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!!!
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