It hardly seems like a year since I last loaded up the car
and headed off to Cornwall, to chance my arm at the Bait Tech festival. After the weather last year, I’m glad I now
have a van to chuck all the wet, soggy gear in. We upgraded to a lodge again
this year, much more room, but I think that Whiteacres have cottoned on to the
upgrades being more frequently used, as it was another £80 on top of last
year’s upgrade cost.
The weather wasn’t the best when we arrived, so after a look
round the lakes we retired to the warmth of the bar to discuss tactics and
catch up with a few folk we hadn’t seen for 12 months.
Sunday dawned and I was determined to get out on the bank,
unless the weather was a raging storm, we plumped for Trewaters and fished 4
pegs in a line on the top lake, all trying out different baits and
methods. I caught initially on bread across
to the island on a bomb, but this didn’t last long. Meat down the track at about 6 or 7m produced
F1’s, but no matter how I altered the shotting or the way I put the rig in, I
couldn’t hit more than 1 in 5 bites from them.
I had also been feeding maggot short and caught skimmers,
decent roach and F1’s on this line, the F1’s were easier to catch on maggot. Harry Billing came for a walk round and was
heartened to see the float going under so many times, I’m sure he knew how to
increase that 1in5 bites hit ratio.
Going into the draw saw me in the ‘section of death’ with
Des Shipp, Alan Scotthorne, Sandra Scotthorne, Lee Kerry, Jason Lebosquet and many more top quality anglers.
Day One and Monday’s home was peg 27 on Pollawyn, I draw I couldn’t
complain about, except that just about everyone confirmed it was the wrong day
to draw it, strong winds and persistent heavy rain coming at me through the gap
in the island and having Alan Scotthorne on the next peg didn’t help. I set up a straight lead to fish bread to the
island, I rather optimistically set up a waggler to fish to the island and 3
pole rigs, one for the margin, one to fish meat at 8m (8m was the most pole
anyone one on the high bank had out of their holdall, the wind was just to
strong) and another for caster at 5m.
I had what was a dream start, I had two fish for 18lb in the
net in the first 20 minutes, these came on the popped up bread, with the odd
liner giving me hope that there were a few sat out there. I then had an F1 and
a small Barbel which signalled the end of the bites and liners. The match turned from a dream into a
nightmare, as whatever I did, failed to produce a bite, or on the meat line
meant waiting 20 minutes or more for a bite, which resulted in a palm sized
skimmer. No point in catching three of
them an hour, so back onto the lead and I managed a couple more carp on punched
meat, ending the day with 40.06 for a dismal last but one in section, only
beating the angler immediately to my left.
Alan Scotthorne had made his meat line work, not catching at a fantastic
rate, but he landed some better fish, weighing 67lb – that’s why I’m not a 5
times world champion…….
Day Two and it was to be Jenny’s or Trewaters , having had a
few fish on Sunday, I quite fancied Trewaters, so obviously drew Jenny’s - peg 2.
Only one ‘star’ name in the section today, Phil Ringer, even so, not an
easy task. I was advised to set up a
waggler and that the island was too shallow to catch consistently, but I did
set up a lead for bread. Pole rigs for
meat at 5m, caster and groundbait topkit or topkit+1 and a rig to fish at 14m –
bait to be decided as the match progressed.
Once again the bread proved a worthwhile opener, just giving it 15
minutes put a 3lb carp and a 1lbish F1 in the net straight away. The meat line was very slow with just the odd
crucian to show for my efforts, so a look on the short line with groundbait and
caster was necessary, this was producing skimmers, crucians and F1’s, not as
fast as I’d like, but no one that I could see was really bagging.
That soon changed as Phil Ringer switched
from a groundbait feeder to a meat feeder and was soon catching F1’s and the
odd carp at a decent rate. This prompted me to try a meat feeder to the left of
the island, but all that did was waste half an hour, as it didn’t produce a
fish. Phil was catching tight to the
aerator post, if he did have a wayward cast (a rare sight….) he didn’t get a
bite. So for me it was back on the short
line and increasing the groundbait fed brought a decent run of fish, with the
line getting stronger and stronger towards the end. My decision to go on the feeder cost me a
point and a section pick up by default, as Phil won the lake with 76lb, Vince
Brown was second in the section with 57lb and I weighed just under 53lb for 3rd
in section, an extra half hour on the short line would have seen me nick that
point from Vince.
Day Three, Twin Oaks and Trelawny, Twin Oaks always seem
to win the lake money, so I get peg 20 on Trelawny. It’s a narrow peg with the island easily
reachable with 14.5m, so my first rig set up was a short MW float to fish up
the shelf and I spent some considerable time plumbing that line to try and find
a flat area to fish. Next was a rig for
meat at 6m, then a margin rig and finally one to fish worm and groundbait at
topkit or topkit+1. As there was loads
of time, I set up a waggler to have a cast around the peg and down towards the
end bank to see if there were any shelves of deep areas and finally, as it had
been a good starting point the other two days, straight lead for bread.
The bread/lead didn’t produce a bite anywhere in the peg,
Lee Kerry was on the next peg (22)and he was trying the same tactic, also
without any success. The island seemed
to be the obvious place to catch, in about 18”-2’ of water, but on meat or
caster the only bites I could get were from roach. By now Lee had told me there were carp being
caught round the corner from us along the pegs 24-32 and he feared that there
were no carp in the area we were in. By
now I was on the groundbait short and catching skimmers up to 2lb, but the problem
was there were so many skimmers there, that I was foul hooking and losing fish,
cutting back on the groundbait meant I waited longer for a bite, but a least I
wasn’t foul hooking them. Something tore
off after I lifted into it, it felt like a decent fish, I played it for a few
minutes before it became a dead weight and a large sunken branch surfaced, what
ever it was had managed to transfer the hook into this unseen snag.
