Three Rides at Mawgan Porth

Seduced by the thought of 200lb plus weights of small carp it was time to revisit Mawgan Porth race track, sorry fishery! We booked in for the Tuesday and Wednesday matches at this prolific little fishery on the Cornwall’s North Coast. There were 32 anglers at the stalls all armed with top two kits looking to get amongst the shoals of hungry carp.

We all gathered at the draw and listened as owner Janet read out the starting prices, we were keen to get on with it. Harry had just returned from walking Duds around the track and stood around the side of the stalls listening to Janet. Right, time for the draw says Janet and with that her 80 year old father Bernie offers the bag to Harry! He politely refuses but Bernie insists. Harry dips his hand in and pulls out peg 47! Now 47, in my opinion is the best peg at Mawgan Porth by far, especially with a good turnout. I have to say Harry did look slightly embarrassed but with his head in front and wearing blinkers he was off and running.

My effort resulted in peg 8 which was unknown to me I asked fellow SPRO angler and undisputed venue master Andy Partridge what it was like and he assured me it was a good peg, the only problem is that 9 is in today which may affect the way it fishes.

My peg had a bay to my right and a reasonable looking edge also down to my right. It was here that I was going to concentrate. I have some pole sections that I have adapted for this venue, as I think a top one is a little short and a top 2 can be a little long! So by using old sections that have been rescued from the scrap heap I have some top 1 ½’s! By using these I don’t have to bend over quite as far in this ‘garden gnome’ style of fishing.

They were set up with .18 line and a Carpa shelf float to a size 16 PR36 hook. I was going to try banded 6 mm pellet down the edge and corn if this didn’t work. I also set up two Cralusso Capri 0.3 to fish out in front of me on a standard top 2 kit and slightly further if needed. One of these was rigged with a bigger hook to fish paste if needed.

And there off!

Feeding a few 4 mm pellets down the edge I drop in and immediately foul hook a small carp, shallow up slightly and back in and land my first fish, but I am slightly concerned at how small it is probably no more than 8 – 10 oz measuring in at a hand. A couple more and I can see that most people are catching. Head down and time to get out the whip. But it starts pulling up! The bites slow down and it’s time to look elsewhere in the track I try the top 2 with paste and this gets me a few more fish but it is a painfully slow ride. I can see the others around me are all slowing up as well. But talk is of Harry and Andy Partridge who has drawn next door on 46 both are at a canter with fish coming regularly.

Hurdles!

I thought it was a flat race, it wasn’t until the race started that I realised it was steeplechase, and I fell at the second! Oh well never mind. It was quite an interesting match and it just goes to show that you should always have an open mind to match fishing. Personally I went to this match with 4mm pellet feed and 6 mm hookers some paste and corn. I caught on all but I should have had some casters or maggots with me and not approached it with blinkers.I recorded a DNW but I know I had in excess of 35lb there was a 25lb to my right and peg 8 recorded a 50lb. Harry won the match by a short neck he weighed 128lb and was followed by Andy Partridge with 125lb I think 108lb was third.

Golden Draw

Now they have a golden peg at MP and it is run slightly differently from other venues that I have fished. It is capped when it reaches 200 pounds. Another golden peg is started immediately, so on Tuesday there were two golden pegs to have a go at the second had about 40 quid in it. The main difference is that the race winner is invited to redraw, and if he draws the peg he won from he wins the booty. On this occasion he obviously has two goes at it. Well the way Harry is drawing we all thought he would win both golden pegs! He had a dip and absolutely no one could believe that he failed to find his own peg number, wonders never cease!

Wednesday dawned and we joined the draw queue. Today there were 39 fishing which is the absolute limit on this pool. Armed with the knowledge of yesterday I had some small expanders with me and a couple of pints of casters plus some worms. I didn’t want a fall today. I ended up near the back of the queue standing next to Andy Partridge. I had my dip and came out with peg 41. Andy muttered some words of encouragement, well that’s what I thought he said. Anyway, I got the impression he fancied my draw!

