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!!!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!!!
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| 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.)
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| 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.)
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| 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!!!
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| 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:
- Danny Edwards, 15 points, 189-3-0
- Jon Cook, 15 points, 166-2-0
- Maurice Brown, 15 points, 159-4-0
- Ian Carley, 14 points, 227-10-0
- Will Sweeney, 14 points, 181-7-0
- Brendan Turner, 14 points, 120-4-0
- Ian Turner, 14 points, 119-8-0
- Rick Broadway, 14 points, 115-1-0
- Mick Hudson, 13 points, 153-1-0
- 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) …
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