Bait Tech Festival 2009

This was my 3rd Festival at Whiteacres and I only ever do the first one of the year.

The previous 2 years have seen me finish 126th and 108th, however during this time I have been on a very steep learning curve regarding the lakes and was determined to break into the top 100 this year. A more ambitious aim was to come high enough to automatically qualify for the Preston Festival which takes place in October.

Day 1 - Jennys / Python

My preffered option was Python as I had fished this lake before, however Jennys was completely new to me.
I drew Jennys 13 and upon arrival at my peg it was blowing an absolute howler ! Peg 11 to my left is the narrowest peg on the lake and the island is reachable at 16 mtrs. Peg 13 is approx 22 mtrs wide whilst peg 15 to my right is to the point of an island and an aereator which are both about 30 mtrs away. The rest of my 9 peg section was mainly open water or longer chucks too islands.
Having never fished the lake before, the basic information was sought and it was going to be feeder to the island for F1's and carp, and pole short (5 - 7 mtrs dependant on the shelf) for mainly tench or anything that swims !
The main thing I have learnt at Whiteacres over my 2 previous festivals is to keep bait going in on the feeder line so there is some bait there for when they turn up. This is a risky strategy as sometimes they may not ! I spent the first hour alternating between the meat and groundbait feeder for 2 small F1's. The guy on peg 11 to my left was blanking and Mark Malin to my right had approx 10 F1's chucking to the point of the island and the aereator. I could not see the rest of my section so had a decision to make as I felt the fish were in the open water of Jennys rather than the relative narrowness of the peg that I was on.
The feeder rod was thrown behind me and my attention would now be to fish the pole and catch anything that swimss ! I fished 2 lines at 7 mtrs, one with meat and one with worm and caster, and for the remainder of the match I picked up odd tench, F1's, skimmers and roach - all mainly caught on the worm line. The guy to my left had switched to the bomb and caught 4 big carp and Mark Malin had continued to catch F1's from the aereator and had some tench on the pole line late on. As soon as ther hooter went I wandered down the section to see who had caught and the way people were talking it was down to me and the guy on my left for last and second to last in the section.
I packed away and then waited for the scales as they had to weigh in Python first. When the scales arrived they started at the far end of the section and it transpires that people had caught less than what they thought. Ricky Teale and another guy had 40lb+ with the others having between 15 and 25lb. Mark Malin dropped 40lb+ on the scales and I knew I had chance of 4th insection. I weighed 28lb 7oz and just hoped that he guy on 11 hadn't beat me. His 4 big carp went 27lb 11oz and I was more than happy with 6 points as I thought 1 or 2 pts was on the card after I had walked the section after the match.
The best weight off peg 13 for the rest of the week was 35lb.

Day 2 - Twin Oaks / Trelawney

Having looked at the previous days results, you needed an end peg on Trelawney for good section points or pegs 12, 14, 16, 18 on Twin Oaks for the chance of a lake win.
I drew Twin Oaks 10 which was not good as I would struggle to beat the anglers to my right and in reality the best I could hope for was to beat the 4 anglers to my left and get 5 points.
For company, I had Steven Barraclough on peg 12 and to his right on peg 14, Mark Malin had drew out of his skin again !
On Twin Oaks there is a large undercut on the far bank where the carp reside and you have to chuck within inches of the far bank or you will struggle to get a bite. The first hour was a struggle and I had 3 F1's whereas the 4 pegs to my right were all catching carp and it was obvious that the wind was still holding the fish down at this end of the lake. Everyone to my left was struggling so I decided to come in on the 5 mtr pole line (which is another standard catching area on this lake). I began to catch odd skimmers between 12oz and 2lb and stuck at this for a while to try and build enough weight to produce a gap between myself and the anglers to my left incase they started to catch carp late. Over the next hour I put around 20lb of skimmers in the net but then bites started to really slow. The pegs to my right were still catching well and Ricky Teale on Peg 6 was catching odd carp on the meat feeder.
With about 2 hours to go, Steven and Mark both came in on the 5 mtr line and prosceeded to catch carp ! This was really frustrating as I had only caught skimmers on this line. Their decision to fish the pole forced my hand and I decided to stick it out on the feeder for the final 2 hours and try to draw some carp up from my right as they were no longer fishing the feeder. I began to pick up odd carp, however the final 40 miutes was frantic as every time I chucked in I had a fish on before my rod touched the rod rest ! I tightened the clutch and bullied carp in like never before but it was too little too late as the all in sounded (about 30 mins too early as far as I was concerned !) I was confidentt of beating all to my left and as the scales arrived, the best weight was Ricky Teale with 62lb. I put 80lb on the scales and the pegs to my right weighed as follows - Peg 12 - 120lb, Peg 14 (Mark 'Drawbag' Malin) - 138lb, Peg 16 - 112 lb, Peg 18 - 96lb.
5th in section gave me 5pts and in reality this was probably the best result I was ever going to get from this peg on the day.
It was predicted that later in the week the carp would move out from the far side of the lake to settle in the middle. Indeed this happened the very next day and for the remainder of the week you needed to be on pegs 6, 8 and you've guessed it - 10 !

