10 May 2017, Twin Oaks (White Acres)

In a flash we’re already on to the third day of the 2017 Milo festival with Trelawney or Twin Oaks our destination for the day. With the wind blowing the ‘wrong way’ it seemed that pegs 2 or 36 on Twin Oaks would be the ones to draw so I had mixed feelings when Twin Oaks 18 appeared from the bag of dreams!
  

Twin Oaks 18 today

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  
Having said that peg 18 is certainly a very, very good peg (though not quite as good as the infamous Twin Oaks 16) and being an end peg it provides lots of options – having plenty of time to set-up I put together a multitude of rods and top kits to cover the following lines:

• Top kit plus three to the right, tight to the parallel bank in the corner
• Top kit plus two to the left in 3’ of water
• Top kit plus two directly in front at the bottom of the near shelf
• 13m to the right, tight to the parallel bank
• Shallow at 14.5 straight in front
• A hybrid feeder clipped-up tight to a Doogal bush on the far side

  
(Normally I struggle to get one or two set-ups ready so having three hours between the draw and the all-in is definitely something I’m enjoying and could certainly get used to!!!)
  

Twin Oaks 18 with the infamous 16 in the background

  
My match essentially transitioned through 4 phases: The first hour of the match was decent with four big fish from four different lines (one each from the near margin line, the 3’ line, long pole shallow and feeder), followed by 90 minutes without being able to buy a bite anywhere! The peg came back to life at 14:30 and for ninety minutes I caught well swapping between the feeder and the bottom of the near shelf with hard pellets on the deck – then just as I thought I was in for a good last hour the fish deserted me again and I could only manage two more in the final sixty minutes, something I knew would cost me (see below)!
  

Painful reading!!!

  
If you look closely at the photo above you’ll see that I managed record a respectable 95-10-0 but contrived to be beaten by a 99-8-0, another 99-8-0, a 101-8-0, a 102-10-0 and a 113-4-0!!! This meant I ended-up sixth in section (4 points), another 7lb would’ve put me second and another 18lb would’ve meant a lake win – don’t you just love match fishing!!!
  
Until next time ...
  

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09 May 2017, Pollawyn (White Acres)

Day two of the 2017 Milo festival at White Acres today with Pollawyn (also known as the Match Lake) being our destination. Historically this used to be one of the most consistent and prolific lakes in the country but over recent years it has become pretty tough and really rather peggy – as a result a good draw was once again the order of the day!
  

The view from Pollawyn 48

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  
Fortunately luck was on my side and I managed to draw the very same peg that I drew in last year’s Milo festival – peg 48. In my opinion this is a very good peg – it may not be part of the infamous High Bank but that’s no bad thing these days! Peg 48 offers two important things – a far bank with a couple of nice looking spots within range of 14.5/16m of pole and plenty of room (there is always a spare peg to the left and three spare pegs to the right in these festivals).
  

Nice and cosy on the point to my left

  
Now that the draw time has been brought forward to 9 o’clock I had plenty of time to get ready and set-up loads of rigs to cover loads of options but in the end I only actually caught on two and these featured the same components: black Nick Gilbert Amber Core elastic, 0.17 Guru N-Gauge mainline, a 0.4g Drennan Crystal Margin float and a 10cm hooklength of 0.13 into a size 16 LWG (spade-end). (I had two rigs set-up as 14.5m straight in front against the mud was 18” deep and 16m slightly to the right in front of some rushes was nearly 2’.)
  

The view to the right

  
The match itself was quite a simple one – I wasted the first fifteen minutes dobbing along the far bank but as soon as I started feeding and fishing a spot directly in front (mushy meat in a medium Guru pole-mounted pot for feed, an inch of worm on the hook) I was into fish. Most of these fish were the immaculate 1-2lb carp that had been recently stocked, but there were some of the bigger (older) carp mixed in – towards the end I also managed a couple of 3lb barbel that were as strong as anything I’ve ever encountered and went absolutely ballistic! (When things on this line went quiet I had a look at the 16m line to the right in front of the rushes but surprisingly this area was nowhere near as good as the bare bank and I’d say I only caught 10% of my weight from here.)
  

