Tough At Wet N Windy Acres
Long trip to wet n windy White Acres last week on the Winter Festival and it was pretty rough going!
Day 1 I was on Jennys 9 with 40mph gusts all day. I normally like this peg, but it was strangely poor all week and I was really surprised to only hook one F1 all day, plus two good perch and some roach. Only thing I could catch something reasonable on was a bit of worm. Maggots produced micro roach and the float never budged on corn. Never even hooked a carp. Weighed just 9lb for sixth. Oh well…
Day 2 kicked off with a refreshing hailstorm. Another really poor draw on Sycamore 9. The luckier half of our split zone were sat on my favourite Pollawyn. Hardly any F1s or skimmers in this lake any more, just roach and carassio which clearly don’t like getting caught too often. A roach a chuck short and shallow, then a dozen micro carassio long, averaging just 3oz. Then I had a 2lb non-counting carp. Then another 24 carp! Never saw another carassio after that and the only roach left feeding were 1/4oz. Started up new swims and caught carp on every one. Watched Andy Power catch at least 50 carp opposite me and think he’s only weighed 9lb. I weighed 13lb for 5th. Sycamore fished poor all week unless you were on the shallower pegs 3 or 5. Would’ve rather had a full section on Pollawyn, but hey ho.
Day 3 I’ve finally drawn a good peg, Twin Oaks 15. Had a couple of huge blondies, a few F1s and a few carassio amongst all the scaley non-counters. Just fished maggots all day. A bit of Sonubaits Thatchers and Supercrush Expander definitely helped cut through the roach. Had a joint section win and lake 2nd with 46lb. The only good day weatherwise too!
Day 4 and another shocker on Trelawney 4. Cold water was gushing into peg 1 like a river and all the weights had been in the teens. I never saw a single carp or F1 all day. Can’t believe it! Not a sniff on corn. Just tiny roach on the waggler. Seven pints of maggots never made a dent on the roach in front of me. Resorted to catching them and felt I’d caught plenty, so was surprised they only weighed 12lb. Just 26lb won the section off 28. Oh and it rained again.
Day 5 I was on Python 27, somewhere in the middle. The lake had fished well all week, but switched right off today. It was single banked and the cold wind was hacking through the gaps into our faces, so I assume the carp were sheltering. Kicked off dobbing and even 10mm bread and corn skins were being whittled away by yet more hordes of tiny roach. Swapped to maggot over a nugget of groundbait and had an 8oz F1, then just roach roach roach everywhere I fished. It didn’t seem to matter what I fed or tried on the hook. Eventually found five netters on corn in 3ft, fishing in the only sheltered part of my peg. Hoped to have a late run down the middle, but looking up and down the bank no one was catching. Last 10 minutes I had two carp down the edge on corn and missed a bite just before the whistle, coming back with a leaf. I’ve weighed 16lb and just 20lb won the lake from peg 35. What a rock-hard day!
Well I normally make the top 10 in this festival, so was due a bad year I suppose, drawing three really abysmal pegs. Can’t win ‘em all. Still a nice week away with my old mate Russ Grimes. The fishing was tough with incessant rain and hordes of tiny roach in all the lakes being such a pest. Talk is that carp will finally be allowed on all the lakes next year. Hope so. Very well done Trig on winning overall (again!) and all the White Acres team, especially for weighing everyone in such bad weather.
Got home Friday night in record time and spent the evening sat with the family and tying PVA bags for the Meadowlands feeder/bomb qualifier the next day! Arrived at the fishery to discover I’d stupidly left my bait bag at home, but thankfully not my PVA bags! Found an old towel, cadged some food containers together for bait tubs, borrowed some wafters, then had to borrow some more from his neighbour as they were impossible to spike!
Not the best of starts, but thankfully the fishing was good. I had nine carp and a stockie off peg 48 for 57lb and won my zone, qualifying for the Final in April. Phew, needed that after such a tough week! Well done Richard Shiner winning with 76lb off peg 25.
