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. August 2016.

A busy week passed this week, myself and the family had a 6 night stay down at White Acres, sadly the weather was awful pretty much for the first 4 days with only a few hours free each day, Saturday to Tuesday, to grab a few hours fishing. I fished Eery and had a good few carp, I had plenty of 4oz f1s and some barbel from Trelawny but struggled for more than a couple 'proper' carp.
An evening on Sycamore was met with another struggle on the carp side of things, I had 4 or 5 but it was the mental fighting barbel that I was pleased with, I had around a dozen to 7lb, they are the hardest fighting fish I have had on the pole, oh and I had loads of 8oz-1.5lb roach/bream hybrids on the pellet wag, it was a nice session.
On the Tuesday afternoon/evening I had a spell on Pollawyn where I had a 14lber hooked in the wrong end 1st cast, then some skimmers and more barbel, again I struggled for the carp despite others catching a good few. I think I had 4 carp, some f1s and a barbel on the method and around 50lb of mostly skimmers and barbel down the edge.

The Wednesday match was on Twin Oaks, where I got lucky in the draw bag and pulled peg 16, and with no 15 or 17 in the bag, signs were good.

Twin Oaks peg 16

I did fancy peg 5, but everyone commented how I should do well etc, but when I got to the peg I had fish right over and down the edge, tails waving (not always great).
To sum up my match, I had a few on the method, f1s and carp, a couple lumps down the edge along with some f1s and skimmers and the rest of my 124lb 8oz was caught in the pellet wag (until I snagged up and didn't re-tackle).
This was enough for the win and an invite to the Preston Festival in October and a free week at the All-Winners week, which I will be taking in 2016. So not a bad day there.

Thursday's rover wasn't great, I plucked 20 out of the bag and saw the hot pegs on Twin-Oaks taken and then Chris Davis chose Eery peg 13, which would have been my choice, I looked at the map and settled on peg 13 on Trelawny, more in hope than anything, at least a few bites would be had.
I arrived at my peg to find 2 guys after me chose pegs 14 and 12.....so I had no room, not good as that's what is needed for better weights.

Trelawny peg 13

The match started ok with a carp of 4lb right away on the method, but then it went dead, so I tried my lines with only a couple skimmers and a baby crucian.
In the end I went out to 14.5m (double-shipping due to the path) and caught plenty of 4oz f1s, only 1 decent one of 2lb. That's pretty much how I spent the last 2hrs of the match, I did lose a carp to a snag of carp-anglers line and I did bump a few off the hook, but I weighed a touch over 43lb for 20th.
Twin-Oaks won the match with 179lb from p17, Chris Davis was 4th, I think, with 120lb-ish from Eery p13.

Friday was home day, but I decided to spend the day, in the end, on Acorn.
It was a very productive day as I put myself on peg 13, 1st chuck on the method feeder saw the feeder snagged, I re-tackled and chucked it out again and it didn't even have time to settle before I had an f1, then a carp and another f1. I chucked the rod up the bank and decided to try an bag a few f1's at 13m shallow (I made an effort with these fish as I don't get to fish for them locally).
I clicked 150lb of mostly f1s to 3lb and a few small-ish carp. All the while I had carp under my feet and down my right margin, I didn't target these initially but after I got bored of slapping.
I went down the edge and under my feet to had another 350lb+ of mostly carp, including no less than 11 doubles to 18lb-ish, it was ridiculous, I even caught on a bare method feeder dangled under the rod tip by my feet. A hectic day. A rough vid that shows what it was like for around 3hrs, one after the other to 18lb.... (my facebook page has better quality video)

So a decent week down in Cornwall and although the weather was, in the main, appalling, I managed a few fish, a match win and learnt some stuff for future reference.

Next up is my write up on today's match down at Shiplate Hawthorn with the PSV guys.

Until then, take care.
Lee