The sun was shining in Cornwall as Jon Arthur looks back on an eventful Milo Festival.

Every year I make the pilgrimage down to White Acres in the hope of doing well in one of the many festivals down there. I personally think the most reliable event to book onto has to be the Milo Festival. This is the last of the spring festivals, which ‘normally’ coincides with decent weather and the carp being much more spread out than they are for the earlier Bait-Tech and Dynamite festivals. This hopefully ensures more people have a better chance of having a good day’s sport. White Acres is full of fish but it is so popular that it gets a hell of a lot of angling pressure, and that makes certain pegs and areas stand out year in, year out. Although I am known for drawing well on most venues, I don’t seem to get quite the same fortunes down at the Acres, so the fairer the match the better as far as I’m concerned!

The bigger White Acres festivals are usually fished to the same format. That means 180 anglers split into five sections of 36. Each of these 36-peg sections (A to E) stay the same as the anglers fish against each other over five days from Monday to Friday. These 36-peg sections are further split into four nine-peg sections each day and it is section points from these nine pegs that make all the difference. You score nine points for a win down to one point for last. You can also drop your worst score from the five days – but it still comes into play in the case of a tie on points (which it invariably does!). It isn’t as complicated as it perhaps sounds and actually works very well.

You normally need 36 points to win (four section wins) and about 32 points should normally get you into the top 20, with 33-34 getting in the top-10 money slots. Weight and your section ‘dropper’ can often be the only difference between yourself and someone 10 places higher at the end of the week. That leaves most people coming back with ‘if onlys’ and ‘what ifs’. It is such a tightly fought week and you really do need to be at the top of your game and/or have a little bit of luck on your side to do well.

I was disappointed to see the previous Bait-Tech and Dynamite festivals undersubscribed this year, which meant just seven and eight peg sections on those. The Milo was close to full, however, so almost every section was a nine-pegger. To me, that makes it so much fairer. However, it also makes it much harder to win, of course!

The Arrival

The previous weekend is the official practice time for the festivals. I had actually planned to arrive in Cornwall late Saturday evening, as I wanted to fish the Match This qualifier at Woodland View. However, I was too busy working to realise I had missed the cut-off point for ticket applications by just five minutes! That turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it gave me time to get everything ready and make a more leisurely drive south first thing in the morning.

After a near-four-hour journey through torrential rain I finally arrived in not-so-sunny Cornwall! Popping into the reception I discovered my lodge wasn’t quite ready so, despite the black clouds and strong winds I thought I’d have a fish. Try and stop me!

Believe it or not, apart from one bloke on Trelawney, I was the only one mad enough to brave the weather on the entire complex that afternoon! Despite some heavy downpours, gusts approaching pole-breakers and even a springtime hailstorm I caught lots of fish on Peg 13 on Pollawyn (Match Lake).

All I had with me was two-week-old meat and three-week-old casters. The fish never seemed to mind, though, as I bagged some pretty hefty specimens including a 12-14lb common on the Method and a mirror approaching 15lb. It was also nice to catch four barbel to 3lb and several very hollow looking perch on meat. They had obviously shed their spawn recently, as they do each spring. And soon after the perch spawn, the silvers do too, so more of that later…

A Section Beckons

By now I had learnt what section I had drawn and was pretty happy to be in A Section, as that was a decent lake rotation. It meant I started on Pollawyn, where the carp are usually a lot more spread out before they shoal up on the notorious ‘High Bank’ pegs later in the week. The rotation also meant I would be on Porth on the Thursday, which meant plenty of bait will have already gone in to settle the place down and, by then, we’d know if those meddlesome bream were figuring in catches or whether it was a fairer, small-fish affair. Finally, it also meant Bolingey would be my last venue of the week. I can’t think of a better lake to finish on, as it’s normally most people’s highlight of the festival with some proper string pullers residing in there!

