Bait Tech Spring Festival 2009

Unbelievably it is time for the annual pilgrimage to White Acres for the spring festivals that is if you can call a 12 mile journey a pilgrimage! In reality it is as 180 hardened matchmen follow their call to go to the fishing Mecca in Cornwall for the Bait Tech festival. This year I was staying on site in one of the lodges  with Fishing4Fun editor Tom Scholey, new Kamasan champion Adam Richards and float maker extraordinaire Gaz Malman, I was designated as the official older person by the young pups but somebody really had to keep them in check! Rather unfairly Adam had been christened the Northern Carp Champion for winning the Kamasan Matchman of the year despite totalling 35 points throughout the season in matches over 50 pegs, quite an achievement, and one he is rightly proud of. His new name seemed to stick but as it was quite a mouthful it was soon shortened to NCC.

I had drawn E section and it really was the so called ‘section of Doom’ just about everybody was a well known angler! I have been in some tough sections before but this was by far strongest line up I had been in at a festival, there is no point getting hot under the collar you just have to get on with it draw better than the rest!

I actually stayed at home on Sunday night as my first match was at Bolingey, I had a cunning plan and that was to get Tom to draw for me as he was in the same section. The plan actually evolved over a Sunday mother’s day lunch with the wife, I had a couple of extra glasses of vino which meant I couldn’t drive back to the Lodge! I have to say that Tom didn’t disappoint and he pulled out peg 46 for me in the corner on the first arm. It was a peg that I have always wanted to fish but had never drawn before. The wind was blowing down into my corner and the water temperature was 12.5C I really fancied this peg. As this is a pellet barred festival my main line of attack was going to be meat and I had chosen four lines to fish this on, I had two in the open water at 12.5m and 6m. One at 16m towards the bank and an edge swim down to my right, I also set up a waggler and straight lead, just in case.

The match started and I potted some meat on my open water lines and started on the long line with an 8mm piece of meat on the hook. Dean Barlow was the first to open his account from peg 6 with a 3 pounder but I soon followed him with a similar sized fish. A few more followed before a quite spell, trying the shorter line I found a couple more and I found it was best to alternate lines. I could see all the anglers on the other bank and felt I was in front with a couple of hours to go, chatting to Dean confirmed that it was slow to my left.

Just when you think you have it sorted it all goes wrong! I had a terrible last couple of hours hardly putting a fish in the net. I concentrated long towards the bank for little reward. According to my mate Mr Hindsight I should have stayed in the open water. I actually finished third with 74lb 5oz Russ Berryman to my left had a late charge and had 6 ounces more than me! Dean Barlow won the section from peg 6 with an impressive 106lb. Kieran Rich won the match with 157lb from peg 12 in that section Harry Billing was also ounced into third with 136lb and Des Ship was well down with 104lb Adam Waklin only beat two anglers and he had over 90lb! Bolingey is back on the map.

Tuesday morning arrived and by the time Tom and I got to the draw queue most were leaving the club house. I had my dip and couldn’t believe that I had peg 47 in my hand, it was the peg that not only won the section on the first day but won the match with 68lb! It was a low weight to win Pollawyn but none the less I was pleased to have it and a realistic chance to do well in the section.

It really is a simple peg to fish the island is just over 15m so I had a couple of rigs to fish tight in about 2′ of water I had a rig to fish at the bottom of the shelf at 12m and a edge rig, I was ready with an hour to go! I was in a positive frame of mind and all my rigs had carp in mind and meat was to be the bait. I couldn’t wait to get started.

The hooter went to start day two and I put some meat on my 12m line and went over to the island with an 8mm piece on the hook. I was feeding this with a kinder pot I really expected a bite first drop but was disappointed with the 20 minute wait for my first fish which was a fighting fit 4lb common. The next came five minutes later and was a similar stamp. Number three came about forty minutes later and that really prepared me for the wait as it was my last fish! I only had one other bite which was a foul hooked fish.

It was a really disappointing match but there is nothing I could do about it. I probably could have caught a few more pounds by fishing for silvers but I needed in excess of 45lb to get any decent points and that was just not possible. I really think the carp had moved as I don’t think I fished it that badly.

To round off a poor day my wheel fell off my trolley on the way back to the van and I had to pay two quid to Gaz as he had won the match at Porth with 30lb of bream and that was top weight in the lodge! We have a lodge sweep of a quid a day but if the winner comes from Porth it is doubled! The float maker’s nugget pile on the lodge mantle piece was starting to look impressive. Adam was third on the lake so they were in good spirits.

Tuesday night was great as we went up the club house at 7pm to see Gaz and Adam collect their winnings and we stayed there until we were thrown out! At least I gave the young guns a lesson at pool. Wednesday dawned and I was feeling decidedly dodgy, the after effects of a late night were taking their toll and it actually dawned on me that I cannot do this anymore, drink loads of beer and then go fishing that is! I have no one to blame but myself as ultimately I am the one that raises the glass and puts it to my lips. The young champion is a bad influence on me and I will definitely have to rain him in next week. He actually reminds me of myself when I was younger, leading from the front in the drinking department and then waking the next morning ready for the day whilst others suffered!

The draw bag put me on peg 6 on Jennies and just to amplify how tough this section was I found myself with Des Ship to my left and Kieran Rich to my right! There were plenty of other stars in my section of nine as well; no one said this was going to be easy!

