Well done to young Samuel Claydon who managed to finish 5th overall in his first ever Junior Festival, fished at White Acres Holiday Park in Cornwall.

He used a mixture of meat and chopped worm tactics on the pole combined with the pellet and Method feeder on the rod and line to record two consistent results. That included a fantastic 66lb for 3rd overall on Day Two from peg 18 on Jenny’s Lake. Here’s how Samuel caught:

“I started on the pellet feeder and, first put in, the stopwatch got to seven seconds before the rod went round! This turned out to be an 8lb carp. I didn’t come off this line for three hours as it was solid with F1s and the odd big carp. I used 2mm pellets for feed with a nice coating of Sonubaits Tiger Fish liquid and a banded 6mm hard pellet. 

“After three hours I went on my chopped worm line, which I fed with a big pot of worm and casters at the start. I had eight tench and six skimmers here before it went dead. Next, I moved on to my edge swim. I fed the edge with Supercrush Expander groundbait and dead reds. This produced three lumps, all around 8lb, before the ducks got in and cleared out the bait!”

Drennan tackle scored highly, as he used the latest AS floats, Drennan inline Method and Pellet Feeders and Wide Gape Carp hooks. He also won a Drennan Series 7 Puddle Chucker Pellet Waggler rod as part of his 5th-place prize and commented:

“After the festival, I successfully caught F1s and carp on the pellet waggler at Bolingey Fishery. The rod is outstanding, so hopefully I will save up and get another!”