I had been looking forward to this weekend for sometime as we were fishing the Cornish County Championships and the venue was White Acres, throughout the summer months matches here are strictly resident only affairs so it was nice to get on site. The match itself is a team of 8 and it is also seeded to stop one team running away with it. Each team is allowed no more than four sponsored anglers within its ranks the other members are club matchmen and up and comings. It is a system that obviously works as the winning team had 21 points and last had 27 points, how close is that?
Team Talk
Our team was Team Billing and comprised of Captain Harry, Andy Partridge, Paul Carpenter, John Forster, Rob Fuller, Trev Conroy, John Howey and myself. The venue was the ‘New Lakes’ comprising of Twin Oaks, Canal and Acorn the draw was in the fishery car park, on our arrival it was clear that everybody was looking forward to fishing the match as there was a buzz in the air with groups of anglers dotted around.
Our team draw was done by Captain Harry and as everyone’s peg was drawn their name was called out by organiser John Forster, it was the cause of some good humoured banter when a perceived flyer came out of the envelope. It all adds to the fun of the day and I though a good touch, the only problem was when the last couple of teams were drawing no one but the team in question was listening as everyboby else was in little huddles discussing tactics. Twin Oaks High numbers
I was allocated peg 31 on Twin Oaks and one that I was happy with. I had to sort out bait as I had the kitchen sink with me due to the different lakes that were in use. I settled for two pints of micro pellets along with a pint each of 6 and 8 mm pellets.
I also had some hemp and corn and meat, along with some Yorkshire Bait GB in case I needed some paste. The weather for a change was good with little wind and no rain! My peg looked good and the odd carp was swirling towards the far bank. I assembled a fair amount of tackle to cover the options I had available, including a pellet feeder and pellet waggler. I also set up pole rigs to cover the margins and the 5 metre line these were all Cralusso Capri’s in the .2 and .5 gram.
My plan was to start on the pole by feeding some hemp and corn and see what happened, I knew that most would start on the waggler or feeder. This way I thought I could see what was happening and hopefully get a good start with some larger carp.
That is what happened everybody went to the far bank and I could see that Clint Elliot two to my right was quickly into a small carp. My float went under and a sharp strike saw a 1oz perch take up flying lessons! I re baited this time with double corn and the next strike I was pleased to see some serious elastic coming out of the pole. It was a nice start in fact it got better as I had six more in the first hour including some good fish of around 7lb, man, have they grown on this lake.
Just after the hour mark things slowed so I changed to my next plan of pellet feeder tight to the far bank. I had another run of much smaller carp around the 1lb mark but I was feeding the net and that is important to keep catching something. I figured I had my nose in front and as soon as I thought that I could hear Neil Kippax on the end peg, two to my left catching. I couldn’t see him but I could certainly hear the splashing that was becoming more regular!
My feeder line was slowing so I started pinging 6mm pellets on the 14 metre line and after 30 minutes I had a go shallow. First drop in resulted in a nice roach not what I wanted though. A few minutes later and I had a 3lb mirror which is exactly what I wanted, it must have been the scout as it was the only fish I caught on that line, it was a shame after a promising start and it cost a bit of time looking for his brothers.
When things go wrong………
Going into the fourth hour and I was on the pellet waggler and I had three in three chucks until I caught some trailing line on the far bank and lost my waggler. This was the start of a disastrous hour, I chucked the feeder and caught the same line and lost that! The wind was now starting to pick up so I set the feeder up again and had a couple of small carp but not that quickly, I then unbelievably lost another feeder! It was coming up to the last hour so decided to go down the edge and I was glad that I did. I had another eight or so 3 pounders on the corn before the all out, shame the match didn’t last half an hour longer as the peg was getting stronger.
The scales worked their way down the bank and I was pleased to see that Trev Conroy had won his section with 54lb. The scales got down to Clint and he heaved a match winning 125lb onto the scales. I knew I would be short and was rueing that hour; I had 104lb for second in section but it was close affair, Neil Kippax pushed me all the way finishing with 101lb, phew one fish either way!
The verdict
Overall we had two section wins with Harry putting in a captains’ performance and recording 61lb to win the canal. We had three seconds and a third but unfortunately had two five pointers (nothing personal boys I know you tried your best) which totalled 21 points. Exactly the same points as the winners Team Bass, we lost out on weight by 16lb! Oh well, must try harder! Congratulations to Steve Bass and his team on winning the County Championships for the second year on the trot and to Clint Elliot for winning the individual. A big thank you to John Forster for running the match and to White Acres for providing the water
Individually the results were, Clint Elliott 125lb 1oz. Second Chris Hancock 114lb 4oz, third Andy Dare 111lb 08oz. Fourth Stewart Lister 104lb 02oz and fourth Neil Kippax 101lb 6oz.
