By Stewart Lister | No Comments
Last updated: Saturday, April 26, 2008

Day three - Gwinear.

Well, I went to bed Tuesday dreaming of peg 31 at Gwinear as I really fancied the peg. Would you believe it, I actually drew peg 31! There was one big problem, Harry Billing was staying at home and had something to do Wednesday morning so he asked me if I could draw for him and you guessed it, I drew Harry the peg! I had drawn previously for myself and plucked 17 out of the bag. The same section as I drew in the VDE festival. My thoughts were the same, good peg but I needed to be one of the four to my left. The obligatory look at yesterday’s results showed
me that Simon Colclough had managed 75lb for third in section. There were some fish in the area so let’s hope the open water swims to my left wouldn’t fish. Sorry guys, but I am been honest!

Shallow Stew.

As I drove to Gwinear, I was thinking of how I should approach the peg. I knew that to win the section I would either have to fish the feeder tight to the island or catch shallow. As my strong point is not the feeder it was going to be a shallow day for me. I had to have a look on the feeder, so I set one up. I also set up a waggler to fish over towards the island. I also set up various pole rigs to cover my options. All were Cralusso Capri’s. I picked the 0.2 gram floats for my shallow rigs and set three to cover depths from 3’ to 5’. I also set up 0.75 gram for the deck rig. Bait comprised of: 2 pints casters, 1 corn, 2 pints of 6 mm pellet and 1 pint of 8 mm and 1 ½ pints of meat, a few maggots and some worms. There was no way that I was going to use that lot but I was just trying to cover all options.
It was a hard section, then they always are at White Acres festivals. I had Nick Speed to my right and Dave Pimlott to my left on 19, Dan Ashington was on 20 and Rob Whooton was on peg 14. The match started with most of us casting the meat feeder to the island. Nick drew first blood with a stockie. My tip went round and I found myself playing a good fish. It came to the net and I could see it was a common of about 5lb, unbelievably it came off! I was not a happy bunny as this was the third day on the trot that I had lost my first carp! I had a few more casts but no bites. I saw Rob catch a big mirror but I had made my decision and was now on the pole. I was feeding 6 mm pellets and before long I had a small stockie. Nick came onto the pole line and immediately started catching and went half a dozen in front, I could see he was on meat. I had obviously made the same mistake as the VDE festival. Once meat starts going into water them carp just love it. I could see Dave and Dan catching to the left.

Back on track

I put on a shallow rig and changed my feeding pattern to casters and the odd bit of meat and slowly started to catch at 3’ deep it was not fast but there were the odd indication. I had a 15lb mirror which caught me up a bit. After awhile I changed to 3 casters on the hook and my catch rate improved. In the last hour the wind got up and it was hard to feed in the same place twice! I found myself feeding larger pouches of casters as at least that way I was getting some onto my 14 ½ metre line 3 red maggots on the hook was now doing the damage.

The verdict

The scales came round and Rob had 60lb Nick weighed 51lb and I had 89lb. Dave put on 96lb 7oz to take the lead until Dan weighed 96lb 11oz! That’s how it remained with us also finishing the top three in the match. It was a very good and close match, I just wish I ladled in the casters a little earlier!

Day 4 Porth

To say I was happy with my draw was an understatement! Peg 32 had won the section on Wednesday with 9lb and it had been a fair section all week. The roach were feeding and I was looking forward to the match. I had a quick word with Mark Murdoch who had been on peg 33 the day before. I got to my peg and found that I had drawn next to Nick Speed again. There were some very good anglers in the section including Harry Billing who had drawn peg 37.
I set up for roach, I was so confident I only assembled the pole. Floats were KC Carpa Porth in 4 x 16 and 4 x 14. Hook lengths were 0.08 to 18’s and 20’s hooks. I had three pints of casters, some maggots and pinkies plus a kilo of worm. I had mixed 3 kilos of ground bait was a mixture of Lake and Noire. I used a sweet mix as didn’t want to put any fish off feeding, I was targeting roach and thought that skimmers would also come to a sweet ground bait. If I used a fishmeal based GB I could put off the roach. I plumbed up at 12 ½ metres, the wind was steady but it was manageable and there was a slight tow going in the opposite direction to the wind.

