The 2015 Maver has been my ninth festival at White Acres – however the previous eight have all been smaller, 4 day affairs so today was to be my first fifth day, and what better venue to spend it at than Bolingey?
Looking left from peg 11
Despite the venue boasting 50 pegs I’ve only actually fished five different spots as I’ve now drawn the same peg twice twice (no that’s not a typo) in seven matches – back in June I drew 40 for the second time and today I’ve drawn peg 11 for the second time this year!!!
Number 11 is certainly a nice looking peg and gives a number of options – there is a nice chuck to the corner of an island, the platform of peg 12 (which isn’t normally pegged) is within range of a top two plus two and of course there is open water to go at on the short and/or long pole.
Top two and two gear
I decided to cover three of these options – island, short pole and peg 12’s platform. In order to do so I set-up: one of my 10’ tip rods with 8lb reel line, a free-running 24g mini Guru hybrid feeder with a 10cm hooklength of 0.22 N-Gauge to a size 14 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band; for the top two plus two line at the bottom of the near shelf (which was deeper than a top two by a foot) I rigged-up a black Hydro top kit with 0.17 main line, a 0.2g SconeZone V8 and a 15cm trace of 0.15 to a size 18 LWG eyed hook (attached with a Palomar knot) – this was quite a delicate rig given the depth of water and the potential stamp of fish, but given Tuesday’s partial success at Trewaters with 6mm expander pellets on the hook this seemed to be the right way to go; finally I set-up a couple of rigs for fishing to peg 12’s platform (though I won’t go into too much detail, as without giving too much away I only had one (missed) bite from this line).
Looking towards the point of the island
To say the first hour the match went badly would be a massive understatement – by the time it had ended I’d completely lost the plot as in this time I’d only managed two carp on the hybrid feeder whilst the angler on peg 10 (Tom Cole) had put six or seven big carp in his net using bomb and bread (a bait that didn’t even feature on my side tray)!!!
The view to the right
In order to try and at least do something similar I (eventually) hastily rigged-up my second tip rod with a free-running two thirds of an ounce Guru square bomb, a large Guru float stop (that kicks the hooklength away from the bomb nicely), 12 inches of 0.19 and a size 14 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band – hookbaits were to be bright yellow, orange and red Ringers Allsorts. Unfortunately this change of tactics didn’t really work but by the end of the second hour I’d at least added two more carp on the hybrid feeder.
The Drennan Shorty
Halfway through the third hour proved to be the turning point in my match – by this time I’d only added one more carp via a 6mm expander on the top kit plus two pole line, so with nothing to lose I decided to set-up a pellet waggler rod to chuck towards the island. To be honest didn’t think it was going to work but with two carp in the net after just the first three chucks I was certainly wrong and back in the game with a slight glimmer of hope! (Tackle here was 6lb Daiwa Sensor main line, a 5g Drennan Shorty and a 25cm trace of 0.19 to a size 16 MWG with a hair-rigged pellet band – total depth of about 18”.)
Game over!
The final two hours went by in something of a blur but I think I managed one more (plus one lost) from the top two and two line, nothing but one missed bite from peg 12’s platform and probably seven more on the pellet waggler (plus three lost, two definitely foul-hooked). This gave me a total of 79-14-0, beaten by a 190lb weight from the famous bridge peg (27), an 81lb from peg 16 and an 80lb from peg 10 (who I managed to slowly but surely edge closer to after that runaway start), giving me a fourth in section and six points.
The final reckoning
So today’s match brought my 2015 Maver festival to a close – across the five days I’ve managed to score 27 points (out of a possible 45) and weighed a total of 161-0-0; being a five day festival though it’s the best four results that count and hence I’ve scored 24 points (dropping 3) and had a weight of 138-8-0. This has left me in 79th position – behind 78 anglers but ahead of 101, so not too shabby for a first attempt!!!
