the dam wall

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

Rightly or wrongly (probably wrongly) I went for a rod and line only approach today – two feeder rods (long and short) and a waggler, leaving the pole in the bag.

My ‘spod’ mix

On the all-in I placed approximately one pint of corn and one pint of 6mm pellets on my 60m line via a 35mm diameter Kevin Leach extreme distance feeder and had a go on the short (20m) feeder line. This actually went quite well and inside 30 minutes I put a good pound of small skimmers and roach in the net.

Big Bertha was brought into action today!

Just as I was thinking that I could ignore the long line and catch double-figures of small fish on the short line it died so I was forced into an early look long. Nothing came of this so after 15 minutes or so it was back short where I managed to eek out a few more small fish but it was really slow – the waggler didn’t work either!

Gear for the long range feeder set-up

Basically I spent the remainder of the match swapping between the short and long feeder lines until the last hour where I stuck with the long line only. Unfortunately I didn’t get a bream on the long line, though quite a few where caught in the section on the pole, the tactic I’d chosen to ignore!!!

Looking slightly left

In the end my bag of small fish went a poultry 1-15-0, yet again seventh in section (3 points) – so far I’ve amassed a lowly 6 points from two matches and as a result I’m sitting in one hundred and forty-second (142nd) place out of 180 – I really must try harder!!!

Until next time ...

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Monday 15 May 2017

15 May 2017, Trewaters (White Acres)

After two days without any fishing (but quite an amount of Doom Bar) it was back in the saddle today for day one of the 2017 Guru festival at White Acres and once again we’d be pitting our wits against the likes of Paul Holland, Pemb Wrighting, Robbie Taylor, John Whincup, Andy Bennett and Adam Rooney!!!

The calm before the storm!

This time Bagger and myself have been drawn into ‘C’ section so our rotation is going to be Acorn/Jenny’s/Trewaters, Porth Reservoir, Bolingey, Pollawyn and finally Trelawney/Twin Oaks.

Trewaters 41 it is then!

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

My first dip into the bag of dreams for the week saw me land on Trewaters 41, a decidedly average peg on the bottom lake. My plan before the all-in was to fish with hard pellets on the deck all over the peg and to catch one or two fish from a given spot before re-plumbing a new spot and starting again – this approach seemed to be the way to go when I discovered that the peg was incredibly flat all the way from the bottom of the near shelf to 14.5m! As a back-up I also set-up a tip rod with a 24g mini hybrid feeder, two shallow rigs and a margin line.

All the gear ...

As it happened the plan failed and I only caught seven fish all day – five on the feeder in the first 90 minutes, one on the deck at about 15:00 and one from the margin at about 16:00! As planned I started on the deck with 6mm pellets but couldn’t buy a bite for love nor money! I hadn’t really intended to fish the tip but it was the only thing that worked – until it started raining at 13:30, after which the peg died!

The view from the car park!

In the end my fish could only pull the dial down to a measly 27-6-0 and I was once again subjected to a first day blow-out – a seventh in section (3 points), having been battered by the downwind pegs led by Phil Canning's 102-15-0 from peg 53.

Until next time ...

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Friday 12 May 2017

12 May 2017, Porth Reservoir (White Acres)

Well it was the fifth and final day of the 2017 Milo festival today – having been drawn into section ‘E’ that meant a visit to the might Porth Reservoir. This is not necessarily the ideal place to be on a wet and windy day, and trust me it was wet and windy – even by Cornish standards!!!

What could possibly go wrong?

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

My draw put me on peg 83 – this didn’t mean much to me other than knowing that it meant that my kit would be arriving by boat and I’d have rather a long walk to get to my swim!!!

Nathan Fox next door on 84

My pre-match plan was to ignore the long-range feeder line (something that I have very little confidence in) and focus on a combination of a short-range (20m) cage feeder with a long tail and the pole at 13m.

As it happened I never had a bite on the pole (a super-strong wind blasting from right to left meaning that for the majority of the match I couldn’t hold it properly probably had something to do with it), so all of my fish today fell to the cage feeder with a single red maggot being the best hookbait.

Catch of the day!!!

In the end my catch of small skimmers and roach only weighed 1-7-0, only enough to beat two in the section meaning I ended-up seventh with a meagre 3 points. (Well done to Nathan Fox next door who fished a great match catching three nice bream on the long-range pellet feeder to go with some skimmers caught on his short-range cage feeder.)

As a result I ended the festival with a mildly disappointing 22 points (dropping 3), putting me ninety-sixth out of 180, so not even in the top half – oh well not to worry as the fun and games start again on Monday with the 2017 Guru festival!!!

Until next time ...

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Thursday 11 May 2017

11 May 2017, Acorn (White Acres)

Day four of the 2017 Milo festival today meaning our destination would be either Trewaters, Jenny’s or Acorn – Acorn was a last minute inclusion as the low numbered section of Jenny’s that is normally included is currently out of action as there is construction work going on between the tackle shop and Jenny’s.

