Tuesday 23 October 2012


White Acres Maver Festival

It’s that time of year again when a lot of anglers head back down to Cornwall’s White Acres holiday park for the Autumn festivals, I really enjoy the festivals and on the back of some good spring results there I couldn’t wait for another go on the last two festivals of the year!

Day 1 – Bolingey Peg 50

I must admit this wasn’t the sort of peg I wanted to kick my week off really, it can be one of those pegs where you can win the match one day and be last the next, so I’d have to hope that some fish were in the area for this match! My attack for this peg was very simple, there isn’t a lot else other than carp in the lake, so I’d base my match around catching a weight of those, I felt 80 to 100lb would be enough to win the section which equates to around 16-18 fish.  I started off by feeding a small amount of Hemp and Boosted meat at 5m, only 10 cubes and a pinch of hemp and dropped straight onto it in the hope of a mug fish first drop in, this  didn’t work and it wasn’t long before I was out at 16m on the deck with a 6mm xpand pellet on the hook over loose fed hard 6mms. This bought a couple of small carp and an F1 in the first hour and half, which wasn’t great but didn’t cause much concern as Bolingey can be very slow in the first 3 hours! I then caught a couple of fish fishing the method feeder up the bank to my left, which was handy, but nowhere else produced, it was 3pm and I’ve got around 15lb in the net, I’d now need to make the 5m line and edge work if I was going to do any damage in the section,  this generally involves upping the feed to draw the fish into the peg, and their often big, 4 big pots of Special G gold went down the edge and the 5m feed was upped to around 15 cubes every couple of minutes.  It didn’t take too long for the float to bury on the 5m line and a 15lb carp doubled my weight, if they were all this big I ‘d win in no time! By the end I managed one from the edge and another 5 big fish from the 5m line, for a weight of 80lb, which was good enough for 2nd in the section, a good result from an iffy draw and not a bad start to the week.

Day 2 – Pollawyn Peg 21

This was the first time I’d drawn 21, and if I’m honest  it’s not one I’ve ever fancied ! It has got to be one of the most confusing pegs in the world as, you have a shallow bar at 16/20m to your right, which is your main hope on this peg, then you have the main island to chuck at, and another point of an island in front of you, confusing as it can get! I ended up setting the lot up as I wasn’t too sure about it, and that’s never a good thing, I kicked off on the method to the island and an F1 in the first half hour  was all that I caught on that all day, I then had a look on the waggler where I’d been feeding 8mm pellets and on the very first cast had another F1, then nothing again which started to get a little frustrating  from here I dropped the straight bomb over the same line, again with an 8mm and caught 8 f1s in a spell which was welcome but again it didn’t last so I decided on a look on my pole line at 16m, where I had been big potting meat and casters, a few skimmers were first to the bait then I had a 6lb carp, and another shortly after, unfortunately though these were the last and with no bites short in the last hour I’d struggle to get a top 3 result, my 36lb gave me 4th which was about what the peg was worth I feel.

