Really, really heavy rain before the start then heavy showers throughout the match meant a damp end to the 2014 Garbolino Spring Classic festival at White Acres - but nonetheless a happy one for me personally as you'll read about in a minute or two!!!
 |
| Simplistic pegging this week! |
Today's dip into the bag of dreams saw me placed on peg 25 on the high numbered arm of Twin Oaks - certainly not a favoured swim, though the pegs on this lake a pretty much of a muchness apart from the end pegs (which themselves can be feast or famine).
I spent the first five minutes of today's match looking for a big, mug fish from the margins to get my match up and running with - this seems to be a popular tactic on these lakes but is one I've never had any joy with (today not being the exception), so I was soon back onto my usual pellet feeder approach and into a good run of decent sized fish to finish the first hour feeling pretty confident of a good result.
The middle three hours of the match were then very slow with just a few more carp on the feeder plus a single skimmer on a 5m pole line where I'd fed some groundbait, dead maggots and chopped worms. Luckily things picked-up in the final hour where I caught a few more on the tip and two bigger carp late on down the edge on double dendrabena over groundbait.
The middle three hours of the match were then very slow with just a few more carp on the feeder plus a single skimmer on a 5m pole line where I'd fed some groundbait, dead maggots and chopped worms. Luckily things picked-up in the final hour where I caught a few more on the tip and two bigger carp late on down the edge on double dendrabena over groundbait.
 |
| Presentation time! |
In the end those last gasp margin carp gave me a weight of 43-14-0 - not a big score by usual standards, but remarkable in many ways as it gave me exactly the same weight as Andrew Cunliffe and enough for a third straight section win in a row (well technically two section wins and a joint section win, but either way that's 27 points in this festival)!!!
 |
| Bradley Hancock (3rd), Harry Billing (1st) and yours truly (2nd) |
As is traditional with all White Acres festivals the week is finished-off with the prize giving and a bit of a booze-up in the bar on the final night where I was very surprised yet very pleased to discover that I'd managed to leapfrog Steve Evans and Bradley Hancock to end-up second overall with 33 points behind the legendary Harry Billing's perfect score of 4 straight section wins and 36 points!!!
Final top 10:
- Harry Billing, 36 points, 308-9-0
- Phil Morris, 33 points, 285-5-0
- Bradley Hancock, 32 points, 192-15-0
- Steve Evans, 32 points, 253-6-0
- Dale Hancock, 30 points, 290-1-0
- Adam Playford, 30 points, 254-3-0
- Jon Cook, 30 points, 252-12-0
- Sammy Davies, 30 points, 247-0-0
- Jason Wellington, 30 points, 216-3-0
- Danny Edwards, 29 points, 270-12-0
So congratulations to Harry Billing on yet another White Acres festival win and a big thank you to the White Acres staff (Lorna, Clint, Karl and Steve) for organising a great week once again!!!
 |
| Gratuitous trophy shot!!! |
Conclusions: well after a terrible start three great draws/results really made the difference and the thought of a podium finish was the last thing on my mind on Monday night! Having said that the pegging this week (the use of every peg on each of the lakes) has made the fishing tough but very fair (as everybody was in the same boat with no spare pegs floating around) and had the effect of pushing the fish to the far bank and hence onto my favoured pellet feeder line.
Until next year ...