The wind was blowing a hooley, it was a real pole breaker and practically impossible to hold the pole at anymore than 6 sections. I really do not understand why I tried to fish at seven sections! My other bad decision that day was to fish the meat feeder in open water. The previous day a few carp came to meat on the long pole so that explains my reasoning, however it didn’t work! I only managed one F1 and a roach in 40 minutes of fishing it. I had fed worms at 7 metres and loose fed casters short, I started to get some good roach short but just could not hold the fish on that line and they soon backed off. I struggled with the longer line for the odd skimmer but presentation was for me impossible. Meanwhile Des was giving me a fishing master class and he was starting to motor with tench after tench.

With 2 hours to go I did what I should have done from the start and fished the crumb feeder with double red maggot in the open water. I started to get some F1′s and probably put a dozen in the net in an hour, the last hour was slower and all I could really do was watch a brilliant angler power to another section win with over 50lb. Kieran had 38lb to my right so I had a real battering! I left the lake disappointed at my performance but man I had I learnt a lot. The best thing about the day was that Michael Sanders had unbelievably found my lost wheel nut on Pollawyn so at least I had my trolley for the rest of the week.

Thursday saw me on peg 14 on Twin Oaks it is a very good peg and a draw that I was happy with. I again had Des for company on the next peg to my right and everybody was predicting that he was going to have in excess of 200lb; today I was determined to fish better. I had Andy Dare for company to my left and we had a Mars Bar challenge on the outcome with him.

Not only did I have one of the world’s best match anglers on my right I had the best angler in the world discussing his swim with him. Will Raison couldn’t fish the festival but had come down for a long weekend and had wandered round to give Des the benefit of his experience! There is not one other sport that you can mix with such class and it is one of the reasons that I keep coming back to fish these festivals, I just cannot get enough of it.

I assembled two SPRO Escape picker rods to fish the meat feeder and I also set up poles to fish at 5 metres and an edge rig, it was going to be a meat and corn attack for me today. At the start I cast to the far bank and hoped the tip would pull round immediately but it didn’t! Looking down the line of anglers I could see Dean Barlow, Kieran Rich and Russ Berryman all playing fish! It looked like the main shoal was all to Andy’s left.

Before long we started to get some fish and for the first three hours or so it was all very close between me and my immediate neighbours. It looked like any individual glory was gone as Russ and Kieran were getting carp after carp. I had looked on my pole line and managed two better carp from the 5m line but I was getting too many bites from silvers so it was back on the feeder. I had a good last hour but unfortunately not as good as Des who had taken advantage of a slight drop in the wind and was now catching well on the waggler. I finished with around 85lb and Des had 110lb so not that far away this time! Andy had 65lb so at least I won the Mars bar, well I would have if Mr Dare paid up! Russ Berryman powered his way to the best weight of the week with an impressive 165lb all taken on the meat feeder, Kieran was second with 142lb.

All of a sudden it was Friday and the last match of the week at Porth, where does time go on these festivals?  It really does just fly by. My dip put me on peg 23 in the meadow and a peg that I again was quite happy with. I was in a no lose situation as I had no chance of getting anywhere in the festival so I decided to fish this match in a positive way and try to win the lake. I was only going to set up a feeder and the waggler and concentrate on one line. My plan was to fish the feeder close enough to me so that I could loose feed casters over the top and alternate fishing the waggler shallow on the feeder line.

The wind was quite strong but I could fire casters to about 20 metres. It was a great way to fish, I cast out the feeder dropped it in the rest and catapulted out some casters before the feeder hit the bottom. I was probably the first angler on the lake to catch as I had a small skimmer first put in whilst most around me were still feeding pole lines, I jokingly shouted all out but no one paid any attention!

I had half a dozen fish before it started to slow but I wanted to fish for at least an hour before I picked up the waggler rod to give the fish a chance to feed confidently up in the water. In the end I only gave it 40 minutes as there just were no more bites on the feeder.  I was using a 1.5 gram Rocket light and I have to say it is great to fish with these floats as they cast absolutely brilliantly. I had set the depth at around 8′ and was pleased to get a roach first go, a couple of skimmers followed and I thought for a moment the plan was going to work!

Unfortunately, I was having a mare with the line that I was using on the reel, I kept getting wind knots in the main line and had to re tackle a couple of times and eventually had to change the spool. I am not making excuses but this all takes time and the feeding suffers, consequently the catch rate falls. In an effort to find some bigger fish I spent the last hour on the feeder and had a few skimmers but could not find their bigger brothers. I was actually finding it hard to keep the tip still as the wind had turned bitterly cold and I was shivering so much the tip was dancing! I would have loved to have been able to take the water temperature but my thermometer got a little wet on Wednesday and appears to have given up, it’s living on the radiator at the moment so hopefully will start again.

I finished with just over 5lb which was midway in the section and catapulted me to somewhere near the bottom of the leader board, must try harder next week! No winnings for me this time the only exception was two pickups in the lodge sweep, which I have to say was better than some but I will leave Tom to tell you about that.

Individual Glory went to Steve Mayo with a 36 point total and he did look very pleased to lift the trophy and pocket 3K. Giles Cochrane was second with 35points beating Steve Ringer on weight.

It was another great week at White Acres and well organised by the fisheries staff a big well done to you all. Thanks must also be said to Wendy Lythgoe from Bait Tech who sponsored the event again this year, every angler benefitting with bags of their ground bait and pellets.