Surfing

The all in came and I cupped in four large balls of GB onto my pole line I also fed in hope at 6 metres. Baiting with a single red maggot I dropped in and had a dumpy 2 oz roach first put in, happy days! Out I went again and I noticed it was harder to hold the pole, someone had turned on the wind machine. Nick, next to me was struggling on the feeder but I wasn’t fairing much better, I could hear the chat along the section and no one was bagging. But I could also hear that they were having Pike trouble to our right, there were obviously fish in that area.
The wind was increasing and we were getting some huge rollers I expected the surfers at nearby Newquay to give up with the ocean and come to Porth! The tow was also getting a problem. The rigs I had were just not holding. Every now and then the tow stopped and the fish were easier to catch but unfortunately for me it returned. I lost loads of fish as the wind caught my pole and nearly turned me sideways as I shipped back.

Beaten by the wind, over confidence and three anglers!

Going into the last hour Nick started dropping his feeder on about 16 metres and started putting some fish together. I had got off my box and put up another rig this time a 1 gram Cralusso Porth which helped me cope with the tow but I wish I had put on a 1 ½ gram float. I was catching a few now including skimmers but Nick was on a charge. The all out came and my arms felt like lead weights, it had certainly been a pole wrestling match.
The scales came along and I was last to weigh in the section. Leading was Nigel Marchington who had 9lb 1 oz followed by Harry with 8lb plus. Nick recorded 6lb 8oz and I had a level 6lb. Nigel went onto win the match. I came away from the bank disappointed as I knew in my heart I had done it wrong today. Lesson learnt hopefully.

Day 5 Bolingey

Finally the best day of the week arrived, all 36 anglers in the section were looking forward to getting amongst the carp at one of the best venues in the country. On Thursday there had been 15 weights over a hundred pounds and 10 anglers had over 80 pounds! It’s no wonder why we were excited about the days fishing. I should think all of us were hoping to draw peg 20, the best peg in Cornwall! Well that pleasure went to Preston Innovations Adam Wakelin a very good young angler, we were all in trouble now!

Seventh Heaven

I put my hand in the bag and out came peg 7. Now, you have to fancy this peg for the section as it is a corner peg and one with a lot of room. I had drawn this once before in a match about 3 years ago, that day I left the bank very disappointed as I felt I had fished it all wrong and messed up, I wanted to put those thoughts to bed. That day I had fished into the corner and the wind blew every bit of rubbish in the lake over my line where I had carp queuing up, only I couldn’t get to them or draw them out! This time I tackled up to fish long against the bank which is 16 metres away. I assembled KC in line Shelf floats on 0.18 line to size 14 PR36 hooks. I intended to fish on the bottom in about 2’ of water and hopefully then catch them up in the water next to the bank. I also set a 0.3 Cralusso Capri to fish away from the bank in about 4’ of water. Same float as an edge rig and a 1.5 gram Rocket Light waggler that I intended to fish along the bank with pellet. Bait wise I had four pints of meat, 1 pint of hemp a pint of corn and 2 pints of 8 mm pellets.

The Nursery

At the start I cupped some hemp and meat onto the 14 ½ metre 4’ line and dropped in with a 10 mm piece of meat on the hook. It wasn’t long before the float disappeared and a 1 ½ pounder was in the pan. Another six followed fairly quickly all about the same size. I decided to go to the bank and see if there was anything there. I fed with a toss pot and first drop resulted in a 3lb fish and they kept coming! The wind was getting up again and I found the toss pot was been blown around a bit. I changed to 8 mm pellet and pinged pellet at the float. This worked a treat and the fish responded well, I was now fishing 12’’ deep. With about 2 hours to go the swim slowed a lot so it was time to try the rocket. I had 3 or 4 on this until I got a bit carried away and tried to get too close to the bank! Never mind back on the pole and they were back, I stayed on this line until the end of the match. I had fed an inside line but never fished it as I was getting plenty of indications and fish on my long line. Also my neighbour Dean SMITH was catching well on my right and I didn’t want to waste time looking for fish that might not have been there.

Prial of Threes

The scales arrived and leading the pack was Dean with 118lb, I managed 144lb to take the lead and held onto it until the scales reached Adam who put 196lb caught on 19 ½ metre pole to the island. Gary Smith had 170lb from peg 38. He was telling me he didn’t have a chance from that peg in the morning! I was third in the match for the third time that week which was a great.
Overall the winner was none other than Steve Ringer with a maximum 36 points followed by Andy May and Will Raison both on 35 points. I had a total of 31 points for 20th place and automatic qualification for the Parkdean masters.

I would just like to say a big Thank you to Dynamite Baits for their sponsorship of this festival, every angler got a goody bag of ground bait and pellets plus bits and pieces. Thank you also to Parkdean Holidays and in particular the staff at White Acres. Looking forward to next years festival.

Well, a day to sort out the gear and straight into the Milo Festival.