Same people same pegs!
If Tommy Pickering had been fishing the Real Cornwall Summer Series at Oakside I would have no doubt heard his catchphrase ‘Same people same pegs’ as I unbelievably drew the same peg as I won the match from a few weeks ago, as it happened Harry was quickly coining Tommy’s words, the pressure was on!
Crack Off
This time I approached it slightly different but it was not exactly planned! As honesty is the best policy here goes. I planned to fish the feeder as I had previously done but on my first cast I caught the branches that surround the peg and saw my feeder land about 10 metres out and it was not attached to my line! I was not best pleased and threw the rod up the bank and there it stayed all day!
Instead I decided to feed my groundbait on the 5 metre line at the bottom of the shelf, I had set up a .75 gram Capri at the start but was not going to fish it as it was very deep, practically a full top four! I quickly added a bit more water to my groundbait added some casters, worms and corn and cupped in half a dozen balls, the crumb was Yorkshire Baits Green Betaine.
I started on this line and pinged pellets on the 12 metre line looking to get the roach and skimmers up in the water. I was really surprised when I didn’t start getting bites on this line with a worms head as bait. In fact I had been fishing for over ten minutes before a small roach opened my account. There were no more bites so after 20 minutes I was up in the water searching for the roach. It was also a slow start with only a few small samples making an appearance.
Back on closer line and a couple of small fish put in an appearance including a welcome skimmer of about 6 oz, it was still slow going so I made the decision to re feed the pole line with some more GB and loose corn. I was back on the long pole and now catching a little quicker. I couldn’t see anyone else on my bank but could see the others on the far bank and it appeared to be slow. The fish were a little smaller than normal but were good weight builders at about 2oz each with the odd better sample. I was enjoying myself so stuck to it for a hour.
Furry visitor
I had another try on the short line but this time with a piece of corn on the hook, and was chuffed when the float went under and a 10 oz skimmer was the culprit. I had a couple more before it went quiet. I fed again and went out long this time I decided to count 20 fish and have a look on the deck. I figured by putting 20 fish in the net I was adding in the region of 1 1/2lb in a short space of time which was useful. As I went on the short line I heard a plop and saw a row of bubbles that looked like something moving at speed away from me under water. I had no idea what it was but figured it was some kind of rodent.
About 10 minutes later I heard shouting on the far bank as an angler had spotted an otter! At first I didn’t believe them and then sure enough I saw it as well, swimming by the island in the middle of the lake as bold as brass! It was quite a size as well. In all the years I have been fishing I have never seen an otter in the wild. I have seen evidence of them at fisheries but never actually seen one. A little later a smaller one popped its head up between my footrest and keepnet; it definitely was not scared of my presence and appeared quite tame. They must have been released by some ‘well meaning person’. Lovely things to see but I should think devastating for a fishery.
As thick as your wrist and as long as your arm!
Back on the short pole I put a few skimmers together on the corn before they went quite on me, I had another bite and quite a bit of elastic shot out of the pole and I could tell it was an eel. It was fighting quite well and when I got it to the surface it was huge! It would have made somebody a great belt, admittedly not for me! I guess it was a good 1 ½ lb I netted it and fortunately the hook just fell out. I just couldn’t keep the fish coming on that line so swopped and changed between the two lines, feeding the 5 metre with a couple of balls and then counting 20 fish and giving it another go. It worked perfectly for me and I even managed a couple of proper bream in the 2 ½ lb stamp. It was great fishing and a match that I really enjoyed. I estimated that I had a good 20lb and was really surprised when I pulled my net out and weighed 30lb exactly, which was good enough to win the match. I guess I was fortunate cracking off on that first cast of the day!
The other weights were Andy Grealey from Birmingham in second place with 22lb 2oz, Gordon Maeres was third with 20lb 4oz and Harry Billing was fourth with 18lb 2 oz
Thanks to Mike Yates for running the series and I am looking forward to the next round which is at Porth, it will be a good indicator for the forthcoming festivals. Just a quick word of congratulations to young Steven Ragg who weighed in 5lb 3oz to win his section beating some accomplished anglers in the process. It was a shame that he could not take the money as he is too young to enter the pools, perhaps the angler that got it by default should buy him a small tackle prize?
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The only time I have seen an Otter is at the Beer Otter Sanctuary in Cornwall although I know they are around as you see the evidence on the bank. Don’t you just love those ‘well meaning people’
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