I've been fishing White Acres festivals for about six years now, and every year I do both the Dynamite Baits event in Spring and the Preston festival in October. The Preston is probably the most prestigious of all because you have to qualify for it by coming in the top 60 of the spring festivals and then the top 24 in the Preston then make up the Parkdean Masters final the day after the festival ends, where £25,000 is at stake for the winner. I was sixth in this final in 2010 but since then my performances in all festivals have been mostly very very average! I was keen to put that right this year.
When I first started going down to these festivals I stayed with my good mates Lee Kerry and Joe Carass. Since then others such as James Dent, Pete Thomas and Frankie Gianoncelli have also joined our lodge and have briefly come and gone, but going into this festival only Lee and I remained. We were to stay with our mates from the Browning Hot Rods team, Andy Leathers and Tim Nash, both exceptional anglers. Thankfully we all drew in different section zones so we would all have different stories and information to pass on over the week! Looking at the sections this year, I don’t think I have ever seen as strong a line up for a festival here. Usually there is one section which is known as the section of doom but this time there were five out of five! My own group contained the likes of Alan and Sandra Scotthorne, Lee Edwards, Neil Machin, Rich Hull, ‘Roob’ Wootton’ and Tommy Hillier. I was drawn in E which meant I would start at Bolingey and end on Porth reservoir. So onto the festival...
Day 1 – Bolingey Lake peg 14
I wasn’t too pleased to draw this peg. It’s in the biggest arm of Bolingey, the island arm, which is often throws up the highest weights. The only problem is its tucked in a corner and is the only peg without a chuck to the island! Never mind, at least it meant a simple day on the pole. I remembered reading in PoleFishing magazine not so long ago a Steve Ringer feature, looking back on a few of his matches. He had drawn this peg in spring and had a weight fishing a line at an angle at about 10m where there is a flat plateau. I duly found this plateau and set a rig for there. I also set up to fish long both on the deck and shallow, and an edge rig into the corner and to the left. That was it.
It was a slow start for me on that 10m line with meat and after an hour I had just a single carp in the net. This didn’t unduly worry me as this often happens on Bolingey, and you tend to amass most of your weight in the last two hours. Alan Scotthorne was the next peg round on peg 11, a bit of a point out into the lake with an island, and he was catching well at 6m but I wasn’t sure if he was in my section or not.
Things slowly improved and I managed to put a few quick lumps in the net shallow but that soon died. A few fish began to show at 10m before I decided to plumb up the opposite side with my long rig, and start loosefeeding here at 6m to be more aggressive and draw fish in during the last few hours. This turned out to be my best line. I made a mistake and got a bit distracted by the margins – after no signs there for hours, the fish suddenly turned up in the last 40 minutes but they were very cute, I think because there was no depth in the corner and it was gin clear. I caught just one lump here, despite trying various depths on the shelf and baits. Eventually I learnt my lesson and caught two fish in the last 10 minutes at 6m. A weight of 70lb 12oz was not great and I was beaten up predictably by the island pegs to my left, where Paul Burton had an awesome 185lb on the feeder on 17. Alan had 139lb to my right after a super match at 6m. I packed up a bit disappointed, I wasn’t sure where the sections went and I knew I was fifth or sixth at best in the section of eight or nine. However when I looked at the board the following morning, I was actually third. My peg was put in with the pegs in the 20s where it’s not so great either. A third is a counting result in Parkdean week!
Day Two – Pollawyn peg 21
On Pollawyn I normally draw the high bank flier pegs 26 or 28, or end up in the crap first section in the low numbers. I had never drawn on the left hand side of the lake so I was interested to see what this peg would have in store. It has the start of an island going down a narrow arm to go at, where there are usually a few carp, plus the back of another island the main part of the 45 yards away but I’ve never seen anyone catch much on the feeder on this peg. Once again I had plenty of meat with me and anticipated a day on the pole. The 5 metre line is one of the most important lines at White Acres but I never seem to be able to make it work. However I learnt a lot yesterday watching Alan, who incidentally was in my section today on peg 23 on the point to my right.
I decided to start my match at 5m to see if I could get an early mug carp before going longer and I couldn’t believe it when I hooked one of about 4lb after about 60 seconds. 10 minutes later I hooked another but just as I was about to net it, a fairly hooked fish, the hook came out and my rig went in the tree above. Not ideal! Thankfully I caught an 8lber on the following cast but that was it for the 5m line. I moved out to the island and spent the next few hours here, putting several carp in the net. Things were going well with about 40lb on the clicker half way through. Then the carp seemed to move out of the arm I was fishing in and it became a real struggle. I picked up the feeder because Paul Carpenter to my left on 20 was catching a few to the main island, but for me it produced just a skimmer. The only things I added to my net on the pole across were an f1 and a 2lb perch! I also tried fishing long down the edge to my right but to no avail and the short line hadn’t produced anything else either.
