Maver Classic Qualifier.
After the White Acres Festivals, I have decided to concentrate on qualifying
for the Maver Classic at the fantastic Larford Lakes complex near Stourport in
the Midlands. I was fortunate enough to qualify for this year’s final, and it
was a great couple of days so I am keen to be in the mix for next May’s final.
After the long drive up there, which takes around 2 and half hours, we were met
with a fairly hard overnight frost and a very stiff cold breeze which would
make fishing the long pole very difficult, far from ideal conditions but you’re
there to get the job done so there isn’t any time to worry about the weather
although it can alter how you have to approach your match.
At the draw I drew peg 18, just past the aerator on the shallow bank, a
reasonable draw, but pegs 22 to 28 have been doing the damage of late so I’d
have to hope there were a few fish in front of me to hopefully challenge those
pegs. As I mentioned the wind was going to make fishing long on the pole difficult,
but I decided on still setting a rig up to fish at 13 metres, I could ping some
6mm pellets here and fish either a 6mm xpand on the hook or a hard banded 6mm,
over the top. My rig for this was quite simple, a 4x14 MAP WD1 on 0.15 to an
0.12mm hook length. I also set up a short line at 6m this was a 4x12 WD1 on the
same line as the longer rig, and I’d start my match here, to hopefully grab a
quick run of fish. My main attack of the day though was going to be a simple
bomb and pellet approach, this set up was as easy as It can get, a 10ft
Parabolix bomb rod, teamed with an ACS 4000 FD reel loaded up with 6lb line,
the rig itself was a standard running rig with a half ounce lead and a 12 inch
hook length of 0.17mm, on this I’d look to ping 2-3 8mms all the time looking
to build the swim throughout the match.
Starting the match, I potted 10 6mms at 6m and went straight over it with a
banded 6mm, you can often get a quick run of bites doing this, and if you’re on
a really good peg it can carry on all day! Today however with a mega overnight
frost no bites were forthcoming in the 10 minutes I spent on this line, I’d
keep throwing a few 6mms on it throughout the day and maybe I could find a few
better fish late on. Putting that rig down I picked up the 13m rig for a quick
look to gauge the response, but to keep it short and sweet I never had a bite,
which I couldn’t believe but I wasn’t too disheartened as no one had caught yet
so I’d not lost any ground on the match itself. After failing on the two pole lines
I was left with the bomb rod, where I had been pinging a few pellets regularly,
banding on an 8mm pellet I chucked out and waited, and waited. Not a liner or
anything with an hour and half gone and only 3 fish caught on the lake, I began
to wonder what was going to happen, if anything but by keeping the pellets
going in and casting around the fed area eventually the tip slammed round and
my first fish of the day came to the net, an F1 of around a pound and half, the
next chuck I had another and I was right back in the race it would seem. After
these couple of fish though the swim went quiet and the odd fish started coming
out around the lake, after another 15 minutes the tip went round again and a
carp of 3lb joined the other fish in the net, my next 3 fish were all carp and
it was fairly obvious that there weren’t many feeding f1s in front of me so I
decided on gambling and feeding my peg differently in an attempt to target carp
exclusively, and I’d do this by feeding more bait, but less frequently and
waiting longer for a bite over a larger amount of bait. This started to work
quite well and several decent fish came to the tactic, by the end of the match
I’d caught 16 fish, when you consider the first hour and half showed no signs
of life at all, it wasn’t a bad amount of fish with the biggest going around
the 6lb mark. At the scales, my 50lb was
good enough for 3rd in the match, but unfortunately with the winner having already qualified 2nd
place took the final place, so although I felt I’d sorted my peg out, another
15lb in the early part of the match which usually isn’t a problem has cost me
big time. Never mind though, it’s all in the memory bank for the next one!
Tight Lines
Tony Curd
White
Acres Preston Innovations Festival.
This festival is the most important of all the Festivals held at White Acres
throughout the year, as 180 qualifiers from previous White Acres matches and
festivals fish towards a top 24 place, which culminates in the Parkdean Masters
Final for £25,000, a huge incentive if ever there was one! The draw bag would
play a massive part to the week, and it would be a case of giving your all to
it every day, as the standard is so high you get away with no mistakes! So
after a weekend of sorting my kit out from the previous weeks festival, it was
off to the draw to see what the start of the week was going to be like!