Never have so many drawbags been seen in the same place at the same time!

   
In the end my hard work double-shipping all day got me 60-10-0 and second in section (8 points) – quite a way behind James Stones on peg 36 (78-4-0) and only just ahead of Steve Conway (peg 43, 60-0-0), but good enough for fifth overall on the lake and a cheeky default section winner’s envelope!
  
Until next time ...
  

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08 May 2017, Bolingey (White Acres)

Well it was the first day of the 2017 Milo festival at White Acres today – we are also fishing the Guru festival next week so come a week on Friday there could be some bargains on eBay if things don’t go to plan!!!
  

Things were buzzing pre-draw

  
Having been drawn into ‘E’ section it was Bolingey today with Pollawyn, Twin Oaks/Trelawney, Acorn/Jenny’s/Trewaters and Porth Reservoir to come. In terms of superstars we are in with Grant Albutt, Darren Cox, Richie Hull and Jamie Wilde to name just a few – at the end of the day part of the appeal of fishing these festivals is to fish against this calibre of angler so bring on the big dogs!!!
  

Looking right towards 10 and 11

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  
My first dip into the bag of dreams for the week put me on peg 17, a nice peg at the rear of the complex and as you’d have it next door to Bagger who’d pulled out peg 18 to my left. Pegs 15 to 18 all offer access to the rear of the central island so a tip rod with a free-running Hybrid feeder was the first thing set-up, as were pole rigs for the margin, the secret 3’ line and the bottom of the near shelf.
  

All the gear ...

  
My match started well with a nice fish first drop on the secret 3’ line followed by another first chuck on the feeder – unfortunately this was followed by two biteless hours during which time I had a right battering from Bagger (who was catching steadily on the feeder) and Vince Brown to my right who was catching on paste in the deeper water at 14.5m.
  

Damn margins!

  
At about twenty past two I got up off of my box and set-up a rig for fishing shallow at 14.5m and half an hour later I was back in the running as I’d managed to snare four proper carp on a tactic that I was told never works at Bolingey! Unfortunately this line quickly died so it was soon time for the margins, a line that I thought I really needed to work if I was to get decent points – with hindsight I became obsessed with the margins and despite seeing plenty of fish I only landed five between twenty past three and ten to five (one every 18 minutes). At ten to five I went back on the long pole shallow and got one straight away, leaving me wondering how things would’ve ended-up if I’d have stuck with this approach and ignored the margins altogether!!!
  

Andrew Crocker about to be 'ounced' by Bagger

  
In the end my twelve carp weighed a total of 94-8-0, only good enough for sixth in section (4 points) as I was beaten by Andrew Crocker (peg 10, 109-7-0), Bagger (peg 18, 109-10-0), Simon Gould (peg 23, 111-4-0), Vince Brown (peg 16, 123-11-0) and Vince Cross (peg 45, 140-4-0). So as ever things were close and just two or three extra fish would’ve made a huge difference to my score, that preoccupation with the margins really costing me on the day!!!
  
Until next time ...
  

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23 April 2017, John's Lake (Willinghurst)

You won’t be surprised to hear that it was back to Willinghurst for yet another go today, this time the open match spread across John’s Lake and New Lake. The weather forecast was reasonable (sunny spells with a light breeze from the east) and with a bacon sandwich having eased a mild hangover I joined the queue hoping for a nice pitch where I could while away the following six hours!
  

Pre-match banter no doubt!

  
Even though I had done quite well on New Lake a couple of weeks ago, and despite the fact that John’s Lake fished rather hard last Sunday, I was actually looking to get onto John’s and for once the drawbag was kind to me as a poker chip with ‘J7’ inked on the back heralded my destination for the day.
  

Before ...