Day 3 – Peg 1 Jennys

At this point it’s starting to become pretty clear that my drawing arm is having an off week! Peg 1 has been terrible this year, and the day before I think it only beat one angler, so it wasn’t looking very good! I felt I’d need to catch around 65lb to make it to the top 3, so I broke my match down into three simple stages, I’d have a look on the method to start and if it wasn’t working I’d feed casters at 4m for roach and silvers, worms and casters at 14m again catching a bit of everything in the hope of accumulating a decent weight of fish, with hopefully the odd big carp thrown in to boost things. Starting out on the method feeder, a couple of f1s was a fair start but it just wasn’t quick enough and if I was going to go down the silvers route I’d need to have as much time on it as possible so this was put down and forgotten, feeding on the long line would be done by feeding a mix of worms casters and micros in a bit of peat just enough to fill a small kinder pot every cast, this would hopefully build the peg throughout the day, and my main aim would be to come back with a fish every cast, regardless of size, in the hope of avoiding a really bad result. The fishing was steady for a couple of hours with odd tench, crucians and skimmers coming to the net, after a while though it needed a rest so it was refed with half a pot of the mix and I went  onto my caster line at 4m, this was a real let down and I expected a bite every cast this wasn’t the case and it soon became clear that it was a waste of time, a big set back. With an hour to go Grant Albutt was bossing the lake with a string of big carp shallow on worm and having tried shallow and everything else in an attempt to catch some carp nothing worked so I took a gamble for the last 20 mins and put a full pot of worms in on the long line and sat over it with two worms on the hook, luckily it buried with 5 mins to go and I landed a 8lb mirror just after the whistle.  Grant won easily with 99lb, Andy Bennett was 2nd from peg 8, 77lb and my 45lb was enough for 3rd, which I was really pleased with from my peg, as it could have quite easily have produced a last!

Day 4 – Trelawney Peg 25

Although this peg had been out of the ‘epicentre’ during the festival I must admit to really fancying this one, historically it’s a super consistent peg on the lake and I felt I could make a decent day of it, to keep things short and sweet it was an absolute disaster! I caught a carp first drop in on my 5m line and a few F1s, then I just couldn’t catch, I lined a few F1s up fishing long on the deck with 6mm pellets, and had one carp shallow over the same line, but my mistake of the day had to be pinning all my hopes on the 5m line late, it just didn’t work and maybe I should of nurtured my long pellet line and continued catching F1s , although it wouldn’t have won me the section it would have put me a lot further up, 3 points was a very disappointing day and put an end to any decent finish overall, a gutting feeling as any festival angler will tell you.

Day 5 – Porth Peg 71

Arguably the best peg at Porth!  However all week there had been no bream showing from the peg, which is a shame as last year, if you were on 71 or 16 you’d fish for bream all day and probably be first or second in the match, with a section win to boot! As I was finished for doing well in the festival I decided to have a bit of a gamble and fish a feeder match in the hope of 3 or 4 bites from proper fish on the method and some smaller skimmers on the shorter feeder line, a bold move but I had nothing to lose, but I would ball a pole line and have a look, even if it was a practise for the following weeks festival! As I was setting up, I got the horrible feeling I had forgotten something, not a good sign, I checked my bait, rods, nets etc, and soon discovered that I’d left my goretex jacket in the van, with rain coming, there was a good chance this was going to be a very miserable day indeed!  The match began, I balled 10 balls of omen and mantra onto my pole line at 13metres this contained casters and a good amount of dead pinkies, I then dropped 8 feeder fulls of bait onto my 30 yard line and then began fishing on the method, this was clipped up right to the cages, around 85 yards out, I had a few quick casts to get some bait in and then sat and waited, nothing happened in the first hour so I had a drop on the short feeder a few small skimmers were welcome, but it wasn’t really quick enough, so I thought I’d have a look on the pole baiting up with a worm head I had bites straight away, and by topping up with small balls of groundbait and some worms I managed to keep catching for an hour and half, but I decided on putting it down and getting back on the method as peg 72 caught a bream which clouded my judgement, the feeder was cast out where I’d dropped 12 balls of groundbait out before coming off it, and spent the rest of the match – dripping wet and freezing cold due to the jacket issue – watching a motionless tip, my 5lb of pole fish was actually quite good in the section and at the end I was kicking myself for putting it down and getting rail-roaded into fishing the feeder after seeing that bream caught, as Grant won the section with only 7lb 14oz, which I could have quite easily had if I’d of stuck with it, it was time to empty the inch of water from the bottom of my waders, ring out all my clothes and have a hot shower, thoroughly depressed!

So there you have it, my Maver week…All in all quite disappointing and I went into the weekend knowing that I’d made some really poor decisions but confident that I would be able to put that right going into the Preston festival!

Tight Lines

Tony Curd