Dynamite Baits Festival 2009

Well its been that time of the year again when the whole of the north descends on white acres(I may be exaggerating) for the annual Dynamite Baits Festival. I really couldn’t wait for this one as the carp are normally just coming out of their winter slumber. I was staying in a lodge this year with Lee Kerry, Ben Fisk and White Acres virgin Gareth Drury and I must say after staying in one I will never go back to a caravan!!!!! After a long slog of a journey which actually went quite quicik in gareths and andy kidd’s company we where greeted with pouring rain and gale force winds!!!! Not what we go to cornwall for. We soon decended on Adam, Tom and Stewarts lodge for some tea etc and a general catch up and found Adam still drunk on the sofa and Sir Tom looked to be in a bit of a tangle!!!!!
So me and Adam decided that if we couldn’t go fishing we might as well go have a beer for the road and spent the afternoon playing pool and drinking, we did have a brief walk round the lakes but it was far too cold for that!!!! We decided to venture into Newquay that night with quite a large crew of us, we had been on the double vodka’s quite early and when we got into town and all having a good time I noticed James Dent looking a bit drunk so off we went and he just fell over, not a problem I thought ill just take him outside and get him some fresh air and see how he is after that. Unfortunately he wasn’t ok and was soon being sick all over me and was in a right mess!!!! He decided to go up an alley and collapse and didn’t look to be breathing, great. Obviously, being a bit drunk myself I was panicking a bit, not a problem ill just ring someone, 50 phone calls later and still no answer off anyone!!!! Luckily I got geldart to answer his phone and he came and helped us out but to say james was in a state is an understatement as im sure you will all see the photographic evidence in match fishing!!!! The lads soon descended on him with tipp-ex and sabotaged his face!!!! And he remembered nothing.

The next day we where up bright and breezy ready for a day at bollingey, james was still KO’d on the sofa so we just left him to it and went to catch some fish………..or not. It was really hard except for Gareth who had quite a few fish and a nice afternoon’s sport. When we went back to the digs I went to see adam on jennys and we where still unsure about the method feeder, he was catching on it and with about half an hour before dark I thought sod it ill have a go and went and got my gear out, 15 in 15 chucks convinced us the method would work!!!!!
Day one was to be on Twin Oaks, Acorn and Canal. I dipped and got peg 17 on acorn which I was pleased with, but with Simon Willsmore, John Chapman and a few other festival regulars in my section I knew I wouldn’t have an easy match. I decided to fish against the island and kinder sup pellets and fish a soft pellet on the hook northern style. I also took some casters for the margins and for roach if I was desperate, I had an awesome start and had 15 fish in consecutive casts!!!!! Then had 5 more but it was slowing up all the time no thanks to the gin clear water, I thought no problem ill just catch em down my bank into the corner now for the rest of the match errrrrr WRONG!!! I couldn’t get a bit and when I did it was a roach!!!! Every chuck a roach!!! To be fair I should have just got my head down and caught em for the difficult middle but when ya have such a good start your always thinking they will come back but they just never did. I ended up weighing 67lb which was good enough for a section 3rd which was ok but I knew it should have been at least second.

Day two and it was off to trewaters, which was a venue I was really looking forward to as I do a lot of that style of fishing. I drew peg 31 on the top lake which was a nice draw after Steve Ringer had won the section from it the day before with 40lb but then again that’s Steve Ringer!!!!! My approach for the day was a pellets on the pole and a waggler with mags and casters for fishing to the island. On arrival I had Jim Barrowman to my right, Simon Willsmore to his right and Jonny Arthur 2 to my left so I was gonna have my work cut out!!!! I plumbed up at 5m and all over my peg, I was gonna just keep adding a section and hopefully finish up clattering em at 13m and not even need the waggler…… dream on. I did have a good start at 5m with a few bonus tench and skimmers and then the usual small f1’s but all of a decent stamp and after 30 mins had a tidy start, all the time I was feeding casters across on the wag line, I started 2 more swims on the pole out to 13m but it wasn’t really happening so I decided to go on the wag after about 90 mins and was soon into plenty of fish, loads of tench f1s and the odd better mirror and was having a lovely day!!!!!

