Drennan Bordon’s Russ Grimes reports back from two successful White Acres Festivals where plenty of valuable lessons were learnt.
As always I was looking forward to getting to White Acres in Cornwall for the Bait-Tech Festival. This year I was going to stay for two weeks as the Dynamite Festival followed on without a break!
As a normal everyday weekend angler I really look forward to these events, as you are fishing five days on the trot and get to rub shoulders with the best in the game. The amount you can learn is paramount to improving your all-round ability, both by keeping your eyes open during the matches and the chit chat after the matches. And as always you get to meet up with anglers that you only get to see there – it’s like a small home coming!
As normal, I had spent weeks prepping my kit, tying countless hooklengths and rigs and changing elastics. You really have to be ready for all situations when your down there and cannot leave any stone unturned!
With our new team sponsor Drennan, I was looking forward to using the range of AS floats which I had been tying up. I must have three Rive trays full now! The range covers nearly every situation you can encounter and are faultless in design.
My elastics choices remained with my trusty yellow, grey and white Hydros but I had added the green, yellow and red Drennan Carp Bungee to my armoury, which over the two weeks proved to be fantastic, having plenty of give to running fish but also so good in controlling them at the netting stage.
Here’s how my Bait-Tech Festival week unwound:
Day 1 – Porth reservoir:
At the Monday draw there is always a buzz in the air. The adrenaline starts to flow once fishery manager Clint Elliott has finished his speech and your draw queue begins to diminish! My first peg of the five days took me to Peg 20 in the first meadow – a nice section and one that is pretty fair.
I elected to fish 7 pole sections for roach, feeding hemp and pinkies, 13m for skimmers with groundbait, worms and caster and started on a small feeder to hopefully catch all that swims.
I ended up with 8lb 8oz for a 2nd in section. Being the first day it’s always a bit of a guessing game as how best to approach Porth. In hindsight a roach-only attack would of been the best way to go, as this meadow seems to be stuffed with small roach at the moment. I believe 10-13lb is achievable from most pegs in the section approached correctly and fished for from start to finish.
Hats of to Mark Fox who was next to me who snuck an early bream and then got his head down on the roach for 11lb and a section win.
Day 2 – Bolingey:
Bolingey was my destination for Day 2 and this place really is the bagging Mecca in Cornwall, with 200lb often needed to win the lake and plenty of 100lb weights commonplace. This said, it can be very unkind to festival anglers. As always, the fish can follow the wind and there are areas you really don’t want to draw!
My destination for the day was Peg 15 in the back arm. A great draw to be fair.
A quick look at the board from the previous day showed 135lb came from my peg and a valuable 2nd in section. This spurred me on a bit so I was happy with my destination.
At my peg I set up a bomb to fish tight to the island which I would change to a small meat feeder later in the day. I also set up a 4g Drennan Glow Tip Waggler to fish three quarters across should the wind allow, where I would ping 8mm meat.
I also set up a 5m line incorporating a couple of rigs with AS2s and yellow bungee; a 0.3g to fish through the water and a 0.5g to fish on the deck to hopefully catch some fish in the last couple hours. Here I would drip feed 4 to 5 cubes of meat every couple of minutes after the first hour.
Finally, for down the edge I assembled three 0.3g AS4s to red Carp Bungee; all the same in case of breakages in that crucial last hour, so I could just pick up another rig and carry on.
I ended the match with 175lb, which was 1st in section and also won the lake! I took most fish on the bomb in the first couple of hours and then had around 70lb between the 5m and edge line. A really nice days fishing with some stunning looking carp coming to the net!
Day 3 – Match Lake (Pollawyn):
Now would you believe it, as I pulled my mitt out of the draw bag, Peg 27 was stuck to it!
For those of you that know Match Lake, draws don’t get much better than this! It’s on the ‘high bank’ and is pretty consistent. It does have the odd off day but the better days far outweigh the bad ones.
On arrival I had Steve Cooke for company on Peg 29 so this was going to be tough. He is as consistent as anyone on the festivals, lodges with Phil and Steve Ringer and knows more about meat fishing than most!
Anyhow, I went about my business and set up my armoury of kit: Two waggler rods for fishing three quarters shallow – one again with a Glow Tip Waggler and the other with a Drennan flighted pellet waggler, plus a bomb rod to fish the same line. Here I would feed 8mm meat. I also assembled another bomb rod to fish tight to the boards, which would change to a feeder later in the day.
I also plumbed up at 16 metres as a back-up line and a 5m swim, where I would throw 8mm meat looking for carp later in the day. The rigs for these incorporated AS4 floats in 0.3g up to 0.6g. It’s quite deep on this bank and you need to have good control of your rig.
My match went ok, but I did lose myself a bit at the halfway stage. My casting went a bit and the feeding too! I had been catching steady just plodding on the waggler with the odd fish on the bomb underneath the loose feed but always felt things should be better.
At this point Steve really was motoring on the long pole, catching skimmers shallow with the odd carp thrown in. To my left other people were beginning to catch more, too.
I upped my feed, which in hindsight was wrong and my peg went away from me. I felt I had let things slip and maybe nerves got the better of me? After all, there is a little bit expected of you when you draw a peg like this!
Come the weigh in I recorded 75lb in my first net, which I couldn’t quite believe, as I had gone over by 15lb! At White Acres there is a strict 60lb net limit but as long as you don’t go over 80lb you are given 60lb. If you have 80lb or over in one net the whole net is then disqualified. My second net went just 5lb 14oz, giving me a total of 65lb 14oz. I should have had 80lb 14oz – if I had of split my fish properly!