Looking across to pegs 1 and 19

Personally I was looking for a flyer on Trewaters but wasn’t too displeased to draw number 3 on Acorn – Paul Holland had bombed-out from this peg earlier in the week but since then the wind has turned around and today there was a nice breeze blowing into pegs 1 and 2, something that I hoped would be in my favour as the fish certainly follow the wind on this lake.

The view to the right

White Acres regulars will remember that peg 3 on Acorn used to have a massive goarse bush overhanging the left margin – on the right day this used to be a real magnet for the lake’s carp, but was cut right back a few years ago. However it has started to grow back and whilst it isn’t back to its former glory it is starting to provide a nice feature. The central island is another nice feature but is just out of range on the pole given the 16m limit, though if and when the wind dropped I planned to have a go out it with a long lining swinger rig.

I started the match fishing with hard pellets on the shelf at top kit plus 4 to the left – this seems like a funny place to fish but I thought it was worth having a go towards the bay formed by the vacant pegs 1 and 2 as this is where the wind was blowing. This line was actually quite good (to start with) and produced a carp first drop followed by some F1s.

Famous goarse!

Unfortunately after half an hour this line died and I suffered what I can only call three ‘rock hard’ hours, during which time I could only manage 3 small F1s on the hybrid feeder, one more fish from the TK+4 line to the left and one F1 on the pole shallow at 13m – I also must’ve flicked my swinger rig to within 3” of the island a hundred times and never had a bite on it!

Luckily the last 90 minutes were pretty good as I caught a reasonable number of F1s at top kit plus one and a half sections toward the goarse bush on the deck with maggots – I did also lose quite a few foul-hookers but I guess that is par for the coarse when fishing in this fashion.

The final reckoning

In the end my fish went a level 44lb, good enough for fourth in section (6 points), just out of reach of Gary Evans next door on peg 5 (50-4-0) and Lee Martin on 19 (56lb), but quite away behind Chris Kitchen who won the section fishing the long pole to the island from peg 9 with 74-8-0. However I did take my first major scalp of the fortnight in the form of the mighty Grant Albutt who weighed 37-1-0 from peg 17!!!

Lovely jubbly!!!

As a footnote Bagger and myself paid our first visit to the famous Shanghai Express (also known as Lenny’s) Chinese restaurant in Newquay tonight – great food, loads of beer and half of the anglers from the festival seemed to be in there too!!!

Until next time ...

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Wednesday 10 May 2017

10 May 2017, Twin Oaks (White Acres)

In a flash we’re already on to the third day of the 2017 Milo festival with Trelawney or Twin Oaks our destination for the day. With the wind blowing the ‘wrong way’ it seemed that pegs 2 or 36 on Twin Oaks would be the ones to draw so I had mixed feelings when Twin Oaks 18 appeared from the bag of dreams!

Twin Oaks 18 today

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

Having said that peg 18 is certainly a very, very good peg (though not quite as good as the infamous Twin Oaks 16) and being an end peg it provides lots of options – having plenty of time to set-up I put together a multitude of rods and top kits to cover the following lines:

Top kit plus three to the right, tight to the parallel bank in the corner
Top kit plus two to the left in 3’ of water
Top kit plus two directly in front at the bottom of the near shelf
13m to the right, tight to the parallel bank
Shallow at 14.5 straight in front
A hybrid feeder clipped-up tight to a Doogal bush on the far side

(Normally I struggle to get one or two set-ups ready so having three hours between the draw and the all-in is definitely something I’m enjoying and could certainly get used to!!!)

Twin Oaks 18 with the infamous 16 in the background

My match essentially transitioned through 4 phases: The first hour of the match was decent with four big fish from four different lines (one each from the near margin line, the 3’ line, long pole shallow and feeder), followed by 90 minutes without being able to buy a bite anywhere! The peg came back to life at 14:30 and for ninety minutes I caught well swapping between the feeder and the bottom of the near shelf with hard pellets on the deck – then just as I thought I was in for a good last hour the fish deserted me again and I could only manage two more in the final sixty minutes, something I knew would cost me (see below)!

Painful reading!!!

If you look closely at the photo above you’ll see that I managed record a respectable 95-10-0 but contrived to be beaten by a 99-8-0, another 99-8-0, a 101-8-0, a 102-10-0 and a 113-4-0!!! This meant I ended-up sixth in section (4 points), another 7lb would’ve put me second and another 18lb would’ve meant a lake win – don’t you just love match fishing!!!

Until next time ...