Home for the day

My peg is on a long wooden platform, peg 40 is on the same platform but not in as it would seriously affect peg 39, which also is not normally in but was today! I had some room which is important but not as much as you would normally get. I had a great looking edge peg to my left and I could fish down to my right next to the staging.
I decided to fish a little further away from me as I thought we were looking for about 100lb to win which is a low weight for this venue. So I tackled my left hand edge peg with a top two plus a short fourth section. I think it’s important to be able to feed by hand. Terminal tackle was the same as yesterday, with the exception of the hooks. I had done away with the hair rigs and replaced them with PR28 hooks so that I could use all my bait on the same rig.

I started on an expander down the edge feeding a few pellets and casters and was immediately into fish. I had six very quickly and noticed around me was catching as well. Then all of a sudden someone flicked the switch and the bites stopped! All the anglers at my end of the lake were struggling with the exception of Simon Poynter who was on peg 7. He was practically opposite me but in a bay, in a peg that is not normally in. He was catching very well by rotating his lines and combining this with spells up in the water on maggot.

I had to try something different so went out to four sections on the deck and fed caster with a view to coming up in the water. I had the odd fish on the bottom but could not get a touch shallow. I decided to try and force the swim by putting some chopped worm in via a kinder pot. The result was a stunning nothing, not even a bite from silvers! I had changed the feed to just caster to my left edge and could not buy a bite there also, this was getting seriously bad.

I kept looking down to my right and eventually got another section out of my holdall and plumbed up practically under peg 40. I introduced a few pellet via the kinder pot and with a 4mm expander on the hook started to catch some fish. But again after half a dozen it went quiet. A change to caster and it was a fish a chuck the problem was there was on 15 minutes left! Too little too late was the thought.

With the exception of the new venue expert Simon everyone had struggled down this end of the lake and I could see most putting back there fish. I knew I had about 40lb and could smell a section win! So I waited for the scales. The nine anglers all to my right had put back and when Janet arrived at my peg I think she was pleased to have something to do! I put 39lb on the scales and thought at least I had achieved something. I later found out that they were 12 peg sections and the angler 11 pegs away had beaten me! No justice. Never mind it was quite interesting trying to work the place out. It certainly does not respond as well when there are a lot fishing.

Tri-cast’s Simon Poynter was the winner with 98lb he also had two dips at the golden pegs, but again could not find his own peg number.

Saturday Kernow Match Group open Mawgan Porth

This was to be my last match of the long Bank Holiday weekend as I am desperate to see my team Leeds at Wembley on Sunday, we don’t get there often so I have to see the game, only on TV but it will do. Man, I hope we win!

There were only 15 fishing so we were going to get some room and I was looking forward to it. Harry had fished a match there on Friday and had won that with over 200lb from peg 31 so there was a buzz at the draw. I had my dip and out came peg 15 another area that I had not fished before. I looked at the results over the previous month and could not find a big weight from this particular peg. But, I knew that I had an empty peg either side of me, plus I was opposite peg 47 which was only about 16 metres away, so I figured it should be ok.

When I got to my peg I was pleased to see my old mate Mick Heacock as my neighbour on peg 18, we fished in the same team during the winter. Mick is not a fan of carp match fishing, he loves his silvers but pretends these small carp are roach with attitude!

My peg looked to have two good edges to concentrate on. On the right side the bank was a stone wall and some cover it looked really good. On the left there was a lot of marsh grass. One of Janet’s rules forbids you from gardening and this side really needed a trim. I carry a spare landing net handle with me and poked this into the bank at the far end of my peg and wedged it by my feet, this held the grass back towards the bank and left me a fishable area. When I removed the handle after the match the grass all fell back into place. The wind was strong right to left but it was not going to affect the length of pole I was going to fish!