Having not previously fished one of the 180 peg White Acres festivals before I’ve never had the chance to fish the infamous Porth Reservoir before, so over recent weeks I’ve been doing some ‘intensive’ research – if you can call looking at the White Acres website and re-watching Preston Innovations Winning Pegs 3 on YouTube that is!!!
Explorer 106
This research showed that Porth Reservoir is a big venue (as confirmed by Ordnance Survey Explorer 106), formed by flooding a valley via a huge dam wall at the western end. It also seemed that the dominant tactics involve either fishing for a bag of small roach/skimmers on the pole or waggler or to fish the increasingly popular tactic of the long range method feeder for proper bream.
Ironically I’d written-off my day on Porth Reservoir before arriving in Cornwall as tiddler bashing and long range fishing are amongst my least favourite forms of fishing – however if you read on you’ll see why you should fish every match with an open mind!!!
Porth Reservoir
As already mentioned, Porth Reservoir is a large venue and for most of the year it only sees specimen carp anglers. Given the size of the place there are some long walks and half of the pegs are on the far (north) bank of the lake and involve loading your gear on to a boat!!! My draw (peg 79) saw me on this far bank and no doubt like every Porth Reservoir virgin I loaded my kit onto the boat with a nervous smile – however I’d no need to worry as my stuff arrived safely and the rod bag that was lost overboard wasn’t mine!!! (I jest of course.)
Very picturesque!
My home for the day was the end peg in the 71-79 sub-section, though in reality it is in the middle of the bank as the adjacent sub-section runs from 81-89. However you’ll notice that peg 80 isn’t in – this gave me a spare peg to my left and the added bonus of a short walk as this is where the boat moors-up!
Didn't need those waders after all!
Despite bringing my waders and the legs for my platform barrow I didn’t need to use them as peg 79 has a nice wooden staging to fish from – it also has a nice overhanging tree to the left that extends out into the water about 5m, though there is another tree overhead that makes it a bit of a birdcage and the fencing behind makes the long pole a bit tricky.
Light gear for small fish
With these factors in mind I set-up three rigs before the all-in: an 11’ feeder rod with 6lb Daiwa Sensor main line on the attached reel (a longer rod and slightly lighter line than usual to help with casting) and a 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder – this would be my bream rod and was clipped-up at about 50m; a 10’ feeder rod with 4lb reel line, a 15g cage feeder and an 18” hooklength of 0.13 to a size 20 Guru LWG – this would be my roach/skimmers rod and was clipped-up at 18-20m; finally a top two plus two pole rig consisting of 0.13 main line, a 4x12 Chianti and a 15cm trace of 0.10 to a size 20 Gamakatsu Black for fishing next to the tree for small fish.
I started on the close-range feeder
My thinking last night was that I’d target bream all day on the pellet feeder – however just after the draw I bumped into Kirsty (who used to work in the fishing lodge) who revealed that Richie Hull had done just that from the same peg yesterday and weighed only 10 ounces for last in section! Coupled with the sunny, flat conditions I had a change of heart and decided to give the small fish a go to see if fishing for them was to be a viable option.
Fish not pounds this time!
On the whistle I fed a few maggots and chopped worms next to the tree and picked-up my short range feeder rod. After 20 minutes I had 7 small roach in the net and was already on the way to overtaking Richie Hull’s weight, though I didn’t feel that I was catching big enough fish to do any good come 5 o’clock. As a result I nearly went for the bream rod but instead I thought I’d give the pole a quick try first – this proved to be a good move as by the end of the match I’d added a further 146 fish and had won the section by 6 ounces with 10-7-0!!!
Not quite enough to retire on!
In the end I didn’t even pick-up the pellet feeder rod and only gave the other tip rod another brief try at the start of the fifth hour when the pole line slowed right down – otherwise my catch rate was pretty consistent and I only lost two fish to pike, a good run in the last twenty minutes getting me a nice envelope!!!