Unfortunately, my lodge mate Neil McKinnon was also in A Section, much to our dismay. Neither of us like fishing against each other and being in the same zone doesn’t help the learning process or the information flow so freely! My other lodge mate, Paul Cannon, had the best luck as he was in E Section, which follows A Section. That meant he could pick Neil and my brains each night (not that it helped him too much this year… ahem!).

Sunday Practice

Pollawyn is a very unusual shaped lake consisting of three ‘fingers’ or arms. The pegging is unusual too as the numbers don’t follow each other sequentially plus you could even be beaten either side and still win your section (Confusing, I know. Must be something in those Cornish pasties?).

I am an out-and-out ‘arm specialist’ as I always draw down these less-fancied parts of the lake and have never drawn the famous High Bank pegs from 15 to 29 in a carp match… yet! As I know what to do down the arms I chose to sit on Peg 29 for a bit of a practice. Unlike the day before, the weather was much warmer and I even caught the sun a bit. The water seemed very warm, too, and that made me think we could be on for a great week.

The fact that I caught bream and carp shallow on meat on both the long and short pole was a good sign. I also caught a few large edge dwellers and had a good waggler and bomb session to dust off my rod-and-line cobwebs – although I did lose one of my cherished 5g Drennan Crystal Pellet Wagglers, much to Mr McKinnon’s amusement!

Day One – Pollawyn 38

As expected, all that practice on the High Bank counted for nowt as I drew down the arms once again. In fact I drew Peg 38, I think for the 3rd time now. Anyone who knows Pollawyn will agree that you would never ever run to this peg or any of the end-peg arm swims. I have drawn Peg 6 twice and Peg 41 twice, too, which perhaps tells you how familiar I am with some of the worst pegs on the lake! However, I normally/somehow do quite well down the arms so I still went to 38 with a small degree of optimism. Carp definitely reside down the arms on days one and two. By the Friday, however, you’ll be lucky to see a carp, while the silvers have normally also all been battered – that’s why it’s important to get on Pollawyn early!

While the wind was hacking into the first two arms it was like a mill pond in front of me! What’s more, I had pegs 48 and 52 in my section and couldn’t believe how many carp were clearly visible down that arm. You could have walked to the island across their backs! I also had Peg 45 in the section, which is arguably one of the best section pegs on the entire lake. Then, to make matters even more frustrating, one of the bailiffs walked down to me and said he could see over 100 carp on top in the pegs to my left! He reckoned they did this every year as they awaited the bream going down the arms to spawn. I looked out in front of me and in the two hours before the start I reckoned only four or five carp swam past. Glancing to my left I had Alex Murray on Peg 36 and he could count 30 carp basking in front of him! I had a book crammed full of very valid excuses and wasn’t overly optimistic. I felt a 3rd or 4th was the absolute best I could manage if the pegs fished to form…

My plan was very simple. Meat across and worms down the edge. I plumbed up the deeper water but it was very silty and I felt in this temperature and with carp hopefully being active it would be the shallower water that held my best chance of fish. Fortunately I could find roughly the same 2ft depth on two swims across at 14.5 metres and two swims either side down the edge on a top kit plus two.

Carp were my main target with big baits like meat or worms. Strong rigs were the order of the day as I wanted to make sure I got the carp out, which tend to be rather angry and take you around the back of the islands or through unseen roots etc if you’re not geared up. I set up lighter rigs, too, just in case but I knew I could also catch quality silvers such as F1s, barbel, chub, hybrids and big perch on my stouter gear in this warm weather, so that’s what I stuck to all day.

I ended up feeding a meat swim across and caught seven carp to 7lb here in the first 90 minutes. As expected, it went dead mid-match so I kept nicking silvers close in on worms over generous amounts of casters, choppy and groundbait. The perch were well worth catching, plus there was a surprising amount of skimmers down the edges too. The last hour I managed one more carp across and two down the edge to about 8lb. I ended up with 10 carp for 50lb and 51lb of ‘silvers’. I reckon that was about 10lb of F1s, 10lb of barbel, 10lb of skimmers and 20lb of perch. Strangely not a single roach!

