Bait Tech Festival 2011

had a telephone call from Wrong Lake telling me the section draw was out for the Bait Tech festival. When he had read half the section to me, I asked him to stop as it was getting tougher with every name! Another difficult section to look forward to, and to be honest I was looking forward to it not only the fishing but just been part of the festival. This week I was staying onsite with Tom Scholey so no doubt I was in for a laugh. It would be interesting as his girlfriend Abby was also staying, so perhaps Tom would be on his best behaviour? At least the lodge would be tidier this year.

Just in case anybody is not aware of the format of the Bait Tech festival I will give you a quick précis. This competition is more of a traditional fishing festival. Pellet and paste and the method feeder are not allowed. Hook lengths have to hang minimum of 12’’ below the feeder. The rest of the festival rules are fairly normal with the exception of the new keepnet rule which states no more than 60lb of fish in any one keepnet. It’s fairly simple really, put an ounce more than 60lb in any net and you weigh 60lb exactly. The festival is fished over five days and the five sections of 36 anglers are drawn before arrival, to help with planning. This gives the angler their rotation around the lakes and allows some structured practice on Saturday and Sunday. I had drawn E section which meant that I was starting at Bolingey.

Monday

I was standing at the back of the queue waiting for my turn at the bag of dreams, hoping for a decent draw. It was soon my turn I had my dip and picked one of the last available pegs. I really couldn’t believe my eyes when peg 22 was staring back at me, a peg that I have always wanted to fish. A real flyer, especially later in the year as the water warms. As I walked out of the complex, I bumped into Harry and he reminded me that in this festival last year pegs 21 and 22 fished really hard on the first day. Oh man, that is not what I wanted to hear!  However, when I got to the peg I really fancied it, the lake looked great. I had a lot to set up as the peg gives several options with an island chuck plus a very nice edge but I wanted to keep things fairly simple so decided to ignore the long pole into the deep water. I had two pole lines, one at around 5m directly in front of me at the bottom of the near shelf which was a J8 4 x 16 float with a .16 hook length and a size 12 Milo T252 hook. I had an edge swim to my left which was a 9 metres away, I had two lines here one in around 4’ of water and the other the same length but tight to the bank. Both floats were J3 floats 4 x 10.  I normally like my edge swim where I can feed by hand. In this swim I know that the fish live near to the bridge and 9m is a nice area to fish without making it too difficult. I was hoping to draw the fish away from the sanctuary of the bridge into my swim. A small cage feeder completed my set up; I intended to start on this with the meat feeder tight to the island.

At 12 noon the all in was shouted and some meat was fed onto the 5m line and the deeper edge swim, I had my first cast tight to the island. Immediately I could see Martin Leck into fish on peg 19 on the waggler. Craig Elkin was also playing a carp on 16m pole on peg 23 as was the Cliff Adams on peg 27. All these pegs were in my section and I was remembering Harry’s words! John Brownlee on 21 was next into action. It seemed like an eternity but in all reality was around 15 minutes when my tip slammed round and a 3lb carp opened my Bait Tech account. After that carp I had three more in the next 30 minutes all around the same stamp. After 45 minutes or so I tried my deep edge swim, it was great to see the float just disappear as soon as it settled. It was a much bigger carp of around 8lb that took a piece of 6mm meat. After that I had a nice spell for a couple of hours catching on a regular basis. I started to foul hook the odd carp which was my cue to move to the shallower line closer to the bank.

I was alternating between my 5m line and the edge swim. I had a few from the 5m line but it wasn’t prolific. Moving back to the edge I hooked a bigger fish, I played it for awhile and thought I had it under control, so broke down to my top kit. In reality it was the carp that was in control, it surfaced and rolled in front of me. It was big, well over 15 pounds and then it just charged off and bottomed my black hollow elastic. I just could not get any more of my pole sections back on because of the angle,. The inevitable happened, and my line snapped I really was not impressed with myself; I just knew that it was going to be expensive! I caught a few more but the last 90 minutes were very slow and I only had a couple of fish in that time, which was a shame as the last hour is usually the best hour.

The weigh in

The scales came around and Martin Leck was leading the match with 137lb, I was just a fish or two behind with 130lb and Craig Elkin just behind me. Cliff was the last to weigh in our section and he took second place with 134lb. The match was won by Grant Albutt with 164lb. Oh Man, losing that fish hurt, and it really was expensive. If landed it would have put me in second place with the important section win. Fast forwarding until Friday and the biggest fish of the week winning £100 was just 15lb and I’m sure the one I lost was much bigger. Oh well, never mind, mustn’t grumble!

