Frenzee Festival, Whiteacres, March 2022

 It was good to get back to Whiteacres after the pandemic enforced break, caravan instead of the usual lodge, plenty of the lodges being refurbished, and work still ongoing, Mark Broomsgrove as my caravan mate for the week.

Arrived Saturday afternoon and didn't fancy practising in the wind, so watch the F1 qualifying in the bar, before settling into the van.  Sunday saw us a bit indecisive about where to fish, we walked round Pollawyn and saw Darren Vowles catching F1's on the pellet waggler and 8mm pellet.  Liberated him of his rod and had a few on it, but Mark wanted to practice on Trelawny as he was on there on Monday, so we went round there.  I half-heartedly set up, just a bomb rod and fished bomb and pellet, having a fish a chuck for the first 8 or 9 casts, then had to search round the peg for fish, Paul(Faiers) was also ambivalent about practicing so we pack up and watch Mark and Glenn (Calvert) for a bit, before we wrapped up and headed to the bar, before an early night in readiness for the first day.

My rotation was:

Twin Oaks
Trelawny
Jenny's/Python
Bolingey
Pollawyn

The festivals have reduced from 180 anglers down to 120, so some different pegging than in the past, also no communal draw in the mornings, the draw is done and put on the FB page just after 08:00 every morning.

I made a decision not to fish a method feeder any day, I just don't agree with it, self-hooking rig that I don't consider to be fishing as I want to do it.

Mondays draw put me on 25, I would have preferred to be on the other lake and expected the lake winner(and framers) to come from there.  There was a strong wind blowing, seems like Cornwall had the highest winds and lowest temperatures in the country....  So a bomb rod and just my 11m Power Partner set up, as thinking of fishing 11m was highly optimistic given the wind.

Having previously been on here on a tough day and catching 21lb of roach had helped me out, I set up a rig that would catch roach and F1's if they fed. A rig for meat and a pellet rig.  The meat rig being an old Mick Wilkinson Diamond pattern, which is very stable in rough conditions.

Started on the bomb and 8mm pellet and had a couple of F1's and a carp across, it was pretty slow going, but no one was catching, so i wasn't unduly concerned.  I did try the short caster line, this did produce a short run of perch and decent roach, but soon died off, I picked a couple more fish off on pellet, before having a couple of carp and F1's on meat short towards the end.  I wasn't surprised to be in the worst section on the lakes, but did win it, so a good start.

Tuesday and onto Trelawny, peg 24, it won the section the day before, so plenty of banter about drawing a flyer.  Once again, the wind dictated that 11m was to be the most pole that came out of the bag and to fish all of that was probably more wildly optimistic than the day before.

Bomb set up for across, a waggler that came out of the bag and went away unused, as the wind never dropped enough to even contemplate using it.  Pole rigs for meat, caster short and cast/maggot/worm 'long' - with long being about 8m if I was lucky.

Started across on the bomb and had a couple of quick fish, but after that it was a real struggle, tried a worm/caster line at 9m, another line with micros and a few different baits over it, caster short and it was pretty torrid, very windy and I was really struggling, couldn't even get a bite on a single maggot on a 22 and 0.08.  I finally picked up a few roach. hybrids and a decent F1 on the caster and two very late on the meat, this left me with less than half the weight of section winner Glenn.  For some reason Whiteacres took some of the result sheets off their FB pages, so no result sheets for today, but I weighed 21lb, the pegs to my left were my section and they weighed 22lb, 23lb, 30llb, 43lb and 7lb, leaving me with just 2 points, very disappointing.  I didn't enjoy the day at all, cold, windy and unable to work out how to get a bite.

Wednesday saw me draw an end peg on Python - 36, so I had high hopes it would be a decent draw and I'd have a chance of winning the section again.  I set up a led rod to fish to the island, just in case the wind got up, although the sun was out and it was a better day to be sat outside.  Pole rigs were one of my homemade glass stemmed island floats for tight to the island, a Preston F1 Maggot float for the deeper water a metre off the island and a slim wire stem RW floats for the open water.

I expected to catch on pellets, but that didn't happen, so I switched to maggots and caught straight away across to the island after changing, I had a nice run of F1's and then hooked a decent carp that I wasn't expecting, took a while to get in on 0.10 fluorocarbon and a 20 F1 hook.  I had to switch between a line in the open water and the island to keep the fish coming, I put 43lb on the scales to win the section, once again the lowest weight section, so no sniff of the superpool.

After this match 9 of us headed to The Pheasant at St Newlyn East and that was the first time we'd eaten here, I'd recommend it, nice food and a decent pint.

Thursday and couldn't afford to draw a bad one on Bolingey, peg 24 was against my name when the draw was published, concerned about the split section, as my section has pegs on two lakes, whereas all the other sections have the pegs on one lake, the 2 pegs on the back lake had been doing well in the section.

The size of the lake with both banks pegged means there really isn't a need to fish anything but the pole, but I did set up a bomb rod that never got used.  Four pole rigs one for short, one for 13m and one for either edge, I then did set up a shallow rig, as they were moving around.  Started short and had one bite, could have been a liner.  Went out long where I fed a very small amount of pellets, this was pretty negative, but there had been a frost and whilst everyone else was sat in T shirts, I was under the trees and shaded from the sun wearing a fleece and a windstopper!

The day was turning into a repeat of Tuesday, struggling to get a bite, but I was sure it would come good.  I was feeding pellets in the RH margin and did feed the LH margin with micros and maggots a bit earlier than I would usually, but I needed something to happen.  Then fed a few micros on the 13m line and tried corn over it, again nothing.  I did see a swirl in the LH edge and finally had a 3lber to go in the net, that appeared to be a loner as no more signs or bites in the edge in the next 15 minutes I tried it.

A switch to worm over the micros at 13m brought an instant response, a carrasio and a carp around 6lb, then four eels, struggling to remember the last time I caught four eels in one match, but I'm not sure it's a good sign when fishing for carp.  I did manage another couple of carp on the same line, never had a bite short and one more down the edge that was 2 1/2 lb, so festival over as I only beat two in the section - I honestly have no idea what I would differently if I could revisit the match.  As expected, the section was one from the other lake and peg 25 took advantage of the empty peg 26 and his long margin to catch from it.

