Dynamite Baits Festival 2011

There is no rest for the wicked, as the proverb goes. Well, I must have been really bad in a previous existence as I am certainly not getting any rest from match angling at the moment, not that I am complaining mind, I just love it! It was straight into the Dynamite Bait festival, and I have to say another tough section. I had drawn C section and it was just full of Commercial Fishery experts. Still you have to be in it to win it, so it’s no use complaining of a tough field. Monday morning saw my section lining up in the club house for a draw on Twin Oaks or Trelawney and I should think all 36 of us were hoping to draw between 10 and 18 on Twin Oaks. The bag of dreams had other ideas for me as I was destined for peg 23 on Twin Oaks High numbers. As I pulled up in the car park I saw Steve Ringer getting his gear out of his van, and soon discovered that we were neighbours for the day.  Oh man, no doubt another lesson!

Anyone got a waggler?

It was going to be no nonsense match for me today, if I was to avoid a serious spanking. I had to concentrate on no more than three methods, and make one or two of them work. The first thing I set up was the method feeder.  There had been a lot of fish caught on the float last week, so I also wanted a pellet waggler to fish tight over. That started a frantic search through my carryall for a float! Man, I normally carry hundreds with me but I had lightened my load last Friday when I went to Porth and had not put them back, no real excuse I had just been busy and forgot. Eventually I found a 3 SSG J Range Styro and it was perfect for getting to the far bank. My last line was the pole for fishing down the edge. I chose a J13 float for this task, as I wanted to combine it with a shallow rig should I need it.

We were soon away and it was straight on the method tight to the far bank. Nothing immediately for me but I saw the odd angler down the section catch. I was trying to keep one eye on Callum Dicks and Simon Willsmore who were further down the lake and an obvious danger. Steve had a small carp and not long after I had one. It was certainly not a fast and furious start for anyone, I think Steve and I were reasonably close after about 40 minutes with around 8 fish each but they were on the small side. At around this time my bites dried up, and from what I could see it was slow for everybody else. That is with the exception of the fish magician, Mr Ringer. He just slipped into overdrive and carp after carp came to his magic method feeder. Around two hours in and I asked Steve what he had and I was surprised when he said over 65lb, surprised because I was already 50lb behind the master! I just could not get a bite on anything. I had been pinging the odd pellet towards the middle in hope of a few shallow but all I managed was a roach and a skimmer so that was discarded. I also had a look on the waggler but nothing showed.

Waggler time

A little later I noticed the angler below me catch on the waggler so that was my cue to have another go. The odd pellet had been fired over so hopefully there were some there. After a couple of casts the float dipped and I had that nice feeling when I struck and the rod bent round. It was a much bigger carp than those I had previously had on the method. A couple more followed and I guess that’s when I opened the shoulders and started feeding a little more pellets. The fish kept coming and this time it was Steve who was struggling. Not for long though as he picked up his waggler rod and was soon catching again. The closer I got to the bank with the float the better, if I could land it within inches I could practically guarantee a bite. It was really enjoyable fishing. With an hour to go I hooked a good carp next to the grass, it tore off to my right and I could feel my line going through the undergrowth. The line went slack and I wound in, I was horrified to seem my float loose on the far bank! Another frantic search and I found a small 2AAA waggler in my box, it was much too small and it also coincided with an increase in wind. I did manage one more fish on this float but it was obvious to me that it was no good.  I had no choice but to get back on the method. Fortunately for me I managed two or three more carp.

I would have kicked myself all the way to the van, if it had cost me a few points by not having the correct kit with me, but in the end I managed second in section to the Carp Magician. Steve had something like 127lb for a comfortable win. I had 65lb to just edge out Simon Willsmore with 60lb there were several other close weights. I couldn’t help thinking it was a really close section, that is if a certain person hadn’t spoilt a good match! Only joking Steve that was magical performance, have you a cure for a stiff neck, mainly on the right side?

Day two at Porth

Tuesday found us back on Porth and the weather forecast was for some high winds. I had been talking to some of the lads and heard that some big fish were showing around the first meadow so when my hand plucked peg 18 I made the immediate decision to fish as I should have last week. I was also going to set up a pole to fish at around 11m in about 7’. My plan was to ball that line on the whistle with eight big balls of groundbait containing a fair amount of caster and chopped worms. I was prepared to leave that alone until the last hour when I hoped some fish would come over it. I also setup a waggler, just in case those around me started bagging on the waggler, I didn’t want to be caught out.

