Frenzee Festival 2019, Whiteacres.

A mini, self imposed close season after a poor finish to the Viaduct Winter League meant I had all my rigs and gear up together, new reel lines, new elastics and whilst not bubbling over with enthusiasm, I was looking forward to the week away.

Paul (Faiers) and Glenn (Calvert) would be my lodge mates for the week, they had gone down on the Friday, but I left early Saturday morning, glad I did as apparently quite a few beers and then Sambuca was consumed on the night.  A nice uneventful drive down and I was there by 09:30, after finding I had been left the tiniest bedroom in the lodge (would have bet my house on it - but I'd have done the same....) we all headed up to Twin Oaks for a days fishing.  It was a decent day, that just got better and better as the evening drew in.  The clocks went forward that night, so we would be finishing the matches an hour earlier in effect, with the miserable cold weather, it was likely to hit the fishing.

No fishing Sunday, Pauls van had a problem on the way down, the RAC guy had told him it was the MAF sensor, I had brought my code reader and it confirmed his diagnosis.  We found a Euro Car Parts in Truro and got a new MAF sensor and fitted, cleared the codes and by then, decided a walk round the lakes would be more beneficial than fishing.  Not sure I learnt too much.

Monday morning dawned and it was off to Bolingey, hopeful of a big weight and a decent days fishing.

Peg 33 - old 45, a decent peg, but I'd rather have 23 the bridge peg, still I was hopeful of a few fish from the peg, it gives plenty of options., the end bank is in pole reach, a LH margin with a reasonable depth and open water.  Started short on meat, as this usually gives up a quick early fish or two, but not today. So a switch to pinging pellets long and this saw a 3lber netted quite quickly, but it was a lone soul. I tried pinging pellets to the end bank, nothing, I did resort to a method feeder further along the bank and had a 6lb fish on that.

With 20 minutes to go, I'd had 5 fish for 25lb and was really scratching my head, when they rocked up on the short meat line, I had 3 and lost one in the last 20 minutes - if only those bloody clocks hadn't changed....  I put 42lb on the scales and that is quite easily my worst weight at Bolingey, a venue that is often good to me.  I beat one in the section, peg 23 opposite, the peg I had fancied!!
Best bit of the day was a pint in the Perranporth Inn and a curry from the Indian.

Tuesday, Pollawyn and a chance to make amends and get back on track, but when peg 9 popped out of the drawbag I wasn't too hopeful, peg 13 is the strong peg in that section, but I had to give it a go. 

Given how cold it was I set up a lead to fish popped up bread, the waggler rods stayed in the b bite ag, the wind was howling down the lake . I was expecting to catch on worms, a meat line and the longest I could realistically fish the pole was 11m. so a pellet line there, an edge rig completed the set up.

I started on the bread, casting just short of the island, after a couple of minutes I had an indication and didn't connect with anything on the strike, back out and within a couple of minutes a very tentative bite saw a fish about 6lb netted, next two chucks saw a 9lb and a 10lb fish netted, then a 2lb F1 and I was wondering if this was going to be a red letter day.  But that was it for the bread, tried other baits across there, but not as much as a liner.  The rest of the match was spent rotating between the 11m pellet line - 3 F1's, the meat line - 2 barbel and a skimmer and the worm line - a few skimmers, for a total of 39lb odd and the much needed section win.

Some renewed enthusiasm for day three, I drew 28 Twin Oaks.

The weights weren't good the day before, but the lake is full of F1's so surely they'd have a feed after having a day off.  Again, it was windy, so the waggler rods had a ride and stayed unused, a lead rod for bread and a method feeder on another lead rod, topkits to fish the margin, down the shelf and at the bottom of the shelf.  I started across on bread and had no indications, I switched to the method, again, nothing, I had been feeding to my right just down the shelf with pellets, a look here was equally barren.  I had been feeding caster to my left and had a drop in with that after nearly an hour biteless, I could get bites here, but it was roach, not the intended F1's.