I was made up with that catch as it had been a busy and enjoyable day. I was even more made up to find pegs 48 and 52 had somehow struggled, while fancied 45 had 95lb. That just left Alex to weigh in on Peg 36. His peg was wider than mine and he had caught carp shallow all day on pellets across, so I knew he had soundly beaten me. However, his 116lb was impressive but not quite as big a gap as I expected. I was well happy with 2nd in section, though, as it never felt possible at the start. To top off a great day I also discovered the High Bank had an off day so my 101lb was enough for 3rd on the entire lake, behind Alex and Jamie Wilde’s magnificent 147lb off unfancied Peg 1.

It just goes to show that anything’s possible and the form book can and does get thrown out of the window from time to time!

Result:
101lb. Section 2nd, Lake 3rd.

Best Tackle:
Drennan 0.2g AS4 on 0.18mm line, fished direct to a 14 Drennan Margin Carp hook for worms and a 0.18mm hooklength and size 16 Kamasan B911 Extra-Strong and a Pushstop for hair-rigging meat. Elastic was either yellow or pink Drennan Carp Bungee. With the snags and chances of lots of pulling for breaks amongst the roots I opted for my sturdy new Acolyte Carp pole!

Day Two – Trelawney 22

My fortunes are definitely changing down here as I normally hate Trelawney with a passion, plus I have never ever drawn the nice high-numbered section in a carp match. That all changed this time around as I pulled out Peg 22 and won the section with 137lb!

It was one of those days where everything went pretty well to plan. I nicked a quick 4lb carp on the short pole with meat before plundering small carp and F1s against the island for the next 90 minutes with a small pellet feeder and 6mm banded pellet.

My shallow swim was a bit tricky but I still managed a few small F1s and a couple of decent carp on 6mm and 8mm pellets before dropping down my right-hand edge and having a great last hour on meat. I snared several big bruisers down there on meat and worms over meat, casters and groundbait and even had one about two seconds before the ‘all out’ was shouted!

The whole lake fished its brains off (as it did all week, in fact) and there were four 100lb-plus weights on my side while Nathan Watson won the lake with 140lb shallow off normally unfancied Peg 6 – and that’s despite him falling in. Nathan is such a quiet, polite and well-mannered chap that none of us laughed… much!

Result:
137lb. Section 1st, Lake 2nd.

Feeder Tackle:
Drennan 10ft Series 7 Puddle Chucker Carp Feeder, Series 7 BR 9-30 Carp Method reel with 6lb Drennan Method & Feeder Mono, small pellet feeder, 0.18mm Supplex hooklength and size 16 B911 with a hair-rigged latex band.

Day Three – Trewaters 21

This was where the wheels fell off! I knew I was up against it as I had Neil McKinnon to my right on 23 and Jamie Wilde on corner Peg 19 to my left. As it turned out, I think we were on the wrong side of the lake as we only came 4th, 5th and 6th in section. I got Harry Ramsdened (battered both sides!) by Neil and Jamie. They weighed 84lb and 87lb to my 77lb, despite both of them insisting I had 100lb-plus before the weigh in.

I think I caught more fish but they were much smaller and with far too many of those horrible mutant carassio-type fish amongst them! I also lost no end of fish and obviously got my feeding a bit wrong. In fact I lost my first five fish on the pellet feeder and only started to keep them on when I tried a slightly longer hair. Perhaps that was a coincidence? There are so many things I should’ve or could’ve done better and I definitely had the potential for 90lb on the day. The five hours whizzed by and I got so angry with myself as fish after fish inexplicably came off from every swim!

I think I should have stayed on the feeder as long as possible. I managed a few fish on pinged pellets at 14.5 metres before bites became unhittable there while the short-pole meat swim was dire for everyone on my bank. The fish were down the edges en mass at the end, though… if you could hook them!

One to forget methinks. I knew this result would ultimately cost me, though…

Result:
Section 6th.

Best Tackle:
None!

Day Four – Porth 85

I wasn’t too disappointed with drawing this section as it’s normally ok for some small fish action. However, the pegging in the middle of the 80s where I was is way too tight for my liking and as it’s so reedy it’s also home to ‘a few’ meddlesome pike… as I would soon find out!