Pollawyn Match Lake

The Match Lake beckoned on Tuesday and it is a lake that I love, but I have quite a record for drawing down the arms which can be poor. Consequently, I dread standing in the queue waiting to draw on this lake. Tom, bless him, had been trying his level best at some Sheffield type of humour by mentioning all the poor arm pegs on the lake for the last 24 hours or so. I was last in the queue just behind Tom and Abby waiting to draw, Abby drew Toms peg and I could not believe my eyes when she showed him peg 2. It was all I could do to contain myself, surely that was perfect justice!

I was left with peg 23 and it is one that I have fished recently so was reasonably happy with my lot. The peg is fairly narrow and the last time I fished it I had to wait for my first bite for quite some time, then I caught well, so I guessed it might be the same. I set up a 4 x 16 J8 for the deep water at 13m plus a shallow rig to fish at around 4’ deep with meat. I had Grant Albutt for company to my right and Andy Power to my left. Andy started on the waggler to the open water and Grant started shallow as he actually felt  fish bumping into his line when he plumbed his swim! The match started very slowly for me and it must have been a good 30 minutes before I had my first skimmer. Around an hour into the match and a few started to show shallow, a couple of good skimmers but I had that feeling that it wasn’t going to be my day. So it proved and I finished with around 35lb. I was the filling in the sandwich to Andy and Grant who both finished well, Grant winning the section. To make matters worse Tom had the last laugh as a few carp fed in peg two and he managed to win the section with around 47lb.

Which lake today?

Wednesday was a split section with a choice of drawing Jenny’s or Trewaters. I left it late at the drawbag again and found peg 43 at Trewaters. I actually was quite pleased as I have not been down the farm for awhile and it had been fishing well so was looking forward to the match. The word was that corn was working at the bottom of the shelf so I planned on that. My tackle consisted of two 4 x 14 J8 floats for fishing on the deck coupled with size 16 t213 hooks and I had a J13 for fishing shallow with caster.  My last rig was a J1 4 x 8 float for fishing the edge with corn. I was also told that the skimmers had really put on weight, so thought a line with groundbait would not go amiss. At the start I fed some chopped worm and corn down the shelf and three balls of Yorkshire Baits Bloodworm groundbait with worm and caster at 11m. Starting on a top two plus one with worm on the hook I was quickly into fish and I could not believe that my first seven fish were all different species! It was really bizarre, shame they were small with only a couple of netters. After a short while I put corn on the hook and was soon getting some F1’s they lasted for an hour or so catching steady. I just could not find any carp to boost the weight. Steve Cooke to my right was catching well and had a couple of bonus fish including a carp of 7lb.

Skimmer time

I found some skimmers over my chopped worm line and mixed in with them was a few small F1’s. It was enjoyable fishing but I always felt I was not getting them quickly enough. Going into the last 30 minutes I noticed a swirl from an F1 as I fed some chopped worm by toss pot. I picked up the shallow rig and put a worm head on the hook and was quickly into F1’s I must have had 15 in the short time that remained. It was a pity that I didn’t notice them earlier! I had pinged casters for the first two hours and not had a bite shallow! My net went 55lb which was a nice days fishing but only around half way in the section.

My fate in the hand of Abby

Thursday morning and I had to go to the local bank first thing to sort some business out. I knew I was going to be late for the draw so asked Abby to draw for me. Tom was going to text my peg number as soon as she had drawn. At 9.45am some 15 minutes after the draw, I had not heard anything so I sent Tom a text reminding him. A minute later the news came that I was on peg 2 at Twin Oaks, no wonder he couldn’t pluck up the courage to tell me, right lake completely the wrong end, still mustn’t grumble.

I got to my swim with an hour to go; I had been mulling things over in my head, how to approach the match. Part of me wanted to fish for silvers to see what I could achieve, but as I have been silver fishing since October I decided that a day’s pellet waggler fishing was the way forward, I felt the practice would be useful. A 3ssg J Range Styro pellet waggler was ample to get me over; this had a .18 hook length to a size 14 PR36 hook and a Mosella microband. My other tackle was also based on a positive approach with an edge rig to fish down to my left, if the fish turn up here it can be brilliant and I was full of hope. The last rig that I set up was to fish ay 5m at the bottom of the shelf, a 4 x 16 J8 was my float choice. The plan was to feed heavily with corn on this line hoping that the fish would be in residence.

