Catch Up -- White Acres Maver Fest and Summerhaye's Winners Match

Not blogged recently for various reasons, but thought I would give a quick round up of the last few weeks.

From the 1st to the 5th of October myself and Jamie Parkhouse fished the Maver Festival down at White Acres, I was well up for this and although not expecting to do well, I hoped I could learn a few things to take into 2019 and hopefully a couple more festivals down in Cornwall. This would be only my 2nd main 5 day festival there but you never know how things can turn out.
It all started badly when I got to Exeter and remembered I had left my roller bag at home but after a bit of Facebook help and a bit of kindness from my lovely Mother-in-Law I managed to get my rollers before the festival. Thanks to my sponsor, Dean Townshend and Jonny Kirkton for their help in this.
It was also a chance to meet a few of the DT Floats lads, nice to meet you guys.

Day One, Porth. Peg 34.

P34 Porth

My favourite day of the week, I love Porth (except the walks...)
I set up a long range method rod (mistake), a short chuck feeder and a couple pole rigs where it was top 3 plus a short 4 deep from 5m out to 14.5m.
I fed a couple balls of groundbait at 6m and half a dozen at 14m at the start before beginning short where I put a couple pounds in the net in the first half hour, it then went a bit quiet before the odd spurt of fish here and there on the pole and short feeder kept me ticking over in the first 2hrs of the match.
A dead 2hrs didn't help before I finished quite well catching a few skimmers on the long line.
I gave the method 3 spells of 20mins or so during the day for nothing, which I knew would happen but Jamie called me and said to try it as he had a couple bream on his.
My 11lb 10oz was 3rd in section, 4oz behind second and Andy Power won the section with 15lb, so I would like to think that 2nd was definitely in grasp and I could have go closer to Andy.
The lake fished well with several 30lb+ nets and a few mid 20s from the far side.

Day Two, Bolingey. Peg 8.

P8 Bolingey

I don't seem to draw on the smaller lake or the right hand arm here but tend to get in the deeper area of the back lake. So I wasn't shocked to see that same area in my mitt at the draw as it hadn't been a good area (6 to 10) for a while pre-festival and the other pegs in my section seemed better. But fish have fins.
I set up a method to the island, an edge rig for both margins (no signs of fish all day...) a deep pellet and shallow pellet rig for 14m in front and lastly a meat rig for 2+2 in two spots feeding differently.
I had Adrian Clark next to me on peg 7 so a bit of decent company.
I began on the topkit hoping for a quick carp or 2, but other than a couple missed bites (roach/carassio?) nothing was forth coming. So I tried the method to the island and soon and lost my 1st fish to a snag around 6ft off the island. A couple did follow and were netted ok.
The match was hard over our side and a lot of fish seemed foul hooked and fish losses were not uncommon.
Well I managed no fish shallow, no fish on the deep pellet but a few on meat and a few on the method to give me 81lb to Adrian's 73lb. This was worth 4th section, decent enough, but not as good as those along the back bank which had been decent.

Day Three, Pollawyn. Peg 21.

P21 Pollawyn

A good peg at times (as proved on the last couple of days and in the following Preston Fest) but it struggled on the first 2 days of the Maver with 6th in section the best it did.
I tried over to the island for 1 roach and 1 small ghost f1, but ended up catching skimmers, barbel, rudd, perch, crucians and odd small f1 mostly at 11m on worm over groundbait, I probably fed too much in hindsight.
No carp hooked in the mouth down my right edge, just one lost and one lost on the silvers rig, both foul hooked.
A few roach short and a couple barbel and skimmers on meat late gave me all of 18lb for section 6th, 23lb was worth a couple or 3 more points which was within grasp should I have stuck with the skimmers etc....but 90 mins spent carp chasing was a bad choice.

Day Four, Trewaters. Peg 37.

P37 Trewaters

This peg won the lake the first couple days, but I am not in the class of Callum Dicks etc, but the Wednesday it only gave 17lb and peg 39 won and the pegs further up did better.
Anyways I began short on pellet for a 1st drop carassio. That was it for the opening hour, but a couple carp from there at the start of the 2nd hour was good in comparison to others on my lake.
It then died and during the day I picked up only 1 carp on the long pole just off the island, 1 on the meat line, nothing down my edges (again spent too long chasing fish not there towards the end), but managed to get a few on the feeder and I was winning the lake with 15 mins to go, then Jon Arthur and the guy opposite me had 4 and 5 carp respectively on their pellet feeders to push me down to 3rd. I had 36lb, Jon 39lb and the lad across 49lb, so a 3rd, not a disaster. But a few things learned for sure.

