24 June 2013, Twin Oaks (White Acres)

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!!!

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’!!!

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.

Sub-section pegging

YouTube video of the view from my peg

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.

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).

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.

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.)

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:

1. Rich Britton, 5 points, 88-9-0
2. Robert Judson, 5 points, 87-6-0
3. Will Sweeney, 5 points, 81-14-0
4. Chris Gay, 5 points, 79-13-0
5. Bradley Hancock, 5 points, 79-7-0
6. Ian Copeland, 5 points, 73-4-0
7. Paul Hardman, 5 points, 66-12-0
8. Phil Morris, 5 points, 63-12-0
9. Maurice Brown, 5 points, 56-11-0
10. 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) …

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21 June 2013, Bolingey (White Acres)

For cricket it’s Lords, for rugby see Twickenham and for football look no further than Wembley – whilst Bolingey may not be the official spiritual home of match fishing it has become a mystical venue, hidden deep in the Cornish countryside and only to be match fished by the country’s elite anglers in the major spring and autumn festivals …

Welcome to Bolingey!!!

… until now that is! Whilst it has always been possible to book a pleasure fishing trip to Bolingey via a weekly White Acres fishing permit, 2013 has seen the introduction of regular Friday White Acres residents matches at the venue. Numbers are limited to 32 and by the time we booked-in at about 9am on Saturday nearly half the places had gone already – so it’s obviously proving popular, with those in the know booking their places early!!!

Bolingey plan and pegging



The Bolingey complex is made-up of 3 lakes – to my knowledge each  is officially nameless so I normally refer to the them as ‘the one nearest the car park’, ‘the one with the island at the back’ and ‘the other one’! In total there are 50 pegs (though a couple are intentionally overgrown and unfishable) and as of last year there is now an on-site clubhouse serving teas, coffees, bacon sandwiches, soft drinks, etc. and small items of terminal tackle.

I feel it’s also worth pointing-out that the entrance fee today was £21 - £15 pools and £6 day ticket. Some anglers have questioned this pegging fee as a Bolingey pleasure session doesn’t attract any charge (over and above that for a weekly White Acres fishing permit) – my view is that there are 2 options: pucker-up and pay the £6 to fish the match or do something else instead!!!

The point of the island opposite peg 26

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Over the years Bagger and myself have fished Bolingey on four occasions – each time on ‘the one with the island at the back’ somewhere between peg 8 and peg 22 (the widest parts of the lake). Each time we’ve absolutely bagged-up with estimated weights (easily) between 150 and 200lb  – though as we all know doing so in a pleasure session when the lake is half empty and you can choose a couple of flyers is very, very different to doing it in match!!!

Today the bag of dreams chose me peg 26 – this is on the same lake and is an end peg (if you can have end pegs on a rectangular lake with swims on all four sides) opposite one of the ends of the central island. The peg is actually quite narrow with only about 20m to the island (however it really opens-out to the right and pegs 23, 24 and 25 have more like 30m to work with) – though it does offer a great deal of open water and a nice long margin to the left.

All the gear …

Bolingey is revered as a venue where luncheon meat rules the roost – however its overuse has seen quantities limited to 2 pints in the major festivals and a complete ban in pleasure sessions/the new Friday residents matches. Other than that the rules are the same as for the regular Monday, Wednesday and Thursday White Acres residents matches – here’s how I split my 8 pint bait allowance (once again only using 7 pints to ensure I was well within the limit):

• 2mm pellets (2 pints)
• 6mm pellets (1 pints)
• 8mm pellets (2 pints)
• Corn (1 pint)
• Red maggots (live, but bagged so dormant) (1 pint)
• Worms
• Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait

As you can guess my favoured approaches are based upon the use of pellets and worm over groundbait, with the corn and maggots only really there as a plan B.