As that was festival over, it was at least nice to have our traditional beer in the Perranporth Inn whilst waiting for the takeaway Indian to be prepared, I think the Massala on the high street has changed hands, the curry used to be excellent in there, this one was OK, but not anything to shout about.

Friday was my turn on Pollawyn, which had been fishing pretty hard, the draw given to me was 16, so if the lake fished to current form, that was another day without a lake win on the cards.  The wind got up so the plan to fish the waggler was looking dodgy, I set up two anyway, one shallow and one at depth.  Two bomb rods, one for bread and one for pellet.  Four pole rigs, one to fish caster short and that would also cover 'deep shallow' further out. A rig for full depth with a banded hook, one without a band and the Mick Wilkinson Diamond for meat at 5m

Started on the bomb and bread, that resulted in 3 bites, a carp, an F1 and a bumped fish, a switch to bomb and pellet was no good.  I tried a line at 13m with micros and corn, nothing on that, I switched to a worm line at 14.5m I only had one bite on that, a 2oz hybrid.  Then a cautionary tale, I don't like to trust repaired pole sections, unless I know it was one clean break, I hadn't managed to replace the section before coming down here (see blog Viaduct 26th Feb) so had it repaired, 4 separate wraps and it didn't seem too bad, but the tree must have caused unseen damage and lifting the rig saw the section break and I was lucky to get all the sections back.

 

The break wasn't over one of the repairs, which look decent enough, it'll be going in the bin now......

The caster line short did produce bites, but only small roach to start with, they got a little bigger and the line then died off.  I could see others in the section catching on the method, so back out on the bomb - nothing doing. I was banking on my meat line coming good and intended to fish it for the last 2 hours.  The meat line did give me some F1's around 3lb and a couple of carp, but ti was slow going in the middle of the 2 hours and I did try a meat feeder, having one carrasio on that before I caught the island with the hooklength and lost the lot.  So back on the meat short and had another carp and decent F1.

I was expecting to be near the bottom of the section as I'd seen a few catching on the method, so I was surprised to see my 27.06 to take second in section, those better meat fish paying off.  I was now ruing the two bad days on Trelawny and Bolingey.

So I ended up 32nd, feeling one more good day would have seen me sneaking into the top 10, one thing I did notice was my weight was the lowest of the top 64, showing my drawing remains consistent.....even if I get a good peg, its in a poor section.

A good week company wise, the weather was decent after the wind buggered off, picked up money for the couple of section wins and was quite sorry not to be staying for the Dynamite Festival this week.

Well done to Paul Nichols on his top ten finish.

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.

Frenzee Festival, Whiteacres, 16th - 20th April 2018

Even though its been a long tough winter, this seems to have come a round quickly again, just Paul Faiers and myself travelling down this year, our other regular lodge companion was unable to make it this year, shame, as its a good craic with Glenn along, even if I am somewhat off the pace in the bar nowadays....

The draw had put us in a rotation starting on the four small lakes, Bolingey on Tuesday, Pollawyn on Wednesday, Twin Oaks and Trelawny on Thursday and Friday saw us heading for Jennys or Trewaters.

Saturday saw us have a few hours on Trelawny, catching a few, but not really getting amongst the carp or decent F1's, then a few beers and catching up with old friends in the bar.  That led to a fairly late start on Sunday and for some inexplicable reason we decided to go to Trewaters, the weather was awful and we really struggled to catch.

Monday dawned and I did try and talk myself into Canal 19, but it wasn't to be, peg 7 for me and Paul didn't do much better in 11 Canal.  Looking at 4th in the section from here, but you have to be hopeful on the first day, that the fish have moved from their residency.

Peg 7 has no features such as the gorse bushes or trees that many of the other pegs have, I set up a meat rig for short, pellet rig to fish soft pellet over micros, a rig for the edge, which isn't nice either side and a pellet rig to fish tight across.

First two put in's on the meat I was surprised to have a near 2lb F1 and then a 1lb Carassio, but this was a short lived burst of hope, the tone for the rest of the match was set, never taking more than one or occasionally two off the same line. It was a real struggle and the day was capped off by seeing a swirl on the far bank seconds before the all out, I swung the pellet rig with a bit of meat on at the swirl and immediately hooked a small angry carp.  It tore down the bank, tangling the elastic in over hanging brambles, I managed to push the pole right across and free it, only for the carp to change direction, run down the far bank to my left and snag some more brambles.  Got free from them and played it across, about 10' out the fish found a snag and I tried all the usual tricks to get it out, but to no avail.

I had decided that I had to pull for a break, so put the elastic round a keepnet and started pulling, expecting the 0.12 to snap any second, I was surprised to see the carp come free, attached to a bit of rope.  Once I netted it I could see that the rope was tied in a hangmans noose, had I known what the week was to bring, I might have kept it and put it to use.......  The carp didn't affect the result, as predicted pegs 7-13 were the last on the lake, with my 29lb beating two and a long way from the top weight of 70lb+

Tuesday

Bolingey, where I have done OK in the past, so was hopeful of putting the festival back on track, the weather was foul, wind and rain forecast all day, into the tub and out comes peg 20, a look at the results from the day before had me concerned, Vince Brown had been on there the day before and was near the bottom of the section.  Paul was off to peg 2.

The wind was blowing R to L at my peg, so I decided that the Multi Margin would be the only pole out of the bag, as there was no way I could fish longer than its 8m. A pellet rig for 8m. a meat rig for 5m and a margin rig, but on plumbing up the margin, I was very doubtful I'd catch in it, too shallow.

A straight lead and a method, completed the set up, no point in even opening the holdall with the waggler rods in.  Bolingey will usually give up a fish or two (and sometimes more) starting on the meat short, not today, not even a carrasio.  It took me over an hour to get a fish and it was a small carp, in the first 4 hours I managed 2 carp and 4 carassio's for 12lb on the clicker, all on the method, it wasn't exciting and it wasn't frenetic......

At 16.10 with 50 minutes to go I had my first bite and fish on the short meat line, a decent fish, but it wasn't until 16.40 when I had another and then one more at 16.50, terrible, worst day I have had on Bolingey. The results on my bank went:  peg 22 - 37.00, peg 21 - 15.00, peg 20 37.04, peg 19 12.00 and peg 18 6.00, so I won my bank, but for all the value that had in the match, I may as well have blanked.....  Two days gone and festival over by two draws that I certainly couldn't get anymore out of and I am fairly sure that most on the festival would have struggled on.