My feeder setup was a Milo Helios rod with a 1oz tip; the rod was 12’ long and fished with braid mainline. I had a medium sized cage feeder to which I added a 5 gram sticky feeder weight. I had a hair rig with a longish hair so that I could fish up to two pieces of corn. The plan was to feed around two units of corn through the feeder and catch Bream, simple!

Would it work?

The match started and I balled my pole line, which was enjoyable as I have not done that for ages! They were softish balls as I wanted to create a big bed of feed. I then had 6 casts with the feeder to put some bait out on that line. I was clipped up at 35 turns of the reel, a little further than I normally fish on these pegs. I noticed the chap to my right playing a good fish on the feeder that he had caught closer in. It turned out to be a Perch of around 8oz but when he started getting a few hand sized skimmers it gave me hope that my bigger fish plan would work.

Well to cut a long story short the plan failed miserably! I had four pull rounds which resulted in three reasonable skimmers and one that was lost on the way back. The trouble was once I had done this for a couple of hours there was no turning back. It would have been very difficult catching up with the likes of Lee Edwards and Adam Rooney who were in my section and catching well on more traditional Porth methods. I did have a look on the waggler and that resulted in a few tiny roach and loads of missed bites. There were also a few fish to be caught on the pole but to do any good it had to be big fish, which just didn’t show. Just maybe it would have worked if the predicted wind had arrived, but our bank was practically windless. I finished with just over 3lb, for last but one in section. Adam Rooney winning our section with just over 12lb, he finished ounces in front of Lee.

Day three, Bolingey

Wednesday and we were Bolingey bound and looking forward catching big style. The lakes had been fishing really well with some enormous catches. As you can imagine there was an extra buzz in our draw queue. I was hoping the fishing gods were going to be kind to me as I had a dip in the BOD. I pulled out peg 11, a peg I know well, bang in the middle of the side of the island, a peg that has thrown up big weights in the past but in recent years has not been on top form. The good thing about the peg is that there are worse in this section! On the drive to Bolingey I had made my mind up on how I was fishing and that would be mainly on ‘the thod’ tight to the island. I would have two edge lines and a line at 5m, hoping to catch on the pole late on in the match.

When I arrived at the peg my mind was already made up but I took a few minutes to ponder over my options. The wind was light but left to right so I decided to make up a pellet waggler, just in case. I was relieved to have remembered to put my wagglers in the bag! On these island pegs, the banks can be quite steep, causing feeders and leads to role away from the catching area. I used a couple of extra sticky feeder weights on my feeders, to help them hold tight to the island. Bait was two units of dampened micros. I also had with me two units of meat which is the new limit in festivals at Bolingey. The rest of the bait on the carps menu was made up with 6 mm pellets and casters, plus my little bag of small boilies and other hook pellets; I also had 2 kilos of fishmeal groundbait.

The match started and I cast tight to the island with a 6mm pellet hook bait. Immediately to my right Ginger from Dynamite Baits was playing a carp on the feeder on peg 9, the lad on peg 10 had one on the waggler and whilst they were playing their fish Andy May to my left hooked a and was playing a carp. Man, I felt really left out of this party! The water was surprisingly clear, and I could see it colouring up tight to the island as Carp were on the prowl. It didn’t take long for my tip to go round and I joined in the fun. The first hour was pretty steady, and I had six or seven which kept me evenish, with Andy. Even though he wasn’t in my section I wanted to keep pace with him, I felt if I could do that I would be there or there abouts in the section at the end. The results from the last seven matches showed that this was not a framing area but you never really know!

Andyfusion!

Andy Dare was to the right of Mr May and it was getting really confusing, I would say something to Andy May and Mr Dare would answer as well and vice versa , I found myself having a three way conversation with the pair of them, add to that the humour of Ginger and it was an interesting day at a brilliant venue in good company, plus we were all catching, what more can an angler ask for?

