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<\/a><\/p>\nWhat a great week down at White Acres for the Preston Festival. I had Neil McKinnon, Rob Wootton and Nick Speed for company in our lodge. Three top anglers, great company and plenty of banter flying around. The fact that Nick is a top chef is the icing on the cake. This man kept us fed with some of the nicest grub you could possibly wish for\u2026 and entertained by Tippexing naughty pictures on all of our fishing tackle by the end of the week!<\/p>\n
There are 180 anglers on each White Acres festival and the quality competing on the Preston is always the very best of the lot. After all, there is a small matter of a 24-man \u00a325,000 Parkdean Masters Final that everyone is desperately trying to qualify for.<\/p>\n
There are five sections of 36 anglers and the format sees you fish each venue on rotation. I found myself in E Section which is by far my favourite rotation as it sees me (hopefully) bagging up on carp for four days before swapping all the gear over to fish for silverfish on Porth on the Friday. As always, I had some star names in my section that I would have liked to avoid. Des Shipp, Steve Sanders, Si Colclough, Brad Gibbons, Frankie Gianoncelli, Andy Leathers and lodge buddy Rob \u2018The Cerebral Assassin\u2019 Wootton to name but a few.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how my week panned out\u2026<\/p>\n
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Day One \u2013 Bolingey<\/strong> This sea view on the way to Bolingey always reminds Jon what a great place Cornwall is!<\/p><\/div>\n I was reasonably happy with Peg 32 on Bolingey for Day One of the festival as, so long as the wind doesn\u2019t blow, it\u2019s one of the fairer sections on the venue where the winner could come from anywhere. I had no one of note in my section\u2026 just Des Shipp to my right, Rob Wootton to my left, Steve Sanders and Andy Leathers immediately opposite. No pressure then!<\/p>\n It was a very slow start but I managed one carp short on an 8mm pellet then a few long pinging 6mms. Steve was easily best after three hours with Des probably second. I needed a swim to come good and thankfully they turned up on one of my margins. Feeding negatively with meat I managed a great run of fish and felt I was winning the lake with 30 minutes to go. Unfortunately, I only managed one small carp after that while Des and Rob went into short-pole bagging overdrive. Their fish seemed much bigger, too, and by the end of the match I wasn\u2019t sure who had come out on top.<\/p>\n There are a few grass carp like this in Bolingey.<\/p><\/div>\n Steve was winning with 108lb by the time the scales arrived at Des\u2019 peg. He plonked 122lb on the scales while my smaller fish thankfully went 135lb. Rob was convinced I\u2019d done enough but it wasn\u2019t to be as he put a well-deserved 142lb section winning total together. It\u2019s the last hour that always decides the outcome on this lake and fish size makes a big difference. Despite having more fish my average size wasn\u2019t quite big enough. I was still happy with a 2nd in section for a good festival opener \u2013 and the obligatory \u2018lucky\u2019 default section prize as Rob ended up 3rd on the lake!<\/p>\n Day Two \u2013 Pollawyn<\/strong> This was a nightmare of a day for me. The lake was fishing the hardest I had ever seen it and with few silvers feeding it was hard to make anything happen if you weren\u2019t on them. I thought I was fishing against the poorer pegs to my right and felt I had blown it by not fishing for silvers enough, but my 25lb weight would have put me 3rd in that section. In fact, I should have realised that I was in with the better section where the pegs are dotted about all over the lake and my paltry weight was 8th out of nine pegs. I needed 50lb-plus for 3rd and am not sure how I could have done that on the day.<\/p>\n However, looking back I definitely fed way too much bait but I\u2019ve had the most success on Pollawyn by being positive and feeding meat and casters so didn\u2019t see any reason to change. I struggled to get anything going on meat shallow too. If I had just Kinder potted tiny amounts of meat (or pellets perhaps?) I am sure I would have caught a carp or two. I only managed one all day and that was a tiny 3lb mirror at 16 metres with 30 minutes to go. A very poor performance for me. If anything, I almost tried too hard to catch fish if that makes sense\u2026<\/p>\n Day Three \u2013 Twin Oaks\/Trelawney<\/strong> I personally think this is the worst section at White Acres because it contains the best peg in the country in the shape of Peg 16. It means that you are almost certainly fishing for 2nd in section from the off. It had already won the section every day this week and last week and with the wind blowing that way and Rob Wootton sat on it there was only ever one winner. If you draw pegs 10, 12, 14 and 18 you still have an outside chance of beating it but after that you are clutching at straws. So, I was rather unhappy with Peg 8 but, on the plus side, at least I wasn\u2019t sat on pegs 4 or 6. End peg 2 sometimes throws up a surprise and with Des Shipp on there anything was possible.