During that point when I felt my match was going downhill, I took my eye off the ball and paid the price. The lake as a whole had fished a lot better the day before and I was forcing my peg on a day when the lake fished differently. Sometimes we go to pegs expecting more from them than they are worth. Every day is different.
At the end of the day, Cookie won the section and the lake with 90lb and Callum Dicks was 2nd on the lake with just 69lb. I ended up 2nd in section and 3rd overall on the lake with my 65lb. I should have been 2nd on lake and maybe, if I had kept my cool, I could have beaten Cookie, too? There was only 10lb in it after all…
A lot was learnt that day, both in approach and mental attitude while fishing. Talking to Steve Cooke as we packed up he put me right on a few things about my peg and the high bank in general. A great chap who was only too happy to share with me his hard-earned knowledge and advice on this lake. Watching him and how he fed also taught me a bit too.
Day 4 – Jenny’s/Trewaters:
At this stage I now had a 1st and two 2nds in section, which kept me in contention of a top 10 finish. I’ve had a couple of top 10s and a handful of top-20s over my time coming to the festivals and you don’t get your chances that often, so I was hoping for half a draw today.
It’s a split section. Jenny’s is the famous Parkdean Masters Final lake and Trewaters, which is off site, consists of two small lakes stocked with an abundance of silverfish, F1s and carp.
Peg 28 on Trewaters was my destination; a little disgruntled as it was almost last the day before. Keeping an eye on results through the week it seemed like the pegs to be on were 31 and 32. On arrival at the lake Steve Saunders and Tony Winnick were sat on those pegs – not good as these two anglers don’t make many mistakes!
To cut a long story short, I ended up 4th in the section. Tony won it with 74lb and Steve was 2nd with 73lb. Scott Russell weighed in 52lb and my 47lb came up short!
I fished hard all match and really tried but just couldn’t compete. Although unhappy, 4th is a good ‘dropper’ with one day to go.
Day 5 – Trelawney/Twin Oaks:
This was the last day of the festival so I was looking for a 1st or 2nd to get me in the top 10, while a 2nd should get me in the top 20.
I drew Peg 12 on Trelawney, which had been consistent all week so was more than happy with my destination. F1s had been showing well on the pegs at this end of the lake but weights had suffered as the week went on with the pressure of angling.
I set my stall out with F1s in mind and set up an array of AS1s and AS3s to fish short, long and down the edge. These are lovely sensitive floats with 1.25mm and 1.5mm tips respectively. Worms casters and meat were my baits for the day as pellets are not allowed on the Bait-Tech Festival. Using light hooklengths matched with green Bungee and yellow Hydro I felt confident of catching a few.
My starting point was on bomb and bread, while I primed a top-4 swim with 6mm meat.
I also cupped some corn and meat long down the edge, again Looking for F1s.
In short it turned out to be a bit of a carp match, rather than F1s, in the end. Fishing so light I did lose a few early big fish in amongst the F1s so I made the decision to up my hooklength from 0.10mm to 0.13mm and never lost another carp, but it did hinder my catch rate on the F1 front. A hard call to make; maybe I should have stayed light and taken everything and accepted my losses?
Tony Gilbert fished well to win the section with 120lb. I had 70lb for 2nd and Callum Dicks was a creditable 3rd from a tough area with 56lb odd. That’s a big gap to catch up on F1s to win the section so maybe the carp I landed beat Callum?
The Result
All in all, it was the end of a great week’s fishing in great company. As always, it was super to see some old mates and to make some new ones. I must comment on how well the lakes had been looked after and prepared for the season ahead and how good generally the fishing was all over. I learnt bucketloads from plenty of guys and again learnt a lot about myself. How to try and maintain mental attitude and good angling in these events is so important as every day and every single minute of each 5-hour match counts.
My efforts for the week put me 19th overall. There was definitely a chance of a top-10 place with the draws I had and some better decision making. I suppose that’s what keeps us going and striving to do better!
The Dynamite Festival
Here’s a shorter summary for my second week at White Acres on the Dynamite Festival.
Day 1 – Twin Oaks:
I drew Peg 1 on Twin Oaks and with the wind blowing down this end I was happy with my draw. This proved to be correct as I had a steady day and put 186lb together for a section and lake win. A great start to the week!
Day 2 – Porth Reservoir:
Peg 89 was my destination and 5 hours later a section win was in the bag. A hard day today with me only needing 5lb 8oz and 3lb odd was 2nd in section.
Day 3 – Bolingey:
Peg 49 was my destination. It was stone bonk last the day before but I managed 86lb for a 2nd in section. Peg 7 beat me with 97lb. I lost a few fish so it was there for the taking!
Day 4 – Match Lake:
Peg 5… ohhhhhh dear! The drawing arm went wild. Worst peg on the lake! I was last in section. I felt I gave myself a chance to win the section by fishing for carp, however, as I would have had only one more point had I caught my quota of silver fish.
Day 5 – Jenny’s:
With the last day to go I still had a chance of 35 points with a really bad dropper, which would have been around 5th in the festival the way things where shaping up. I drew Peg 19 on Jenny’s. By now I was chasing it and must have asked 15 different people on their view of how to approach the peg. In amongst all of this information my own thoughts and knowledge of the lake completely went out the window! Halfway through the match I realised this and began kicking myself. First or second in the section was there for the taking and I never gave myself a chance with my 38lb only beating three anglers.
I ended up around 30th in the festival according to my team mates. I was so gutted that I didn’t take a look at the final standings! Top 10 was there for the taking and what I did learn was, yes you need as much information as you can get, but always trust your own instincts and always fish your own match. How many times have we all fallen into the trap of fishing someone else’s match? Plenty of lessons learnt!