Components of the heavier 5m rig

It is no exaggeration to say that I was into a carp within 10 seconds of the whistle blowing – as ever I’d loaded my 20g pellet feeder with a minute or two to go before the ‘all in’ and a waiting fish nearly pulled the 10’ tip rod from my hands as I was stinking the line!!! So by 1203 (today’s match was fished from noon until 5 o’clock) I had 5 pounds towards my total and I was wondering if I was going to fill my 3 nets with feeder-caught fish – however the answer was a definite ‘no’ as by 1230 I’d only added a tiny F1!!!

During this opening half an hour I’d been throwing 6 and 8mm pellets by hand to my 5m line and as the feeder to the island had pretty much died after that mug carp it was time for the pole. Whilst setting-up before the match I’d been in two minds as to go with a lighter or a heavier rig for fishing hard pellets on the deck on this line – in the end I’d settled on a lighter rig consisting of a 0.1g Mo Brown Slim’o (2mm tip) on 0.15 mainline to a 15cm hooklength of 0.13 with an eyed Kamasan B911 size 18 and a hair-rigged pellet band (elastic was white Hydro).

However within 3 seconds of hooking into a typical Bolingey carp on this rig I knew I’d made the wrong choice!!! Despite dragging me through some tricky foliage to my left I managed to land the fish but it took so long that straight after dropping it into the net I was off my box setting-up a heavier rig – this time with 0.17 mainline to a hooklength of 0.15 with a size 16 Guru MWG (elastic was black Hydro). A few minutes later I was into another carp, and with the stepped-up rig I was able to land it without any drama – meaning that by the end of the first hour I was on 3 carp and an F1 for about 15lb.

Looking right to the end of the island in front of peg 23



After a decent enough opening 60 minutes the second and third hours can only really be described as ‘very slow’! I did manage a third carp on the 5m line pretty early-on, but this soon dried-up and all I could manage after this was an additional carp and 3 tiny F1s on the pellet feeder to the island – meaning I would enter the fourth hour with only about 25-27lb to my name. (Did I mention catching fish is much harder in a match than in a pleasure session?)

The left margin



So with 2 hours to go it was clear I was going nowhere and my patient approach with the pellet feeder and hard pellets at 5m certainly wasn’t going to get me in the frame (though of course I still had the margins to try yet).

In order to ‘try and make something happen’ I decided to blast the margin of the island with 8mm pellets – this worked to a certain extent as it produced a carp on the straight lead (which was a nightmare to cast tight to the far bank given the overhanging foliage and the problems caused by fishing a 12” hooklength) and two more on the pellet feeder.

Recently I’ve been trying not to feed/fish my margin swims until as late as possible – feeding early seems to draw a few fish, but the sooner you feed the quicker they disappear!!! With only an hour and a half to go I’d waited as long as I possibly could so in went 4 full cups of Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait. This had an impact almost immediately – I could see tail pattern after tail pattern – but after 30 infuriating minutes I’d not received a single bite!!!

Not quite enough this time!!!

By now the clock had ticked ‘round to 4 o’clock and my estimated 40lb wasn’t going to get me in the history books – time for one last roll of the dice and another 4 full pots of groundbait!!! (I was loathed to do this as experience has taught me that too much bait fed into a margin swim can lead to a nightmare with foul-hookers, but what choice did I have?)

Anyway, the gamble paid-off to a certain extent as I was able to land four big carp – three hooked nicely in the mouth and one in it’s side – for going on 30 pounds. However, as predicted, I had a shocker with foul-hookers and trashed rigs – I lost 6 or 7 good fish clearly not hooked in the mouth that screamed out of the peg at 100 miles an hour never to be seen again!!!

With a minute to go my float dipped one last time (tackle by the way was a 4x12 Preston Innovations Durafloat 10 on 0.19 Reflo Power straight through to a size 12 Guru MWG and 17 Hollo elastic, bait was two whole dendrabena worms) but even though they are a rarity nowadays I was hardly over the moon to finish on a 12 ounce eel!!!