Day Five, Trelawny. Peg 8.

P8 Trelawny

I wanted to be on Twin Oaks which is in with Trelawny, although I like Trelawny I seem to struggle as F1 fishing is something I just don't do.
Anyways I had fished this peg on the Sunday after I arrived (and several times over the years in hols),
I struggled then but caught some silvers and odd F1 while Jamie did a bit better using worms as opposed to my pellet and casters attack.
I set up a feeder, nowt on this. A shallow pellet rig (DT Pinger) for 14m, a shallow caster rig (DT Skittle) for 2+2, a deck rig for worm/caster and one for pellets on the deck to fish under the relevant shallow lines. A margin rig for both sides.....again used far too much for only a couple skimmers and one lost foul hooked carp.
The first hour was slow then I had a good couple hours catching F1s on the pellet long, I couldn't get anything but odd roach short on casters. It then died a dead so I faffed around trying to winkle out a few extra fish and hope for a proper carp. It didn't happen and I ended the match catching small F1s.
My 30lb was 5lb or so short of section 4th, instead I was ounced down to 7th. Andy Power won the section and lake with 157lb I think, brilliant to watch.
Again a few mistakes made, I should have taken meat as there were some carp caught on this bait all over the lake. Also I spent too long chasing lumps down my edges instead of keeping on doing what I was doing, but I figured I needed a couple of lumps to get top 3 in section.

I finished the week in 79th, not so bad but a couple better results would have pushed me further up the charts. I hope to rectify this next time I am there.
On the plus side I beat Jamie on both weight and position, I ended up 10lb or so and 23 places better off than my caravan buddy.

Last Sunday was the Summerhayes Winners match, with some decent money to go at I was hoping for a good day.
Anyway I will cut it ultra short, I had a mare of a day, drew 34, which was not near my favoured area and with Chris Boulton on 36 where he had won the week previous it looked like a neck ache day. Indeed it was as Chris won with 120lb, there were a couple 60lb+ nets filling the last two money places. So well done Chris and the others.
My match wasn't fun, I wanted to go home after an hour. I managed to snag my top 4 in the reeds, but got it back thanks to my cupping kit and jiggery pokery.
I lost a few fish off the hook by rushing and managed to lose a whole feeder set up when reeling in, the connector had come undone!!
But I did put 30lb on the scales as I stayed to weigh in. To my right Gareth Lennox tipped back a similar amount and Jack Billet went home with over an hour left, it had fished hard probably due to the amount of rain the day before.

Next up is Summerhaye's Silvers Winners Match this Sunday, I hope that goes better but there are some tidy silvers anglers fishing it so I will have to try my hardest....lol

Until then, take care.
Lee

Acorn Saturday Series, 27-5-17...........plus White Acres for a few days.

An update of the last week's fishing for me.
It started last Saturday at Acorn for the 2nd round of the Saturday Series, I managed a 2nd in section in the 1st round and suffice to say will need at least a 2nd in section for each round to have a chance of an overall framing chance come the end of it.

The usual suspects were there and a full house of 21 fishing, including a couple welshies who'd be running late due to bank holiday weekend traffic.
Trolley loaded, on with the draw, Nick Harvey drew the 2 missing welsh guy's pegs, 9 for Barry Richards and 34 for Neil Morgan, good pegs.
Well I managed a bridge peg in the form of peg 33, which I thought would be okay, but fancied the pegs along the entry road, pegs 6 round to 12ish, peg 9 looked great with plenty of fish in that area.

Peg 33 Acorn

Same rigs as last time, edges, tight over and a rig for down the middle. Baits were casters, 6 and 8mm pellets and some expanders.
The match began and it was slow for myself, Neil and Paul Preston on peg 31, in fact the only person catching was Barry on peg 9.
I slowly, very slowly, picked up the odd fish from across and Neil was getting plenty of those baby carp and some silvers (goldfish included).
I lost a few throughout the day to the concrete leg on the bridge, I believe they were foul hooked fish which made me less irritated. Oh Keith Ray on peg 3 saw his peg collapse into the lake along with him and all his kit, but Mark Bartlett helped in the fact he got in the lake and rescued all his kit and pulled out the structure of the platform. Keith went on to win his section and come 2nd on the day with 90lb, so no massive harm done.

The match went by quite quickly, even quicker for Nick Harvey whom left early, come the end of the match I think I ended up with a crucian, a roach and 8 carp. Probably 30lb. I reckoned Neil had similar of those little fish, Paul struggled and so had all the peeps going anti-clockwise around the lake from me to Mark Bromsgrove on peg 21. The only bridge peg I knew had done ok was Steve Sewell on peg 6 who was admitting to 60lb.

