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

The year that was 2014........Part 1.

Well I wish all my readers a Happy New Year and hope you all stay healthy and enjoy the coming 12 months.

So I am just about to give you all a quick overview of the last 12 months on the bank, how my match fishing went and ending with what I am hoping to look forward to in 2015.

January, February and March
The year started off by mostly fishing the Avalon Teams of 3 series, my Woolavy Wanderers had began the series well enough and were towards the top of the pile. Myself, James Withers and Paul Wharton had all picked up some money in several rounds, but as the series went on things got tougher and my side drifted down the table to somewhere more 'realistic'. It was an enjoyable though and the winning side were The Sedges (Jamie Cook, Phil & Keith Clapp). My best individual result was a 3rd overall.
In the meantime I fished a match, my 1st and only match in fact, at Summerhayes. I dnw'd on a tough day on Sellicks.

My Sellicks peg at Summerhayes

Other notable matches came in the form of a 3rd placed finish at Lands End, mostly perch and F1's caught on prawns, plus the odd bonus carp in my 47lb net. This qualified me for the Silvers Winners Final with Pawlett Legion AC..
A February match on Shiplate's Main Lake with Clevedon AC was enjoyable and went to plan, catching 13lb+ of skimmers on soft pellet and added 3 margin caught carp to this, securing 2nd spot in the match. Shiplate Main Lake is one of my favourite venues.
Pawlett club also had a match on the Bridgwater/Taunton canal, where I didn't weigh but it was won with over 66lb of mostly tench.
March ended with a PSV match on Plantation's Main lake, where an enjoyable, but sort of frustrating day saw me string a run of edge caught lumps boost my pellet waggler caught bag to 66lb 8oz to secure 2nd spot but take the 1st money prize by default.
Here's my post of the match Plantation PSV Match, March 2014.

April, May and June
The month of April started off with a week at White Acres for the Dynamite Baits Festival, my 1st ever experience of such an event. Myself and Withers were in the caravan next to Keiron Rich, and plenty of 'names' were fishing as well as a good influx of Somerset based anglers including Dan White, Jamie Parkhouse and Ben Hagg to name a few.
I could go into loads of details of the week, but simply I found it a massive learning curve and learned loads throughout the week, especially with F1 fishing and the need to catch silvers in quiet spells.
I did manage a pick-up during the week, at what I thought may be my strong card, Porth Reservoir.
You can read the daily updates from the drop downs on the right hand side of this page.
I do hope to get onto a festival in 2015.
On returning from the festival I had a few matches over the following weeks, starting with a Clevedon match on Trinity Waters' Woodland lake, only half a dozen of us fished but we averaged over 82lb per man with myself taking the honours with 117lb+ and my 1st Clevedon match win.
I then picked up section money during the Pawlett Silver's match at Sedges before a few blow outs at the same venue.
A trip to Larford Lakes for a Fishomania qualifier was a new experience for me and I did ok from a not-so-great area, just missing out on a pick-up due to an angler bagging a last gasp munter from his margin. A similar story at Viaduct for the MMT and Fisho qualifiers, drawing non-competitive pegs hindered further progress in the competitions.
May began with a Clevedon match at Avalon, I drew peg 1 and true to form I didn't trouble the opposite end of the lake where the warm wind was heading.
I redeemed myself on Shiplate's Westpool during a blind pairs match with the same club, 2nd on the day and 1st on the lake was how it ended with myself and partner Adie Baker securing 3 points, though we lost out on weight!! Here's how.....
An MFS 2-day event followed, with me winning my section from peg 86 on Cary on the 1st day with 142lb 3oz. The 1st day was won with nearly 300lb by Dan White from peg 110 on Campbell.
The 2nd day gave me a nice 90lb bag from Campbell, but that would never compete with the top 5 catching over 180lb each on the 2nd day
The last 2 matches of the month were PSV matches at Trinity Woodlands and Landsend Match + Speci lakes. The 2 matches gave me good draws and I somehow managed to convert them into successive wins.
June was a busy month with plenty of matches including a MMT match at Viaduct, but I didn't draw any good at that match, but did get suntanned feet!!

Sun Tanned Feet.......

The rest of the month saw me not pick up at Sedges, Viaduct and Trinity (Pawlett all winners final) as well as on Hawthorns lake at Shiplate.  My draws were not the best, maybe my luck had run out in the previous couple weeks?
My last match of the month gave me an envelope at Avalon, with PSV, where the defaulted 3rd place money helped top up my holiday funds.


So that was the first 6 months of the year briefly covered.

Lee

White Acres Part 3...Porth Res.

Wednesday was the day I was looking forward to....as long as the weather stayed semi sensible.

The draw saw me pull peg 37, it was mid way in the section on Tuesday. 4lb or so was caught from it. But the peg lends itself to using a platform out in the water.

I made the pain of a walk and arrived at my swim a bit sweaty and knackered.

Peg 37, Porth Reservoir

After a five minute rest I set about sorting the tackle.

The platform assembled and box and trays etc sorted.  Groundbait was mixed so I set up 2 feeder rods and three pole rigs.

Bait was simple maggots, hemp, caster and worm. 
One feeder was for around 60 turns and another for 25 turns.
The two pole rigs were for use at 14.5m in 8ft of water and at 6m in 4ft. Neither were used other than a couple quick look now and then. Neither produced a bite.

 

I started on the long feeder line with half a dendra on the hook.  Fish first chuck,  bargain.  It was a skimmer around 2lb, sadly a pike took a liking to it and the fish was gone. Another Hook length attached and the rest of the first hour gave me a few ounce roach and a 4oz skimmer.

 

Meanwhile next to me on my left, the angler had been using the waggler and had plenty of bites from small roach.  I hadn't even set one up,  I had said all week that I was gonna fish the waggler. Numpty.

Another twenty mins saw the lad catch a few more fish. I was off the box and my waggler rod sorted.
First cast at 25 turns saw a little fish in the net,  several more followed.  After a few fish the bites slowed so I started firing wet balls of groundbait at the float to keep the fish in the swim.
This coupled with trying shallower and deeper kept odd fish coming,  but myself and the lad next to me were missing a good few bites.

 

I kept at this until the 3rd hour when I had a quick look on the feeder over the waggler line gave me a roach.  The long feeder and pole lines not a bite.

So I stayed on the wag, catching the odd 4oz fish, unlike my neighbour who had five decent 1lb+ skimmers in five casts,  putting him well clear.

 

The all out sounded and I thought I had 5lb which would be good. I guessed peg 36 had 13 to 14lb which may win the lake. The scales arrived and top weight on the far bank was around 11lb. The anglers to my right weighed between 2 and 4lb.
My 8lb 5oz was nice,  but the guy next to me had near 13lb. The next two had 2 to 3lb and then Keiron Rich had 4lb+.

 

I proceeded to pack up and make the long hike back,  which was bloomin hard work. It turned out there was a 10lb weight from the end peg on my bank (different section).
It turned out I came second in section and joint 4th on the lake and 8 points to my tally,  so my first festival envelope.

 

I had a great day fishing, doing something I enjoy and am capable at.

Thursday sees me at Bolingey...