A crowd gathers to watch the winner weigh-in



In the end my two weighs gave me a total of 69-6-0 – a respectable return for a first match on a venue, but quite a way behind the 93lb that won the section! Overall results:

1. J Vernon, 141-8-0
2. A Longton, 117-2-0
3. K Baxter, 114-2-0

Heave!!! Bagger and Bolingey co-owner Andy Dare in action



Conclusions: an enjoyable day at an amazing fishery but I can’t help but feel I could’ve put a much bigger weight on the scales from what was after all a very good peg! The second and third hours are the obvious starting point – whilst the pellet feeder and the 5m line were decent options, I can’t help but think a 14.5m line (either on the deck or up in the water) to the left into the open water would’ve produced a few fish. Then of course we have the problem of foul-hooking fish over groundbait down the edge – as soon as I figure this one out I’ll let you know!!!

Until next week’s Olde English Cider festival …

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20 June 2013, Acorn (White Acres)

White Acres regulars will know all about the Thursday ‘Rover’ match, but for those that haven’t experienced one I’ll give a brief explanation. Essentially each angler in the match draws a number from the bag and this defines the order in which each person can select their peg from those available – number 1 gets first choice, number 2 second, etc., etc. All of the non-specimen lakes are included (this means that 13 lakes and about 300 pegs are available) but it is worth noting that White Acres residents not in the match can choose to pleasure fish on any peg as long as they are in place by 0830 (when the fishery staff do a circuit of the complex noting which pegs have been taken). This normally means that large swathes of Jenny’s Lake are already taken and can sometimes mean that the flyers on Twin Oaks and the High Bank of Pollawyn have gone before the draw begins.

The conventional wisdom is that a draw within either the top or bottom 5 is best – being in the first five to choose normally guarantees an out-and-out flyer and being one of the final anglers to draw means you can select a peg with lots of room safe in the knowledge others aren’t going to fill-in the swims around you.

Pre-draw excitement …

There were 108 anglers fishing today, but to accommodate late comers there were 130 numbers in the bag – considering what I’ve just written above you won’t be surprised to read that I drew 64, absolutely slap bang in the middle!

Prior to the draw I’d decided to try and get a peg on the furthest bank of Acorn (the area we pleasure fished on Saturday) – ideally peg 11, but realistically anywhere between 9 and 12. These aren’t normally the best pegs on the complex, but they are decent pegs and can sometimes offer a bit of room – unlike the hot-spots around Twin Oaks 16 and Pollawyn’s High Bank that can suffer badly from having every peg within a hundred yards taken!!!

By the time it was my turn to select a peg Acorn 11 had gone but 9, 10 and 12 were still available so having fished peg 10 on Saturday and having learned a few lessons I decided to plump for it again. (Incidentally Bagger drew number 119/130 but was still able to squeeze onto Acorn 12.)

An aerial view of 4 of the lakes at White Acres from Google Earth

YouTube video of the view from my peg

I’ve included a bird’s eye view of Twin Oaks, Canal and Acorn courtesy of Google Earth above – the two lakes that form Twin Oaks are the long thin lakes at the top of the shot, Canal is the lake below on the left (the pegs are on the central island so the fishing is from the inside out) and Acorn can be seen in the bottom right. Peg 10 is in the middle of the bank on the far right – to give an idea of scale the chuck to the margin of the central island is less than about 25m.

As we got to our pegs with only about 45 minutes to go before the ‘all-in’ I settled on a simple plan consisting of catching on a small pellet feeder cast tight to the far bank for as long as I could before switching to the margins later on. (In all fairness if I’d have had 3 hours to set-up I’d have gone with the same plan as in my experience the match winning carp live tight to either bank, and I’ve never had any real success on the short or long pole.)

Sonubaits 50:50 for the edge

Personally I’ve always found the White Acres rule book to be a very fair and sensible one, and many fisheries have adopted rules initiated here – for example the idea of leaving keepnets drying on the bank until 15 minutes before the start of a match is one that I first encountered at White Acres but has since spread to venues I fish at home.

