Bait Tech Festival, Whiteacres, 2012

Third day and I drew Jenny's, peg 5. The first 2 days saw pegs 8 and 9 first and second in the section, as Des Shipp drew 8, I had little doubt it would win the section for the third day. 40lb had come off my peg the day before, so I at least wanted to beat that.

I have realised in a couple of days how little I understand about F1 fishing and the intracacies of meat up in the water. The bait limits have screwed my brain, it has resulted in me taking more bait than I need, my resolve to keep things simple also being tested, with advice coming from all angles, much of which I had taken on board and then found it to be wrong or I just couldn't put it into practice.

I arrived at the peg to see the sun beating down on a flat calm lake, never a good sign, I set up a straight lead to fish meat to the island, a feeder to fish short of the island and a pellet waggler to fish meat, if the wind allowed. 3 pole rigs graced the roost, a Carpa Chimp to fish at 14m with worm, a Malman float whose name eludes me to fish 5m and a Preston something to fish shallow. With the advice from Faitheey that worm & caster would be the way to go I mainly had that in my plan. Pepperami king, Paul Nichols was on peg 9, but as I have only ever managed to catch one fish on it I didn't have any.

I carefully clipped up the lead rod to fish to the point of the island and plumbed up the pole rigs, although therte was only an inch or two difference in the lines. On the all in I cupped in chopped worm and caster at 14 & 5m, then sent the lead to the clip, with a piece of 8mm meat on. That instantly found some underwater snag (dead rushes) that weren't apparent when clipping up, snapping the main line. That was that rod chucked up the bank after 5 minutes, I then tried the cage feeder with groundbait in for the F1's, I managed 1 in half an hour.

Onto the 14m pole line and a slow start on the worm, a few small skimmers were all I had to show for it, before a small tench joined them. I tried the 5m line and had 3 skimmers then nothing, back to 14m and the fish came slowly, very slowly, I was potting in (kinder pot) chopped worm & caster and the peg was fizzing like mad, but the bites were few and far between. I tried upping the groundbait content of the pot, increasing the worm, adding a few grains of corn,all of which didn't speed up the wait for bites.

I started pinging a few 8mm bits of meat to the island, as I knew I was getting well behind, I was looking for a swirl or some sign that carp were there, I saw some dark shapes with just over an hour to go and picked up the waggler rod. Six carp came in the last hour, with 2 lost, foul hookers I suspect. I knew Des Shipp had won the section, he stayed on the feeder all day and weighed in 97lb odd of F1's, my weight of 50lb odd beat yesterdays weight off the peg and was a miserable halfway or so in the section, the six carp tight to the island saving another embarrasing result.

Back to the caravan for a shower before another session in the bar, which as my festival dreams are now nightmares, it will make no odds, roll on Porth on Friday!!

Bait Tech Festival, Whiteacres 2012

My first visit to Whiteacres, the Bait Tech festival, having just moved the Friday before was used to find my tackle, rather than any actual preparation, although I did check all the elastics and change a couple that were starting to rot.

Travelled down on Saturday morning, meeting up with Paul Faiers,  Glenn ‘Faitheey’ Calvert and Chips, Pauls Father-in-law . We meet at Hilltops, had a decent enough breakfast and got on the road, the journey was nice and straight forward, we arrived at Whiteacres just as the Spurs game kicked off . Faierzy being a Spurs fan went straight to the bar to watch it and we intended to then go and look round then the lakes. As anyone who knows us, will suspect, it didn’t go to plan and we were still in the bar at 23.30 – not the wisest move.

Thankfully Sunday wasn’t the first day, so the resulting hangover didn’t infringe on the serious fishing. It took us a while to get going and we did get to Pollawyn for a pleasure session on Sunday afternoon, I fished peg 421 and had a pleasant afternoon catching skimmers, tench and bream to 5lb on corn over groundbait. A much quieter evening in the bar, although we did need a restorative cordial or two, especially to help us get over the brutal rape and gangbang we witnessed on Sunday afternoon, one single duck being ravaged by a long line of rampant mallards.

I was drawn in E section, so Monday was Bolingey day, peg 9 was stuck to my hand in the drawbag, not the best I was informed. I set up a lead rod, a waggler and a couple of pole rigs to fish meat. At the all in most anglers chucked a lead or feeder towards the island, I followed suit and 40 minutes later that went up the bank, as every had had a fish or two (and some 6 or 7), whilst I hadn’t had as much as a liner.  The pole line proved to be equally as fruitless and I was now 8 or 10 fish behind some of the pegs further round the lake.

I could see some fish up in the water, the waggler  was difficult to control, but was the only method I could get a bite on, I had a couple of decent carp, then they seemed to disappear and I managed some decent sized F1’s by casting tight to the island. Reverting back to the lead brought another couple of fish on 8mm meat, but I just couldn’t catch at a rate or size, that the guys further up the lake, thus rendering my first day section challenge a disaster.

The pole line stayed seemingly devoid of fish until 4 o’clock, when a lone carp took the meat on the 5m line, it proved to be the only bite of the day on the pole.  I managed 70lb, but the lake was won with 240lb (although it was estimated the winner  had in excess of 300lb, but only had 4 nets). I managed to beat the pegs either side, but we were at the wrong end of the lake today, had the wind been more favourable I might have cracked the ton though.

Tuesday saw me on Pollawyn, after a quieter night in the bar Monday, although the Mallard porn show was fast becoming one of the features worked into conversations, as Faitheey spent his 3^rd on Pollawyn money on beer.  I drew peg 17, 40lb had come off it on Monday, but it was well beaten either side. The plan was to fish 6mm meat, starting on the bottom, then coming up as the fish come up, I actually followed the plan I had in my head, starting on the feeder across, whilst the meat lines settled. Most anglers along my bank managed a carp or two on the feeder, but I didn’t.  In fact I didn’t manage a bite in the first 40 minutes, not good in a 5 hour match.

Switching to the pole line at 14m I had a couple of skimmers on the 6mm meat before once again becoming  biteless.  I was once again watching anglers further along the bank catching whilst I struggled. I swapped between the 5m line and the 14m line and took a very occasional fish.

I fed a line with chopped worm and caster, this produced 3 skimmers and I thought  I’d sussed it, but that was the end of the action over that line. Had it not been a requisite of the festival to stay and weigh in, I wouldn’t have been at my peg come the end. I reckoned I had about 10lb of skimmers with 15 minutes to go and my one and only carp was hooked with 15 mins to go, a 10lb ghostie doubled my weight, but still couldn’t lift my pathetic weight off the bottom of the section. Chatting to those that did catch carp and more skimmers than me, I’m not sure what it was I did wrong – if anything too much – this has been a very frustrating festival so far, hopefully tomorrow will bring a change of fortunes.