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

White Acres Dynamite Baits fest 2014, part one.

This week has seen me and my matey James Withers heading off in search of fish at the White Acres Dynamite Baits festival.
It would be our first festival of this type,  and the first time i had fished the lakes.

A top 100 finish would be a massive achievement really and would be my aim for the week.

The previous week had seen the Bait Tech festival,  won by Steve Ringer.  Local angler (to Somerset) Dan White had come third with some decent angling. 

Anyways,  Saturday arrived and after work we loaded Mr Withers' van and made the uneventful two hour trip.
We done our shopping and sorted the digs, went to the bar for a couple drinks and got an early night.

Sunday saw us have a day fishing on Jennys lake, it was a nice days angling.  I was in peg two,  the numpty in peg three.

Peg 2 , Jennys.

The day was decent.  I had easily 60lb of silvers and a couple late lumps down the  edge. James had less silvers but did well catching half a dozen doubles down his edge late on.  We would be happy to draw Jennys on the first day...

Our sections would run:
Jennys/Trewaters on Monday.
Twin Oaks/Trelawny on Tues
Porth on Weds
Bolingey on Thurs
Pollawyn on Friday.

Monday saw us at the draw in the club and we both duly picked Trewaters....saved having to faff with the van.  Both pegs were not the best.
I was on P21 on the top lake,  half way along the bank.

Withers had 41 which was another duff area but on the lower lake.

Peg 21 at Trewaters

 

Fish to target, from what we gathered, would be small carp,  F1's and maybe some skimmers.
With bait allowances in place I had with me.  1 unit of each caster and corn.  2 units of micro,  the same of 6mm pellets and 2 units of 8mm meat.  Plus some worm and groundbait.

Rigs were simple.  A shallow rig and deep rig for worm/caster. This was at 13m as the wind was iffy.
A meat rig for 2&2. Last of all a rig for the margins to fish over groundbait late on.
I also had a method rod and waggler set up.

The all in sounded and the various baits were potted into the swims.

The rain started as the whistle went and my peg had a left to right wind.  I started on the method and had to wait half an hour for a fish.  The guys along my bank had all caught skimmers and odd carp/F1. My first catch was a carp of maybe 2lb,  soon followed by another.
90 mins into the match I came over the worm, fishing 1/4 of a dendra I had a flurry of perch and small skimmers. Bites were regular but the double shipping and the fact that they were that small meant I switched back to the method.

By the end of the second hour I was on four carp,  I pulled out of a couple as they didn't seem ferocious in their feeding.
I switched to the wag with a banded 6mm on the hook and had a flurry of 5 or 6 carp,  but had to be close to the island. This was a bonus really as nobody else had set up a wag.

The guy on the end peg had been catching a few decent carp fishing along his end bank,  the chap on the next peg to my right was struggling and the nice man on flyer 19 had landed a few. But I reckon I was winning the lake after three hours.

At 3pm i looked over the meat line and had a fish right away.  This was a bit of a false dawn and was only one of two bites off that line all day.  The worm line was only giving very small fish.
The last two hours saw my swim die and everyone else started to catch,  p19 had half a dozen fish in the last 40 mins.  The end peg had kept plugging away.

Meanwhile I could just make out keiron rich bagging a few on the peg more or less opposite me.

Between 4 and 5pm I had whole two skimmers.  Nobody caught anything of note from the margins,  just odd fish.

The all out sounded and I guess I had 25lb. I had more than peg 23 but beaten by 19 and end peg 25 .
The scales tipped my weight to 30lb 6oz.
P19 had 46lb for section 2nd. K.Rich had 49lb for section win.  P25 had 39lb.

The lake James had produced a 120lb+ weight and a couple 40lb+ nets.

I got 3 points for my result, as did James,  it was a tricky day but the peeps who know the lake said we didn't have great pegs and the expected ones did well.

The evening was spent in the bar for a couple drinks then in the caravan eating....

Day two sees us on Twin Oaks or Trelawny.