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Tuesday 9 May 2017

09 May 2017, Pollawyn (White Acres)

Day two of the 2017 Milo festival at White Acres today with Pollawyn (also known as the Match Lake) being our destination. Historically this used to be one of the most consistent and prolific lakes in the country but over recent years it has become pretty tough and really rather peggy – as a result a good draw was once again the order of the day!

The view from Pollawyn 48

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

Fortunately luck was on my side and I managed to draw the very same peg that I drew in last year’s Milo festival – peg 48. In my opinion this is a very good peg – it may not be part of the infamous High Bank but that’s no bad thing these days! Peg 48 offers two important things – a far bank with a couple of nice looking spots within range of 14.5/16m of pole and plenty of room (there is always a spare peg to the left and three spare pegs to the right in these festivals).

Nice and cosy on the point to my left

Now that the draw time has been brought forward to 9 o’clock I had plenty of time to get ready and set-up loads of rigs to cover loads of options but in the end I only actually caught on two and these featured the same components: black Nick Gilbert Amber Core elastic, 0.17 Guru N-Gauge mainline, a 0.4g Drennan Crystal Margin float and a 10cm hooklength of 0.13 into a size 16 LWG (spade-end). (I had two rigs set-up as 14.5m straight in front against the mud was 18” deep and 16m slightly to the right in front of some rushes was nearly 2’.)

The view to the right

The match itself was quite a simple one – I wasted the first fifteen minutes dobbing along the far bank but as soon as I started feeding and fishing a spot directly in front (mushy meat in a medium Guru pole-mounted pot for feed, an inch of worm on the hook) I was into fish. Most of these fish were the immaculate 1-2lb carp that had been recently stocked, but there were some of the bigger (older) carp mixed in – towards the end I also managed a couple of 3lb barbel that were as strong as anything I’ve ever encountered and went absolutely ballistic! (When things on this line went quiet I had a look at the 16m line to the right in front of the rushes but surprisingly this area was nowhere near as good as the bare bank and I’d say I only caught 10% of my weight from here.)

Never have so many drawbags been seen in the same place at the same time!

In the end my hard work double-shipping all day got me 60-10-0 and second in section (8 points) – quite a way behind James Stones on peg 36 (78-4-0) and only just ahead of Steve Conway (peg 43, 60-0-0), but good enough for fifth overall on the lake and a cheeky default section winner’s envelope!

Until next time ...

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Monday 8 May 2017

08 May 2017, Bolingey (White Acres)

Well it was the first day of the 2017 Milo festival at White Acres today – we are also fishing the Guru festival next week so come a week on Friday there could be some bargains on eBay if things don’t go to plan!!!

Things were buzzing pre-draw

Having been drawn into ‘E’ section it was Bolingey today with Pollawyn, Twin Oaks/Trelawney, Acorn/Jenny’s/Trewaters and Porth Reservoir to come. In terms of superstars we are in with Grant Albutt, Darren Cox, Richie Hull and Jamie Wilde to name just a few – at the end of the day part of the appeal of fishing these festivals is to fish against this calibre of angler so bring on the big dogs!!!

Looking right towards 10 and 11

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

My first dip into the bag of dreams for the week put me on peg 17, a nice peg at the rear of the complex and as you’d have it next door to Bagger who’d pulled out peg 18 to my left. Pegs 15 to 18 all offer access to the rear of the central island so a tip rod with a free-running Hybrid feeder was the first thing set-up, as were pole rigs for the margin, the secret 3’ line and the bottom of the near shelf.

All the gear ...

My match started well with a nice fish first drop on the secret 3’ line followed by another first chuck on the feeder – unfortunately this was followed by two biteless hours during which time I had a right battering from Bagger (who was catching steadily on the feeder) and Vince Brown to my right who was catching on paste in the deeper water at 14.5m.

Damn margins!

At about twenty past two I got up off of my box and set-up a rig for fishing shallow at 14.5m and half an hour later I was back in the running as I’d managed to snare four proper carp on a tactic that I was told never works at Bolingey! Unfortunately this line quickly died so it was soon time for the margins, a line that I thought I really needed to work if I was to get decent points – with hindsight I became obsessed with the margins and despite seeing plenty of fish I only landed five between twenty past three and ten to five (one every 18 minutes). At ten to five I went back on the long pole shallow and got one straight away, leaving me wondering how things would’ve ended-up if I’d have stuck with this approach and ignored the margins altogether!!!

Andrew Crocker about to be 'ounced' by Bagger

In the end my twelve carp weighed a total of 94-8-0, only good enough for sixth in section (4 points) as I was beaten by Andrew Crocker (peg 10, 109-7-0), Bagger (peg 18, 109-10-0), Simon Gould (peg 23, 111-4-0), Vince Brown (peg 16, 123-11-0) and Vince Cross (peg 45, 140-4-0). So as ever things were close and just two or three extra fish would’ve made a huge difference to my score, that preoccupation with the margins really costing me on the day!!!

Until next time ...

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