Plumbing up on each side I was amazed to find over 18’’ of water very close in. I set up two of my top 1 1/2‘s to tackle the edge swims. Terminal tackle was a couple of 0.2 Cralusso Capri’s they were on 0.18 line with a 16 PR 28 hook. I also set up a SPRO blob for the edge just in case they came very shallow, it had the same line but a 14’s hook

Heavy gear I know, but I fancied a big weight would win today and if you fish lighter you stand to snap hook lengths with constantly unhooking the fish. Time is very precious at the race track. I did plumb up in front of me at two sections, but when I hadn’t found bottom on a rig that had about 4’ of line on I sacked it as I thought it was too deep. I have seen these pegs produce good weights in the winter months, now I know the reason why. I would use my edge rigs as shallow ones if needed during the match.

Today I had two pints of red maggots with me as they had been producing fish in the week. I also had some small expanders for hook bait coupled with four pints of the fisheries own feed pellets and that was it nothing complicated for me today. I was going to start on maggot on my right margin and feel my way into the match. As a backup I was going to introduce pellet to the left side.

The match started and I had a fish first put in on double maggot they kept coming and after the fifth fish on the spin I was on single maggot and flying, I must have had 20 in double quick time, thoughts of a record weight soon evaporated as I slowed down and I started getting pestered by very small skimmers! Was it the maggot attracting them? I switched sides and fished pellet on the left only to find just as many skimmers down this side and I had not put a single maggot in that swim!

Rob Fuller was opposite me on peg 47 and was in a nice rhythm catching fish quite quickly, I was keeping my eye on him as the peg he was on is a big danger. What’s more he was not getting troubled by small silvers. I figured that it was the depth of water they liked in my swim so I just had to get on with it. The annoying thing is you have to throw them back so you get absolutely no benefit from catching them!

Disaster

I had a mini disaster when I lifted into a bite and foul hooked one of the better carp in the tail, the fish tried to get to the far bank and I think it succeeded as my short second section gave up the ghost and snapped, leaving me holding onto about 12 inches of broken pole! A quick change to an apparent identical rig left me struggling for bites for awhile. It really amazes me how you can pick up an identical rig only for it not to work. I soon started getting bites again and had a few good spells, but felt I had to alternate my swims to keep the fish coming.

Last 30 minutes

Just to keep me going I counted my fish in the last half hour and I had 25, and during that period I had a 10 minute quite spell! So you can see how easy it is to make a weight at this place when they are really having it. I felt that I had around the same number of fish as Rob Fuller but I knew I had some larger samples as well, by larger I mean in the 2lb range. As Rob was directly opposite me I was pretty sure he hadn’t found any of these fish. Rob was the first to weigh and set the benchmark with 131lb I knew it would be close so I kept quiet!

The scales arrived and Rob was still leading followed by Andy Partridge with 123lb from peg 42. Mine went 152lb to sneak a win; it was down to those larger carp. Most of the fish came to maggot but I did have quite a few on expanders it was definitely a day for chopping and changing. The top 3 remained the same and Mick Heacock with 96lb and Neil Kippax were the section winners. The match was really enjoyable and there was a nice bit of good humoured banter flying around. Most of it was centred on Neil Kippax and Trev Conroy who had a quid side bet. Trev had said he would double it if Neil made his first ton weight in match fishing. The funny thing was I could see both anglers as they were opposite me, they could not see each other. It seemed only right to ‘fuel the duel’ so to speak.

A few others joined in but all along I could see Neil edging in front of Trev. I have to say the guy was really chuffed weighing in 120lb to Trev’s 90lb, well done and I hope you achieve plenty more tons in matches. Saviour those nuggets because there is no doubt that he will want them back. Nigel Taylor was also a star for his catch and release method of angling! He actually threw four fish back after landing them and weighed in 96lb! Someone said he threw the used maggot in his keepnet and the fish in the water, but that is only rumour!

Well at the presentation it was my turn to dip in the hat for the golden pegs. First dip was for 200 nuggets and my heart missed a beat as my fingers covered the first number I drew out, I could see a five but unfortunately it was 35. Second dip was for 90 pounds but I was again miles out, never mind I’m hooked and trying again next week!