<\/p>\n Despite seeing a carp tailing up beside my platform while tackling up I never managed a quick fish short to begin with. Moving out to 13 metres I eventually had a 3lb mirror before chucking the Method feeder and bagging three more for around 20lb.<\/p>\n Meat short was no good at all and despite carefully potting 8mm cubes all day I was still plagued by roach and the odd skimmer. I managed a few better bream down the edge on meat, plus a welcome 3lb F1 but my long-pole pellet pinging line was no good at all, even when I pushed out to 16 metres. I felt the edges would come good and thankfully they did in the shape of three big lumps for around 30lb in the last 40 minutes.<\/p>\n That rocketed me up to 4th in section with 73lb. I had beaten pegs 2, 4, 6, 10 and 14 so was very happy. Andy Leathers fished a good match to take 2nd with 117lb on the long pole and pellet and Paul Christie on end peg 18 had 98lb. Needless to say Rob won with 140lb, despite not having the tidiest of matches by his own admission. Oh, and I somehow got a treble-default section envelope!<\/p>\n Day Four \u2013 Trewaters\/Acorn\/Canal<\/strong> My home made ‘flick rig’.<\/p><\/div>\n Despite fish all over the place this lake completely switched off today. My peg was about 18 metres wide so I chose not to set a feeder rod up and would use a swinging \u2018flick rig\u2019 to make it. I managed an early carp, tench and a skimmer on meat short before popping out to 16 metres and promptly foul-hooking a right beast. This had my elastic like a banjo string for ages and after a full 10 minutes I finally slid the net under a 6lb mirror hooked in the belly. Trewaters carp fight unbelievably hard as it is without you foul-hooking them!<\/p>\n Despite feeding as carefully as possible I proceeded to foul hook two more carp at 16 metres in about 3ft of water and couldn\u2019t catch any shallow. This seemed to be happening all over the lake. My only option was to pick up the flick rig and try tight to the island. This was the first ever outing for my home made pole waggler floats and they were absolutely spot on. I made them from 0.6g Drennan Carp 3s with the carbon stem removed and a swivel glued in there instead. They seem a much better option to a top-and-bottom arrangement others use.<\/p>\n A full 2.6m top kit of line was required to plop a hook bait right across and I was soon playing small commons and mirrors, feeding casters. Bites were still really finicky at times and in hindsight I should perhaps have switched to pellets. The wind really picked up after two hours making this really difficult, not to mention the sun on the ripple making it almost impossible to see the float at times. I soldiered on, though, as the only other angler I could see really catching well was peg 37 in the opposite corner. Des Shipp was on 45 and really struggling, as was Andy Leathers on 53. Reece Hearn was on 47 and also getting a few on a flick rig but no one was setting the place alight.<\/p>\n In the last hour the wind meant my long-lining rig was next to impossible to fish but I managed a few more carp, F1s, tench and skimmers on meat short. I also had an F1 on meat down the edge before hooking another beastie. This one shouldered out of the swim as soon as I hooked it and looked a good 6lb-plus. We\u2019ll never know, however, as it shot down the edge and disappeared behind the fence that supposedly covers the big outlet pipes. It\u2019s probably in a Newquay estuary by now!<\/p>\n It was a really frustrating day and no matter how I fed or fished I foul-hooked too many. When Clint Elliott weighed me in I was disappointed to total 56lb but didn\u2019t realise that he had already weighed in peg 37 and I had actually done him by 2lb to take the section. Get in!<\/p>\n
\nPeg 32<\/strong>
\n135lb 6oz, Section 2nd<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>
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\nPeg 32<\/strong>
\n25lb, Section 8th<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nPeg 8, Twin Oaks<\/strong>
\n73lb 7oz, Section 4th<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nPeg 49, Trewaters<\/strong>
\n56lb 13oz, Section 1st<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>
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