Cornish Pasties!

I have just enjoyed one of the best weeks fishing I have ever had. Great fishing, superb company, nice food and plenty of beer.

Me and Matt Godfrey have been on the annual autumn pilgrimage to White Acres, to compete in the Maver Festival. The fun started last Friday, as we had agreed to travel down a day early and so gain some extra valuable practice time. We planned on leaving about 12 PM so as to beat the traffic and hopefully get there in time for a few vessels in the bar. By the time we had got organized, collected our bait and loaded all the gear into my three door Hyundai Getz (well almost all, Stewart Lister helped out there by taking our platforms and nets down the week before), as well as enjoying a delicious roast beef sandwich freshly prepared by the one and only Mrs Godfrey, the little hand had moved around to two, so we set off a little later than planned.

The traffic was terrible, and we sat for hours on the M42 and M5. Not that we minded, we had the Ipod on full blast and were singing away. Afterall, we were on our holidays! Its amazing how many good looking women you see on the motorway as well, unfortunately none of them seemed interested however. Too bad, they could have won a week bed sharing in Newquay!

We finally rolled up about ten oclock, and after moving the gear in and saying hello to our vanmate for the week Dave Scholfield it was straight in the bar for a few bevies.

On the Saturday we had to move vans, after we had done this it was off for a practice session on Pollawyn. We wanted to see what bait would work best for the skimmers, so Matt fished soft pellets and I fished worms and casters. The difference was startling, after 20 minutes Matt had 10lb in the net and I hadn’t had a bite. Lessom Learnt!

Another night in the bar followed, and Sunday saw us head for Bolingey. I still had a bit of preparation to do, so I didn’t fish, choosing instead to tie rigs up, but Matt and Dave had a good day, catching a few carp. I had a walk around the lake and sat behind Tommy Pickering, Steve Baraclough, Paul Holland, Neil McKinnon and Jon Arthur for a spell, which proved interesting, watching how each of them were catching.

Trewaters

Me and Matt had drawn in the same 36 peg section, which had a fair spattering of stars, including Dean Barlow, Steve Sanders, Grant Albutt, Neil McKinnon, Nathan Watson, Lol Summers, Mick Barlow and Marcus Harrison. On the first day we were heading for the new lakes, Trewaters. We felt that this would be a venue that suited us, containing smaller F1’s and pastie carp as well as tench and skimmers. We didn’t envisage the fishing being that much different to local venue Lindholme Lakes.

I can’t remember the exact pegs we drew, not that it matters as the venue had never been match fished and so there were no real fliers or duffers. Anyhow, Matt drew on the top lake and I was on the back straight of the bottom lake, which I must say I didn’t really fancy as the pegs either side had the wind pushing into them, yet mine was flat calm due to the shelter provided by the island. I had Nathan Watson to my left, and a £1 side bet was duly arranged, giving us plenty of excuse for banter throughout the course of the day.

With the fish being new, I decided to make pellet the basis of my attack, and fished two lines short at around four metres, one at ten o’clock and one at two o’clock, a line straight in front at seven metres and one at thirteen metres. The baits I had with me were micros, 4mm pellets, a few hookers, a bit of corn and some worms, casters and maggot.

I wanted to fish positively from the off, as if the match turned into a fish race I didn’t want to be left behind. For this reason, I kicked off on my right hand four metre line, and was somewhat suprised when the float dipped first drop, and a 1lb F1 was in the net. This turned out to be my biggest fish of the day, not that I was bothered as smaller samples were coming to the net on a fairly regular basis. At the end of the first hour I had around 30 fish, and was well happy with the way things had started, as no one else in my section seemed to be catching a deal, it seemed I had drawn on a pocket of fish.

My line seemed to peter out as the day went on, while the peg to my right where Mick Lees was fishing seemed to be getting stronger, and I must say he had me worried, especially when he dropped three or four pound plus samples into the net. I tried my seven and thirteen metre lines but to no avail, I reckon there must have just been a ball of F1’s on the five metre line.

At the all out I thought it would be close between me and Mick on the peg next door, when the scales arrived at my peg 22lb was winning the lake, and I was pleased when my net went 37-4-0. Mick on the next peg weighed 34-0-0, and these proved the best two weights of the lower lake which had fished patchy, the fish had obviously followed the wind.

The top lake had fished slightly more consistently, with Matt putting in a great performance to weigh in 34-7-0 for third on his lake and fourth overall on the match. Neil McKinnon won the top lake and the match with 40-11-0, and my net was good enough for second over the two lakes, and better still allowed me to take a quid of Nathan!

Fortunately for us, the chap who had come third didn’t go in the super pools, so Matt picked them up for coming fourth and the pot had a good start to the week with me scooping £153 and Matt getting £88. A nice pub meal with Dave Schofield Neil McKinnon and Jon Arthur, rounded off a thoroughly enjoyable first day for us both!

Porth

Day Two saw us heading for Porth Reservoir, and after a police man pulled us over and told me off for driving “Way to fast sunshine, way to fast” we arrived at the venue. I had drawn peg 72, which was one off the end peg. It hadn’t fished particularly well the previous day, with the chap who was on it weighing 5lb, and being beaten by Tommy Hiller and Michael Sanders either side of him. The bream had shown in the area however, so I wasn’t totally despondent.

Matt had done my groundbait for me and it was fantastic, with some sweet mix for the pole and a fishmeal mix for the feeder. The wind was really bad where I was, and the lake was towing as well- I had to use a two gram float in five feet of water on my pole line!

I kicked off by feeding my pole line with eight jaffas, then put 20 feeder fulls of worms, casters and fishmeal on the feeder line, though it has to be said my casting wasn’t up to much, the wind certainly wasn’t helping!

