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!!!
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| 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’!!!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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.)
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| 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:
- Rich Britton, 5 points, 88-9-0
- Robert Judson, 5 points, 87-6-0
- Will Sweeney, 5 points, 81-14-0
- Chris Gay, 5 points, 79-13-0
- Bradley Hancock, 5 points, 79-7-0
- Ian Copeland, 5 points, 73-4-0
- Paul Hardman, 5 points, 66-12-0
- Phil Morris, 5 points, 63-12-0
- Maurice Brown, 5 points, 56-11-0
- 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) …
Until day 2 (Acorn/Canal) …
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