Day 3 - Porth

I have to admit that, whilst not everyones cup of tea, I really enjoy Porth.
Looking at the first 2 days results, 6-8lb would give you good section points and I drew peg 89 which is an end peg on the far side of the reservoir. The previous day it had 12lb odd but only 4th in the section as there had been odd bigger bream caught on the earlier pegs of the section (including the 29lb weight).
There are some very uncomfortable pegs on Porth, however upon arrival I found that I could get my Space Station set up about 2 yards in the water from the bank and that the bottom was fairly solid. I set up a rod for the bream at 24 turns which would be a fishmeal based groundbait for the feeder and worm hookbait. Another rod was set up at 16 turns for the smaller palm sized skimmers and roach. Groundbait for this was more silverfish based and hookbait would be red maggot. It was windy so the pole was set up to 11 mtrs only and this was my banker line to catch small skimmers, roach and perch.
You normally get indication immediately on the short feeder line from the small roach and skimmers, however it turned out to be a real struggle and to make thigs worse I could only see the guy to my right (who was also struggling) so could not see what was happening in the rest of the section. I chucked the heavier feeder for about 45 minutes in the hope of a couple of bigger bream but there was no indications on that either.
My only hope was to get some silvers on the 11 mtr pole line and whilst picking up odd 1 oz roach and perch I was going nowhere fast !
With an hour left, and more in desperation than hope, I cupped in 2 big cup fulls of chopped worm at 4 mtrs. I grabbed a rig from my box and plumbed up, dropped in, and immediately came back with a 2 oz perch. The last hour was frantic and I was catching 1 - 2oz perch as quickly as I could and ended up with an estimated 60 of them.
I was first to weigh and put 7lb 8 oz on the scales and had really got out of jail with those perch. All I had to hope now was that noboby in my section had connected with a proper bream or two. The next 2 pegs weighed in 5 and 6lb respectivelly but the next bloke had a big bream and some bits for 12lb. There was one more big bream caucght in my section which poushed me into 3rd but to be honest I would've taken that at the start of the match. The 12 lb weight near to me actually framed on the lake so the guy who came 2nd and beat me by 9oz got the section money by default.
So, 7 points today and a look at the full list in the club that night put me in 64th place out of 180 and in a good position to get my best festival result.

Day 4 - Bolingey

Bolingey is very peggy, however the organisers get around this by having 'split' sections. To get a lake win you really need a peg in the 'big hit' section where most of the 9 pegs are capable of winning the lake. The downside of this is that you could have a very good weight only to come half way in your section.
I drew peg 44 which is not in the good section and therefore not in with a chance of main lake money. During the week, the section I was in was won from a different peg every day and the day previous, peg 44 had come second. Peg 45 to my left is a flyer and therefore not in my section so I knew I would have to try and ignore him if he started bagging ! For company, I had Grant Albutt (a £1 side bet was made) to my right and former World Champion Tommy Pickering to his right so i was certainly up against it today !
Mark 'drawbag' Malin was directly behind me on peg 47. He was not in my section but was at on a peg that had won that particular section for the last 2 days !
I set up today - a rod for fishing PVA bag incase it was hard, 2 pole lines at 13 mtrs, short margins left and right, and the obligatory 5 mtr line. The wind had died down slightly today but was still strong enough to make fishing the 13 mtr pole uncomfortable, however this was how I started but, along with the rest of the section struggled. The one exception was the guy on the end peg on the opposite bank who had approx 5 carp in the first hour.
The PVA bag was chucked around the peg to try and locate a fish but this also proved fruitless and after 2 biteless hours I was forced to have a look in the margins. I did not have so much as a liner down the edge so looked on the 5 mtr line where I had been throwing 6 cubes of meat every 2-3 minutes. Again this produced nothing and I was looking at a major disaster when suddenly a carp topped in front of peg 45. I hastily catapulted 2 pouchfulls of meat out at 16 mtrs and grabbed a shallow rig (2 1/2 foot deep) from my box (I hadn't set this up initially because of the wind). I shipped out to 16 mtrs and immediately the 12 latex ripped from my pole and 1 6lb carp was safely in the net. 3 more carp in the next 20 minutes followed and suddenly I had an estimated 25lb in the net. Then disaster - the sun came out ! The carp dissapeared and I could not get a bite, however I had already decided that the section was fishing poor enough to warrant sticking with this method for the remaining hour of match. 4 more carp followed including a nice double figure mirror and at the hooter I knew the section would be tight.
I was the last one in the section to weigh and the top weight before me was 48lb. My 8 carp went 52lb and not only had I won the section for a maximum 9 points and a pick up, I had also took a quid of Grant Albutt and the scalp of Tommy Pickering - I was very pleased with myself.