The weigh in done and Barry on peg 9 had walked the match, mostly catching shallow, he had 155lb. Keith was 2nd with 90lb from peg 3 and Steve Sewell 3rd with 67lb.
As for my section, it was tight for the places 2nd and lower with Steve winning it. I managed 32lb on the button along with Brian Slipper on peg 40. But Mark Bromsgrove on peg 21 had an 8lb carp last knockings to knock equal 3rd in section. So 4.5 points for me on the day.

Results sheet:

The overall standings sees Keith Ray in 1st place with 14 points ahead of Brian Slipper on 11.5 points, I have 10.5 points and am in 5th, but you drop one result so the standings don't mean too much at this point.

The next round is next week on the 10th June.

So after that match it was half term and we had a Monday to Friday booked down at White Acres, so it was up and leave the house at 7am so at least I could have a day fishing.
Trelawny peg 4 was my session for the afternoon. I managed a few fish, maybe 70 or 80lb of assorted species and had a nice few hours.

Next day was spent in the morning playing football golf with the family, which was actually quite fun, so it was then lunch and a few hours fishing.
I fancied fishing Eery, but it was full so looked at Pollawyn, I found a few fish in the area down the first leg, the leg had loads of surface crap so I went on peg 2, which apparently isn't great, Nathan Watson called me a 'saddist'. But I had a great few hours with 8 or 9 lumpy carp to 15lb-ish, over 30 f1's that probably went 3lb each and maybe 25lb of skimmers/roach and a solitary barbel. Most were caught on meat at 5m with a few caught shallow at 14m.

Wednesday I fished on Eery, peg 8, and had a nice 4hrs catching a few shallow and deep on pellets, nothing big, maybe 4lb the largest, but I did catch plenty of roach down the edge on meat. These roach were 4 to 8oz each and came one a chuck, I couldn't feed them off.... I had over 80lb I would think easily.

Thursday was the Rover match, 61 fished,  and at the draw I bumped into Jim Jenner. Word was Twin Oaks had been hard for 2 weeks and it was expected to be a low-ish weight match with 80lb needed to frame (top 6 paid).
I pulled 11th pick out and after my earlier look around, Eery had a few on there pleasure fishing, one or 2 pegs on Twin Oaks were taken by pleasure guys. Pegs 28 to 31 looked nice on Pollawyn as did 20, but that had the aerator in and on and I wasn't too sure if I wanted to be there.
I looked at the map when it was my turn and saw the pegs I liked the look of had gone so plumped for peg 13 on Acorn, the lake had been patchy but can do 80lb+ if you get things right and the lumps turn up early enough,

They didn't until 5 mins before the end, when I had tails waving at me down to my left.....I managed an eel in amongst them.....but no carp!! Up until that point I had managed a few f1's and small carp on pellets at 14m, lifting and dropping mostly, none on caster or meat lines, which surprised me, oh and a few late on the pellet feeder. I had 62lb and a few ounces which put me 10th on the day. 149lb won from Twin Oaks (peg 1 with the wind pushing in and loads of space) with 94lb 2nd off there also. A couple weights from Pollawyn high bank and peg 20. But an enjoyable day with lots of bites.

Friday was home day, but I had booked in to the Bolingey match, I have only ever drawn on the back lake and with 36 or 38 fishing most pegs were in. But the left hand leg wasn't used due to spawning.
I drew 31, I was told it was reasonable but with only 4 empty pegs free it would be pressured and the fish had other things on their minds......

Well I didn't catch on corn short (no meat or gb allowed) I managed 2 late carp down my right edge and the rest of my 75lb came at 14m up and down in the water on pellets. Oh I did get 5 small grass carp and 1 carp on the lead chucked on the pole line. I also took way too long to land a 13lb common, it just wouldn't give up. My weight was 6th or 7th on the day I think.
Only 3 nets topped 100lb with 130lb winning from peg 38. But I enjoyed it.

So a nice few days away and it has defo convinced me to get onto a few more festivals on the complex, whether they will be one of the 'big 5' or one of the couple 4 day ones they have depends on holiday allowances!!

Tomorrow is Pawlett's All-Winners match over at Trinity Woodlands, a nice peg full of fish waiting to be caught would go down nice, thank-you please.

Until next time, have fun and tight lines.
Lee

White Acres Winners' Week. Day Two of Three. 11-10-16. --- Pollawyn

Right, with a non-existent chance of framing in this mini festival I was hoping for a really good draw on Pollawyn, a peg on the high bank (22 to 29) or perhaps 13 which had won the lake yesterday with 36lb.
The lakes have switched off and looking at the weights for the lake from yesterday we had a 8oz from peg 45, there was a 7oz total from peg 14 along with another 5 weights under 10lb.