I had a few small skimmers on the tip to start, but there were no signs of the bream I was looking for. It was a similar story on the pole, slow progress to say the least. To cut a long a boring story short, I failed to connect with any slabs and ended up with just over 8lb of skimmers, caught on both tip and pole. This put me fifth in section- I was pipped for fourth by just two ounce!

The chap to my right on the end peg had a bream fest, weighing in six slabs and a few skimmers for 54lb. To put into context, Chas Ward to my left weighed just 3lb, the bream, didn’t want to venture any further up than the end peg.

I was left gutted at the way I had fished, if I had got my head down on the smaller fish I reckon I could have been close to the 11lb needed for good points and second in section, instead I kept slipping a big piece of worm on or three red maggots and sitting it out waiting for a better fish- wrong move! Still I suppose, if the tip had flown round with a slab then I would have been glad I tried, and it wasn’t as if there were no bigger fish in the area.

Matt fished a sterling match and added another £25 to the pot with a default default section win. That’s what its all about!

Bolingey

I needed a section win on day three to keep any hope of festival glory alive, so I was gutted when I dipped my hand in the bag and pulled out peg 3. It was described by several people I asked as the worse peg on the lakes, and was next to where I struggled from in April.

Still, I had to try and make the best of it, and decided to fish a pellet line long, a meat line at five metres and a margin line. I also set a bomb up to flick past my pellet line.

A couple of early F1’s on the meat saw me take an early lead, but this soon paled into insignificance as the carp started feeding in the better pegs. I had a couple of 4lb fish on my long pole and pellet line, but come the halfway stage in the day I was going nowhere fast.

I phoned Dave Schofield to see how he was fairing, and he told me that Tom Pickering had caught a few late on down the side earlier on in the week. With this in mind, I decided to spend the rest of the match down the side, and this proved a reasonable decision. I hooked five and landed three, which took my weight to 23lb. This was sixth in my section, I beat the chap to my left and was beaten by the bloke to my right on the end peg. With all hope of success in the festival overall now extinguished it was time to be more positive and fish for lake wins.

Pollawyn

In went my hand and out came peg 24. I asked a few people and they were far from enthusiastic, Steve Ringer described it as terrible and Tommy Pickering was even less enthusiastic!

Still, no use crying over spilt milk, I had to make the best of it. I set up a bomb line to fish to the aerator, a meat line to the point of the island, and a short skimmer line to fish with pellets and groundbait. I also set up a line to fish down the edge, as Timmy Rowe tipped a few big fish down there late on.

Another uneventful day unfolded, I fished for carp as I knew I would need a decent weight to win any coin, and the skimmer line seemed slow, so I didn’t think I would be able to do a good weight of silvers.

I had a ‘face saver’ at the death about 12lb, which took my weight to 15-5-0, putting me sixth in section. Micky Barlow pulled my pants down off the next peg, weighing 44lb from 23 peg, though I was told his peg is usually better than mine. Matt also struggled, weighing in 17lb from equally dire peg 2. With both of us out of the running in the overall stakes, we decided it would be a good time to have a few beers, and a right laugh it was to.

Highlight of the night for me was when we made resident pirate Jim Smith a cup of ‘hairy tea’ then he didn’t even notice! I couldn’t stop laughing when we showed him the mound of hair at the bottom of his cup after he had drunk it. Still, he had his revenge!

Twin Oaks

After my duff draws of the previous two days I was chuffed to death to pull out peg 10 on Twin Oaks. Although the peg hadn’t won any matches over the previous days, it was in the right area, and I was optimisitic of a few fish.

I spoke to Dave Schofield and Marcus Harrison, who both advised a meat feeder approach, with pellet waggler if the wind should allow, and a short and margin line with meat. I was in good company however, with Dorking skipper Steve Sanders on peg 12 to my right, I knew I would have my work cut out.

I kicked off on the meat feeder and had a 3lber in the first few minutes of the match. I had indications on the tip all day, and to be honest saw little point in coming off it. The bites were often savage, though at times I had trouble with loads of little taps as if the fish were attacking the feeder, but when I picked up there was nothing on, yet striking at these indications resulted in missed bites! Most strange. Towards the end of the day, the peg was solid, and as long as I cast my feeder within a few inches of the grass on the far bank the tip would go around however. I ended up with 14 carp and five F1’s, a cracking days fishing.

When the scales arrived, Sean Cameron was leading with 49-12-0, and I didn’t think I would have as much as that. I was surprised to see the needle pull around to 54-4-0, It was them five F1s that did it!

Steve Sanders was next to weigh, putting another high 49lb on the scales, he became my second celebrity scalp of the week! Rumour had it that the lad two off the end had also had a few, and I was relieved when he came in just short at 52-0-0. I had managed to win the lake, but with our section also including Acorn, Canal, and Python, I doubted my net would be enough to claim the overall lake winners prize.

Luckily for me, the other lakes had fished hard however and I did have enough, adding another £240 to our pot. A load more beer rounded off a thoroughly enjoyable week, all in all we picked up £540 between us which went some way towards covering the cost of the holiday.

I ended up with 27 points out of a possible 36, which put me 53rd out of the 180 anglers. Looking back at my draws, I feel with hindsight I could have sneaked into the top ten overall, as my peg was worth a second at Porth had I got my head down on the small fish, and if I had gone down that edge sooner at Bolingey I reckon I could have got a second or at worse at third. Still, it’s a learning curve, and we both certainly picked a lot up which we can put to good use next time.

I am off down to Cornwall again next week for the winners week festival, and I can’t wait! It really is an anglers paradise down there, I will update on how I have got on when I get back.