Dynamite Baits Festival 2009

The friday night after the Bait Tech Festival was a heavy night. So heavy in fact that while I slept, I had a tube of tooth paste poured over me, and didn’t realise until I woke up the next morning! Inititally, I blamed James Dent after a tip off from Adam, but later in week I found out it was Adam himself who was responsible! I bided my time and took revenge in a most terrible fashion!

On Saturday the northern tribe arrived in force; myself, Ben Fisk, Adam Richards, Joe Carass, Lee Kerry, James Dent, Ash Clemence, Andy Geldart, Paul Burton, Tony Biggins, Gaz Drury, Dean Smith, and Paul Gorman made up what Pemb Wrighting and Mark Eves affectionately named ’Team North’.

I think Stewart felt rather old with all the young guns sat around drinking tea in our lodge, I had a day on the gear, and managed to tie a few rigs up and hooklengths but when all the new arrivals wanted to head out to Newquay I just couldn’t hack it, despite a healthy tea lovingly prepared by Ben Fisk. It was an early night for Sir Tom, as I still had loads of gear to get ready.

The next day saw me and Sir Ben venture to Bolingey for a practise, as that was where our festival was due to start the next day, the same rotation as I had had the previous week.  I tied a few more rigs, and walked around and watched a few people fishing, and by the end of the day I felt I was ready, willing and able to take the place apart- all I needed was a draw!

Bolingey

I fell down at the first hurdle when I dipped my hand in the bag and pulled out peg 13, with Sir Ben on peg 25 Harry Billing described it as the worst peg in the section, and amongst the worst pegs on the lake. I t is in a corner, and one of only two pegs in the section without an island chuck. Stewart described it as feast or famine, he said if they were there I might have a good day, but the chances are they wouldn’t be!

I felt my best bet of catching was to fish down towards peg 12, a peg that had won a couple of matches over the last week, with weights coming at six metres, so I tried fishing as close to 12 as I could at around six metres from the bank.

I also set up a ‘thod rod’ and a couple of margin lines. At the all in, I chucked the method feeder out, and was surprised after 5 minutes when it wanged around and a 5lber was the culprit. After a brief scrap it was in the onion sack, and a couple of decent f1s followed suit in the first hour, all falling to banded 6mm pellets.

I knew the lads on the island pegs were catching well however, and I could see Kieron Rich who was in my section on peg 18 bagging up, so I knew I had to up my catch rate somehow. A look on my meat line produced nothing, and with Steve Shepherd on peg 12 next to me not getting bites either, I went from being fairly confident that it would work at the start of the match to less than confident half way through.

Divine Intervention?

I was back on the ‘thod again, and going nowhere. At the start of the week, Joe Carass had advised me to buy some white bolies, and as his advice is rarely wrong I bought some. I had never caught a fish on them before, but as I was going nowhere I decided to slip one on the hook, after all I had nothing to lose. Ten seconds later and the tip was around, and one about 15lb lay in the net. With initials like JC you could mistake him for Jesus Christ couldn’t you. I pointed this to him and he says he has been confused, but most people just call him god. Surely he would be the ideal candidate for a ‘miracle baits’ sponsorship.

Sadly, not a lot else followed on the ‘thod, so I was after snookers and hoping for a big extraction down the side late on. It never really happened, though I did catch 4 carp there they were only small. I ended up weighing 44lb for sixth in section, all the pegs with an island chuck tonned up, the best of which being my travelling partner for the week Ben Fisk, who won the section with an impressive 119lb net.

I felt sorry for Dave Ricks who was to my left on peg 16, he never had a bite all match. Blanking at Bolingey- what a way to start a festival. He was clearly gutted, but for what its worth, I watched him fish and I would have done the same as he did on the peg, he just had one of those days when everything went against him. Steve Shepherd to my left didn’t fair much better, weighing in with 15lb, which made me think that there probably wasn’t a deal of fish around where I was.

Pollawyn

In went my hand and out came peg six on the Match Lake, after such a bad draw the previous day I was gutted. Speaking to local gurus Stewart Lister and Harry Billing, gave me nothing to be enthusiastic about, I was told it was one of the worst pegs in the section, with my only chance of good points being if a few carp found there way to the inlet which was to my right hand side. I knew that these couldn’t be banked on however, and decided to set my stall out for silvers as well, as I thought I would have to catch them at some point in the day.

My plan of attack was to fish corn long down either edge, a caster line on a top four, and a soft pellet line for skimmers at 13 metres.