Day 1 – Bolingey Peg 26.
I was quite happy to be on this peg, it’s the last peg in the island and had
produced a couple of times the week before, the peg is decent in the section
but not often a match winner, such is the power of the pegs around the other
side of the island. My approach here would be quite simple, I’d need a weight
of carp to win the section so I decided on fishing an MAP pellet feeder to the
island, I chose a pellet feeder due to lots of brambles near to the island, and
this would allow me to get that bit closer. A 16m pole line on the deck, here
I’d ping 6mms and fish big 6mm Xpand pellets on the hook, a short line where
I’d feed meat, Here I used a 4x16 SD4, on 0.17mm line, a strong rig as the fish
are big and can turn up in numbers late, the only other rig I set up was to fish down the edge to my left
here I’d feed groundbait and fish meat over it late in the match. Starting the
match I potted 10 cubes of meat and pinch of hemp at 5m, and went straight on
it, and after a few minutes the float buried, and my first carp of the day, of
around 4lb was a good start. No more bites followed so I would just loose feed
this line now and come back to it later in the day. I then picked up the pellet
feeder rod and chucked out with a banded 6mm pellet, I fished this for around
40mins and had two pulls and another two carp, things were going well, and I
had in mind before the start if I could catch 30lb in the first 3 hours I’d be
well in with a chance, so I’d need a few more to reach that target but was well
on the way. The pellet feeder didn’t produce any more so it was time to go long
on the pole with pellets and see if I could eke out a couple more fish, an F1
was first then I caught another 3 carp in the next hour or so. At 3pm I had 45lb on the clicker, better than
my target and it would now be a case of going for it short and I fed my edge for the first time with 4 big balls of
Special G Green and Gold and would keep and eye on it for signs of fish, I
dropped in on the 5m line and after 5 minutes I had a bite and a proper fish of
around 10lb was put into the net , several more followed and then it died , so
I decided on big potting half a pot in with some hemp, and had a look down the edge, a couple of
foul hookers were lost and I was getting the feeling that it was going a bit
wrong! Soon after I landed my first from the edge, and it was the smallest of
the day, strange! I fed some more groundbait and went short again with 40mins
to go, well it was the sort of thing that dreams are made of, every drop in it
buried and I caught 7 big fish to 14lb before the end. At the weigh in, my 16
fish weighed 127lb 9oz easily winning the section and enough to win the match,
it couldn’t have been a better start to the week, and saw me heading into the
second day 1st overall in the festival.
Day 2 – Pollawyn peg 38
After having such a good start I was absolutely mortified to be presented with
peg 38 at the draw bag! I’ve had the dis-pleasure of sitting on this peg before
and knew it was going to be a tough day, I’d fish to avoid a disaster and that
meant silvers, after an initial look for a carp and also looking for a carp
late in the match. The problem you have on this peg is that, fish of any
quality get blocked by the other anglers before they reach you, as the peg is
right in the corner, so there wouldn’t even be any decent skimmers to target,
it was going to be a case of playing the numbers game hoping you ran into a few
decent ones along the way. The early
looks up the edge at 16m and across hoping for a carp were a wasted effort so
it was head down for bites, I went onto my 5m line with 4mm expanders for
skimmers, and had a bite a chuck, from the smallest roach and skimmers in the
world, this was changed over to a meat line as it was an absolute waste of time
carrying on with pellets, I then had a look down the edge where I had been
feeding casters for perch and caught a few smallish fish but bites were far
from plentiful. I then moved onto my banker line for bites, fishing worm and
caster at the bottom of the far shelf, I stayed on this for much of the day
catching roach and the odd skimmer regularly, but as I said the fish in this
corner are always small for some reason so I didn’t even feel as if I’d make
much of an impact on the section. A late
look across and down the edge for a carp never worked, and my 18lb of mainly
small roach (Around 80 fish) gave me 4 points, it could have been a lot worse,
and this would have to be my dropped result if I was to make the final!