With 45 minutes to go the short line finally yielded a welcome 8lb fish but then it went quiet again. A look down the edge saw nothing so I made the decision to sit it out at 5m for the last half hour, with the match finishing at 5pm. At 4.50pm I hooked and landed a mirror carp of around 12lb. At 4.55pm a repeat performance and another fish of around 11lb. I had time for another drop but there wasn’t another there. Normally I am the most impatient angler and if I’m not getting bites I switch lines but today I was surprised I had the confidence to just sit there late on and it actually paid off. That late burst of fish took me up to 80lb exactly. Alan weighed in 63lb and Neil Machin at the other end of the section had 72lb so I won the section. I was even more amazed to find out in the car park that the high bank had been poor and my weight was enough for my first White Acres match win!
Day Three – Trelawney peg 20
My mind was set firmly on Twin Oaks so when I drew Trelawney a slight rethink was called for! Peg 20 is in a corner with the end of the island to go at, at just 13m. This isn’t necessarily a good thing as the lake widens out into a big bay on pegs 22 and 23 to my left which always hold a lot of fish. However 20 has a very fishy looking corner to go at to the right, but it is notoriously hit and miss and my peg brought a lot of differing opinions. Just 60lb was needed to win this section yesterday so I took plenty of casters, expecting a hard match.
Starting again at 5m, I was very irritated to lose my first two fish, a carp and an F1. That was it for the line so I moved out to the island where I had two lines on the go. Neither of these produced anything more than a few roach and I was starting to fall behind pegs 22 and 23. I came in close with casters and started to catch some roach, I altered my feeding a bit and had a run of six F1s but all the while I was mindful that this was very negative. I had started to feed a line at 14.5m into the corner and an hour and 15 minutes into the match I decided to try it. After five minutes I caught a carp of around 4lb, followed by its twin 15 minutes later, and that made my mind up to stay here for the rest of the match. I caught in spells and once again sat there patiently waiting for a fish to turn up. A few F1s also got in on the act. The only change I made was to replumb my rig closer to the bank – this saw fewer bites but when it did go it was a proper carp and not one of the earlier F1s.
Because it was very windy today, I used a long line between my float and tip and a 4 x 14 float in 2ft of water to anchor the bait still for proper fish. I would have caught more if I had been able to clear the bottom out properly but I didn’t want to flaunt the ‘no gardening’ rule in place. I was delighted to record a weight of 93lb 10oz for my second section win in succession, Rob Wootton coming second from peg 31 with 82lb of f1s. I didn’t frame in the match however, because both Twin Oaks lakes threw up several 100lb-plus catches. However with 25 points out of a possible 27 on the board, a place in the top 24 was now a very realistic proposition. All I needed was a top three or four section finish in the next two matches.
Day Four – Trewaters peg 49
This section is between the two lakes at Trewaters, Canal and Acorn. I just wanted to avoid Acorn as the other three lakes are predominantly small carp and f1s, which I hoped would be right up my street. Trewaters peg 49 is on the bottom lake, which is notoriously harder than the top lake, and the boards showed that a weight of 50lb came second in this section yesterday. For company directly to my left on 47 I had Alan Scotthorne so I would have a serious battle on my hands today and there were a few other anglers on the lake such as Alan Rutherford and Wayne Kearney who are very good at this kind of small carp pellet fishing, and would be dangerous too.
On this lake the island is about 17.5m -18m away but there is a 16m pole limit in place. Mr Scotthorne was setting up a variety of long line rigs to fish to the island but with the wind in my face, I wasn’t sure I could do it on my peg so I decided against setting one up. Instead I decided to fish down the edge, long pole lines on the deck at 14m and 16m, and the Method feeder. However the fish had been hammered for nearly two weeks now and with the water clear I doubted whether the feeder would work very well.
I used my 14m rig to fish at an angle at 5m to start the match on but this produced nothing so I soon moved out to 14m. I’d really thought hard about how I was going to fish these long pole lines today and had come up with a plan. Basically I had a negative line on the left which I would kinder cup small amounts of bait in, and a positive line well to the right where I loosefed from the start to try and catch shallow. I had an inkling it might work as I’d read on the website that Jon Arthur had caught this way earlier on in the week on this lake. If it didn’t work, I had the negative line to fall back on.
Moving out onto the negative line I took a few small f1s but was going nowhere fast. Then I began to miss bites I expected were liners. I came in and picked up a shallow rig and moved across to the positive line, and for the next two hours I enjoyed a steady run of fish. Alan had responded by going on his long line rig and he was catching a few too. Then my fish dried up and looks elsewhere on the feeder and edge produced nothing. People further up were catching now and I needed to do something, I couldn’t just sit there. As the wind had eased I got off my box and put a long line rig up, on a 1g float to the island because of the wind. It wasn’t as far as I thought it was and I only needed a full top kit of line. First drop in I caught a carp but it was far from easy and I really had to work hard to get the rig in place and hit bites.
My first few hours produced 38lb of f1s shallow and the last 90 minutes saw around 18lb of proper carp on the long line rig for a total of 56lb 13oz, but it was going to be a close section! Alan weighed in 49lb 3oz, then the chap to my right had 50lb 3oz, then finally Wayne Kearney on 53 weighed in 49lb exactly! Phew! Another section win and suddenly I was on 34 points. This was more than enough to make the final and now I could look at getting in the top 10 of the festival. A look at the sheets that night saw me fifth in the festival.