Pollawyn Peg Layout

At the draw we gathered, Clint dished out the winnings from yesterday and all the relevant draws were made. I managed to squeeze into my queue around halfway along and my had entered the bag.....bugger peg 45. Not impressed to be fair, it can be a nice peg though but knew it wouldn't compete against the rest of the section. None the less I loaded the barrow and set off on my way. A quick chat with Jason Fay who fished peg 28 yesterday informed me he had 2 carp including one of 12lb or so, and a couple small silvers for 18lb. The wind was gusty and could prove awkward at times as it was blowing sort of down the arm peg 45 is set in. The reeds opposite were being buffeted all over the place.

Arriving at my peg and found I had Chris Kitchen next to me on peg 19. I surveyed the peg and went about sorting my bait and rigs.
A pellet feeder for across at 18m or so, but the reeds are tall and some are hanging over, it also resembled a tackle graveyard with several floats and feeders visible.
A few pole rigs were made up, all on pretty light set-ups with the mindset taking into account yesterday's weights.
A topkit rig for casters as per the norm.
An edge rig for down to my left, carp were the target there, but this rig remained fishless.
A rig for 9m just off centre in front of me using meat over a pinch of micros.
A rig for 9m off to my left to fish chopped worm and caster, no groundbait today as I didn't think it'd be much good.
Lastly a pellet rig for 16m in front, but the wind put paid to fishing this.  
Bait was simple worms and caster, damp micros, some 6mm pellets and some meat.

Pollawyn p45 lhs, worm line was in the middle tree reflection

Peg 45, Pollawyn. White Acres.

The all-in was called and I actually made a nice cast, missing a stray reed and landed around 12 inches off the main reed structure. I turned to grab my flask and pour me a cuppa when I felt my rod wrench round.....then I saw the reeds shake, then the line went slack.....I reeled in the feeder minus a hook....bugger. A few more casts saw me not avoid the stray reed and I gave that up as a bad job, the reed left a gap of around 12" and with the gusty wind the feeder was lobbed up the bank.

Onto the topkit rig and a few roach and a couple perch came to my nets over the next half hour or so, but it was very very slow.
After an hour I decided to pot in a small helping of meat on the relevant spot and a half pot of well chopped worm and caster on that spot.
I spent 10 minutes on the topkit but no fish were forthcoming.
Onto the worm and as the rig was lowered in the elastic was pulled from my pole, sadly the carp didn't hang around but left me with a souvenir scale, but it was a positive sign.......... I thought.

Chris on peg 19 had landed a carp and some skimmers from his 16m line and along with peg 27 and 28 (I think) had landed some fish.
Over the next hour or so I managed to put some roach and small skimmers in the net, nothing big but it was bits and bobs each drop in, though a 6oz perch was my largest fish. So at the halfway stage I had perhaps 2.5lb of bits, so at least I had managed more than the day previous' weight.
A look on the meat line, which I had kept topping up with 4 or 5 pieces of meat every 10 minutes, saw me connect with something that pulled back, after a short scrap a 1lb barbel was landed, this was followed up by a nice 6oz roach and a skimmer of 12oz. But I was getting loads of missed bites, shallowing up didn't see any improvement, well not even a bite, it was like the fish were mulling around about a foot off bottom.
Another look on the worm saw me net a 2lb F1 and then the micro perch arrived knocking back my heightened hopes!!
At this point I looked like being last in section as the chap on peg 20 had landed a couple nice skimmers and a 12lb+ carp on the lead while he was faffing around on the internet. Chris was doing well and putting a few carp and F1s in the net. Along with the pegs on the high bank catching carp it was looking pants for me, other than the foul hooked one earlier, I hadn't seen a carp in my area.

So on to the last hour and I was getting more bites, but my connection ratio wasn't great and various attempts to remedy this never worked, but a few more barbel and 3 more F1s around 2lb graced my keepnet. With 20 minutes to go the lad on peg 20 had another carp, this time while he was packing up his kit, he was behind his box when I saw the rod bouncing and being pulled round.

The all out was signalled and I slowly began to pack away, I even managed to lose a keepnet arm into the lake.....bugger!!
Chris asked what I had, maybe 12lb or just over, he reckoned on 25lb and the lad on peg 20 had 20lb or so was his guess. Elsewhere I could see Tony Oatley on peg 13 catching a few in the second half of the match plus most of the pegs on the high bank had at least 25lb each and they were in my section.
The scales arrived and I saw that my section had a 3lb weight, I wouldn't be last in section, yay!! But the rest of the section over there all had 22lb+.
I tipped my assorted fish onto the scales and it settled at 22lb 1oz. I didn't see exactly what Chris had, but I think it was around 30lb and a section 3rd. Peg 20 had 18lb and ounces, so I had managed a lowly 6th in section. But it was a close contest.