Looking at the results in the club that night I was sat on 27 points and 34th place overall out of 180 anglers. If I had a section win on the last day enabling me to drop my worst result (the 5pts on Twin Oaks), I could get 31 points and an outside chance of sneaking into the top 20.

Day 5 - Pollawyn

Pollawyn is probably the lake where the drawbag determines your points ! At the start of the week the carp were still in the arms of the lake, however as the week progressed they had gradually made their way out of the arms making a bee line for the famous High Bank section - this was the place to draw.
Out came Peg 10 - I was not happy ! It had done nothing all week and come 8th in the section the previous day. The dominant peg in the section was Peg 13 (point of the island) and Peg 9 to my left is on the end of the lake and has a very inviting margin swim where some resident carp live. It fished extremely hard and after searching for carp and big skimmers gor the first 3 hours of the match and catching nothing, I got one of my Porth tops out armed with 3 latex and caught 10lb 9oz of roach on my top 3 !
At the weigh in the carp had moved out of Peg 13 and the guy there had 6lb odd. The guy to my right had 11lb of skimmers and the guy to my left on peg 9 fished long to his left down the end of the lake marginn for 5 hours to win the section with 44lb.
I ended up 5th in the section and with 14lb coming 3rd I knew that if I had gone for those roach earlier then I could have got 7 pts instead of 5 pts.

A big congratulations to fellow Swad lad Kelvin Acton who drew on Peg 28 on the High Bank section and went on to win the lake with 142lb - not only his highest ever match weight but also his first lake win in a festival (and Callum Dicks was also 2 pegs away). Kelvin was reallly chuffed - well done mate.

The results

Points for the week were 6, 5, 7, 9 & 5 so dropping one of the 5's as my worst result I ended up with a 27 point total. Looking at the final leader board this put me in 53rd overall which was a vast improvement from my last 2 festivals.
The top 50 get an automatic invite tio the Preston festival in October where the top 24 qualify for the Parkdean Final on the Saturday, however with a few of last year finalist fishing this week this number get increased as they already get an automatic invite. This effectively means I have qualified for the Preston Festival and the caravan is already booked and deposit paid for !

Finally a big word of thanks to Clint and his team for the excellent organisation of the festival - it is amazing how efficient they are at getting the results out.

Snooty

Thorpe Constantine Open - Sat 14th March

Due to other commitments on Sunday, I decided to fish a match on Saturday this week at Thorpe Constantine.

I had never even seen this venue before, however my normal travelling partner for a Sunday, Andy Meadows, had recently started fishing the Saturday Opens and had begun to get a feel for the place.

The bait rules on this venue are very strict with regards to what you can actually use. Meat and pellet are both banned which leaves corn, caster, worm, maggots and groundbait as your only options and following advise from Andy I decided to go with groundbait and corn only.

There were 20 in attendance and as far as I was told, I drew a goodish area however I was at the other end of the lake from where an island and various aerators are dotted about. In fact I was double banked as I had someone opposite me !

Target fish are small carp up to 3lb and small barbel up to 1lb. In summer alot of the weights are caught using paste on a Top 3, however at this time of year the fish are further out in 8-10 ft of water.

