On Friday a good friend said that I was ‘only five bunghole draws’ away from winning the 2015 Maver festival. Of course he was correct – the only problem has been that so far I’ve drawn three very average pegs, today’s selection (Twin Oaks 21, wind blowing down towards the opposite end of the lake, last in section yesterday) being a prime example!
As all you White Acres regulars will know, Twin Oaks is in fact two similar lakes – the ‘low numbers’ lake runs from peg 1 (nearest to the car park) to peg 18 and includes the infamous peg 16 that has won many, many matches; the ‘high numbers’ lake includes pegs 19 to 36 and is slightly less prolific as it is stocked with more F1s and less proper carp than the ‘low numbers’.
Like all venues there are some pegs that are better than others – on the ‘high numbers’ the chaps you see in the magazines normally draw the pegs in the middle of the lake where the F1s hang-out and the mere mortals like myself tend to draw the less than average pegs like number 21 – two away from the far end peg (19) and one that seems to be sat back from the water as over the year the bank seems to have moved forwards! However the peg is quite wide and has a nice cut-out margin to the right, plus some interesting looking overhanging rushes to the left.
Before the all-in I knew it was going to be hard as I set-up loads of gear: a 10’ tip rod with a 24g mini Guru hybrid feeder for fishing tight over; shallow (2 feet) and deep (4 feet) jiggas for fishing up in the water at 13m; a margin rig for fishing down to the right; and finally a scratching rig (yellow Hydro, 0.13 main line, 4x12 Chianti, 0.10 hooklength, size 20 Tubertini 808) for fishing at top kit plus one next to the overhanging rushes with maggots for anything that swam.
As per usual I started by trying to bag an early margin munter – no bites but I definitely saw the tail of a very, very big carp under my feet so it was well worth a try!!! Three chucks to the far bank didn’t lead to as much as a liner so it was soon on to the scratching rig under the rushes. This led to a run of small fish (roach, rudd, perch) followed by that sinking feeling you get when you lose four or five foul-hooked F1s (I’m guessing) in a row – gutted is not the word!!!
After this disaster I set-up a new rig on a white Hydro top kit consisting of 0.13 main line, a 0.2g SconeZone v8, 0.11 hooklength into a size 18 Guru LWG (spade-end) hook. By doing this I at least managed to land 3 F1s – though two were hooked just outside of the mouth and one was well and truly hooked in the tail!!!
The main problem (with the foul-hooking) as I saw it was where exactly in the swim I was fishing – I felt I needed to fish to the far edge of he rushes so I could attract F1s from the main body of the lake, but where I was fishing was two and a half to three feet deep and as I wasn’t fishing tight to the bank the fish could approach from any angle. In order to fix this I re-plumbed closer in but tight to the rushes – this led to two cleanly hooked F1s in a row, then nothing for the rest of my match, confirming my theory that I needed to be fishing towards the open water!
A couple of carp on the tip in the last hour boosted my weight a little, but nothing from the margin swim to the right meant I was stuck on 22-8-0 and 3 points (seventh out of 9 in the sub-section) – hardly a day to remember!!!
Today’s result means I’m now on a running total of 12 points (from a maximum of 27) though I’ll be hoping to drop today’s result from my final score (which are made-up of each angler’s best four results out of the five days), and I’m currently 117th overall with a nice trip to Porth Reservoir tomorrow …
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| All the gear ... |
As all you White Acres regulars will know, Twin Oaks is in fact two similar lakes – the ‘low numbers’ lake runs from peg 1 (nearest to the car park) to peg 18 and includes the infamous peg 16 that has won many, many matches; the ‘high numbers’ lake includes pegs 19 to 36 and is slightly less prolific as it is stocked with more F1s and less proper carp than the ‘low numbers’.
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| Twin Oaks and Trelawney pegging |
Like all venues there are some pegs that are better than others – on the ‘high numbers’ the chaps you see in the magazines normally draw the pegs in the middle of the lake where the F1s hang-out and the mere mortals like myself tend to draw the less than average pegs like number 21 – two away from the far end peg (19) and one that seems to be sat back from the water as over the year the bank seems to have moved forwards! However the peg is quite wide and has a nice cut-out margin to the right, plus some interesting looking overhanging rushes to the left.
 |
| Gettin' jiggy with it! |
Before the all-in I knew it was going to be hard as I set-up loads of gear: a 10’ tip rod with a 24g mini Guru hybrid feeder for fishing tight over; shallow (2 feet) and deep (4 feet) jiggas for fishing up in the water at 13m; a margin rig for fishing down to the right; and finally a scratching rig (yellow Hydro, 0.13 main line, 4x12 Chianti, 0.10 hooklength, size 20 Tubertini 808) for fishing at top kit plus one next to the overhanging rushes with maggots for anything that swam.
 |
| Trying for an early edge dweller |
As per usual I started by trying to bag an early margin munter – no bites but I definitely saw the tail of a very, very big carp under my feet so it was well worth a try!!! Three chucks to the far bank didn’t lead to as much as a liner so it was soon on to the scratching rig under the rushes. This led to a run of small fish (roach, rudd, perch) followed by that sinking feeling you get when you lose four or five foul-hooked F1s (I’m guessing) in a row – gutted is not the word!!!
 |
| Stepped-up hooklength components |
After this disaster I set-up a new rig on a white Hydro top kit consisting of 0.13 main line, a 0.2g SconeZone v8, 0.11 hooklength into a size 18 Guru LWG (spade-end) hook. By doing this I at least managed to land 3 F1s – though two were hooked just outside of the mouth and one was well and truly hooked in the tail!!!
 |
| A little bit of success at last |
The main problem (with the foul-hooking) as I saw it was where exactly in the swim I was fishing – I felt I needed to fish to the far edge of he rushes so I could attract F1s from the main body of the lake, but where I was fishing was two and a half to three feet deep and as I wasn’t fishing tight to the bank the fish could approach from any angle. In order to fix this I re-plumbed closer in but tight to the rushes – this led to two cleanly hooked F1s in a row, then nothing for the rest of my match, confirming my theory that I needed to be fishing towards the open water!
 |
| Not exactly a flyer |
A couple of carp on the tip in the last hour boosted my weight a little, but nothing from the margin swim to the right meant I was stuck on 22-8-0 and 3 points (seventh out of 9 in the sub-section) – hardly a day to remember!!!
 |
| Looking towards end peg 19 |
Today’s result means I’m now on a running total of 12 points (from a maximum of 27) though I’ll be hoping to drop today’s result from my final score (which are made-up of each angler’s best four results out of the five days), and I’m currently 117th overall with a nice trip to Porth Reservoir tomorrow …
