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!)
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| Twin Oaks* |
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.
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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:
- Phil Morris (yours truly) (15 points, 249-7-0)
- Mo Brown (15 points, 228-8-0)
- Chris Haywood (15 points, 146-5-0)
- Kevin Sims (14 points, 146-5-0)
- Danny Edwards (14 points, 133-14-0)
Why not follow me on Twitter? @philip_r_morris
*Photo courtesy of White Acres facebook page
*Photo courtesy of White Acres facebook page
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