The only peg I knew I would need a miracle to beat was end Peg 89. In fact, as I stood there in the draw queue telling everyone I wanted that very peg, Tom Wallis, the next lad in front of me, promptly pulled it out. Bugger!

I started on the tip and opted for a slightly different setup to my normal approach at Porth. This was influenced by a couple of fairly successful winter tip-sessions I’d had that made me rethink what I was trying to achieve. So, this time I set up a prototype 10ft bomb rod matched to a FD3000 reel and went for braid main line to a 0.22mm fluorocarbon shock leader. At the business end I went for a paternoster setup with a 12in boom and a micro swivel connecting my 12in hooklength of 0.129mm Supplex and size 16 Kamasan B560 hook, making a 2ft tail in total. Using a tiny three or four-hole cage feeder plugged with mostly chopped worm and groundbait (50/50 Sensas Magic and Sonubaits F1) I then fished either dead maggot, dead pinkies or redworms in the hook. It worked surprisingly well as I managed a good 4lb of small skimmers on the tip, casting around 30 reel turns.

I also fed two pole swims. The first was for roach at about seven metres with just hemp and maggots while the second was a skimmer line at 13 metres with fairly regular balls of groundbait and worms. The short swim was dire until I switched that around to small balls of worm and groundbait, while the 13m swim produced odd skimmers on worm heads and dead maggots.

I was catching fish on the pole but the pike were a nightmare… and flipping huge! At one point I was netting a 2oz skimmer when an estimated 15lb pike grabbed it and jumped clean over my landing net. I had five or six skimmers taken while the guy to my left even had one try and attack his pole pot twice as he shipped out!

With over 1lb of fish robbed by Mr Esox I hoped it wouldn’t cost me. Well, Tom won the section as expected with 14lb and I weighed 9lb 3oz for 3rd in section. Just 9lb 4oz was 2nd in section (Yes, just one measly ounce). Gutted!

All week, I think my 9lb would have been close to framing, but the bream fed in the meadow this day, so my weight was about 6th on the lake. It was a nice fish-catching day, to be honest, though, only marred by the pike and that single ounce. Oh, I nearly forgot; I also dropped my phone in afterwards and had to go for a swim after it. At least I was offered a lift back on the boat – which, I must add, this year had a motor that was working…

Result:
9lb 3oz. Section 3rd.

13m Skimmer Tackle:
Drennan G-Tip 3 1.5g on 0.14mm Supplex to a 0.10mm Supplex hooklength and size 18 B560 to No5 elastic.

Day Five – Bolingey 19

This was easily my best draw of the week. I don’t know this part of Bolingey at all, to be honest, but everyone I spoke to suggested it had some form. However, it’s probably the best section from the four so you normally have to win the match to win the section!

It’s apparently a ‘new’ peg they’ve put in after it was repegged the other year. A few people suggested I had a lovely bay to chuck into with the feeder but, upon arrival, I realised that was actually Peg 18’s swim. Instead, I had the point of an island about 18-19 metres away with a very snaggy looking bush on the corner of it. A quick word to owner Andy Dare about its snagginess and he assured me that if I sunk my rod I wouldn’t have any trouble. Er, despite sinking my rod deep I lost my first fish which went straight through this ‘unsnaggy’ snag and promptly threw the rod up the bank. Lesson one: never listen to Mr Dare!

Also, before the start, I set up a long-line swinging rig but soon discounted this as it was too awkward and snaggy looking for my liking. Instead, my plan was to fish shallow at 16 metres, a couple of metres off the bank, plus a couple of short-pole meat swims and two edge swims.

I actually started short and had two carp to 6lb early on meat before having to pick up the shallow rig. I started on meat shallow as this is something I’ve had a fair bit of success with on Bolingey and I felt that by the Friday they’d have a real taste for Spam. A carp and a F1 kept the catch ticking over but it wasn’t hectic. Meanwhile Peg 21 and 18 were both emptying it on the feeder. I needed to make something happen!