In hindsight I think I should have maybe converted my meat line to a pellet line and set up a shallow pellet rig, but I am not completely convinced that the bites I was missing were the F1s or just roach. I should have moved or at least set up a couple of pellet rigs for the same distance in a new spot. But I could see the reeds opposite moving around and was hoping the wind would drop.
But it was another match that I was pretty happy with how I fished and that fishing for anything was enjoyable, not sure if I could have had carp but I figure I should have had a few more F1s.

Next up for me is Twin Oaks on Thursday. Not sure which area I fancy, I will look at their scores.

Until then, have fun.
Lee.

White Acres - Day 5, Pollawyn Match Lake

The final round saw me down to fish Pollawyn, the original match lake, it has loads of fish in it with carp being the main weight builders in the results, they run to over 20lb so sensible kit is needed. There are also plenty of skimmers, roach, perch and F1's, plus a few barbel to spice things up.

The half past nine draw saw me pull peg 45, a good peg if the wind wasn't awkward, it had won the section on Thursday with 90lb-ish.

Once I found my peg (the pegging is kind of random!!), I set about sorting my kit.

Peg 45, Pollawyn Lake

 



I didn't want to fish the method, or any tip fishing for this match, so I set up a small pellt waggler to fish over at 17m, 4 pole rigs were made too.
The 1st pole rig was to swing a bait across to the reeds, should the wind allow, this was for banded pellet (6 and 8mm). The second rig would do two lines at 11m, one for meat and the other for chopped worm and caster. The 3rd rig would be for tight against the bank in 2.5ft of water, but this only gave me a 1oz perch so no more on that. The 4th rig was for topkit length in the 10 o'clock direction for fishing worm and caster mush over bits of groundbait.

The whistle blew and I potted bits and bobs into their swims, I started in the topkit and put a pound of bits in the net. I  then shipped to 16m and swung my bait (as best I can) at the far bank, this resulted in a 4lb carp straight away, I followed this up with a F1 of 2lb and then roach of 6oz.
Half an hour into the match and I hooked a carp which tore through a reed bed to my left on the far bank, but despite it's attempts to get rid of me, I somehow managed to free it from a snag (tree roots full of pole floats...drifted off in the wind) and the carp managed to find it's way to my keepnet.

A few F1's and skimmers followed and by the 90 minute stage I was doing ok against the few pegs in my section that I could see.
Elsewhere, Keiron Rich and the other anglers with open water in front of them were catching well on the pellet wag and lead/method. Some lumpy fish were netted by them.
The angler to my left on peg 47 had landed a few carp by long lining to the island.

By the 3rd hour the wind had got up and the fish were well in the reeds and I was only picking up the odd one, the angler next door had been fishing for silvers and was putting a nice net together, I managed to put a few pound of these in the net but I wasn't getting the quality he was.
A look on the meat line gave me 2 nice skimmers of a pound each, but the 11m worm line never gave me a bite .

The last 2 hour were generally spent struggling with 16m of pole and a brisk side wind. I managed the odd F1, but didn't do great.
The all out was called and I began to pack up, soon the scales were at my peg and I had clicked 36lb, so probably had 40lb, but it grew into 46lb+.
The lad on peg 47 had put plenty of silvers in his net, I told him he'd got 42lb, he actually weighed 48lb+. There was a 55lb weight, but that was it  in my section pegs, so 3rd in section wasn't a bad end to the week.
Elsewhere on the lake there were plenty of 100lb weights and I was inpressed by the lake.

I headed back to the caravan and loaded the car before heading home.

I did learn loads from my week there and will definitely help my angling, the F1 fishing, the method feeder fishing and the fact that knowledge of the lakes/pegs is really important, but the draw is crucial.

I managed my top 100 target, I finished 99th and had over 185lb of fish over the week, I am looking forward to the next one for sure.

Until next time, take care.
Lee

P.S, today (saturday) saw me fish the Viaduct Fishomania qualifier, I drew peg one on Spring lake, not a bad draw, but I was hemmed in somewhat, and all I could muster was 2 carp around 8lb each and around 15lb of mostly skimmers (which look to be getting ready to spawn). I have another qualifier in  a few weeks at Larford Lakes (I haven't seen it, so could be fun).