As the match went on I found I had to swop around with the hook bait. Now I don’t know why this works but it seems to! You can sit with say a 6mm pellet for awhile or several casts with no result after first catching a few on that bait, change the hook bait and get a fish immediately. Then I would catch a couple on that bait before it was not as effective. Anyway it kept me amused and more importantly a few fish coming to the net. I did have a few slow spells where I tried my five metre line and the edges but could not buy a bite on the pole. The last hour saw me run out of micros for my method feeder and I had to change to ground bait. I finished the match with a little flurry of a few carp to end up with 80lb 7oz which was good enough to win my section of nine. Andy may had a very similar weight so I am happy to call that an honourable draw! The match was won by Lee Edwards from inform peg 20, Lee had around 170lb mainly caught shallow on the pole.

Day four, The Match Lake

The week was racing by and it was our turn for the match lake. I purposefully stayed away from the club house until well after the draw started, as this day always worries me.  Scared of the festival draw on the match lake? It’s true! I wandered in as most of the 180 anglers had left and found Kirsty waiting, she held out the bag and I had my dip, surprisingly  there was more than one peg left, I grabbed the first one that I touched and pulled it out. I could not see the number so I just held it for Kirsty to see and watched what she wrote Peg 27 there must be some mistake, I turned it around and sure enough it was mine for the day. As I left Adam Rooney was walking in, would you believe that he drew the last peg which was 28!

This was going to be a positive day for me, my attack was going to be based around the point of the island on the thod and the pellet waggler. I also set up a shallow rig for the pole to fish at 14.5m, I had two rigs for this one shallow at around 2’ and the other for fishing deeper at around 4 – 5’ in around 10’ of water. I also decided to feed meat for carp at 5m, this I was going to feed heavy from the midpoint of the match. I did think that it may be too early in the year for this line to come good but in my book it was worth trying. Bait was my limit of meat and the rest was made up of pellets and a few small boilies.

From the start it was obvious that main shoal of carp was down to our left around pegs 16 – 18 as Lee Kerry was quickly into fish, unbelievably he was foul hooking them which I find bizarre on the method feeder. Apparently he had to grab the rod or lose it! Steve Conway next to him on peg 18 was soon into fish and set the early pace, with several fish on the method. It wasn’t long before Adam Rooney had a carp on the method from near the aerator. And eventually I joined the fun. There was the odd carp crashing around and we were all feeding pellets by catapult hoping to get a few on the pellet waggler. Adam and I also had Ginger for company on peg 29 and although he was fishless he was keeping us amused with his stories!

This was a good, albeit frustrating match, there were fish to be caught but both Adam and I could not keep them coming. There were little bursts including the odd ‘High Bank Carp’ which are those big old things which make you think you need a bigger boat! But, we just could not keep them coming. The waggler just didn’t work which was a real shame. Both Adam and I gave it several goes and all we both had to show for it was one foul hooked fish each, which we lost. In the second half of the match I had a nice run of fish that I caught having changed to a pellet feeder in conjunction with red boilie hook bait. I found it was best to cast this extremely tight to the boards of the island, on some occasions touching the board with the feeder, ringing the dinner bell so to speak!

Towards the end of the match the fish seemed to drift to the left again and I could see Callum Dicks catching well on the pellet waggler. My shallow pole line only produced a roach and a skimmer but to be fair I didn’t give it long, No bites except the odd movement form 5m which I guess were silvers gorging on the meat fest free lunch! I found myself thinking maybe I should have had a long pole line deep for the skimmers, but in the end I feel happy with the performance, it’s not every day you draws such good pegs in a festival, and in these pegs in the best sections you have to fish to win!

The section was frustratingly close with Steve Conway taking the verdict with 86lb unfortunately for me Martin Holmes had 85lb from peg 20 which is opposite me and I had 77lb for third, a fish or two short,  mustn’t grumble!

Fay five, Jennies or Trewaters

Unbelievably we were on the last day which I find extraordinary, normally life in Cornwall is lived in the slow lane, but White Acres seems to have a different clock from the rest of the Duchy, time absolutely flies by! Nothing we can do to change that and it was time to dip in the bag of dreams for the last time this week. We were on a split section between Jennies and Trewaters and with all honesty I was happy to draw anywhere, these two venues were on fire, so whatever peg I felt there was going to be a decent days fishing. Obviously there  are better areas on each of the lakes and I was delighted when peg 20 on Jennies was my home for the day. I was getting my gear out of the van with not a care in the world when Steve Ringer pulled up. ‘Where are you today Stewart?’ I told him and his reply is not what I wanted to hear! ‘Next to me again, I’m on 19’ Wow, that is not the peg I wanted to see the England feeder ace on, and I immediately predicted a lake win for him, a 25 metre chuck to the end of an island. I searched high and low for the blinkers in the back of the van, but for the life of me I just could not find them!