Wednesday

A chance to redeem myself today, another lake I have picked up on, on several occasions, peg 17 on the high bank, which again hadn't done any good in previous days, not one I'd choose, a bit hemmed in, but I was confident I'd get some fish across and have caught well on the pole in this area before.

Loads of time to tackle up with the 09.00 draw and fishing from 12.00 -17.00, so I had two wagglers, a method and a bomb set up, along with 3 topkits, one to fish meat up the shelf, another for deep shallow and finally one meat at depth.

Once again the wind was looking to spoil the fishing for me, as the waggler was going to be nigh on impossible to fish, unless there were a huge shoal there competing, so the pellet is grabbed as it lands and that was unlikely in this peg.  So having to resort to 8mm pellets to get anywhere near the island with them, in the scare lulls in the virtually incessant wind, I started on the bomb.  This produced on solitary bite from a scruffy looking hybrid that went about a pound and a half.

Pellet and meat on the pole lines were pretty much non starters and I set up a new line and fished worm, this saw 30lb of skimmers netted, in between trying to catch a carp.  I seem to have been on carp avoidance since before Xmas and its wearing a bit thin now.....  This wasn't quite last in section, but it wasn't far off, again, I have no idea, not the foggiest what I could have done to get more from the peg - except to fish 5 hours solid for skimmers......  Just for a change, I could see someone catching steadily, as 27 was catching on the lead into the gap, where the fish had been all week.

Best bit of Wednesday was a trip to The Two Clomes with Paul, Steve Nadin, Chris Albiston, Tom from Whitemoor lakes and Pete, whose second name eludes me.  Nice food, good company and a splendid glass of red......

Thursday

I fancied A section on Twin Oaks, big carp, rather than F1's, but as usual, I couldn't be further from the lake or peg I wanted, 22 on Trelawny, a lake I have won a section on in the past, on a day the carp didn't feed.  Looking at the results from the day before, I had to be reasonably happy, 95lb and a section win from the peg.

It's too far to reach the far bank with the pole, but there was no horrendous side wind to stop me getting tight to the bank with a method, lead or even waggler, which I clipped up all three.  A line to fish expander over micros and the obligatory meat line, a margin rig and a rig to fish worm and GB right in front of my keepnets, the skimmers and bream will come right up the shelf on this lake.

Started on the method, it produced one tiny carrasio in 40 minutes, the wind had swung round since yesterday and was now blowing straight down the lake into pegs 1 and 32.  I was able to feather the waggler in perfectly and couldn't believe that I never had a bite on it, the far bank appeared devoid of fish, although I stuck it out as peg 20 was having a good run fishing the pole to the point of the island (you can reach it with less than 16m from this peg).

I came onto the micros line and fished expander over it, this was fairly slow and it was skimmers I was catching, no sign of an F1, I did get a 2lb carp, but the line was getting slower and slower.  A switch to the worm and GB on topkit, saw a decent run of skimmers and bream netted, but I was never going to compete with the pegs further up the lake, I had one F1 with 20 minutes to go, so am fairly sure that there weren't many in the area, as peg 23 similarly struggled.  The peg that wasn't 'favoured usually, easily won the section with 122lb of F1's, the wind had done for me again, this time taking the fish down the other end of the lake.

Walking up to the club in the evening we saw this on the ground......

So it wasn't me spitting the dummy out, but I was struggling to come to terms with just how badly I was doing this year, my worst ever festival result was on the cards and I didn't think I'd fished too badly, my drawing had done me no favours...

Friday

I fancied Jennys, just because I have a dismal record at Trewaters (Trewaters cost me a top ten finish last year), so fully expected to be driving the 10 miles to Trewaters, but 20 on Jennys came out of the drawbag, Paul Holland had 120lb off it the day before for a section win.

Got to the peg and found Paul's lodge match Andy Bennett on 21, so I kept an eye on what he set up, as he would have all the info from Paul as to how he caught the day before.  Although he did speculate it wouldn't be so good today, as surprise, surprise, the wind had changed......

Its a reasonable chuck to the island, so I set up a 24g Guru Hybrid feeder, a bomb and a 6g pellet waggler.  A rig to fish pellet at 14m, ond for meat at 5m and a rig for worm short.  It transpired that Paul had caught carp on the method the day before, so that had to be my starting ploy, even though its not something I would claim to have any prowess in doing, as I rarely fish it.

I hadn't had a bite and Andy Bennett had 4 or 5 fish, I then saw he was fishing two dead reds on the hook, a switch to this and GB from pellet and micros saw me start to catch, but it was small carassios rather than the proper carp I was looking for.  I switched to the pole and had some skimmers and a small carp on 6mm banded pellet at 14m, but this was slow going as well.  Back on the feeder and a few more small carassios, this was the pattern of the day, with only an odd fish on the short worm line, another small carp on the pole.

Andy Bennett was kind enough to spend some time explaining about fishing the method after the match and I knew he'd beaten, but when the scales arrived, by less than I thought.  My fish went 35lb odd, Andy weighed 47lb odd, I was sure he had a lot more but the stamp of fish were small, over a ton won the section further down and the lake was won from peg 1 with 120+.  If I was a little more practised at casting the method accurately and had some confidence in it, I may have had the couple of pounds more that I needed to be third in section behind Andy, as it was there were a couple of 37's.

So, fishing wise a bloody disaster, memories of last years 19th place finish wiped out by this years embarrassing 151st.  Faierzy managed 71st and it was a good week apart from my miserable endeavours, shame Glenn wasn't there, the service, bar food and on site chippy are all massively improved from the last few years, the lakes have had a lot of work and new fish, so things are looking up.  By the end of Thursday, I was ready to put my tackle on ebay, but now I'm determined to get back and prove to myself, if nothing else, that I'm better than this finishing place portrays.

Preston Festival 2017, Whiteacres, Monday 9th - Friday 13th October 2017

Not an easy festival to fish this year, as Louis, one of my dogs, was ill and in the vet hospital at Langford, difficult decision to go, so the fishing and craic was somewhat overshadowed by the concern for him.