  

... and after!

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  
John’s Lake itself is basically a fairly long, fairly wide rectangle running from east to west (or west to east if you like) with about 50 pegs – the westerly end is slightly wider, but where I was (peg 7) it was about 40-45m to the far bank (not that you can chuck to it as there are normally anglers pegged on both banks). It looks pretty featureless from the surface but there is actually a shallow bar running through the middle – this is just out of pole range so is normally attacked with running line tactics.
  
Ironically I drew peg 8 back in August of last year and spent the day catching from just in front of peg 7’s platform as Paul ‘Tippy’ Taylor had kindly done a little foliage trimming the week before to make it accessible – knowing that this could work again today my first job of the day was to return the favour a do a little gardening of my own!
  

All the gear ...

  
Ignoring the shallow bar (by leaving my rods in the holdall) I set-up just two rigs before the start – my ‘sensible’ margin rig (black Amber Core elastic, 0.17 Guru N-Gauge main line, 0.3g SconeZone V6, 10cm 0.15, size 16 LWG (eyed)) and a rig for fishing hard pellets into the deeper water (black Amber Core elastic, 0.17, 4x16 Roob Titan, 15cm 0.13, size 16 LWG (eyed) with a hair-rigged pellet band). (Having carefully plumbed-up I found I could get away with just the one rig for the deeper water as the depth was exactly the same all the way from the bottom of the near shelf at top kit plus three to 14.5m. Adding an extra section to take me to 16m saw the depth decrease by an inch – presumably this was the start of the central bar so this was one of those rare situations where a 17.5m extension might’ve been handy.)
  

Looking right from John's 7

  
I kicked-off my match with a quick look at peg 7’s platform but after 5 minutes of missed bites from small fish it was out to top kit plus three in front where I immediately (and skilfully) foul-hooked a gudgeon on an over-sized White Acres 6mm pellet! The second drop led to another quick bite, this time from a small carp that turned into a 3lb tench at the net. I did eventually get a carp from this line at the half hour point but it was clear that the fishing was going to be tough as the anglers that I could see were also struggling for bites.
  
As a result I spent the bulk of the match rotating between two lines at top kit plus three, two lines at 14.5m, two lines at 16m and the line in front of peg 7’s platform, picking-up the odd fish here and there, normally getting a bite when returning to a line that hadn’t been fished for a while.
  

More gear ...

  
Going into the final hour I knew that I was miles behind Paul ‘Tommy’ Hiller (who was on a peg on the far bank at the westerly end of the lake) but I felt I was in touching distance of the other pacesetters so it was still all to play for!
  
Given the time of day I decided to put more emphasis on the margin line – this paid dividends with 4 reasonable carp in the final part of the match – though in the end it was a final carp from the top kit plus 3 line with 3 minutes to go that was to prove crucial!
  

The moment of truth!

  
I knew that things were going to be tight but when Tommy weighed 68lb, Tom Arnott 47lb and Jamie Mathews 41-11-0 I thought I was sunk as my clicker read 40lb – luckily my clicking was slightly under and my fifteen or so carp went 42-6-0, just enough for third on the lake and fifth overall (last in the frame)! That result means that I’ve now framed in 3 of my last 4 matches at Willinghurst, though on two occasions if I’d had weighed a pound less I’d be back to moaning about being ‘one out of the money’ again!!!
  
Until next time ...
  

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17 April 2017, Top Lake (Willinghurst)

After yesterday’s disappointing match it was straight back on the horse today for the Easter Monday open at Willinghurst. With a real reluctance to use John’s Lake again, and with New Lake occupied by pleasure anglers, match organisers Mick and Shaun took the decision to squeeze all 30 anglers around the banks of Top Lake and Old Lake – as ever there were a few grumbles but there would’ve been a lot more had John’s been used two days in a row! (It seems to me that John’s Lake can be really good in the summer, so a few more weeks’ worth of decent weather it will be the place to be.)
  

