Garbolino Spring Festival 2011

I recently made my first visit to Bake Lakes near Plymouth and I was very impressed with it, I will definitely be back there in the future. It was a silverfish only match that interested me and there were 22 booked on. I had been a little too busy to make loads of enquiries on how to fish it, so decided to go with my gut feeling when I got there, I was armed with plenty of worm, caster and maggot and also had some bloodworm ground bait. I planned to fish a chopped worm line and a groundbait line and see what they preferred!

I drew at the far end of the lake with a howling wind into my face, it was one of those days when I was putting more clothes on whilst the anglers opposite end were stripping off, saying how hot it was, Never mind mustn’t grumble! I had around 5’ of water to play with and because of the wind set up a 4 x 16 J8 float the wire stem was definitely going to help presentation in the strong wind. I found a line at 6m to my right that was the same depth as 6m straight in front of me and that was my two main pole lines sorted. I had a J1 4 x 10 float that was perfect for my margin swims. I was pegged near to a corner so I felt I couldn’t fish the feeder or waggler, even if I could have, feeding the waggler would have been really difficult.

At the all in I fed three balls of groundbait in front of me and a pot full of chopped worm and caster to my right. I started with a decent bit of worm on the hook. After a few minutes I had a bite and was briefly attached to a good fish. Unfortunately the hook pulled, I think it was a big Perch, bah would have been nice to land it. No more bites on the worm so I tried double red maggot and that change brought instant results! Some nice Roach and Rudd coming to the net along with a welcome Tench, from what I could see I was in front of the field. The bites slowed and I had a look over the groundbait line, there were fish there to be caught which gave me confidence to re feed my chopped worm line. I caught for three hours and was building up a nice net of fish I guess I had over 12lb and as 20lb was expected to frame I was felt I was on track.

It’s funny really just as you think you are doing ok those thoughts often come and smack you on the back of the head! After three hours it really slowed and bites were at a premium, there was some small stuff to be caught in the margins and I amused myself catching some ounce fish with the odd better sample. I did hook two big fish that I unfortunately lost. The first I managed to get 11m of pole on, as the fish charged off to my left eventually bottoming out my 5 solid elastic and breaking my .10 hook length and trashing the rig against the pole just to add insult to injury! Putting on a new rig I dropped back in and hooked another big fish that shot off to the right and slipped the hook, mustn’t grumble? You must be joking; I had a few, that’s for sure!

The match came to an end and I was pleased to find out that my weight of over 15lb was good enough for second place. I really must apologise to the winner as I have forgotten his name he did have a nice bag of Roach and a few Tench. Overall I really enjoyed the match and will definitely be back, I would also love to fish one of the carp lakes and may even try my hand for Trout, I have not picked up a fly rod in 30 years but the Trout lake has got me thinking!

Garbolino Spring Festival

Chatting to Kirsty at White Acres the other day led me into fishing the Garbolino Spring Festival. She was telling me that four anglers had just dropped out; I really didn’t need much persuading even though the festival started two days later!

There were 45 fishing the four day festival which is held on Trewaters and Twin Oaks. On the Monday morning there was a random draw which placed you in the section you would remain in for the four days. My visit to the bag of dreams saw me pick peg 18 on Twin Oaks so my rotation was obviously starting at Twin Oaks low numbers, moving to the top lake at Trewaters on Tuesday. There was a rest day on Wednesday and I hoped my aching arms would recover for Thursday, when I got to play on Twin Oaks high numbers finishing on the bottom lake at Trewaters.

Some things never change.

As I unloaded the van at Twin Oaks it was obvious to me that the section I had drawn was a tough one! Never mind I was looking forward to the week and it was nice to start on Twin Oaks. I actually felt a little hemmed in on my peg as peg 17 was also in, I guess we get used to the bigger festival pegging when there are on nine pegs on each lake at TO which means 17 or 18 would be empty. Still the wind was howling down into my corner and I just hoped that the fish would follow the wind and all be resident in the corner! My main tackle was the method feeder and the pole to fish the margins and long against the bank to my right. To cut a long story short, I caught just short of 80lb on the method feeder using micros, I mainly caught on 8mm pellet and finished fourth in section ounced by Colin Mulholland. I had two swims going one into the corner and one directly in front of me. All I could catch in the margins were silvers and I must admit that I really ignored them as I knew I needed in excess of 100lb to get some good section points. The match was won by my old mate Calvin Lawson from peg 15 he had 125lb, second in section was Gary Smith on peg 17 with 95lb both making full use of vacant peg 16. Jealous, me? Bet your life I was! Harry Billing won the other section on Twin Oaks from peg 8 with 100lbs mainly caught on the thod, he did have some down the edge as well.

Day Two

Our section moved onto Trewaters and I was bound for peg 20, I was quite happy with the peg hoping to catch a few shallow, that was until I got there and saw the wind howling right to left, it had some big old breakers, I fully expected some wind surfers turning up! I decided to go with the meat at top two plus one with a 4 x 14 J8 even with the wind there was only a slight tow moving opposite to the wind and this float was perfect. I also had some rigs for the margins, I tried paste one side and meat and corn the other.

At the all in I bucked the trend and went straight on the pole whilst everybody else went on the thod. I had an F1 reasonably quickly, and thought I had it right when another followed. When Mark Murdock to my right and Harry Billing to his right came of the feeder and onto the pole I felt justified in my decision. Unfortunately for me the fish just didn’t want to play ball as I could not keep catching. I felt the fish wanted to be up in the water and tried at 11m but could just not hold the pole it was so windy. I managed two shallow, an F1 and a small carp but nearly broke the pole on the second one. I decided it wasn’t worth it. I had a go on the thod but could not make that work either one small F1 and a Grass Carp was all I could manage.