I decided to re start 2 x 13m pole lines with maggots to try and catch some skimmers and tench just to give my wag swim a rest and it worked a treat, by fishing a 5 elastic I was hooking and landing everything and even managed a bonus 1lb ghostie and a few decent 12oz skimmers too. And by the last hour my wag swim had come good again and by the last half hour I was flying!!!!! Loads of small fish but also plenty of better fish and by the all out id had an awesome days fishing and really enjoyed it. As the scales arrived jon Arthur was winning the section with 34lb and I put 40lb on to take the section and 3rd on the lake which I was chuffed to bits with.
Day 3 and it was off to porth and where the wheels came off!!!!! There aint a lot I wanna say about porth except when I was feeding my peg at the start I had the weirdest experience!!!!! As I was lifting my bait dropper clear of the water a pike leapt out and grabbed it!!!!! Good start anyway I couldn’t get settled on a method and finished with a crap 7lb 8oz which was 4th or 5th in my section I still don’t know where I finished cos I was so frustrated with myself.
Day 4 and Bolingey beckoned and with the day looking like a scorcher with little wind I had a feeling it would be hard, and peg 9 certainly didn’t brighten my prospects!!!! Peg 9 is stuck in a cosy corner in the main part of the lake and in a section of pretty good pegs. Andy geldart did manage second the day before but it wasn’t flat calm and boiling then!!!! Anyway on arrival to my peg there was little movement so I decided to fish long on the deck and shallow in front of me and a line at 16m up the bank fishing pellets up and down and a line at 7m in the margins fed with casters. With Adam Richards drawing peg 17 on the island I really fancied him to take the section, but fish have fins and I couldn’t get too despondent. At the all in I cupped 10 6mm pellets to the open water swim and similar up the bank at 16m and went straight out on the deck no bites came in the first 30mins so I decided to start pinging pellets in and have a go shallow after some serious slapping I managed an f1 and a 4lb carp and lost a foul hooker so at least something was happening. But after 2 hours I was still on the same and hadn’t had another bite, all the time id been firing pellets up the bank at 16m and wanted to leave this as long as poss so with 2 hours left I had a look and had one about 10lb and I thought get ready!!!!!

One a little bigger next chuck was even better and I suddenly thought I was in the race. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be after losing two more fish that were BIG I only managed to land one more and my 4 carp and an f1 went 29lb and was nowhere in the section. As expected adam did brilliantly to win the section after a real good run on the feeder halfway through.

That night we where invited along with the other dynamite sponsored anglers for an Indian and I have to say it was awesome!!!!! Thanks a lot lads!!!!
Day 5 and me and Gareth where up at the club for 8.30 to help the lads set up the stage and get the goody bags ready for everyone this had its advantages as I got 3rd dip in the drawbag as I had to give everyone a goody bag full of the source stuff!!!! We were to be on pollawyn today and I couldn’t wait and my draw put me on peg 15 which is a flier!!!!!!! I think it wins the section everyday in every festival!!!! Anyway I was buzzing because I was probably going to have a good final day and more importantly a section win.

The lake was flat calm on arrival so I set up a method feeder rod which was my trusty maver powerlite in 11ft and a TDR 3012 reel with 8lb pro gold to a maver inline method feeder and a 4 inch 0.18 genesis hook length and a hair rig with a bayonet on so I could spike a boilie as that was going to be my main bait. With it being so calm I also fancied the pellet wag and set up 2 rods for that one set at 2 foot and the other at 4foot both with 0.16 hook lengths and a lassoed 8mm. I did also set a pole up and set a couple of shallow rigs up for meat but I didn’t really fancy it.

At the all in I loaded my feeder with some micros and had a white boilie on the hook and chucked the feeder over really tight to the island and within a minute I had my first carp in the onion sack!!!! All 8lb of it. Good start. I had 2 more in the first hour, all the time I had been feeding 8mms ¾ of the way across ready for a wag chuck and meat on the pole in case I needed it. I was getting loads of liners and not many fish and finally caught some of the culprits in pound skimmers which were useful but id much rather have a big carp on!!!

The high bank was very slow at this stage so I decided to have a look on the wag, I chucked the shallower set up out and waited for a few mins and thought ah ill go back on feeder when the float shot under and I was attached to something big! 20 minutes later and a lot of backside twitching and a carp well over 15lb lay in my landing net, a beautiful common that looked brand new!!!! One about 8lb next cast was useful but then disaster happened and the wind got up right across me and was just pushing the wag thru too fast and because I was having to wait for bites on it, I don’t think the stick float approach was right!!!!!

By this time one of my former Leeds Junior team mates and top brabham Tony Biggins came and sat with me and said just have a drop short with your method and 8 carp in 8 chucks and it was definitely a good move!! At time I felt id done as much as I could and reckoned on having 70lb ish, I weighed 79lb and won the section and also second on the lake so a bit more money for me and lLee’s kitty for the week.

I had ended up with 30 points which I was pleased with after my bad draw on bollingey and poor performance on porth this meant I was 28th overall, Dean Smith did awesome to win the festival with a perfect 36 point performance, with his sharing parner Andy Geldart coming 5th also so they must have been taking plenty of coin back up north!!!! My sharing partner Lee Kerry had also done awesome coming 9th overall and our kitty was quite impressive and certainly paid for our week. Me, Adam and Denty all came in the top 30 as well so the northern raiders did quite well!!!! Once again a brilliant week was had by all and I cant wait for October.