One of the main rules centres on your bait allowance, which (outside of 2 kilos of groundbait, a kilo of worms and a tub of boilies) is a maximum of 8 pints (in total) of pellets, corn, meat, hemp casters and maggots. Some people may disagree but to me this is tonnes of bait and more often that not I only end-up using 2 or 3 pints. For this match my allowance was made-up of:

• 2mm pellets (2 pints)
• 6mm pellets (2 pints)
• 8mm pellets (1 pint)
• Corn (1 pint)
• Red maggots (live) (1 pint)
• Worms
• Boilies
• Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait

The eagle eyed among you will notice I’ve only used 7 of the 8 pint limit – this is intentional as if checked I want to be 100% I’m within the maximum. The 2mm pellets are for the feeder; the 6mms are for feeder hookbaits and in case I need to fish the long pole shallow; the largest pellets cover the options of the straight lead and pellet waggler; the corn is for the edge and the maggots are for if I’m in real trouble and need to winkle-out some silvers to keep things ticking over. Regular readers will know I’m a big fan of worms over groundbait down the edge and hence the Sounbaits 50:50 – which I reckon is great value at £6 for a full 2 kilo bag (don’t forget many ‘standard’ bags of groundbait are £4 for only 900 grams).

Acorn peg 10 (again!)

The first three and a half hours of the match (from 1030 to 1400) went amazingly well with a constant stream of proper carp falling to the pellet feeder – tackle was my usual 8lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, a small 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder with 10cm hooklengths of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to either a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band (for 6mm pellet hookbaits) or a size 14 QM1 with a hair-rigged bayonet (for 8mm pop-up fluro boilies).

In order to keep the fish coming I alternated between two different spots on the far bank – however one of the biggest influences was the way the anglers around me fished. On the day pegs 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13 were all taken – though fortunately only Bagger on peg 12 chose to fish the feeder extensively, meaning I had the pick of the fish next to the island.

Best hookbait on the day was certainly a 6mm hard pellet – I had a few on pop-ups but I’d say the use of a 6mm pellet led to a quicker bite. Pellets for the feeder were simply prepared by pouring half a pint of pellets into a tub and covering with lake water without draining – I find this approach yields nice spongy pellets which are ideal for the pellet feeder. (Unlike yesterday the addition of Tutti Frutti Goo made zero difference and if anything put the fish off – funny, eh?)

My standard summer bagging edge gear

The weather forecast for today was for heavy rain (also known as ‘liquid sunshine’ in Cornwall) in the morning but clearing-up in the afternoon. However it can be seen from the video embedded above (which was taken around noon) that the first part of the day was dry and still – however at about 1 o’clock the heavens opened and believe me all 108 anglers fishing this match were given a right old soaking until about 1600!!!

At around 2 o’clock things on the tip had started to slow somewhat so as a plan B I fed 4 full pots of groundbait into my right margin at top kit plus one tight to the bank. I had intended to leave this to settle for a little while, but 10 seconds after re-casting my feeder to the far bank I was frantically reeling-in and reaching for my top kit as the bottom was clearly being ripped-up by hungry carp!!!

I had three good carp (including a Barney Rubble) from this initial feed on double dendrabena (gear was my usual heavy set-up of 0.19 Reflo Power straight through to a size 12 Guru MWG, the float was a 4x10 Durafloat 10 and elastic Preston Innovations 17 Hollo). However re-feeding didn’t have much of an impact and ‘only’ led to a further small carp and a 3lb perch hooked in the tail (hence the quotes around only!!!).

Looking left towards pegs 8 and 9

With an hour to go I re-fed the right margin again and opened two new margin lines – tight to the bank to my left at top kit plus one with groundbait and another area really close to the platform next to a clump of overhanging grass slightly to my left with rain soaked 2mm pellets and corn.

Of these three margin lines the only further fish came from the swim closest to my feet – the advantage of such a spot is that you can clearly see when a fish moves in as more often than not you’ll get a nice tail waving at you!!!

Fortunately during this final 60 minute period the fished returned to the margin of the central island and I was able to keep catching steadily through to the end of the match.

Beer tokens!!!