Travelled down and stayed with Glenn Calvert, the weather forecast was pretty shite for Saturday, so we didn't get there too early, so the usual practice was missed, a quick look round the lakes revealed most others had the same idea, as hardly anyone was fishing.  Usual Saturday night meet up with a few in the bar and a few beers.

Sunday just to wet a line we had a few hours on Jennys, it was fairly tough going and I think I had about 17lb of skimmers and a couple of F1's in 4 hours, evening was rounded off with a trip to the Two Clomes for tea.

Onto the serious matter of the fishing, the rotation had put me on Bolingey first day, a venue that I have usually done OK on, so looking forward to it.  I drew 18 which can be a good peg and I went hopeful that I could catch a few from it.  Its a peg that gives a few options, the margins aren't too inviting as 17 and 19 are in, but the island and open water gives plenty of space.  I'd based my bait tray round meat and pellet, but did have some corn as a back up.


I two lead rods, one with a method on and one straight lead, two wagglers, one full depth across towards the island, where there is a shelf that's a good 3' shallower than the open water and a shallow waggler. 3 pole rigs, one for meat plumbed up the shelf about 6" shallower than full depth, a pellet rig to fish at 14m and more in hope than expectation, a margin rig.  As I was ready with 40+ minutes to go and there were odd fish showing, I set up a shallow rig and a deep shallow rig, so that was either all options covered, or a confusing mess......

Started on meat up the shelf and was rewarded with a fish nigh on 10lb within 6 or 7 minutes, then I hooked one a lot bigger and lost it just as it was coming to the surface, not sure why.  That seemed to kill off the line and I went over to the island on the lead, but that was totally non productive.  A switch to the full depth waggler saw the odd fish come to banded 6mm pellet, but it wasn't hectic action.

I could see the odd fish swimming through, so had a good go at shallow and deep shallow on the pole, but that was a fruitless exercise, so I switched to the full depth rig over the feed and had one straight away, false dawn as I had no more there.  I ended the match back on the meat line and put several more in the net and I had 103lb on the clicker, this turned out to be 100.12 on the scales and was 3rd in section with that, behind 15 (149lb) who caught on the method all day and 11 (120lb) who had a good run at the end.  Not an ideal start, but not a total disaster.

Day two dawned and I was looking forward to it, Pollawyn, another lake that has seen me do OK on in the past, the day didn't start well when we sauntered up for the draw at 09.15, only to find the doors locked, turns out the draw was at 09.00 - always been 09.30 after the first day, we weren't alone as Tom Scholey and Matt Godfrey were also stood with us looking perplexed.  Glenn jumped in Tom's van with him and went to the shop, whilst I went back and got my van.  I turned up just as Glenn had drawn for me - to say I was deflated is an understatement, he handed me 37, right up the arm and very unfancied.

All I could do was go to it and fish my best match.  It's possible to reach the island from this peg with 16m, so I set up a rig for that, a small pellet feeder, a rig for just down the far shelf and a silvers rig for down the track and a meat rig for 5m.  Not too much to write about, as I felt I fished a tidy match and gave it my best for 5 hours, but all I could muster was 6.07 of perch and two gudgeon.  No matter where I fished in the peg, I either had nothing or a small perch (apart from the glory of retaining the lodge Gudgeon Cup) for the full 5 hours.  That gave me 3 points and festival over, barring 3 section wins and a miracle.  Very frustrating, if there was any consolation, 4lb came off the peg the next day and 7lb the day after, so I wasn't the only one unable to catch from it.

Day three and I drew an indifferent peg, peg 8 on Twin Oaks, would be unusual to beat 16 and 14, so I decided to fish positively, feed a bit and try and attract some fish into the peg, I had nothing to lose.  To my left I had Lee Edwards on 6 and he wasn't best pleased with the draw, as weren't the guys to his left. I had a fish nearly straight away on meat short, then,, just as Monday, lost the second one, but I kept on getting indications, so I persevered, it turned out to be F1's and a I had 3 or 4 before it went dead.  Lee was getting the odd fish on the lead, feeding next to nothing across, but we were far off the pace of the pegs up to the right, which were catching well.  I had a couple on meat at the end, but Lee's tactic of fishing negatively had out weighed my positive approach, Lee weighing 100lb to my 49lb, although we were both well beaten by the favoured pegs.

Day four and I fancied a draw on Trewaters, to banish my poor run there, but it wasn't to be and Acorn 13 was my seat for the day and Glenn headed off to Trewaters.  Peg 15 was in, but 17 wasn't drawn, meaning 3 was the next peg to him, consensus was that he would win the section, but again I felt a reasonably positive approach would be the best way to try and pick up some coin today.
I set up a straight lead, a small method feeder and tried to cover some options with pole rigs, margin, as its a long LH margin and looks good, but I have fished the peg before and never had a bite down the edge.  A meat rig to fish at 7m left, a rig to fish worm and caster at 11m right and a shallow rig.

It turned out to be a tough day and after 2 hours there was hardly anything caught on the lake, I had to concentrate on the worm and caster line to catch and I had a few F1's and skimmers, my week was summed up when I dropped a 3lb F1 back in the lake instead of the net and it cost me points.....  I ended with 17.08 which was worth 5 points and left me with only a lake win to go for on the last day to try and resurrect something from the week.

Day five and the Porth palava of swapping kit around and wondering if there would be a boat trip involved.  I had no need to worry about the boat, but did draw the longest walk again, 40.  Last 4 trips to Porth have seen me draw 40, 39, 16 and 40, each time I have drawn the high numbers they have been poor, with a DNW showing on the board for it on the previous day.

I'd love to report that I had a day catching roach and skimmers on the pole, in fact I didn't have a bite on it, 0.06 and a 24, single flouro pinkie and nothing.  I had a bite on the feeder at 12.30, a skimmer, sadly that met it's fate in the jaws of a pike and I had to wait until 14.30 for another bite, between 14.45 and the end I managed to put a level 5lb of skimmers and roach in the net on the feeder, so another poor day.

Reflecting on the festival and looking at the final positions of some very good anglers, I feel slightly vindicated in my horrendously poor finish, the draw on Pollawyn was a killer, Twin Oaks wasn't so good, Acorn I could possibly have done better and Porth I really don't think I could have had many more fish from the peg, it was barren for too long.

