White Acres Revisited!

After a week back at work it was Cornwall calling yet again for me, as I managed to qualify for the free Gold Winners Week by winning a match on a Wednesday at the venue last year. This is a smallish festival heavily sponsored by Parkdean, which is free to enter with payouts of £1000, £600 and £400 for the top three places. With accomadation also payed for by Parkdean, it really is a cheap week, with the potential to win a bit of coin if things go your way.

I had invited a couple of lads down to stop in the van with me who just wanted to go pleasure fishing for a week, so we all arrived at around 8AM in time for a breakfast before watching the Parkdean Masters Final which was to be held that day on Jennys Lake. I am quite pally with a couple of the lads who had qualified, namely Andy Geldart and Adam Richards, so was looking forward to watching the lads, and hoping that they could bring a bit of money back up north.

We went for a few hours fishing on Trelawney while they got set up and fished the first couple of hours of the match, before packing up and going to see how things were developing. An excited Joe Carass phoned me to say he felt Adam was in a strong position, catching a run of big F1’s up in the water.

I arrived on the bank where the northern fan club was sitting (they had to sit opposite as they couldn’t get behind) in time to watch Adam lift in to another big F1. I watched him for a good half an hour, and he was putting up the best display of shallow I have ever witnessed. He was slapping his rig on the water regularly while feeding sparsely and with great accuracy, which was obviously drawing the fish in and causing them to compete for what little food there was, meaning bites came quicker.

Word came down the bank that Adam Wakelin was catching well from the top end of the lake, and I went up to watch him, and he didn’t seem to be catching anything like as quickly as Mr Richards, and I felt that Adam R was forging a comfortable lead. Joe said that Adam W had caught well early however, but he too felt that Mr Richards was pulling away. There was also quite a crowd developing behind Adam Wakelin, who were shouting words of encouragement, and letting him know how other people were doing on the lake. This was I suppose a mixed blessing however, as while he had more information than Adam Richards, he possibly also had more pressure.

In the final half an hour, Adam R gave it a few minutes down the edge, which in hindsight probably proved costly, but he couldn’t see what was happening elsewhere on the lake. He went back on his shallow line and had a couple of F1’ s then disaster struck- a sky presenter and camera man decided to walk past his edge line and stand behind him- they couldn’t have been more conspicuous if they tried.

Fair play, the presenter gave Adam his shades to help him see against the sun which was blazing into his eyes, but by now the damage was done- he didn’t have another bite for the last ten minutes, the fish were clearly spooked by the two people skylining.

Adam Wakelin snared a tench at the death which helped to boost his weight, but in my heart of hearts I still thought Adam Richards had done enough. It was an agonizing wait for the scales to arrive, with

Adam reckoning he had 50lb, he was chuffed when the scales pulled round to 70-14-0.
Now all we could do was wait as the scaled made there way around to Adam Wakelin, who was to be the last to weigh in. I have never been more nervous for anybody else in my life, the atmosphere was electric. Adam pulled his net out and I thought he would have 100lb, as did Mr Richards, and my heart sank for him. I was surprised when the scales settled on 74lb as I thought he would have a lot more, but as it happened it was fairly close. One or two fish could have swung it for Adam, but I think he fished an awesome match, I would go as far as to say its probably the best display of shallow fishing I have ever witnessed, and I wasn’t the only person to say that.

Adam and Joe were stopping the night in my van before heading off the next day, so it was beer O’clock as soon as the match had finished. I had to laugh when Adam accidentally knocked a pint all over the table; I guess when your lucks not in its really not in! If he had got a bungee jumping or sky diving trip planned that day, I would definitely have advised him in the strongest terms to give it a miss!

Still, he took it all in the good humoured way for which he is renowned, and while I would probably have been crying he just laughed at the days events.

We had a bite to eat and a few pints, and then were invited to the lodge of James Dent and Ashley Clements for a few tinnys before heading out up Newquay. Despite hearing a lot about these two anglers, I had never actually met them, and when Joe introduced me to the two of them I knew straight away we would get on like a house on fire. Theres not many bad uns in fishing!

A few tinnys developed into some vodka red bulls, which were fairly strong to say the least! I didn’t realize quite how much vodka Ash was putting in them, until I stood up from the settee and nearly fell over!

Back up the club for another couple of lagers and it was Newquay calling for the northern boys, and what a night it turned into! The next thing I remember is the taxi dropping us off in White Acres car park at 5:30 the following morning, and realizing I had lost my keys. Not just car keys, but house keys as well. At the time I wasn’t that bothered, we went back to the van and had a bacon and cheese sandwich, which filled a hole, and then it was off to sleep.

The next day reality hit in however, and I realized I was stuck in Cornwall with my gear stuck in my car, with a festival due to start the very next day! So I got a bloke out to open my car, who charged me £60 for the priviledge, stuck my gear in Stewarts van, who generously agreed to give me a lift, and got my mum to post spare keys down for the journey home. I spent the afternoon making rigs, and preparing for day one, which was to see me on Jenny’s Lake.

Jennys

I had never fished this lake before, so my peg 16 draw meant nothing to me. Stewart said it was perhaps a little bit to far down the bank, but not a bad area, so I set my heart on a shallow attack for the F1’s like Adam had fished the day before, and a short line with meat. I also planned on fishing a margin line to try and connect with some better fish if any were around.

I spent the first hour or so shallow, bit it was very slow, I took just two F1’s, and not a deal was happening. Still, I stuck to my guns for another half an hour, but with no more fish forthcoming I decided to try short. I hooked and lost a carp before landing one about 6lb, then took a couple of tench and another small carp on subsequent drops, and I thought I had it sorted!