Looking left from Top Lake peg 29

  
After yesterday’s results (where the anglers on Old Lake pegs 22, 9 and 11 shared nearly 600lb between them) I think most anglers in the queue wanted to draw in this area (even though the wind had completely turned around overnight). Obviously I didn’t draw anywhere near these pegs, but I did draw a bit of a flyer in Top Lake number 29. This isn’t a peg that I’d fished before but it certainly looks the part as it has a far bank easily in reach with 14.5m of pole, an island to chuck to with a feeder and loads of room to the right where the water loops around the island towards peg 30.
  

All the gear

  
Sitting on the platform there seemed to be two spots that looked really fishy – across to the far bank (slightly to the left) where the resident wildfowl had created a patch of bare banking and the point of the island to the right (I was however slightly put off of this line when a duck stood-up in the water a foot or so from the bank).
  
As a result I set-up a ‘sensible’ rig for fishing next to the bare bank (Nick Gilbert black Amber Core elastic, 0.17 Guru N-Gauge, 0.3g SconeZone V6, 10cm 0.15, LWG (eyed) size 16) and a tip rod for fishing with a 24g mini hybrid feeder for chucking to the island. I also set-up a duplicate pole rig for a second spot along the far bank to the right (the bare bank had a depth of 18”, the second line was 3 or 4 inches shallower) and a rig for fishing with hard pellets into the deepest water at top kit plus 4.
  

The gap between the far bank and the island

  
The match itself was a steady if unspectacular affair – word on the bank was that the lakes were fishing pretty hard so I kept plugging away at the line to the bare bank, feeding a mixture of pellets and meat via a medium Guru pole pot and using a worm segment on the hook. At one point I hooked and landed five fish in quick succession – otherwise the key was being patient and not feeding too much (at one point I refed with the big pot and didn’t get a bite for ages).
  
I did try the feeder now and again (no pulls), the hard pellet rig into the deeper water (one skimmer) and the second pole line (two carp), but the bulk of my catch (a further 14-15 carp, a skimmer and a gudgeon) came from the bare bank.
  

Looking along the right margin

  
However the most disappointing part of my match today was that I couldn’t get a bite from either of my margin lines – with hindsight I’m sure my rig (which was on 0.19 straight through to a size 12 MWG) and feeding were far too crude and I should’ve adopted the same rig and feeding approach used on the far side. Having said that the inside lines plumbed-up terribly and I could only find 12” 3 or 4 feet from the bank, effectively putting me in no man’s land.
  

Martin Johnson on the scales

  
In the end my fish went 76-5-0, enough for third in section and eighth overall on the continental pay-out. I was quite a way behind Guildford Bait-Tech’s Luke Sherriff who won the section (second overall) from peg 26 with 105lb, but I was slightly annoyed that a fish lost at the net cost me second in section as only a further three pounds was required to move ahead of peg 3’s 79lb – though I did beat James Granger (peg 30) by less than a pound!!!
  
Until next time ...
  

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16 April 2017, Old Lake (Willinghurst)

Being a four day Easter weekend (something I could definitely get used to) today’s match was the first of two in a row at Willinghurst and following last week’s success on New Lake I was looking forward to another plumb draw on one of the numerous flyers!!!
  

End peg Billy again!

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  
Despite drawing what can be a very good peg (26 on Old Lake) things really didn't go to plan as it seemed that all of the fish followed the wind and camped-out at the other end of the lake in the narrow section! Three nice carp in the first hour (including two in the first four casts), followed by three and a half hours without a sign, two more carp in a row followed by a biteless last two hours!!!
  

Adam Lee weighing-in

  
My 42-2-0 meant I was only 220lb behind winner Adam Lee 4 pegs to my right!!! Oh well another go tomorrow!!!
  
Until next time ...
  