I was pleased to see fellow Leeds lad Martin Holmes in first place with a perfect 36 point score. Today Martin had drawn my peg from yesterday on Trelawney. He is a top bloke so without hesitation at the draw I told him exactly what to do and he romped the section with 80lb.
Day Five – Porth Reservoir peg 40
Porth is a bit of wildcard in the festival week, a large reservoir where you
are targeting roach and skimmers, and on a select few pegs bream. I was grateful
that I didn’t need to rely on today for a score because I do so little of this
kind of fishing, in fact the only time I do is actually twice a year at Porth!
I love the place though and if I can come away with a third in section here I’m
happy every time.
Peg 40 is the end peg on the near side and is one of the best pegs on Porth, without doubt my best draw of the week. The only problem was that I had a very tough section today. To my left on 39 was Welsh international Lee Edwards, then there was Ed Warren of Starlets, Tommy Hillier of Dorking and on the other end peg Rob Wootton. Realistically I didn’t have a chance of beating Lee and the others are all miles better than me too. Today was all about getting as high a section score as possible to act as my dropper, hopefully for the top 10 in the festival. Therefore I didn’t want to do anything silly. My good mate Tom Scholey had 12lb of this peg yesterday and Simon Colclough had 13lb the day or so previous. Both these anglers are very tidy on silverfish so if I could get anywhere near these weights I would be happy.
I had full instructions from ‘captain Kerry’ and I was to keep things simple. I fished a longer line at 13m to my right for skimmers, although the wind was threatening to wreck this, and what I thought would be my main line at 10m for roach. It was a slow start but I soon found myself falling behind Lee and I was soon on my roach line. Unfortunately what had worked well earlier in the week (finely mushed worms) wasn’t working today and after an hour I had to change things, instead moving onto loosefeeding maggots.
Slowly my catch rate began to increase but because of my rustiness with roach I was slow to change things to up my catch rate. I really had to concentrate and think about what I was doing, for example taking a section off, coming shallower, bulking the rig etc. When I dared to live a bit dangerously and took a second section off, bites weren’t as abundant so I had to go back out! Most of the roach were small, apart from one rogue ‘dog’ which must have been 12oz easily, and in the last few hours I tried to work my socks off. I was first to weigh and I was surprised that I had recovered enough to put 11lb 10oz on the scales. Lee Edwards had a super 17lb of roach but then again he is one of the best in the UK at this game! Thankfully I couldn’t see him for the tree between us, only his pole zipping in and out! Ed Warren had a big 13lb and Rob Wootton a 12lb to relegate me to fourth in the section, which I was more than happy with.
The presentation was awesome and I picked up £400 for seventh place, my best ever result in a White Acres festival. Big well done to Martin who pulled it out of the bag every day to record a staggering five section wins. In our lodge Lee Kerry finished 12th with 33 points and Andy Leathers just scraped the 24th and last spot in the final with 31 points. Three of us were having a dip in the bag the day after in the Parkdean Masters final. Could any of us well and truly cap a brilliant week off?
Festival Result
| 1st | Martin Holmes | 36 (Dropping 9) | 334lb 15oz |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Des Shipp | 35 (Dropping 6) | 369lb 10oz |
| 3rd | Simon Fry | 35 (Dropping 5) | 316lb 7oz |
| 4th | Neil Machin | 34 (Dropping 7) | 412lb 4oz |
| 5th | Nick Speed | 34 (Dropping 6) | 350lb 10oz |
| 6th | Steve Conway | 34 (Dropping 6) | 325lb 2oz |
| 7th | Ben Fisk | 34 (Dropping 6) | 312lb 13oz |
| 8th | Harry Billing | 34 (Dropping 5) | 430lb 7oz |
| 9th | Neil Mckinnon | 34 (Dropping 5) | 401lb 14oz |
| 10th | Cameron Hughes | 34 (Dropping 9) | 394lb 16oz |
| 11th | Scott Russell | 33 (Dropping 8) | 269lb 7oz |
| 12th | Lee Kerry | 33 (Dropping 7) | 374lb 5oz |
| 13th | Steve Ringer | 33 (Dropping 6) | 388lb 11oz |
| 14th | Andy Nelson | 33 (Dropping 6) | 372lb 8oz |
| 15th | Andy Power | 33 (Dropping 6) | 337lb 12oz |
| 16th | Simon Colclough | 33 (Dropping 4) | 298lb 6oz |
| 17th | Richie Hull | 32 (Dropping 7) | 400lb 15oz |
| 18th | Matt Godfrey | 32 (Dropping 6) | 386lb 6oz |
| 19th | Rob Wooton | 32 (Dropping 6) | 350lb 2oz |
| 20th | Tim Rowe | 32 (Dropping 6) | 298lb 2oz |
| 21st | James Dent | 32 (Dropping 5) | 348lb 8oz |
| 22nd | Ed Warren | 32 (Dropping 5) | 331lb 12oz |
| 23rd | Gareth Malham | 31 (Dropping 7) | 308lb 8oz |
| 24th | Andy Leathers | 31 (Dropping 7) | 267lb 4oz |
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