I had my plan and that was to fish my own match, which meant ignoring what was happening around me. I fished a 4 x 12 J12 float which I have found to have the perfect tip to aid visibility on this lake and plumbed two swims. One at 14.5m and the other at 5m there was a slight difference in depth as it is shallower on the closer line, I marked the depth on my pole which cuts down on rigs needed. Two were set up, one with a hair rig and microband for the pellet and the other had a T213 size 14 to fish worm and corn. I also had two J13 float rigs for fishing shallow, both had size 18 PR36 hooks with a microband. Just in case the F1’s were having it on the feeder. I assembled an inline cage feeder with a short hook length to fish maggot on the hook.

Ave it!

On the whistle I deposited two big cups of chopped worm, caster and corn on the 14.5m line and threw some 4mm pellets on the 5m line. I started on the feeder. I actually had three casts on this without a bit as I could see the fish responding to my feed on the long pole line! There were lots of bubbles coming up. Baiting with half a Dendrabena I shipped out and waited a couple of minutes, I could actually see the float moving sideways as fish brushed the line or their vortex moved the float slightly. It finally went under and it was nice to see my yellow J Range lastix coming out of the pole as my account was opened by a tench around a pound. I think I had another next put in followed by much more lastix coming out of the pole on the strike. I played the carp for ages eventually netting a nice fish that was between 8 – 10lb which was a really great start to the match.

Another magical performance

Next door the Carp Magician was waving his wand over peg 19; he was now catching regularly on the method feeder fished to the point of the island. At around the end of the first hour I asked what he had and was not surprised when he said 40lb but to be fair I probably had 30lb, which comprised of a couple of carp and a few Tench. The fishing was fantastic; I was getting an indication and bite every put in and was really enjoying my match. I had been loose feeding pellets over my long line and every now and then had a look shallow. It was later on in the match probably in the last two hours when the fish responded and I started to catch F1’s up in the water. The presentation was quite hard though, it was a beautifully sunny day and there was just a ripple on the water, but it was very windy off the water, and hard work holding the pole and keeping a tight line to the float! Those watching would have found it hard to believe, unless you actually picked up a pole and tried. Not that I was complaining though, I was now getting the odd carp amongst F1’s. Occasionally the sun and ripple made it hard to see my float on the long pole. But swopping to the 5m line produced some more fish including a bonus carp. With a couple of hours to go Steve ran out of micros for his method, but with probably over 130lb in his nets I don’t think he was too concerned! He picked up his pole and before long was joining in the fun of catching fish shallow.

I don’t believe it.

The match ended as I was playing a big carp, but unfortunately I lost that fish. I failed to notice the over enthusiastic steward putting the fish back from the guy he had just weighed on peg 21. He put them back just to my right in my swim, as I was playing the carp on my top kit. The disturbance made the carp bolt and it snapped me. Bah, mustn’t grumble! I actually weighed 100lb 14oz which was good enough for second in section behind Sir Ringer who weighed 171lb! What a fantastic feat from a great angler, a lake win to seal victory in the festival. Well done Steve I witnessed two first class performances that week from the next peg. Every cloud has a silver lining, or so they say, and there was certainly one that day. Steve was fishing on my left, and that sure cured the stiff neck he gave me on the right hand side on day one!

Personally, I had a really enjoyable weeks fishing. I drew some good pegs and caught a load of fish eventually finishing with 32 points for 17^th place out of 180. Considering I drew next to possibly the best commercial fishery angler in the country twice and completely got it wrong at Porth I am happy enough with my weeks fishing. The result means that I have to fish two more festivals in October at White Acres, the Maver followed by the Preston which incorporates the Parkdean Masters, Man it’s a hard life!

I would just like to extend my personal thanks to Dynamite Baits who sponsored the festival. They were very generous in giving every angler a large goodie bag of their excellent products, as well as providing top prizes for the winners. Once again thanks to the fishery team at White Acres and all the staff who provided us all with a great week.

The Dynamite Bait 2011 Top three anglers