During the day I pulled a few more branches and large twigs
from the peg, I guess they end up in the narrow bit before becoming water
logged and sinking. About ¾ of an hour
after losing the fish, I hooked another, this one made it into the net, a
Barbel of around 3lb, judging by the fight, I think this is what I lost. I then managed to lose a bream which I put at
4-5lb, hook pulled as it surfaced and opened its mouth. I did manage one carp taken on virtually the
last put in of the day, but whilst I had been pushing if not beating Lee into
the last half an hour, he managed 5 carp down the edge, (back towards 24) which
gave him a weigh of 42lb and a carp weigh of 46 for 88lb. My hard won 52lb of which 40lb was skimmers
was only enough for 4th in section, as the F1’s and carp had fed on
the pegs round the corner.
Day Four, Porth. I had
been regaled with tales of nets of roach from Porth, but the daily results
sheets showed just how hard it was fishing, with blanks and ounces appearing on
them. I decided that my pole was staying
in the lodge, two feeder rods were the order of the day, as the best way for me
to beat the quality field was fish a tidy match on the feeder and hope for 3 or
4 proper pull rounds. Speaking to Phil
Ringer, that was exactly his plan too. I
was disappointed to draw peg 39, I was hoping for one in the 70’s, I drew 40
last year and it had been a hard section, getting better as you went down the
section into the deeper water.
So a long trudge to my peg, the waders and platform were put
to use and the feeder rods set up, a 11’ Daiwa Tournament Pro for 25 turns and a
13’ Maver Reactorlite for 55 turns.
Plenty of ground bait made up, without too much feed in it. On the all
in I spent 20 minutes casting and retrieving the big feeder at 55 turns and
then left it to settle whilst I had a look on the 25 turn line with the same
groundbait mix and fluoro maggot. Nothing until ¾ of an hour in when I missed a
bite (wish I had spooled up some braid) next cast I had a small skimmer,
followed by two more in consecutive casts, this was a false dawn , as nothing
else showed in the next 20 minutes.
I switched to the 55 turn line and with 2 hair rigged worms
settled back for a wait, but a movement on the tip had me striking and missing
a bite, next put in a proper pull round and the solid feel of a big slab, with
my heart now racing, as not much was being caught I eased the fish in and after
about 15 turns it shook its head and dislodged the hook…….. I suppose it could have been a big perch, or
even a pike, but it felt like a bream
and I was pretty pissed off.
No more bites after that for ½ an hour. So back on the short
line and a couple of roach and another small skimmer went into the net over the
next hour. The guy next to me on 38 was blanking, I
couldn’t see peg 40 properly, but had a feeling he was struggling, Down on 36 I could hear Alan Scotthorne
having some banter and all the feedback I could hear was that everyone was
struggling. That made my decision to
abandon the 25 turn line and concentrate on the 55 turn line, this produced a
skimmer and a roach to double worm, hair rigged corn didn’t bring a bite, so
back onto worm. I was feeling tired
after concentrating on a tip that hadn’t moved much, when with 10 minutes to
go, it pulled round again, as I reached for the handle to strike I knew it was
a bream and I played it nervously to the net. With only 5 minutes left the
dream of another didn’t materialise, but I thought it would be a decent
weight. As it turned out Jason Lebosquet
on the section end peg 32 had 7lb of skimmers, Alan Sotthorne had 5lb 7oz and I
ended up with 5lb 2oz, so an expensive lost fish.
Day Five, Bolingey.
No need to over complicate things for this match, two baits, bread and
meat. Peg 11 was staring back at me when I drew, an island chuck and in the
area where the fish were the day before.
Nothing fancy nor finesse today, a lead rod with 8lb Shimano Technium to
a 0,20 hook length and a 14 QM1. A
waggler rod and 3 pole rigs complete the
set up, a 6m rig for meat, a 12m rig for meat and a margin rig.
Starting on the bread saw a fish on the net second cast, but
I coukd see that the fish were further along the island in front of 15, 16 and
17, I dro[[ed short into the deeper water and experimented with the height of
the pop up and had a couple of fish at 4’ off bottom. But as they weren’t there in any great
numbers. I came in and had a look on the two pole lines, nothing at 12m, but
the 6m line produced a fish approaching 15lb first put in. A long wait for bites saw another 3 fish netted from the 6m line, a
look down the margin was a pointless exercise and the fish had started to come
round the point of the island with 2 hours to go. I would have fancied catching them on the
waggler, but whilst the wind wasn’t overly strong, it did put a nasty L to R
skim across my peg. I shortened the
bread hooklength back to 12” and caught steadily on that for the last 1 3/4
hours. I weighed 118lb which was enough
for second on the day, well behind Des who had 190lb+ on peg 39, again om meat
and bread.
So, my aim was to better last year’s position and I failed,
49th, although another 2 points would have made it look a lot more
respectable and the time wasted on the feeder on Jennys and my total inability
to catch on the pole on 27 Pollawyn scuppered me. Lee Kerry was good enough to show me his rigs
for F1 fishing and to explain my missed bite problem was almost 100% down to
feeding.
Another good week though, thanks to Lodge and fishing mates,
Paul and Glen, Paul took Lodge honours coming 42nd, beating me by
one point, Glen was 69th and only a couple of points behind. A few
beers, some laughs and some shared frustrations at wrong or late decisions and
changes. I did scoop the Gudgeon trophy though, with two on Jenny’s, one to
defend next year!
Special thanks to our ‘Lodge Maid’ Chips Rafferty, breakfast
cooker, washer up and all round nice guy.
Roll on next March…………