So a week that was not so good for the fishing, the company was great, many thanks to Glenn for the company and putting up with me for the week, apart from the fishing and the concern for Louis didn't help. He came home from the hospital on the Saturday when I got home, but went down hill on the Sunday and that horrible decision to get the vet and end his suffering was taken, so a really shite end to a week of mixed emotions.

RIP Louis,  Feb 2007 - Oct 2017 

No fishing for a week or so due to work.

Frenzee Festival, Whitacres, March 27th - 31st 2017

After last years disastrous Bait Tech festival, I was looking forward to this to try and make sure that this year was more successful.

Travelled down on Saturday and met up with lodge mates Paul & Glenn in the café at Whitacres, also Dave Stephenson was there.  After a decent breakfast we headed onto Pollawyn for a practice session, me and Paul headed for one of the points and fished 19 & 20, Glenn and Dave went round to the high bank.   We had a lovely afternoons fishing, I mainly fished meat short and caught skimmers, Barbel, F1's and Carp. Paul had some huge F1's that must have gone 5 or 6lb each.  He also had this Barbel which was 6-7lb.

The usual Saturday night social in the bar and then onto Sunday, decided to have a fish on Acorn, that was tough going, but we did end up with a reasonable day once we sussed out the F1's were shallow. I had bought a couple of packets of the new Guru Kaizen hooks to try whilst practising, not intending to use something untried in the festival, but I was so impressed by them, that I did use them in the matches.

Onto the festival itself, I had drawn in the same section rotation as Paul and Glenn, first time that had happened, we had the rotation of Monday on Pollawyn, Tuesday on Twin Oaks / Trelawny, Wednesday on Jennys / Trewaters, Thursday on Canal / Acorn & Python and Friday was Bolingey.

The draw put me on 21 on Pollawyn, the next peg to where I fished on Saturday, Paul drew 20, so we felt that we knew how to catch, as the short meat line had been so prolific.  I could also reach the point of the spit, so set up a rig to fish tight against it in about 2' of water. I set up waggler and lead as well as the same rig I had all the fish on Saturday.  I started across against at 16m the island with meat and had a carp about 5lb straight away, then a F1 and then hooked a big carp, which took ages to get back from 16m I got it down to the topkit and saw it, I'd estimate 18lb, then inexplicably, as sometimes happens, the hook pulled and that was my bonus fish gone.

I managed to catch more F1's across and a few skimmers and a 12lb carp on the short line, but it was nothing like practice day, as the F1's and Barbel didn't show up on that short line at all.  I weighed 57.02 which was enough to win the section and 4th on the lake, that lost fish costing me a third place. (Top three on the lake are paid out and section winners).

Tuesday saw me draw peg 12 on Twin Oaks, not an out and out flyer, but not the worst draw, I set up two lead rods, two wagglers one deep and one shallow, a margin rig and rig for meat short. Starting across on the lead was pretty unproductive, either with bread or meat, I did have one fish and a switch to the waggler wasn't any better.  Peg 14 was catching well and I was falling behind, I had to try and make something happen, so I started firing pouchfulls of corn across and fished corn on the waggler, this made a big difference and I started to catch - mainly F1's, but the odd carp.  The short line was totally dead until the last 30 minutes where I put 5 more carp in the net. Peg 14 won the section, with 172lb, I put 124.06 on the scales and was 12lb behind 2nd place, but I only managed 4th, so an earlier switch to corn may well have seen me get a couple of extra points.

Wednesday, I was hoping for a draw on Jenny's as Trewaters is a bit of a bogie venue for me, it wasn't to be and 31 Trewaters was home for the day and I had Paul for company on 29.  The wind was right to fish 16m and long line, but I didn't set it up, as my shoulder is buggered up and there is no way I can swing that around all day. There were some old bulrushes on the far bank, I could see them knocking, these lakes with islands are my least favourite and I hate the way the fish stick so tight to them.

First cast with bread and the tip went round as I was sinking the line, a small carp, then another, but typically for this lake, that was it, I fished the waggler across and had a couple more, but they would back off into the rushes and casting tight to the rushes meant the wove their way into the back of the stick-ups and snagging everything up.

The short line was totally non productive and I did manage a couple down the edge towards the end, I just had to keep leaving the far bank and then going back to it and taking an odd fish.  I knew the pole at 16m with about 6m of line would be better, but couldn't risk making my shoulder so bad I couldn't fish the rest of the week.  I ended up with 60.09 and the same points as Tuesday.

I got back to the lodge and then discovered that Paul's van had broken down leaving Trewaters, so me and Glenn went down to find him.  Couldn't do anything to help, I hadn't taken any tools or my code reader. It sounded like there was no fuel getting through,  The tow truck took him off to the garage, where the next day they informed him the cambelt had snapped...... ouch.

Thursday I drew 19 Canal, Alex Nadin had popped down for a couple of days staying with his dad and he was good enough to give Paul and Glenn a lift to the lakes.

Having listened to Trigger who won his section on Canal earlier in the week, so I set up to fish meat short, I also set up a waggler, a lead and a long line, as well as a shallow rig and one at 2/3 depth.  Starting on meat short was a good move, as I caught steadily for a couple of hours, then I started missing bites and had a couple of foulers.  A switch to the 2/3 depth rig resulted in a few more fish, before the same happened.  Switching again to the shallow rig saw a few more fish netted.  I wasn't sure how much I had in the net, so dropped another in - kiss of death - had to switch to chucking a waggler and corn down the peg to get an odd fish for the last couple of hours.  I weighed 63.08 for a section win and third on the lakes.

Friday, the draw was at Bolingey, I took Glenn and Allan Oram was good enough to take Paul, I drew 25, not too over joyed, but then found I had no one either side and loads of room.

I set the usual, lead, waggler and long, short and an edge rig on the pole.  Two chucks with the lead and bread, not so much as a liner and up the bank with it.  A look on the short line saw me get off to a great start, 42lb on the clicker in the first hour, carp and big F1's, I did think a big weight might be on the cards.  The second hour knocked that back, as I put one carp and one F1 in the net for 12lb, the third hour was as bad. Luckily the 5m line came back to life in the last couple of hours and I had a few from the margin. I fed both sides, one with maggot and one with corn and meat, the maggot line just produced roach, so no more about that.

