Dynamite Baits Festival 2009

Well this was to be my first ever fishing festival and my first ever visit to Whiteacres. I arrived down there on Sunday afternoon, a day later than everyone else so it wasn’t the best preparation I could of had to start the festival as ideally I would of liked to have had a couple of days practice, but it wasn’t to be. Therefore my knowledge was based on what I could find in reading various other anglers blogs and going through all my last 3 year old editions of David Halls Match fishing.

Day 1.

Twin Oaks peg 29.

I had a walk round the four lakes in this section on the Sunday afternoon when I arrived, and tried to pick up as much info as I could from anglers practicing and was quite pleased with the draw I had though I would of preferred to have been on the front lake as that’s where most fish seamed to be getting caught.  I set the method feeder up to fish tight over, the pellet wag, a pole line at the bottom of the inside shelf, probably about 6 metres out and a margin line left and right against the bushes in the water.  For me during the week the bait you took to your peg was critical, get it wrong and you could have a long day in front of you.

On the all in I started on the method using a mix of green and natutal swimstim. I had a fish on the first put in falling to hair rigged meat but visions of getting a 100lb rapidly diminished with me not having a bite for another hour. It was the same for the anglers either side of me so at least I wasn’t alone. For the rest of the match I struggled chopping and changing and ended up with 7 carp for 22lb. The angler to my left had the same amount of carp but had made the decision to fish for the silvers half way through and consequently beat me. 48lb won our section so it wasn’t a total disaster. I didn’t really feel there was many fish in front of me but hoped things would improve for the rest of the week and this would be my result to drop !!!!!!! Overall I think I finished 5th in my section

Day 2

Trewaters peg 46

Wasn’t sure what to make of this draw but a quick scan of the previous days results led me to believe I was in a tough area. Going on Stewart’s info on this website I had based my attack on a similar scale to how he described in his write ups. I set up 3 pole lines, one to fish down the nearside shelf, one at 6 metres, one at 13 metres and a very small method tight against the far bank. On the all in I fed small ball of groundbait onto each line with a few micros in.

I expected to get a bite pretty much straight away and was slightly concerned when I was still biteless with an half an hour gone having tried the nearside and 6 metre line. I had to go onto the 13 metre line quicker than I wanted as the two guys to my right were a few fish in front of me. I caught steady on this line for about an hour mainly decent skimmers on 4.5mm ringers expanders. This swim then started to die so I was now left with the option of fishng the feeder as the angler to my left had started to catch well on it. I had one on the first put in and that was it despite getting the odd indication.  I couldn’t get any bites on any of the other lines and even went as far as starting another line at 10 metres which proved fruitless and that was pretty much it to the end of the match. I weighed in just over 10lb, the angler to my right weighed 11lb and further long weighed 9lb so I had been pretty much right thinking I was in a tough section. Overall I finished 8th in section.

Day 3

Porth 88

I was pleased with this draw, though I am not sure why, as it was third from last the day before. I had my plan already set out in my head how I was going to fish this peg, perhaps this was my first mistake. I opted to fish two pole lines, one was more a less 4 metres to hand down the inside, one at 12 metres where I had 10ft of water, and I had opted to fish the feeder at 28 turns. On the all in I put a pot of chopped worm and caster down the inside, 8 balls of groundbait cupped in on my 12 metre line laced with corn and caster, and I put 15 large feeder full of the same mix on my feeder line. The feeder line was slow, the guy to my left was catching small skimmers one a out in and Adam to my right was getting the occasional skimmer on the feeder though he was fishing a lot closer in than me.

On the pole I started to get the odd small skimmer, and my inside line wasn’t much better with only a few small perch to show for my efforts. I went back on the feeder and this was no better with only one more skimmer falling to this. Back on the pole line I managed to get a bonus fish in a bream of about 3lb much to the disgust of the anglers either side of me. Next put in I had a similar size fish which I lost at the net, to say I was gutted was an understatement !!! That was it with regards to anymore bonus fish but I did manage to consistently catch small skimmers to the end of the match. At the weigh in I recorded 7lb 7oz for 6th in section with Simon Willsmore on peg 84 winning the section with 14lb 7oz.

Day 4

Bolingey peg 16

This draw underlined my lack of knowledge I had on the lakes. After my draw I had a quick look at my map and thought I had a chuck to the island. How wrong was I plus looking at the previous days result, this peg was last in the section the day before. Still thinking I had a chuck to the island I had based my attack on fishing the pellet wag and the method but I had also taken 2 pints of caster, 2 pints of corn and 1 pint of meat as back up to my 3 pints of 8mm pellet. My day went from bad to worse as upon arriving at the lakes I was told peg 12 and 17 have the chuck to the island. I had a quick chat with an angler I knew from home and he told me to try something different as it wasn’t the best of draws so I decided to fish a line at 5 metres with worm and caster, one to the next platform to my right and two margin lines 3 metres either side of me.

On the all in I put a full pot of chopped worm and caster at 5 metres, and a full pot of corn and caster upto the next pallet. I also fed corn to my right and meat to my left. I had bites straight away and started to get decent roach. I also kept loose feeding caster over the top and this eventually brought the fish up in the water, the only downside was they weren’t carp but dumpy roach of between 4 and 6oz. I intended to fish this line for as long as possible allowing the margin lines to settle and the fish gain confidence. I caught steadily for the first hours probably catching 12lb of roach mainly up in the water on caster. I was now itching to try my margin lines and despite getting indications on my long margin line I didn’t manage to catch one. I carried on catching roach and with less than an hour left I decided to sack these 5 metre line and just concentrate on trying to catch a carp. In the end I managed to get 2 for about 10lb and ended the match with just over 25lb. I finished 3 from last in my section but I had at least avoided last place in my section.

Day 5

Peg 18 Pollawyn

At last a half decent peg so I thought, but a quick scan of the results from the day before showed that the angler didn’t way in !!! Again I set up the method to fish tight against the island, the pellet wag just short of it and a pole line for at 14.5 metres.

On the all in I put 3 balls of groundbait laced with micro pellet on the 14.5 metre line aimed at catching the large head of skimmers present in the lake and kicked of fishing the method feeder tight to the island. I had indications straight away but the tip refused to go round. Onto the pellet wag pinging, 2  8mm pellets over this line again I was getting indications but this again proved fruitless. As I was still fishless after about 90 minutes.I went on the pole and fishing a small piece of worm I managed a skimmer of about a 1lb, well at least the blank was avoided. I also noticed young Cameron fishing 3 pegs up from me was catching well on the long pole fishing midwater. I perservered with fishing on the deck with the long pole, but started pinging small cubes of meat over the top as I had no 6mm pellet with me whist I set up a rig to fish midwater. Using my newly setup rig it started with a real flurry catching skimmers upto 2 1/2lb but they disappeared as quick as they arrived. I added another section to the pole to see if they’d backed of but this was fruitless whilst constantly changing the depth at which I was fishing to see if the fish had moved up or down in the water. With now little less than an hour left and heading nowhere, I decided to stick it out on the feeder and was rewarded with a small carp at the deaf. At the weigh in I recorded just over 18lb to finish 6th in my section. Overall I finished 155th out of 180 in the festival

Hopefully the information I gained this year will lead me to improving my final placing at next years festival, I will also make sure I get some practice in before the festival starts. As with any venue knowlede of the venue and the best tactics are key to do well in any competition and hopefully I will have learnt some of this knowledge this year. Lastly a big thanks must go to Clint and his team, the festival was superbly run and the staff were really friendly and helpful.