Eventually the final whistle blew and Ricky Dennis and my good friend Dave Woolgar (who had been press ganged into helping with the board) were soon ‘round with the scales. Despite using a clicker my first net exceeded the limit by about a pound so was knocked back to a level 60lb – there was no such problem with the second however leaving me with a stonking 112-5-0!!! This was by far my best weight of the year so far and only my second tonne at White Acres (where I’ve visited 2 or 3 times a year for about 10 years).

Despite (or because of) the stormy conditions the lakes had fished very well and my weight was only one of four 100lb plus weights on the day – however it was good enough for second overall, an amazing result considering my rather awkward draw of 64/130!

Overall results:

1. Ian Fisk (Complete Angler), Trelawney 29, 120-0-0
2. Phil Morris (Godalming AS), Acorn 10, 112-5-0
3. Ian Sutton (Iffers), Eery 12, 101-14-0
4. Tony Corbet (Wytharll Legers), Twin Oaks 30, 100-6-0
5. Andy Fentom (Matlock AC), Eery 11, 97-12-0
6. Dave Thompson (Kerfoot), Canal 12, 96-1-0

Looking at the top 6 pegs on the day it is interesting to see some unfancied lakes featuring – did Eery 11 and 12 cancel each other out? Well done to Ian Fisk on winning his second White Acres residents match of the week – don’t forget he won Monday’s match with nearly 140lb!!!

A nice addition to my non-existent trophy cabinet!!!

Conclusions: well what can I say? Today was one of those days when my very simple approach worked brilliantly and I was able to fish a peg and methods that suit my strengths as an angler. Ultimately this is why the Thursday Rover is so popular – and why you see so many people walking ‘round the lakes on a Wednesday with pen and paper in hand making a list of the pegs they’d like to fish!!!

Until tomorrow’s match at Bolingey …

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18 June 2013, Trewaters (White Acres)

So onto the second match of our White Acres 2013 – a 15 peg open match at Trewaters. This venue is normally very windswept (they didn’t build a wind farm across the road for nothing) but today the breeze was non-existent and the turbines unmoved – something that in my experience can make the fishing much tougher than a nice stormy day!

Looking left from peg 29



Trewaters isn’t part of the White Acres complex but more of a partner – there are regular Tuesday matches organised through the onsite tackle shop and the lakes are often used for White Acres festivals, but you can’t otherwise pleasure fish there on your White Acres fishing permit. (You can however book the lake and organise your own matches – scales are provided but I believe booking fees apply.)

The site is made-up of a stock pond and two fishable lakes – both of which feature a central island and about 18 pegs each (though as with many venues it seems to fish better when numbers are restricted to say every other peg). The islands are reachable on some pegs with 16m of pole and a long line – however most swims are suited to a feeder approach as they are on average 22-25m wide.

Aerial view of Trewaters



YouTube video of the view from my peg

My previous two visits to Trewaters had seen me draw the same peg (41 on the bottom lake) but rather than a hat-trick peg 29 appeared from the bag of dreams – this is a decent peg in the middle of the far long bank of the top lake. As with the majority of swims the margin of the central island looked very inviting with lots of overhanging foliage and features – peg 29 also features the start of a reed bed to the right which runs through peg 30 (everybody had a spare peg either side today).

Simple bait requirements

Prior to the all-in I set-up two matching feeder rods with small 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeders, the only difference being that one was clipped-up for fishing straight in front to the margin of the central island, the other for fishing to the start of the reed bed mentioned above. (Hooklengths were the usual 10cm of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge with a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band for fishing a 6mm pellet and a size 14 with a hair-rigged bayonet for pop-up 8mm boilies.)

Bait for the feeder was simply some soaked 2mm pellets – though I did have tubes of Kiana Goo in Tutti Frutti and Perfect Peach power smoke in order to ring the changes.

Looking right from peg 29



From a blogging perspective this turned-out to be a very boring yet successful match – I simply spent 5 hours casting a pellet feeder to one of three spots, picking-up carp and F1s on a fairly regular basis!!! When one swim died I’d simply cast to another spot or apply some Tutti Frutti Goo to my feeder – either of which would normally lead to another run of fish!!!