I had a decision to make, it was fishing rock hard, so I got off my box and set up a roach rig, intending to fish this until anyone near me started catching F1's (or carp), I was catching roach 1-3oz with a couple of 5/6 ouncers.  The guy on my left was sticking it out for carp or F1's and at one stage he had two in two chucks, so I went back out on the method and had an F1 straight away - great, they've arrived I thought, well that was the only bite across there.  Back on the roach and I ending up with 21lb odd, so 20lb of roach and a nice days fishing but not too successful, I bet three pegs to my left, who had 6lb, 8lb and 6lb respectively and I beat one other who had 14lb.  The end pegs beat me, 22 with 60lb, 34 with 25lb 23 beat me with 29lb and the guy on 26 had 59lb on paste - I wouldn't have thought to try it, maybe food for thought.  So if a couple of F1's had shown up in the roach, like I thought they would, I could have had a third, it was a tough day.

On to Thursday, I didn't really want to draw Trewaters, as I have never done any good on there and my back is not up to swinging 16m of pole and 5m of line to the island.  Quite unusually, I got my wish and drew Jennys.

21, I was initially hopeful it was an end peg, but on checking I could see 22 was in.  I drew 20 in the Preston festival a couple of years ago and Andy Bennett gave me a real lesson off 21, fishing the method, afterwards he spent quite a while explaining what he did and why, so hopefully his tips from then would help out today.

Again the wind would make the waggler a waste of time, so yet again they came along for the ride and stayed in the bag.  A lead and bread rod, although I wasn't convinced it would be any good, the water had a bit more colour than Pollawyn.

A method feeder clipped up to the island, 3 topkits, one for pellets long, one for meat and another for worms short.  As predicted, the bread wasn't right and I binned it after 10 minutes, I had a couple of F1's and skimmers on the method, but it wasn't hectic.  Next bite was a carp, a big one, it came in like a heavy wet sack, then went nuts under the rod tip, snapping 0.20 at the hooklength loop - bugger would that be costly.

 I persevered and had a couple of carassios, I cast just to the left, coming about 2m off the island and had a couple more, but it was slow and getting slower. I could see fish coming from the other end of the section, but it was a case of switching between lines and taking odd fish, the last hour I had a few better skimmers on meat, but it was a case of being patient and waiting for a bite.  My 33lb was only enough (by ounces from end peg 22) for third place, the end two pegs winning the section and the carp I lost may have cost me second.

Onto the last day and it was the little lakes, not sure where I wanted to be, so when I pulled out 3 Eery, it meant little to me, Trigger was on peg one, so was going to be hard to beat and peg 13 had won the lake every day so far.

Setting up was a bit of a faff, peg 1 & 3 being disabled pegs, so had to get over the framework, shame they didn't make the front bar removable. I did get the waggler out of the bag, also a method, although its a short chuck.  I suspected it would be a pinging pellet day, I couldn't quite get to the island with 16m, the peg is set back behind peg 1 and the wooden frame pushes you back another half metre.

I had a tree along to the left, which restricted how far I could get down the edge, to set up a rig to fish there, the RH margin was too shallow for the cold weather and the water clarity. The final rig was a meat rig.  Starting on that short was spectacularly ineffective, out with the pellet rig and I soon had a 1lb carassio, which proved to be a false dawn, as apart from a couple of skimmers, that  was it from there for ages, whilst Trigger on peg one was fishing to an aerator and getting one a bung - carp, not carassios and skimmers....

Another tough day, two carp added from the pellet line, two big carp from the meat line in the last hour and a double figure fish smashed me up (0.14) as I was too impatient trying to get it in. The edge line only produced the odd skimmer and a small perch.  Bit of a disheartening day, but I wasn't the only one struggling, the guy to my left never had a carp and the 4 corners beat me and Jon Arthur - if I had got the double figure carp in, then I would have had one more point.

So, a frustrating week, I was well prepped, thought I fished reasonable matches and made the right decisions, the last day particularly disheartening, but I honestly have no idea how I could have got those fish to move.

Thanks to all there, apart from the weather, some draws I would choose and being humiliated on the last day, it was a good week, next up Viaduct Spring League first round.