I assembled a feeder rod with a small groundbait feeder for chucking 25 yards, a rig for corn at 11 mtrs in 8ft of water, a rig for both margins at the edge of the reeds that jut out and finally a paste rig for 5 mtrs in 5ft of water.

On the 11 mtr pole line was fed with a jaffa size ball of green swimstim groundbait and a few grains of corn via the pole cup. The margins received a small smattering of corn and 2 small balls of paste were cupped onto the short line.

First cast in on the feeder with hair rigged corn and the tip flew round after 30 secs and a 2lb carp was soon in the net - I was going to empty it ! Sixty biteless minutes later on the tip and I decided to try the pole - Bugger !

The wind was horrendous from right to left and the undertow was strong the opposite way which made presentation very difficult. After much fiddling about, I found the best way to counter this was to lay in with the wind and when the float had settled let the tow hold it against the wind. To achieve this I had to lay about 8" on the deck with my final dropper shot just off bottom.

At times the wind was very severe and the sound of my G10 creaking was not pleasant. I managed to pick some odd fish up on the pole at 11 mtrs for the remainder of the match but never had a touch on either margin line or the 5mtr paste line. Odd chucks with the feeder also proved fruitless.

At the all in I had 2 carp, 2 barbel, 3 skimmers, 4 tench and a rogue chub for around 10lb. I knew I had not framed (no sections paid) so deposited the fish back before the scales arrived.

The match was won with 33lb, 2nd was 30lb and 3rd 23lb so it hadn't fished too bad based on recent results.

The obligatory chat was had with the match winner to see if I could glean some information for future reference and he stated that he struggled at 11 mtrs so half way through the match took 2 section's off, re-plumbed (2ft shallower) and began to catch.

All in all I enjoyed the day as it was the challenge of a fishery I have never seen before and entry fee was only £10.00.

Next week the gear has to be sorted as I'm sure I've got something on next weekend ?...............................ah yes, WHITEACRES !
For people who read this and are going to the Bait Tech Fest - see you there. For people who read this and are not going to the Bait Tech - tough luck.

Snooty

2009 Pools so far - £114

2009 Winnings so far - £80.00

Makins Teams of 3 - Sunday 8th March

The next round was upon us and due to his drawing prowess in the last round, Nigel was pushed into the draw queue.

He came back with - Thames 7 for me (crap), Crater 10 for himself (average), and Lake 4 B22 for Mick Lees. Now Mick had a word with one of the bailiffs before the draw and on the previous day fish were present in his area so he was more than happy.

Thames 7 , as any Makins regular will confirm, is on the wrong side of the lake. That side is so rubbish that Mark perkins only puts 2 pegs in - 5 & 7. Still, I was pretty buoyed by my performance the previous week and was confident I could catch a few even though the chances of winning money was very remote indeed.

Upon arrival, the wind was blowing a howler from left to right which immediately meant the obligatory 1/2 hour over to the far side reeds at 16 mtrs was out of the question. Lines were - 11mtrs at 10 and 2 0'clock, 14.5 mtrs directly in front at the bottom of the far shelf, margins left and right, and finally that killer line at 4.5 mtrs at the bottom of the near shelf.

For the first half of the match it was a total struggle with only one bite and one carp to show - this being from my left hand margin. I had been trickling casters in on the short line and finally decided to give this a try. It was obvious that there wasn't a tremendous amount of fish in the peg so the decision was made to sit on the short line for the duration of the match - shit or bust !

Odd bites on the double caster produced a chub of about 2lb, a couple of 12oz skimmers and a couple of 4oz roach but there was no definitive pattern emerging in regards to feeding. There were carp being caught elsewhere on the lake on the better pegs but I tried to not let this affect my decision to sit it out on this line.

Then the float sailed away and a firm strike met with lots of resistance. My 10 latex went shooting out down to my right and did not stop - was snapped on 0.11 Powerline. A new rig was dropped in and straight away exactly the same happened. This time I didn't get snapped but my PR21 hook was straightened. T A new rig of .13 and PR28 hook was dropped in and guess what - same again immediately and snapped !

There was still half an hour of the match left at this point so I began to feed corn and beefed up to .15 Powerline. First drop in and and something else shot down the lake. After a brief struggle, I managed to get this fish in (a mirror about 6lb), however it was foul hooked in the belly and I suspect that this could have been the cause of my earlier problems.

