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 1^st 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 3^rd and 4^th 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