The LH edge produced 4 or 5 fish, but there wasn't loads of fish there, the 5m line was better and there was some bubbles and signs of fish there towards the end, shame about the quiet mid section of the match, as I put 132.14 on the scales, which was second in section behind peg 10 which won the section 4 days out of 5.  That was also enough for 3rd on the lake, so a pickup again to end the week.

Shame I couldn't have nicked a couple more points on Twin Oaks as that would have seen me scrape into the top ten, I guess I can't complain at 19th as I have a had a good weeks fishing in great company, thanks to Lodge mate Paul and Glenn, the evening company in the bar, Steve and Alex Nadin, Chris Albiston, Dave Stephenson and all the others from our local circuit and those I only see at big matches or Whiteacres.

I guess I'll have to get booked on the Preston Festival now.......

Bait Tech Festival 2016

Going into a festival on the back of a poor run isn't ideal, but it's also an opportunity to turn things around.


This year as usual the Lodge comprised of myself, Paul Faiers and Glenn Calvert, we usually have Paul's Father-in-Law along with us, Chips, but his health took a turn for the worse and he couldn't come this year, so best wishes to Chips and hope he is improving.


We went down early Saturday, as Glenn wanted to watch the football, but clean living folk like me and Faiersy weren't having any of that, so we went onto Python for the afternoon and I had a great afternoon, 80-90lb of F1's, skimmers, perch and roach, whilst Paul had at least 50lb.  That was the first time I had fished it, but was warned not to get too carried away, as that sort of weight wouldn't come out in a match.


A couple of beers in the evening, just to be sociable and meet up with old friends, led to a couple more and it was nearly 09.00 Sunday before any of us rose.  We had a day on Pollawyn, it wasn't hectic, until towards the end when I caught well short on meat, including a Barbel that wasn't far off 6lb.

A much quieter night and up Monday for the draw, I managed peg 38 on Bolingey, not a bad draw, so I was hopeful of catching a few.

I had Steve Nadin opposite, so if it was to be tough at least a familiar face to share the moans with.....


I set up a shallow waggler to fish down to the end bank, a lead rod and several topkits, to cover the margin, short meat, long meat and as there were odd fish showing themselves, a shallow rig, I think if the sun had come out, it might have been a mugging day, but it wasn't quite warm and sunny enough.


Baits were meat, corn and dead maggots, I had a double figure fish straight away on the waggler/meat cast down to the first overhanging bush, before I fed anything, shortly after another, but that was it until much later in the match when I had one more from this line.


It was a struggle, one of those days when catching a fish would spook the others from that line and I worked away swapping lines and ended the day with 86lb, which was 4lb shy of winning the section, but at least a second in section wasn't a disastrous start.


Day two, Pollawyn, a lake I have had reasonable section results on, so fairly confident, out of the draw tin comes 36 another end peg, but not a corner.  For some reason I didn't take anymore pictures, so just words from here on in.  I had a basic plan, but just before the start Paul walked down from Jenny's wanting to borrow a bait tub, he pointed out all the carp basking at the end of the lake, 3 pegs away, but at Whiteacres you can fish halfway to the next angler, regardless of distance, so I spent 20 minutes trying to avoid tress and cast to the fish - pointless and it had thrown me.


I got it completely wrong, peg 34 has a ledge and rushes, which were shaking with fish movement, he was catching carp on the bomb and bread, it narrows up at 36 so I could reach my shelfless, rushless far bank with the pole.  The wind was also funnelling into the peg making things difficult.  I could also see those on the high bank catching well and I persisted trying to catch carp - why?? the high bank isn't in my section!!  Towards the end I made up some groundbait and chopped some worms, that brought me 18lb skimmers in an hour, last in the section and realisation that 32lb was second in section,, 5 hours of worm fishing would have seen me do that, I'm convinced - no excuses, totally blew it.


Day three and it was Twin Oaks / Trelawny, I fancied Twin Oaks and managed to secure a peg on there, trouble is the wind and the fish were ending up towards peg 1, I drew 18 which had been last the day before.  It was looking likely that I was going to join that result, as with 3 and 1/4 hours gone I hadn't had a bite, not a single indication that there was a fish in the peg.  Then at 3.15 I had a carp on the bomb, then next cast another, that was it, not another bite on it.  A cast with the shallow waggler to search the water a bit more saw the float bury and a spirited 3lb tench was netted, then a 4oz roach, which was the last bite on that.  I did manage some big skimmers, F1's and a couple of carp down the edge in the last 3/4 of an hour which saw me beat peg 16 and peg 8 (I think) saving the shame of coming last two days in a row, but that was festival over.


Day four, Trewaters/Jenny's, I tried the PMA to get me a draw on Jenny's as Trewaters is a bit of a bogie water for me, but it wasn't to be and I got Trewaters, but a decent draw, 37- although it had been last the day before, see the pattern emerging!!!  You can just reach the island with 16m, or at least you could if it wasn't so windy that it made it a fairly pointless exercise for most of the match.  Also there are a couple of yellow bushes at 16m down the LH edge, these often produce, again the wind was making it tricky, as it was pushing the 16m of pole into the bank.  (Is that enough excuses??)


I had Dan White to my right and he stuck to a couple of short lines, we were fairly neck and neck until the last 90 minutes when I went chasing fish down the edge and Dan slaughtered them on his 5m line, taking the section with 100lb to my low 70's.  A couple of other weights from the other end of the lake pushed down to a miserable mid section position and I am heading for my worst ever Bait Tech festival result.


Day 5 and just the lake and a bit of pride to fish for, out comes 13 on Acorn, a lake I've never fished, it had been 4th in section the day before. Chatting to Alan Scotthorne before the start (he was on Canal) and he advised me that very frugal feeding was the way to go.  I set up a deep and shallow waggler, a lead rod and several topkits, a margin rig, a long meat rig, a short meat rig and a shallow rig.  Word was that even with 8mm meat on previous days anglers were getting 'roached' out, especially if feeding heavily.


