Avalon 3 Day Festival. Day Three, Wednesday 12th September 2018

Had a walk round the lake before the match today, the top end of the lake (opposite end to car park) had a brown streaky appearance, an algae bloom that had been blown up that end by the wind that had been blowing that way for a few days.

I was keen to avoid that as I felt there wouldn't be too many skimmers willing to feed well in that, so when I plucked 23 out of the bag ( second time this festival, I drew it for Vic on Monday) I was far from confident I could hang onto second spot, let alone claw back the ground on the leader, which was around a 4lb deficit.  Not only was it right in the brown algae zone, its a corner peg, much more renowned for carp than skimmers.

So, nice and simple to tackle up, as I had left my carp bait, pellet waggler rods etc at home, so it was pretty much the same set up as yesterday, two whips, three topkits and a feeder.  The feeder wasn't used, so no more about that.

Decided to try the two line approach again today, but at 14m rather than 12m, the micro fed line was virtually straight in front and the GB line was off to the right.  I also fed a line at 5m, with micros and corn.

Started on the whip and rather concerningly the float remained stationary, I had two tiny roach in the first 15 minutes before having a look on the long lines, I had a couple of indications on the float over the GB, before the float buried, hopeful of a big skimmer, I was disappointed when the fish took off at a speed only a carp can, netted shortly after, a small and unwanted carp.  The aerator came on and that did see me get a couple of indications and then a skimmer about a pound and a half, but it was a lonesome soul.

I kept feeding the whip line and had noticed a few bubbles over the micros on the 5m line, I went in there with a soft pellet on and had 5 or 6 hand sized skimmers, the bites stopped, so I refed, I had one more from this line and that was it.  By now the sun had started to come out, so back on the whip and a few fish had turned up, but not at the rate I felt was required, this kept me looking back over the longer lines, I had one more decent skimmer on worm over the GB and the only fish I had over the long line micros was a hand sized skimmer and a small roach.

Back to the whip and by feeding twice (30 or so casters each time) and then fishing at the back of the feed, I could catch a few bigger rudd and roach, this was better than the long lines which were very slow and only giving up a very occasional small fish

I thought I might have 11 or 12lb at the end and was pleasantly surprised to see the scales go round to 16.08, I wasn't sure how the lake had fished for silvers, Vic already had weighed 17.00 and Dan on 30 was saying he had 7 big skimmers and a few bits, but that went 14.12 and Conrad who was leading weighed 10.01, that allowed me to overtake him and win the silvers overall, a nice pick up ten quid shy of £500.

Thanks to Vic for running the festival and putting a lot of effort in to get the island strimmed and trimmed back, there was nothing to stop casting tight to them, some nice new platforms as well.  its a shame the fishery didn't fish as well as it can, but never the less an enjoyable 3 days.

I will say, if I had known there were silvers payouts before I paid on and started fishing ( I didn't realise until the end of day 1) I probably wouldn't have fished, as my personal opinion is that on series and festivals there shouldn't be a silvers payout, as it can have a detrimental effect on the result.  So I will deduct the entry fee and my expenses and be donating the rest of the winnings to one or more of the dog charities I support.

Festival Results

1) Tom Mangnall 36 points

2) Jon Newton 34 points  186.08

3) Chris Hill 34 points 150.04

4) Bob Gullick 31 points

5) Scott Smith 29 points

Silvers

1) Chris Fox 47.03

2) Conrad 45.06