The match started and I feed all my lines with the exception of the waggler swim. I was using meat on the hook and felt that if I fed this line I would draw in loads of roach and end up striking like Zorro at unhittable bites, and consequently forever re-baiting. I used a 10mm piece of meat that was pulled onto the hair rig with a baiting needle. The plan worked in as much as I found three carp in the first hour, it really is a satisfying feeling when that float goes under and a strike puts a great big bend in the rod! The fish fight really hard and despite the poor draw I was enjoying myself. Despite not feeding and using a biggish piece of meat I was still plagued with silver bites.

I never had a bite down the edge and my heavy feeding of corn at 5m resulted in a few skimmers but no carp. They were a nice size and part of me wished I had fished properly for them. If there had been a prize for the best silver fish bag I would have definitely had a go for silvers as they are prolific on this lake. During the last hour I blasted my far bank swim with meat and had a couple more carp but I had a bite a chuck mostly from silvers. I finished with 35lb which was good enough to beat a couple in the section. At the far end, on peg 18 Grant Albutt paralysed the section with 164lb.

The final day

The last day and for me it was Porth, it had been fishing hard but fair, Pike were also causing a few problems in some areas but to be fair if the Pike were there, so were the better skimmers! I had made my mind up to fish for Bream if I drew the high numbers on the near bank as I had absolutely nothing to lose. When peg 39 came out of the bag of dreams, I was up for a day on the tip fishing corn. That was until I walked to my peg and saw a few Roach topping, and all of a sudden I was feeling indecisive! In the end I set up a waggler and a feeder and my plan for Bream was out of the window.

I was fishing the feeder at 35 turns of the reel, it is a little further than I normally fish but the water is very clear. By counting the turns of your reel on the retrieve, after first clipping the line to the line holder you know exactly the distance you are fishing. It is very useful trick, should you need to change the distance of the cast and want to come back to the original place, or if you suffer from a break you can soon be back fishing at the correct distance.

The match started and I was immediately into small roach on the feeder, I was also catapulting casters as far as I could as I planned to fish the waggler. Fish were coming but they were very small roach of around an ounce each. The angler on the end peg was fishing the waggler and getting slightly better stamp of ‘small roach’, but he was missing the majority of bites. I also had a go on the waggler but suffered the same problem. I was missing 8 out of 10 which is not good. I tried everything I could think of but could not change the catch rate. I altered depth, struck to the right and the left as well as upwards, tried counting after the float disappeared, struck softly and then fast but nothing seemed to work. In the end I found the best way was to throw it up the bank and go back on the feeder!

Meanwhile, what I should have been doing..

My neighbour to my left was Mark Fox and he was fishing for Bream at distance around 50 turns of his reel. After a couple of hours he started getting some better skimmers of around 8 – 10 ounces each, he catching on double and single hair rigged corn. Now I was annoyed with myself as he was doing exactly what I planned, and it was starting to work!

I changed my feeder, had a cast to take the line clip off and then launched my feeder much further out. After clipping up again I had a few quick casts to put some bait in the area. I baited with a single piece of corn and cast out in hope. After a few casts I had a better skimmer, towards the end of the match I was getting some better samples but I had changed too late, what a numpty for not sticking to my plan! I finished with around 5lb which beat a few anglers but not that many. Mark who stuck to his plan won the section and finished third in the match with 14lb plus. I walked away thinking of what might have been if only I had the courage of my convictions and fished positive.

Overall it was a great festival I finished well down the list but I enjoyed the fishing and caught plenty of fish and had a great time. Unfortunately, I lost the lodge sweep 4/1 to Tom as he had a bigger weight than me on four of the days. No doubt, those four pound coins will find their way into Jon Arthur’s pocket !

The fishing at White Acres was superb, and for the leaders it was such a close run thing with five anglers finishing on maximum points. But in the end Paul Yates was crowned this year’s Bait Tech champion after he achieved a perfect 36 point score; his dropped result was also a section win. Paul weighed a staggering 543lb, what a fantastic achievement I was really pleased for him as he is a brilliant angler. Congratulations to the other anglers at the top of the leader board, there was certainly some top angling going at the Bait Tech festival.

Many thanks once again to all at Parkdean, and in particular the fishery team who did a first class job in organising the festival. I’m sure all the anglers were grateful to Bait Tech for sponsoring the festival and giving each angler a goodie bag  of their products.

Top 10 anglers courtesy of Kirsty Byrne