I started on the waggler tight to the island and was soon several fish behind peg 15, where an old boy was catching well on popped up bread into the wides (peg 15 is half as wide again as 13).  A swap to meat short kindering 3 cubes in saw me take 3 fish in the first hour, the guy on 15 obviously hadn't taken advice from Alan S and was throwing handfuls of meat in, he went over it and was soon getting one a bung, whilst most of the rest of us on the lake sat looking on, somewhat bemused.  In response I did start a really positive line at 11m towards peg 15 and that did give me one bite which was a fouler that got away.  A dismal day to round off the festival, wet, grey, very difficult fishing at least I wasn't the only one struggling as 15, won the lake, Rob Wotton was 2nd, 17 had a few and the rest of us all weighed 40lb or less.


So, that was my worst ever finish, must go back and put that right, the result aside, it was as ever, a good week, in good company, even if I wimped out of going out on Thursday night and stayed in the lodge watching fishing DVD's ( I wasn' t the only one).

Preston Festival, Whiteacres Monday 5th - Friday 10th October 2015

After qualifying for the Preston Festival at Whiteacres, I decided to give it a go, Sue Faiers was looking for a week of respite, as she sent her husband along to keep me company.  This would be the first time I had fished the lakes when pellet and method feeders were allowed, as the Bait Tech which I usually fish is a ‘natural’ bait festival.

I had to get everything ready the week before, as I was away in Gran Canaria not getting back until after midnight on the Saturday, this involved buying some of the Guru X-Safefeeders, which are the only elasticated feeders allowed at Whiteacres, as well as tying rigs hooks and generally (with hindsight) packing too much gear and bait.

Leaving Paul to collect the fresh bait from Veals on the Saturday, I was ready before I jetted off and within 7 hours of landing back in Bristol I was packing up the van to head to Nailsea and collect Paul.  On our arrival we decided to fish on Sunday afternoon, a few hours on Pollawyn, where we caught fish, but it wasn’t hectic sport, a sign of things to come…..

We had opted to be in the same section, to make it easier for travelling and I wasn’t disappointed to be on Bolingey for day one, I have picked up money on my last two visits to the lake, so was fairly confident.  That confidence was short lived when I pulled out 21 – the coldest peg in Cornwall – it really is a poor draw and was true to form.  I started on bread tight across to the island and had a carp, which gave me false hope, the next bite was a drop back and that was a 8oz roach, that was the end of the island action.  The information we had been told from the Maver festival the week before, was very frugal feeding was the way to go, so I had put 2-3 bits of meat in on the 5m line every 10 minutes and some 4mm pellet at 14m.

 The peg seemed devoid of fish until I upped the pellet feed with the catty and had a Carussio, then two Carp in fairly quick succession before that line died a very final and total death.  The 5m meat line didn’t produce as much as a quiver on the float bristle and my final three fish came from the margins, one from the RH side down to the pallet of 20 and 2 from the deeper margin to my left.  My 39lb and 4 points was the best of the peg all week, it really did live up to its poor reputation.  Paul had peg 44, a peg we have both drawn in the past and got good points from, but the fish came from the other side of the lake, so he didn’t have a bright start either.  We did keep up the tradition of having an after match pint in the Bolingey Arms, but it appears we are mere shadows of our hard drinking days in the 80’s.

Day two and it was Pollawyn, my luck had obviously changed as peg 13, which is a flyer section peg, found its way into my hand, Paul had 29, so neither of us were too disappointed. I like Pollawyn and have had a couple of second in sections on there, but the pressure was on not to bugger up this flyer.  I set up a waggler to cast to the island, whilst doing this, I was looking to my right and could see carp porpoising in front of the island pegs, about 2/3 the way across, not much activity in front of me, by not much, I mean none!!  The wagglers only venture into the water was before the all-in, so no more about that. I set up two lead rods, one for popped up bread and one for pellet, the pellet one had the same fate as the waggler, the bread didn’t produce as much as a liner.

I set up 6 topkits, more than I would normally, but with Pollawyn being deep, you need to cover the different levels that the fish might be at. One topkit to fish caster down the RH edge, not a bite on that, one to fish over GB, worm and caster just up the near shelf off to the RH side, a meat rig to fish off to the LH side and 3 rigs set at full depth, half depth and 2’ to fish at 14m.  As mentioned, the bread didn’t produce anything, I had been flicking a few bits of 6mm meat on the LH 5m line and dropped in on that, a quick response and a 4lb carp in the net, no other bites there, so I had a look on the 14m line, I could get bites on 6mm meat, but it was small fish and I find fishing the long pole for small fish pretty tedious, so swapped to the worm and GB line. This produced the expected skimmers, but they were up in the water, I couldn’t get them to take a bait off the bottom, but liners and foulers were a problem whilst waiting for a bite.  Its not an uncommon problem now on commercials, I am sure the skimmers don’t want to be near the silt, which is probably unpleasant stuff.

It was fairly slow going, I did try the other lines regularly and had a skimmer from the meat line, but the only way to guarantee bites was to stick on the worm and caster line. I had kept pinging a few bits of 6mm meat out to 14m and with 90 minutes to go had a couple of liners on the full depth rig, so picked up the half depth rig, liners again, so in with the 2’ rig and I managed 3 more carp and a couple of skimmers on this, sticking with it to the end of the match.  The scales registered 40lb odd and a section win, 8lb ahead of peg 1.  Paul had the pegs with the porpoising carp in his section and whilst they were too far to my right, they were too far to his left and he struggled in his section.

Onto day three and I had some optimism before the draw, today was split between Trelawny and Twin Oaks, I had been dreaming positive dreams and will peg 16 Twin Oaks into my hand, but somehow I managed to pull peg 6 Trelawny, another poor draw. Paul had 29 on Twin Oaks – in the right area for the big F1’s. The waggler rod stayed in the bag, two lead rods, one for bread and one with a method on, 4 topkits today, one to fish banded pellet at 14m, one to fish meat at 5m, one to fish worm/caster either side and straight in front short and an edge rig.  Nothing, not even a liner on the bread, not sure that boded well for the method, so I didn’t chuck it out, they tried it either side and didn’t catch on it, so I think I was right.

