Dean Barlow reports back from a successful White Acres Bait-Tech Festival, where he finished a very creditable 7th out of 140 anglers!
After having a year off from the White Acres festivals down in Cornwall, once again I was on the way down there with my family… plus my beautiful little daughter for her very first fishing trip!
Day One
My first day would be at the prolific Bolingey Lakes, where big weights of carp are very common on every festival. So with a big smile on my face I put my hand in the drawbag and out came Peg 1… definitely not what I wanted! To say I was disappointed was an understatement!
As I got to my peg with the wind and rain howling into my face I was feeling a bit dejected. I then sat down and remembered I was on holiday and was determined to be much more positive about it. So, with a different attitude, I decided to fish three lines; one at six joints of my Acolyte in front of me, a line at 14.5 metres and a long margin swim.
I decided to take it easy bait wise. The Bait-Tech is a pellet-free festival, so on the whistle I cupped in a sloppy ball of Bait-Tech Special G Gold with a few dead maggots in on the 14.5m line, hoping to catch some F1s. I wanted to leave the margin as long as possible, hoping a a few fish would settle there later. I then put four bits of N-Tice meat and natural corn in my pole pot, shipped out at six joints with a piece of corn on the hook and waited…
After a minute, the float shot under and a big F1 was in the bag. A good start! Six more F1s and four carp were caught off this line in the first hour and a half. A change to my groundbait swim was rewarded with seven F1s, a 12lb mirror and an 8lb common carp, all on three dead red maggots on 0.138mm Drennan Double Strength line and a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook.
A look in the margins then got me three decent carp and three smaller ones, all on corn, to end up with 97lb, a section win and a very big smile!
Day Two
The second day saw me on Pollawyn Lake, where I pulled out Peg 27 on the famous ‘High Bank’ which is an absolute flyer! I started my day on bomb and bread, which got me two quick carp. I’d been feeding a few bits of N-Tice polony on the waggler line so when the bites dried up on the bomb I picked up the float rod, which was set up with a 4g Drennan Glow Tip waggler with a 0.16mm hooklength and a size 16 Carp Match hook with a Pushstop to hold an 8mm piece of meat.
I had a bite a chuck on it at the start from big roach and bigger hybrids, but no carp, so a change of plan was needed. I cut the feeding out completely, the silverfish disappeared and a carp was soon in the net! I steadily picked up the odd carp for the rest of the day to finish with 109lb. That consisted of 87lb of carp and 22lb of silvers for another section win and second on the lake. A bigger smile!
Day Three
The midway point had arrived and I drew peg 15 on Jennys Lake. I quite fancied it but I knew it would be difficult to beat peg 16 to me left, which is on a point and generally holds the resident big carp.
Starting on the feeder I was biteless for 30 minutes while Bristol ace Alan Orram on peg 16 was catching some skimmers and odd big carp at 13 metres. I then decided to go on my long line at 16 metres, which I’d been feeding with casters and corn. First drop my AS1 float buried and three metres of yellow Carp Bungee elastic ripped out as a 3lb carp was hooked and landed. I was off the mark!
By this time Alan had three carp about 7lb apiece and a few more skimmers so I was playing catch up all day. I kept the bait going in through a small pot and picking up small carp and silvers at 16 metres, really putting my Acolyte pole through its paces, to finish up with 43lb of carp and 37lb of silvers and a 80lb total. Alan put in a good performance and weighed 89lb for the section win and I finished 2nd.
Day Four
Thursday’s draw was split between Twin Oaks and Trelawney. I pulled out peg 28 on Twin Oaks, which I was quite happy with. Peg 24 had been the form peg of the week, however, and my good mate and reigning Bait-Tech Champ, James ‘Mr Chips’ Hawkins had drawn it – so I was up against it from the start!
My plan was to start on bomb and bread, feed a 5m line with polony and both margins with the same bait. The match started very slowly for everyone. I kept catching the odd carp on the bomb but they were surprisingly small – while James was catching the odd carp that were twice the size! I kept rotating my lines, picking up the odd fish, then with 35 minutes to go my 5m line came alive with big F1s. I caught one every put in on meat until the end of the match.
The scales came and James had weighed 109lb of decent carp and F1s. I put 75lb on the scales for another 2nd in section. To be fair I was quite happy with that, as I must have had at least half my weight in that last half hour!
Day Five
The final day came and Porth Reservoir was my home for the day. Out the bag came peg 74, which I was a bit dubious about. As it was the last day of the festival, quite a few people out of the running tend to gamble and sit it out for one or two big bream on the feeder. As my section is traditionally one of the better ones for these bonus fish I had five anglers doing just that in my section!
I decided to fish the pole for anything that comes along. My plan was to feed finely chopped worms and casters in a quite a wet mix of Special G Gold and Green. The first hour was good with a decent hybrid and a good perch plus a few bits in the net – but then word came down that the end peg had already caught three skimmers and a 5lb bream on feeder and corn!
I plodded on for a while, just picking up the odd fish until the last hour when I found out I needed a big fish to win the section. So the last hour I was sat with a big worm on the hook looking for that elusive bream. The float did go under twice but on both occasions it was a tiny perch!
The end peg weighed 10lb while my fish weighed 6lb for another 2nd in section. That gave me a total of 26 points, dropping a 2nd in section and hopefully a top-10 finish!
The Result
At the presentation we were told that even though the festival wasn’t sold out, Parkdean would still pay out the full prize money, so a big thanks must go to them for their generosity!
I ended up 7th overall, which I was really pleased about. Thinking back, I don’t think I could have got another point to lift me further up the top 10.
I really enjoyed the week away with my young family and cannot wait for the next time. Tight lines!
Top 20
1st Steve Ringer 28 382lb 11oz
2nd Mark Fox 28 344lb 15oz
3rd Dan White 28 303lb 9oz
4th Des Shipp 27 487lb 5oz
5th Adam Wakelin 27 426lb 1oz
6th Andy Leathers 27 271lb 11oz
7th Dean Barlow 26 365lb 3oz
8th Lee Kerry 26 287lb 12oz
9th Neil Adcock 26 369lb 5oz
10th Lee Edwards 26 341lb 6oz
11th Cameron Hughes 26 328lb 10oz
12th James Hawkins 26 308lb 16oz
13th Jason Le Bosquet 26 289lb 4oz
14th John Whincup 25 353lb 12oz
15th Callum Dicks 25 320lb 12oz
16th Tom Scholey 25 295lb 14oz
17th Alan Scotthorne 25 275lb 11oz
18th Scott Russell 25 251lb 5oz
19th Russell Grimes 25 366lb 6oz
20th Steve Sanders 25 286lb 16oz