2 more large carp followed in the final 20 mins and my 4 carp and a few silvers weighed 21lb for 4th position in my 8 peg section. I was very satisfied with this as the peg had produced virtually nothing the week before. The lake was won with 45lb from peg 1 (end peg) which was a tremendous performance as this peg had not produced for a long time.

Teamwise, Mick won his section so we had 5 points up to this stage. Unfortunately Nigel had a bummer and came last in the section with 10lb for 8 pts.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a big well done to Paul Twigg who was the winner of the whole match from peg A14 on Phase 1. Paul is a mate of mine and this was only his 3rd ever match at Makins - well done Paul !

Next week, Woody999 from TF is standing in for me as I have to take my daughter to the Midlands Finals of the Under 13's Gymnastics competition. I will instead be fishing an open at Thorpe Consadine on the Saturday, a place I have not even seen before !

Snooty

2009 Pools so far - £109.00

2009 winnings so far - £80.00

Makins Teams of 3 - Sunday 1st March

As written in my last post, I had resigned from drawing duties for this match and the mantle was taken up by Nigel Bond. The team was the same with Mick Lees on Phase 1, Nigel Bond on Phase 2 and myslef on Phase 3.

The draw was on time this week (for a change) and Nigel came back with Lake 4 peg 4 for Mick, Snake 12 for himself and Avon 6 for me - at last we all seemed to have a half decent draw.

Avon 6 is a good peg but the section contains two better pegs in Avon 1 & 25. Also included in the 9 peg section are Avon 2 & 4 + another 4 pegs on Inner Avon. I was confident of coming at least 3rd in the section, hence getting 3 points only (25 & 1 would be hard to beat).

Bait for the day was 1/2 pt casters, one tin of corn, 1 pt of 3mm feed pellets and some paste.

As usual, the starting point was across to the far bank where a single grain of corn at varying depths was constantly lifted and dropped to try and induce a bite. Foul hookers are always a nightmare at Makins on this line as it is a fish patrolling area even when they are not feeding. On this line I use a MW Cookie which is perfect for the job as the weight of the corn still leaves some of the float showing even when you shallow up off the bottom. Anyway after 2 carp about 3lb each (foulhooked) and 2 lost foul hookers I gave up the ghost with this line as it is obvious the fish were not feeding. It sometimes amazes me how people continue to fish this line for nearly the whole match and constantly foul hook fish only getting the odd one in.

I had primed a couple of lines down the track with either caster or pellet and also been dripping some corn in down the edges at 4mtrs either side of me. The track lines produced not even an indication for 45 mins and neither did the margin lines. 'Stabber' on peg 1 was catching odd fish and Carl Williams on Inner Avon 3 had got 5 fish and was leading the section at this stage.

Up to the final 1/2 hour most of the section had been picking up odd fish and my guess was that Baz Smithson on peg 4 was now leading and I was probably 4th at best. Despite me picking up odd fish now and then (including my first fish of the year on paste !) I only had 6 in the net. What I did next changed my position dramatically.........................

I plumbed up at 4 mtrs which is just going down the nearside shelf (remember what Carpmagic says ?????) and fished so that the rig was swung out directly in front of me and then 'dragged' back up. A small kinder of maybe 40 3mms and a single grain of corn on the hook and 2 mins later 5lb carp was in the net. Two more followed on that line in the final 20 minutes and I felt I had pushed myself up to 2nd behind Baz.

The scales went round Inner Avon first with the best weight from those 4 pegs being Keith Dawes with 32lb. Peg 25 weighed 28lb and peg 1 weghed 30lb and Peg 3 hadn't caught much at all. Baz on 4 weighed 34lb and was leading the section with just me to weigh. I tipped my 9 carp into the weigh sling and knew it was close but was more than happy when the needle settled on 37lb 2oz.

Not only had I won the 9 peg section but was also 2nd on the phase behind Andy Findlay who had weighed 45lb from Avon 22. With 2 being paid out on each phase, this would make me a bit extra winnings and Baz Smithson was happy because it meant he would get the section money by default !!

Teamwise my 1 point was joined by 3 from Mick Lees but Nigel came back with 6. Our 10 point total put us 6th on the day which is not too bad out of 26 teams.

The £80.00 winnings was welcome (we do not share individual winnings within the team) as this was my first 'drag' since the back end of December !!!

It's round 3 next week and Nigel will be drawing again !!!!!!

2009 Pools so far - £89.00

2009 Winnings so far - £80.00