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09 April 2017, New Lake (Willinghurst)

After last weekend’s trip to Norfolk for the three day Reepham Fishery festival it was back to my regular spring/summer haunt (Willinghurst) for today’s open match. I’m often the first to moan about bad weather conditions whilst fishing but today’s weather was amazing – sunny, 20 odd degrees and a light breeze. (Yes, this is April in England!)
  

All the gear ...

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  
As a result of the first round of a local league series taking-up Top Lake (as well as occupying some of the open match regulars) today’s open match was limited to 18 anglers and Old/New Lakes – as I’ve done quite well recently on Old Lake (and only ever bombed-out on New Lake) I was obviously hoping for a draw on Old but was by no means surprised to find a red poker chip with New 7 in my hand!!!
  
In all fairness peg 7 on New Lake is a very good pitch as it sits on something of a point and as a result offers lots of open water to go at – it also provides access to peg 8’s platform (as long as nobody is sat on it of course).
  

Looking over my right shoulder

  
Prior to the all-in I set-up a record 5 different rigs! (I don’t normally find the time to set-up for than two so this really was unusual.) These were:

1. A lightish rig (Nick Gilbert black elastic, 0.17 main, 0.15 hooklength to a size 16 LWG) for fishing tight to peg 8’s platform
2. A rig for fishing with hard pellets away from the bank in two and half feet of water
3. Another rig for fishing hard pellets but this time down the slope into the deeper water
4. A traditional shallow rig with a 0.2g dibber made-up on 3’ of line in total
5. A heavier 0.4g dibber rig for fishing shallow/mugging with a 4 foot lash

  

Looking towards the far bank

  
The first 90 minutes of the match were interesting as I caught 3 fish on three different lines and certainly couldn’t get more than one proper bite from each! The first came virtually immediately from the two and half foot line away from the bank and was actually a pretty decent carp. I stuck with this line for a further 20 minutes before switching to the more traditional 5m line – this part of the swim actually plumbed-up terribly as it just seemed to be a 45 degree slope with no start, no finish and certainly no flat spots! However I did manage to sneak-out another carp pretty quickly before foul-hooking and losing another (I knew it was foul-hooked when the float popped-up instead of burying).
  
That foul-hooker seemed to kill the 5m line so it was out on the long pole shallow as the hot, sunny and still conditions had led to a lot of cruisers doing what they do best – sunbathing with no intention of feeding properly! I had a quick go with the shorter (0.2g) rig pinging a few pellets but after establishing pretty quickly that this wasn’t going to work I switched to the longer (mugging) rig and managed to get a third carp in the net.
  

Slim shady

  
Today’s match was fished from 1030 to 1630 and it had been my intention to purposely ignore the margin swim until at least the final two hours of the competition. However at about noon I decided to feed a few cubes of meat next to the vacant platform to my left just to see what would happen – my thinking was that the tree to the left of the platform was casting the only bit of shade onto the lake so given the hot, sunny conditions why not give it a whirl? I potted in a small handful of meat onto this line and went back to fishing the long pole shallow – well for all of about 5 seconds as there were clearly 3 or 4 carp swirling next to the platform!
  
From this point onwards my match was pretty simple as, despite having quick looks on the other lines from time to time, all of the remainder of my catch came from the margin line – given the clear water and the relatively shallow depth (14/15 inches at most) I could tell when I was going to get a bite as I could actually see two or three dark shapes mooching about over my bait!!! (At times I could also see some really big fish in water that must’ve been less than 10 inches right underneath the platform.)
  

Nice mug

  
In all fairness I’d actually thought that Jon Cook had won the lake from peg 26 as every time I looked to my right he seemed to be playing a fish! However Jon had suffered a slow last 90 minutes allowing me to catch-up and in the end my 118-2-0 was enough to win the lake and claim second place in the match (on the continental pay-out)!!! (I would’ve been third purely on weight as Tom ‘Dobber’ Arnot won the match from Old Lake with 140 odd pounds and England legend Stevie Gardener took second place on Old with 121 pounds.)
  
Until next time ...
  

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