Day 3 – Twin Oaks Peg 6
Here we go again! Another dodgy peg at the wrong end of the lake and was only
worth 2 points the day before so things weren’t looking great! I felt I could
make a decent day of it though if my plan came together! I set up a pellet
feeder to fish across early, before coming onto a 14m pole line with pellets
where I’d target anything I could catch, f1s, skimmers carp etc. in the hope of
building a weight hopefully boosted later by some carp on the 5m line with
meat! I decided to not fish or feed down the edge on this peg as I just felt
there wasn’t enough carp at this end of the lake to make it worthwhile and
would distract me from what I needed to be doing. Starting on the pellet feeder
I chucked out tight to the far bank and
was pleasantly surprised to see my 10ft Parabolix bomb rod take a lunge
for the lake on the second cast, I was even more chuffed to see it do it on the
3rd and 4th casts too, after this though only an F1
followed after around 10 minutes so instead of sitting on it I got on my long
pole line in the hope of boosting my early run of bites. I shipped out with a 6mm Xpand on the hook and
bites were plentiful, but I became frustrated at missed bites causing me to
ship in and out to re-bait. I thought I’d see if I could get away with fishing
a hair rigged hard pellet instead, in the hope of saving some time coming in
and out all day. It worked really well and I caught f1s steadily for a couple
of hours, along with two more small carp, at 3pm I fed a decent pot of meat at
5m to hopefully line a few lumps up later, I caught a few more F1s and had a
drop in at 5m, I had a bite soon after and a 6lb carp was a welcome bonus! No
more bites prompted me to put another big pot in and go long again for a few
more bites, it was a case of doing this until the last half hour when I had 3
more decent carp, and landed my biggest fish of the day of around 8lb after the
whistle. At the weigh in my F1s totalled 44lb and my carp went 46lb giving me
90lb, and third on the lake, a great result from this peg only beaten by pegs
14 and 16, with 108lb and 146lb respectively, which was not a surprise. This third kept my final hopes alive and it
would all be down to the final two days.
Day 4 – Canal Peg 2
A decent peg on the lake, and fished well the day before but with a big switch
in the wind direction it could quite easily be completely different and that is
just how it panned out! The other side of the lake fished really well and the
three pegs on my side of the lake fished terribly. I knew it was going to be
tough after an initial look on my short line feeding micros and fishing
expanders, and in the first 40 minutes changing between lines I’d only managed
4 F1s and a few roach, not good and a sure sign that it wasn’t looking good! I
then had a look across in front of the weed and caught a few fish, but again It
wasn’t solid and I’ve had a few fish snag themselves and were lost , but that’s
just how it is on this lake unfortunately! A decent spell fishing shallow down
the middle and above the weed was my best period of the match, landing 18 fish.
At the weigh in my 40lb was only good enough to beat the pegs to my left, and
no one else, this pretty much put paid to my final chances and was a completely
disappointing day!
Day 5 – Porth peg 71
If I’d have drawn this peg twice in last year’s Autumn festivals, I may have
won two matches! This time around though, it’s produced on only one match, with
a big 71lb of bream. Now being that my final hopes had been dashed, I opted for
a simple two rod approach, a method feeder right out to the cages at range, and
a short 30 turn cage feeder for bites. I
started out by putting some bait on the long method line, this was special g
green and a full pint of micros. I then got my head down on the short feeder
putting some chopped worm and casters through the feeder, fishing dead maggots
or small pieces of worm on the hook, to target skimmers. I caught a few in the
first hour and half, but it wasn’t very good and bites were not forthcoming, I
then decided that it was a waste of time, and sat on the method for the rest of
the match, hoping for a couple of bites from proper fish, unfortunately this
never happened but it was worth a shot! 12lb won the section, made up of 300
tiny roach, my 4lb beat a few but I’d fished a positive match which never paid
off, on another day it would have been a different story, but I’d never draw
this peg when its good so I should have known better! Haha.
All in all my Autumn festivals had been a little bit disappointing, I’ve had a
few good days and put in some fair performances but overall my drawing arm has
been diabolical, you can make a result from some of the dodgy pegs but
eventually, it becomes one bad peg too much! I’ll be back in the spring to try
again though, and my appetite for succeeding in these festivals is as strong as
it ever has been.
Tight Lines
Tony Curd
Maver Classic Qualifier.