I swapped to feeding 6mm pellets instead and the tighter grouping was definitely bringing more bites. A big F1 and another small carp came my way before I began to miss bites. I’d been told there were a lot of F1s in this area so I swapped to a much lighter 0.12mm bottom and soon discovered the culprits were small F1s and those mutant carassio thingies again. I wasn’t catching anything like fast enough however so I quickly sacked this off.

Meanwhile, Peg 18 had dropped onto the short pole and was nicking the odd big carp. I managed one of my own about 8lb and so this was where I spent most of the match from this point on. It is always a gut reaction as to where exactly to fish close in and whether it’s one swim or two for me on this place but this time I opted for two swims, left and right, in about 6ft of water where I found a gentle slope. I fed one swim very light and the other much more positively but had similar reactions from both.

A single 8mm cube of meat on the hook brought several big carp – the biggest of which went a whopping 17lb (just 8oz short of the fish of the week prize, no less!) – and put up a long, plodding scrap. Incidentally, although I had my Acolyte Carp pole with me, I opted for my standard Acolyte for this session. This was mainly because of the 16m shallow swim, as I just felt a lighter pole would be much more comfortable. It coped rather well with the short-pole crunching work for double-figure Bolingey beasties, too!

Despite scum forming in my margin swims I only managed two carp from this area all day. It was the short pole that was best. Bizarrely, I had a manic fight with a 4lb tail-hooked mirror that I thought was an eel. Then, I promptly went in and hooked what I thought was another foul-hooked carp that turned out to be a 1lb-plus eel hooked squarely in the top lip. Next drop in I hooked another eel that was even bigger; again hooked squarely in the lip!

Despite setting up a million rigs (as I always do) I ended up using the same bagging rig all day on this swim to end with about 15 carp, five F1s and two eels. That gave me 124lb 6oz for an all-important section win. Those two ‘snakes’ were vital as Peg 22 caught on the feeder all day and weighed just 2lb less!

I was also 5th on the lake. Neil McKinnon was 2nd on the lake with 140lb on pellet shallow, while James Stones had a great day catching on maggots over groundbait down the edge from Peg 47 for a lake-winning 163lb.

Result:
124lb 6oz. Section 1st. Lake 5th.

Short-Pole Meat Tackle:
Drennan AS2 0.3g on 0.18mm Supplex direct to a size 16 Wide Gape Carp hook and pink Carp Bungee elastic.

Overall

It had been a great week weatherwise with some great weights caught all over the complex – even on Canal and Acorn! Trelawney was easily the best lake all week while the short pole and edges played a massive part, too, as the carp had obviously come in to eat all the silver fish spawn!

I managed two section 1sts, a 2nd, a 3rd and a blowout 6th to finish on 33 points and 18th place out of the 176ish anglers that fished. I was reasonably happy with that as I definitely never had the best of draws, but I’m sure I could have finished in the top 10 with a little bit more luck. Perhaps next time?

Neil and Paul were great lodge mates as per usual – despite Paul’s ‘lucky Chinese cat’ being anything but that! I must also thank Milo for sponsoring the event and Clint Elliott and all the White Acres staff for looking after us all so well.

A very well done to Nick Jones for being a very worthy Milo Festival Champion and to the ever-consistent Darren Cox and Des Shipp who filled 2nd and 3rd spots respectively.

I certainly cannot knock the 451lb of fish I caught over five days, including three tons. Hopefully I’ll have more of the same next year!

Milo Festival Top 20

1st Nick Jones
2nd Darren Cox
3rd Des Shipp
4th Darren Walters
5th Chris Reilly
6th Tom Wallis
7th Harry Billing
8th Pemb wrighting
9th Martin Trice
10th Luke Sears
11th Mark Harper
12th Shaun Barnett
13th Ian Taylor
14th Scott Russell
15th Martin Howard
16th Simon Colclough
17th Rob Jones
18th Jon Arthur
19th Jamie Wilde
20th Martin Holmes