When the scales came around I recorded around 40lb but was again well down in the section. Calvin Lawson won the lake for the second day on the trot with a weight of 78lb mostly taken on the long pole with meat. He was followed by Mark Murdoch who had 68lb Mark caught on the method and down the edge; I for the life of me could not make either of those methods work!

Day three

We were back on Twin Oaks on Thursday and I drew peg 23 which I was happy with. It has a nice bank to cast tight to and I did fancy it for a few, and that is what exactly happened a few, too few to be precise! I started the match with a quick go down the edge just in case there were any carp mooching around in the margins. No signs after a couple of minutes, so I reached for the thod and cast tight to the far bank with a 6mm pellet. Glancing around I felt we were in trouble as I could see Calvin playing a carp on end peg 19, further down the lake Harry on peg 27 was playing carp number two! Colin Mulholland and I just sat biteless.  My tip moved and I was soon playing a lively common of around two pound. I had a little flurry of activity and went to around five small carp before it just died as it did for everybody I could see with the exception of Harry who was sacking!

I had been pinging pellets at around 14.5m and really expected to catch shallow when I tried after 90 minutes but all I could catch was Roach. The pellet waggler was the similar, well the odd bite that was hard to hit due to the wind. I also had a look on my 5m line with pellet; I had a big skimmer first go and thought I was in for a few but just small Roach followed. I knew then that the only way I was going to make an impact was to go back on the method tight over. This coincided with Colin coming off the method and trying the pole. Before long I started to get fish again, after I had around six Colin came off the pole and went back on the method. To be fair to Colin he did have a couple of Carp on the pole which kept him on it longer. My feeder line started to dry up and Colin started catching! Oh man, this was getting difficult! I could only catch if I dropped the method inch perfect under a little bush, either side of it and nothing happened, coincidence? I’m not sure but it kept me trying to hit the same spot which is very important.

The match was drawing to an end and my personal battle with Colin was tight, he may have had his head in front. I had been feeding my margin swims since the middle of the match and now it was time to have a proper look. To my left was a little deeper and I had fed it with a lot of groundbait put in loose. I presented double Dendrabena tight to the bank. The float buried and a one ounce Perch came flying out of the water at the speed of light! How do they get such big bait in their mouths? Two more followed and I was just thinking this was no good when I hit a bite and nearly got dragged in! It was a nice Mirror of around 7lb and very welcome! I landed it and dropped in on the other side, straight away hooked a Common around 5lb. I could be excused for thinking for a minute that they had arrived but sadly didn’t get another bite! Still at the scales my 40lb beat Colin by a couple of pounds and that was retribution for him ouncing me on Monday! I actually finished second in section beating Calvin by ounces. The section was won with 80lb to spare by Harry who had 119lb all caught on the method, spoilt a tight section he did!

The last day arrived and it was peg 38 at Trewaters for me, it was an end peg and it can be a good one. It actually won the lake on one of the days, I quite fancied my chances on it. It was another very windy day but not on my peg where the water was like a mirror, and it was this calmness that worried me when I actually arrived at the peg! I was still going to give it my best shot. Tackle was method feeder and pole tackle to cover the bottom of the near shelf, the margins and some shallow rigs that I could just not resist, even though my peg was flat calm.

The all in came and I potted a little meat on my pole line, top one plus one and started fishing on the method, casting slightly to my left, I had a6mm pellet on the hook and micros and a bit of groundbait around the feeder. For the first six casts as soon as the feeder hit the water it pulled around and I had a small carp or F1. It really was a great start, but it did not last, the bites slowed but I could still see fish in the shallow water in the area that I was feeding, very frustrating. Mark Murdoch to my right was still fishless at this time and now I had time to glance around it looked quiet up my side of the lake.

It was soon time to try the pole, there was fish to be caught but slowly, it was a bit of a waiting game. I started pinging some pellets at 13m hoping to get some fish shallow and after 20 minutes gave that a try but it was no good. Mark also could not catch shallow, the odd bite but I suspect that they were small Rudd trying to eat something that was just too big! The rest of the match was rotating around my swims trying to catch, I could get a few from each line but it then needed resting. This made me start a new line at 13m on the deck; I fed some chopped worm hoping for some skimmers and carp. I managed a few but at this stage Mark started bagging on the method as well as the chap to his right, amazing they could not buy a bite earlier, I tried mine but could only get the odd fish. The longer pole line did produce around 10 fish but it was never as quick as I hoped. I spent the last 90 minutes down the edge catching some F1’s, Bream and Tench. Finishing with 40lb which was 20lb short! Mark won the section with 65lb that run on the method proving crucial, he also caught well on the inside line where the pipe came into his swim to his right. His very good performance cost me the £ side bet!

Driving back to the presentation I was thinking about the week’s fishing, I didn’t make much impression on the leader board this week, but one thing is for sure I tried, but I know in my heart that I really must try harder! I can have no complaints after all I caught nearly 200lb of fish in four days, learnt a few things and enjoyed myself, what more can you ask for? It’s nice to win but there is always next time.

We were soon back at White Acres to applaud this year’s champion James Wellington who had a perfect 24point score catching 313lb in the four days, well done mate a brilliant performance. Second was Paul Carnell on 23 points from James Collison on 22 points. Garbolino were fantastic sponsoring the festival with some great prizes, and to cap it all Garbolino UK boss, Darren Cox attended personally to present the goodies to the winners. It was a great weeks fishing, well done to the fisheries team who did another fine job running the festival.