In the end my two weighs saw a pleasing 69-4-0 hit the scales – enough for victory by exactly 10 pounds (though there wasn’t much between second and third!!!).

Top 3:

1. P Morris, 69-12-0
2. G Swan, 59-12-0
3. K Baxter, 59-10-0

Luxury fish and chips!



As I was in a generous mood we made our way back to White Acres via the Port & Starboard in Fraddon – the best fish and chips in Cornwall!!!



Until Thursday’s Rover …

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17 June 2013, Trelawney (White Acres)

So on to the first match of my White Acres 2013 fortnight – the regular ‘Gold’ residents match, today held across Twin Oaks, Acorn and Trelawney.



A decent turn-out of 54 all hoping for a flyer!!!



White Acres regulars will be aware that the onsite fishery team normally run three matches each week – the exception being when there is a major 180 peg festival in progress. There are two conventional pegged-down matches of which each White Acres resident can opt to fish one each week – there is an entry criteria for the Wednesday ‘Silver’ match aimed to make it more accessible to club anglers, but in my experience the only real difference between the ‘Gold’ and the ‘Silver’ are the pools (£15 and £10 respectively). (The third match is the famous ‘Rover’ but more of that later in the week!)

Looking right from Trelawney peg 3





YouTube video of the view from my peg

Every match angler’s favourite pre-match pastime is eulogising as to where they do and (more importantly) don’t want to draw in a given match – my view was that I definitely didn’t want to draw the middle of the lodge bank on Trelawney, so guess where I drew??? You can imagine my feelings when I managed to avoid all of the tasty pegs on Twin Oaks and Acorn and peg 3 on Trelawney appeared from the bag of dreams!!!

Trelawney is one of the older lakes on the White Acres complex and features 32 pegs with a nice feeder chuck to the central island – in fact you can reach the island with 16m of pole on some of the narrower pegs. This lake contains a good head of F1s and big, proper carp – however due to the age of the fish and the relentless pressure they receive Trelawney can be notoriously moody. One day the weights are through the roof, the next day it’s rock hard – I can certainly contest to the latter!!!

Peg 3 is a nice looking peg with a 25m chuck into a slight bay – on the day peg 2 to my right was the end peg (and hence would be hard to beat), but I had a spare platform accessible at 13m to my left as peg 4 wasn’t in.

The Preston Innovations pellet feeder



On the all-in (White Acres residents matches are fished from 1030 to 1530) I cast my small 20g Preston Innovations pellet feeder and prayed for a mug Billy Bunter to get my match up and running – this wasn’t to be but instead in the first hour I managed a constant run of small skimmers and F1s, virtually one every cast in fact. (These fish weren’t huge but as my aim was 30lb and a section win they were more than welcome!)

(The best hookbait was a 6mm hard pellet and the feeder was simply loaded with soaked 2mm fishery pellets. The hooklength was the usual 10cm of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band.)



A close-up of the KC Carpa Slap



Throughout the first hour I’d been regularly flicking small quantities of 6mm pellets to 13m, so when the feeder started to slow I gave myself 10 minutes to see if the long pole shallow would be any good today. Literally 9 minutes and 55 seconds into this spell I was just about to give up (as I’d not been given any reason to believe there were any of the target F1s in the area) when the float buried and I was attached to something substantial. After what seemed like a lifetime (as I was after F1s the rig was using was made-up on 0.13 mainline with a 0.11 hooklength and blue Hydro) a fantastic bonus of an 8lb mirror carp found its way into my net!!!

Following this success I scaled-up my rig (which featured a self-cocking KC Carpa Slap) to 0.15 mainline with an 0.13 hooklength to a size 18 eyed Kamasan B911 with a hair-rigged band – but never had another bite on it all day!!!