I concentrated on the L and RH sides short, one side fed with GB one with just caster, these were fairly unproductive, so I stuck another section on and started a fresh line at 5 sections, this fed with GB, worm and caster.  Same problem as the day before, skimmers in the peg, but they were up in the water and causing me liners and foulers, I was getting frustrated by the amount that were jumping ad coming off, but I think they were virtually all either foul hooked or not hooked at all. I couldn’t see too many pegs, but peg 2 had a couple of carp down the edge and I could see the pegs either side were struggling.  Peg 8 then started catching the odd bigger F1 from his margins and I made the mistake of following him, I did not have an indication of any kind from my margins and he beat me by about 6oz, which wouldn’t have been the case had I stuck with the skimmers, although it was of little consequence seeing as, as expected pegs 4, 6 and 8 were the bottom 3 in the section.  4 weighed 18lb, me on 6 24.12 and peg 8 weighed 25.03. Paul had an F1 lesson on Twin Oaks and learnt a lot, whilst being beaten by some good F1 anglers, they are so different than what we usually fish for…..

We had been walking to the nearby Piran holiday park for the evening meal, its much, much better than the food in the Whiteacres restaurant. But tonight we risked fish and chips from the Whiteacres chippy, that was pretty good.

So onto day 4 and we drew next to each other on Trewaters, Paul on 39 and me on 41, which isn’t a bad draw, but probably not the flyer I needed with Des, Johnny Arthur and Andy Leathers also in our section.  The peg is about 20m wide so no need to consider the pole to the island, the usual bread/lead rod set up, a small method feeder and a pole rigs to fish 14m banded pellet, 5m meat and rig to fish caster short and a margin rig for both sides, there was a nice flat area just my side of the pallet of peg 40, I was confident I’d get fish in there.

First chuck into the far bank indentation which looked the obvious place to fish, with bread and within seconds I had a carp about 3lb. Nothing else on bread, but a switch to the method and a 6mm pellet brought two more fish to the net within the first 15 minutes, then it went dead. I swapped the bread hooklength for a banded hooklength and tried this over, but nothing, the fish had gone.

To cut a long boring day short, it fished hard, I set up another rig to fish 16m and 5m of line to swing to the far bank, I could get bites on this, not sure if it was shit fish or F1’s, but whatever it was I didn’t hit a single bite.  I had one skimmer and a small tench on the caster line and what I thought would be a good margin produced nothing. The guy on 43 had one small carp with 45 minutes to go, but he managed 3 more from his RH margin which had some cover, which seemed necessary to catch, where mine were bare. I managed 11lb, which wasn’t last on the lake, but it was last but one, Des had struggled to catch from 45, but he did weigh 35lb, beating Pauls weight by ounces.  Tricky day and I’m not sure what I would do differently if I had to fish it over again, apart from be more negative, but going on the previous weights I thought I was fishing for nearly double the 54lb which won the section.

Last day and off to Porth, this wasn’t in the Bait Tech this year, so its 18 months since I fished it, I decided to just take two feeder rods and fish one at 30 turns of a 3000 reel and one at 55 turns of a 4000 reel, peg 16 had thrown up one decent weight earlier in the week, 48lb which was 8 fish I believe. I obviously fancied peg 16 and was somewhat shell shocked when it revealed itself in my hand. The day before it had produced about 1lb, I guess whoever was on it had fished for bream…..

Arriving at the peg I had Des for company on peg 17, I would say I am a better silvers angler than carp, but I won’t try and kid myself or anyone else that I could beat Des in a roach head to head, so the feeder would be a shit or bust gamble. (which is that when it goes wrong? Shit? Or bust?) Paul avoided the boat ride as he drew 23. So same section again, he too had just feeder rods and quite a few more had the same idea, most of us with no chance of qualifying in the top 24!!

I had a look at the new Preston pole Des is using, it looks a nice bit of kit and he was raving about it, so much better than what Preston have produced before. I then got really frustrated trying to tie a shockleader knot, Des couldn’t help, he never uses one, so up the bank to peg 23 and Faiersy tied it for me, something I must practice.  On the all-in I spent nearly 15 minutes with a big feeder putting GB, pellets and corn at 55 turns, then spent 20 minutes on it, just in case there was an inquisitive fish in the area.  No signs of a decent fish, just a 3oz roach that some how rattled the tip and got hooked when attacking double hair rigged worm. So onto the short feeder line and not long before I had a bite, a small perch, not a good sign, a couple of small skimmers and another perch before this died. Back out to 55 turns and casting every 5 minutes to keep it topped up, at least whilst I was waiting for a bite I had a first hand view of Des’s roach masterclass and his cursing at the pike attacks.

With two hours to go it was looking unlikely anything was going to happen, the conditions weren’t conducive to catching bream, sunny, easterly breeze, so I switched to a method feeder and boilie, this did give me faint hope when I struck into a drop back, but the fish wasn’t the 6lber I hoped for, more like 1lb 4oz. With 20 minutes to go, I had a last cast and determined to leave I there until it either went round or the all-out was called, I had  a couple of flicks on the tip, which I though were liners, but when the all-out was called, I reeled in and had a skimmer about 3oz hooked fair and square in the mouth, I guess he couldn’t lift the 45g method feeder off the deck, I am really surprised he didn’t attract the attentions of a pike.  Des won the section with 17lb, I was about halfway with 3.12, but I knew it would either be glory or nothing.

On the evening Glen Calvert turned up with his misses Liz, nice to see them but they led me and Paul astray, after our week of sensible sobriety, we were last out of the bar and then back to their caravan for more beer, but it was a nice way to round off a disappointing week.

I just managed to not finish in the bottom 3^rd, 119^th, Paul was 138^th, the last two days he had a taster of what it’s like to be me…… I was in the lowest weight section every day, at least he only suffered that fate on the last two days, not sure what the odds of drawing the section that has no chance of framing every day, but I wish I’d put a few quid on it before hand.  All in all it was a decent week for the company, we met up with Scott Russell, Dan White, Scott Cousins and a fair few others, the weather turned from looking dreadful to not too bad, the only let down was the hard fishing and couple of dire draws. 

Lessons learnt, especially that we had far too much bait again, but partly that was caused by us finding a couple of kilo’s of worms left in the storage shed by the previous occupants, I haven’t opened the two kilos I bought.  I didn’t use half the 10 pints of caster and I brought plenty of meat and corn home.

Oh well, next up the Viaduct silvers all-winners final on Saturday and the Viaduct silvers league on Sunday, so the same prep and bait for the two days.