I made the stupid error of deciding to stop feeding shallow at this point, thinking it would be better to try and concentrate the fish on my shorter line. Big mistake! My short line died, and I had nowhere to go, where as if I had kept my shallow line primed, the chances are there would have been a few fish lined up when I dropped back on it.

I ended up with just a couple more F1’s and a few roach for 16lb and second to the last in the section- bad angling! I cant blame the draw, as I am sure if I had fished it like Stewart and James, and plugged away shallow I would eventually have caught, as they both caught late on in the day. James won the section with 89lb and Stewart was second with 58lb.

Realistically, you can’t be too hard on yourself for making the wrong decision the first time you fish a venue, as long as you learn from it, and I feel I did learn where I went wrong. That said, I can recall that on a couple of previous occasions at different venues I have made the same error when feeding a shallow line as well as other lines. My (skewed) logic was that there is no point concentrating fish on a line where you are not fishing on it, every time I have bagged up shallow I have gone on the line and caught pretty much straight away, but that is probably because on the occasions that I have not caught shallow I probably haven’t given it chance! I Have always understood the concept of resting a line when the going is tough, and when the fish aren’t having it, but have always thought of shallow fishing as a more positive bagging method, that tends to either work or not work. Still, you live and you learn I suppose. I won’t be making the same mistake again.

With no dropped results allowed, it was festival over for me, so it was straight from the match into the bar, we were drinking by 4:14 and we had far too much to drink for that time in the day. I remember feeling decidedly tipsy about seven O’clock when Two Pints and Paul came down join us, and was falling asleep by nine O’clock!

Trelawney

Day Two saw me draw on Trelawney, and I was pleased to draw a peg I felt had a bit of potential, end peg 31 on the right hand arm. This peg is one off the corner, and a good weight had come off it the day before.

I had a carp early across, which made me optimistic, but then for the middle part of the match I couldn’t get a bite on anything. To put a long and boring story short I caught just four carp by working a margin, 4metre, and two far bank lines for the duration of the day. Unlike the previous day, I just don’t feel that there was a volume of fish there.

The chap to my right struggled as well, as did everyone at my end of the lake. The match was won from a peg in the middle of the arm by Tim Nash, who had a brilliant weight of 45lb consisting of 30lb of roach and three bonus carp, which was enough to win the lake. My 16lb was around half way in the section.

We had a load more beer and a takeaway curry with Ash and James, and a good night was had by all- that is until we took the decision to go to Newquay for a dance- It cost us £36 in taxi fairs to find out nowhere was open! We had a pint in a late bar with about 4 people in it before heading on back for another beer in the van!

Acorn

Day Three was an open match, and I was disappointed to draw on Acorn Lake, a pond I had never fished before, and one I remember fishing fairly hard in the Maver Festival. I liked the look of my peg however, with an island within easy pole reach and a long margin leading into a corner. The wind was blowing that way as well, so I fancied it for a few fish, and I could see some movement out by the island.

I know its getting to sound like excuse after excuse, but the fish just didn’t want to feed. I grafted it out for five carp for 16lb, which was the best weight from my side of the lake, nobody seemed able to put a run of fish together, and there were some good anglers including Dave Cain and Stewart Lister, so at least I wasn’t on my own! I tried everything I could think of, and I could see some fish were in the area, but I just didn’t seem able to get a bite. I was fourth on the lake , and third in my ten peg section, so yet again I had no coin to come! Ashley Clements continued a great run of form by winning the lake with 43lb from peg 3, so after the match it was straight to the bar and he was buying!

Twin Oaks

The last day of the festival saw us head off to Twin Oaks, I drew peg 35, the end peg on ‘bad’ Twin Oaks. I was told like all end pegs on these lakes, if the fish are there they can be awesome, if not it can be dire!

An early fish on the meat feeder made me think that there might be a few fish there, but that was about all the excitement I had. I finished up with five carp for 14lb, to round off a crap week! Dave Cain to my right, a former festival winner and regular White Acres framer had just one fish for 4lb odd, which gives you some idea how hard it was!

James Dent put on a superb performance once again to win the lake and the match with 80 odd pound from peg 25, with Ashley Clements coming second with 51lb from peg 10. These two ended up first and second in the festival as well, pocketing £1600 between them for there efforts. Not a bad week!

Although I only met them the previous Saturday, by the end of the week it felt like we had been mates years, they really are a cracking pair of lads, and awesome anglers to boost. James is only seventeen years of age, does anyone know of a younger Cornish festival winner?

Walking The Mile!

After such a crap week, I wasn’t planning on fishing on Sunday, intending instead to sort my gear out ready for the forthcoming Lindholme Winter League. I was invited on a match at Straight Mile Fisheries however, and as I had some bait to use up I decided to go. I drew peg 20, which was the end peg in the 20 peg match. That was my fourth end peg of the week, and so far they had all been crap (or I had been crap), so I was praying for a decent result.

I fished worms and casters at 13 metres and corn down the side. The venue fished really hard, and I was winkling a few roach out so felt I was doing reasonably well compared to most of the chasing pack. I fed corn by hand all day, and going into the last hour I went over it for ten minutes, but never had so much as a liner, so sacked it until the last ten minutes. When I went back over it I hooked one and lost one straight away, then hooked one on the whistle about 8lb- a nice end to the day!

My net went 13-14-0 which was good enough for second in the match and a few beer tokens- it was good to have a pick up after such a dreadful week!

Below are some pictures my mate Gary Simpson, who was down at White Acres at the same time as us took of the week- Cheers Gaz!