The Mo Brown Doco



Following the carp I’d spent a further 20 fruitless minutes looking for another on the long pole shallow, before switching back to the tip for a few more small skimmers and F1s to keep things ticking over. However this line once again died at around 1300, so it was time to have a go for some weight building silvers shallow at 5m – the rig consisted of a 0.1g Mo Brown Doco float on 0.13 to 0.11 with a size 16 Drennan Silverfish Maggot hook and pink Hydro.

Unfortunately as per the previous session on Acorn all I could muster on this approach were tiny rudd and not the proper 4 to 6 ounce roach I have been lucky enough to catch on previous visits to Trelawney. As a result this tactic was soon shelved with another switch back to the pellet feeder for some more skimmers and F1s (which really had by now become very few and far between).

Always nice to have a spare platform within range!!!



By about 2 o’clock it was finally time for a make or break attack on the platform to my left at 13m. To kick things off I fed 4 full pole cups of Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait – this was mixed fairly wet, but riddled to remove any lumps and fed loose.

In went the usual 2 dendrabenas (slapped on the water a couple of times to stop them wriggling and masking the point of the hook) but despite investing (or should that be ‘wasting’?) an hour on this line all I could manage were a few nuisance roach and perch. (There were definitely carp present as I foul-hooked and lost two, plus on a couple of occasions there were some major bow-waves as carp spooked out of the swim.)

Twin Oaks, Acorn and Trelawney were in today



Fortunately after finally giving-up on the margin swim I returned to the tip with about half an hour to go to see if any fish had turned-up – and it was absolutely solid!!! A good run of better F1s and a bonus carp saw me finish on a high but with one regret – should I have ruled-out the margin and returned to the tip sooner???

The reward for a hard fought section win



In the end my endeavours propelled me to a decent 41-12-0 – enough for a section win as those late fish on the pellet feeder had put me a good 5 pounds clear of peg 2.

Overall results:

1. Ian Fisk (Complete Angler) 139-1-0, Twin Oaks 15
2. Martin Williams (Sheffield) 85-12-0, Twin Oaks 12
3. Paul Duffy (Trafford Angling) 77-11-0, Twin Oaks 21

Nets drying prior to the next skirmish



Conclusions: not for the first time I managed to waste a good hour down the edge without really contributing anything to my total – when will I learn that if it doesn’t go under in the first 30 seconds it isn’t going to go under at all??? (With hindsight my 0.19 straight through rig may have been too brutal for the wise old Trelawney edge dwellers and perhaps a scaled-down 0.17 rig with an 0.15 hooklength and a smaller bait may have led to a few bites.) However the final result (a section win) was the one I’d aimed for – especially pleasing as the Olde English Cider festival is now less than a week away and section points are where it’s at!

Until tomorrow’s match at Trewaters …

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15 June 2013, Acorn (White Acres)

Well it was a long time coming, but finally is was time to head back to White Acres for the first time since September 2012! Like many people we set-off for White Acres early in the morning (we were on the road before 4am) in order to have breakfast in the First Bite café and enjoy an extra day’s fishing whilst our accommodation is being prepared.



Link to YouTube video of arrival

Acorn, White Acres



Personally I always find I fish really badly on this first day and normally end-up catching next to nothing – luckily I’m used to this now and treat it as a way of hopefully getting all of by bad angling out of the way before the matches start!!!

Looking left from peg 10



YouTube video of the view from my peg

Acorn has always been a favourite lake of ours so as the wind was blowing in its normal direction (towards the bank furthest from the entrance), we settled on pegs 10 (me) and 11 (Bagger). It has to be said the wind was pretty strong (even by Cornish standards) and the lake was surprisingly busy for a Saturday, with about a dozen anglers occupying their choice of the 19 available pegs.

Since our last visit the fishery team have laid a new path down to Acorn. This is a massive improvement but watch-out for the cheeky slope from the new exit from the car park – one of the first things I managed to do was to tip my seat box from the front of my barrow and see it roll a few yards down this new path!!! (I told you I fished badly on day one!)

The KC Carpa Force



As this was to be the only pleasure/practice day of our 2 week stay at White Acres I decided to leave my ever faithful feeder rods in the bag and experiment with a number of short (top kit plus 3 at most) pole approaches.