At the all in, I fed some soft pellets long for the skimmers, before dropping in down the side- the float settled and then buried as a seven pounder took my bait- nice start I thought! I went down the margins at the other side to let where I had just caught from settle, and took a second fish straight away! Four fish in the first hour for around 18lb meant I was a happy man, and whats more there seemed to be a few silvers to be caught. By alternating between my pellet and caster lines I managed to keep the silvers coming quite well, with a couple of bonus bream to 3lb also putting in an appearance on my pellet line.

I took the decision to spend the last hour looking for carp as well as the first, and took a couple more on corn long down the edge, but unfortunately they were only small, and I probably would have caught more sticking with my skimmer lines. I don’t think this was a bad decsion however, as if they had been 10lb rather than 2lb I would have seen things very differently.

When the scales arrived, I put 43lb on the scales made up of 20lb of carp and 23lb of silvers, which was I think the best weight to come off that peg all week. I was chuffed to death, as I felt I fished a really good match, and though I was beaten to second in section by the lad on 13 who weighed 49lb of carp, I still thought I had done all I could from where I was. I was even more chuffed when, later on in the week one of my angling heroes, Andy May drew the peg and came and asked me how I had caught off it. He also caught 40 odd pound and came second to peg 13, so I cant have done a lot wrong.

Twin Oaks

I drew peg 23 on the hard side of Twin Oaks, which was a peg which had won the section the previous day with 45lb. I must say I fancied it, and set up a ‘thod rod, a meat feeder, and short pole line. I still had quite a tough section however, with John Cockayne to my left, Pemb Wrighting to my right and Gary Webber and Ben Fisk on the two end pegs, which had been fairly consistent all week.

My match couldn’t have got off to a better start, with 7 fish falling to the old thod and boilie chestnut in the first hour. For some reason though, my peg seemed to be running away from me, while Johns to my left was getting stronger. I wonder now whether my method feeder was disturbing the fish as it hit the water, while his pellet waggler was making less disturbance and hence keeping fish in his peg, while mine were spooking.

As the match wore on, Pemb to my right also started catching well on a long pole, and I was beginning to think a spit roasting was imminent. Fortunately I found a few more fish on the ‘thod in the last hour, and managed to pip Pemb, but John to my left had walked the section. He weighed 73lb while my fish went 53lb for second. I must say, I felt sorry for my mucker and fellow northern rod Ash Clemence, he put 28lb of carp on the scales, and 25lb of roach, which he had worked his socks off for mid match- and I pipped him by 5oz! Its like fellow blogger Wraggy says, better lucky than good.

Trewaters

With two section seconds going into day four I was looking for another good result to keep my hopes of a top ten finish alive. I drew peg 36 at Trewaters, which had won the section the previous day, and I was more than happy.

I spoke to Harry Billing about my peg in the morning, and he tempered my optimism slightly, telling me that the lad who had won the section had caught big fish late on, and hadn’t had much else all day, so I would have to hope that some better fish would show in the corner to my right.

To cut a long story short, with an hour to go I was struggling, and had not been able to make any line work for very long, but I did manage to find some better fish late into the corner, with stockies to 1lb coming to the net. I lost a better fish, and couldn’t really catch quick enough to do any damage however. I ended up with 23lb for 5th in section, and with my festival effectively over it was time to get drunk!

Rather foolishly, I had a bet with Andy Geldart, that being whoever came lower in the festival out of the two of us would have to sport a mankini to the presentation night on the last night. With things not looking good for me, I thought I would do a damage limitation exercise, and wear the mankini in the lodge in front of the lads on the thursday night after we had all had a load of ale. Unfortunately, I was snapped in said garment, with Mr Geldart expecting my assets, and this picture may have found its way to matchfishing magazine. I don’t know who is going to get more stick, me for wearing the offending item, or him for looking down it!

Porth

After the fatal errors I made the first week of trying to do everything, I was determined not to make the same mistake twice, and opted to just fish the feeder all match. It was laughable to be honest, I got to my peg and saw all these halibut pellets on the bank and in the edge, and later found out that some carp anglers had been pre baiting my peg with 20 kilos of bait a day! They were even queuing up behind me to get there bivvy down when the match finished at five O clock! I didn’t fair much better than the previous in all honesty, but I am off down there in the summer for a week or two with Matt Godfrey, so hopefully he will be able to help me suss out where I have been going wrong.

All in all I had an awesome couple of weeks though, and it was great to see some money moving back up north after the Dynamite, with Dean Smith winning, Alan Scotthorne finishing second, Andy Geldart finishing fifth, and Lee Kerry ninth.

Roll on the autumn!