The first tactic was to be worm over groundbait at top kit plus 3 straight in front for skimmers – the rig was based around a 4x12 KC Carpa Force on 0.15 Guru N-Gauge mainline into a 15cm hooklength of 0.13 with a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. (I find these floats to be excellent but the shotting is understated – the 4x12 version actually takes 8 number 10 stotz.) As I was hoping for a mixed bag my elastic choice was white Hydro.

I kicked things off with a couple of balls of Sonubaits 50:50 with some softened micro pellets mixed in – unfortunately I couldn’t stick with this approach for very long as I was absolutely annihilated by tiny rudd and snapped-up by a foul-hooked carp!!!

The Mo Brown Slimo (2.0mm tips)



Next up was a quest for some F1s on the deck at top kit plus 2 with hard pellets. The set-up for this approach was a 0.1g Mo Brown Slimo on 0.15 with a size 18 eyed B911 (with a hair-rigged pellet band) on a hooklength of 0.13. I normally like to use blue Hydro for F1s, but as there are lots of big carp in Acorn I once again settled on that great all rounder white Hydro instead.

This turned-out to be a great tactic that saw a string of F1s hit the landing net – the best feeding approach seemed to be to loose feed some 6mm pellets by hand in conjunction with a further 10 or 12 pellets tapped right over the float from a small Preston Cad pot fixed to the very end of my top kit. (I can only assume that the noise of the loose fed pellets drew the fish into the area and the potted bait focussed them nearer the hook.)

(Whilst this is a good approach for getting a few bites I’m not sure it is a match winning tactic on its own as the F1s are much smaller than the resident carp you can catch tight to the island or in the margins on Acorn.)

Gear for maggots in the margin



Option 3 was another to rule-out – down the left margin at top kit plus 1 with maggots. I have seen people make this work on this lake but once again I was ravaged by tiny rudd!!! (In all fairness I did fish it rather early in the day – perhaps some carp would’ve moved-in later?)

(Tackle for this line was my standard light margin rig – a 4x10 Durafloat 10 on 0.17 into a hooklength of 0.15 with an eyed B911 size 16, the elastic being black Hydro.)

Silvers shallow hooklength components



Plan D was one that I sincerely hoped I wouldn’t need to employ again over the next two weeks – silvers shallow with maggots at 5m. This is a tactic that is definitely worth pursuing when other carp catching approaches aren’t firing – but you’ve guessed it, I was battered by tiny rudd once again!!!

I had loads of fish on my Mo Brown Doco rig (mainline 0.13, hooklength 0.11, hook a size 16 Drennan Silverfish Maggot, elastic blue Hydro) but unfortunately they weren’t the dumpy 4 to 6 ounce jobbies that have got me out of jail on previous occasions!!!

Proper hooks for double dendras!!!



The final approach of the day is one that really needs to be made to work if you are to do well on Acorn – double worm over groundbait tight to the near margin for Billy Bunters! (Tackle for this line was my standard heavy margin rig – a 4x10 Durafloat 10 on 0.19 N-Gauge straight through to a size 12 Guru MWG fished in conjunction with Preston Innovations 17 Hollo elastic.)

I kicked-off to my right with 4 full pots of 50:50 groundbait and it took the carp at least 5 seconds to arrive and start churning-up the bottom like there was no tomorrow!!! I caught two big carp immediately (I’m sure one could’ve been fitted for a saddle), before feeding another pot of bait and landing another.

Unfortunately this golden spell was short-lived and over the next two hours I only managed to land 4 more smaller carp – the main problem was that the majority of the carp I did contact were foul-hooked and unstoppable!!!

Bagger enjoyed herself!



Conclusions: a good first day and some food for thought – some tactics didn’t work but two did, and at the end of the day that’s what practice/pleasure sessions are all about! Now all I need to do if to figure-out how to stop foul-hooking carp over groundbait down the edge …

Until Monday’s Gold match …

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