Whiteacres – 06.09.15 to 12.07.15– The Pleasure Sessions

Day 1 – Twin Oaks peg 23 (12 to 6pm), Weather: Sunny Intervals, 17C, 10mph W Wind

I had bumped into to Mel, the bailiff at Partridge Lakes, the evening before, who was also down on a weekly holiday and as we arrived for our first session on Twin Oaks we bumped into him again in the car park.  He had just finished his session and he told us that although he had caught, he had to work for his fish and couldn’t stay on one line for too long. The low numbers Twin Oaks were almost full but there was plenty of room on the high numbers lake, so I chose one of my favourite pegs; 23 and Chrissi went on 24.

I started on the pellet feeder tight across and immediately caught a 6lb Carp followed by a few smaller Carp and F1’s before they backed off and I went 20 minutes without a sign.  I then went on my 11M pole line on the bottom and caught a few small stockies before this line died and after trying shallow over the same line for 20 minutes without a fish I decided to come off it and go back on the feeder line which would hopefully now be solid after giving it the much-needed rest.  Unfortunately the feeder line didn’t kick in as I had expected and I would have to wait for my fish and when I did catch one it was either an F1 or a carp of about 3lb.  I ended up going on the margins, with worm over ground-bait, at about 4.30pm and although I caught well on this I only caught one fish over 10lb, with most of them being about 4 or 5lb.

I ended up with 107lb on the clicker, with probably 70lb taken from the margin towards the end of the session.

Day 2 – Gold Match – separate blog

Day 3 – Twin Oaks peg 1 (12 to 6pm), Weather: Sunny Intervals, 19C, 20mph SE Wind

With the wind blowing into this end of the lake we decided to go on pegs 1 and 2.  As usual I started on the feeder and had a quick run of fish before they backed off and today I decided to alternate this with a 5m meat line.  I was on the meat line after about 40 minutes, where I caught  two small carp before returning to the feeder line. The feeder line was now pretty solid and I was getting a fish every chuck, although I had nothing over 4lb, with most of my fish being F1’s.  I stuck on this until about 4pm, at which point I had 95lb on the clicker, and I then decided to concentrate on my margins and 5m line.  I had a few F1’s at 5M on meat, including a 5lb+ specimen but I didn’t get a fish in my margins even though I had a lovely looking margin to my left along the end of lake bank and I didn’t see any fish come in on my near side right hand margin.  I ended up with 118lb on the clicker, with most of the fish off the feeder line and the margins not producing.

Day 4 – Jennys pegs 23 (12 to 4pm), Weather: Sunny, 20C, 25mph SE wind

Festivals aside, this is the busiest week of the year at Whiteacres and with the Bronze match taking up Twin Oaks, Acorn and Trelawney and the Burt Baits festival taking up Canal, an early rise is needed on a Wednesday to get one of the better pegs on the remaining lakes.  We had woken at 5.30am and we were both wide awake, but with it still being dark we decided on another hour in bed.  That hour turned into 3 as we both woke again at 8.30am!   With us not wanting to fish Sycamore or Python and most of the pegs taken on the other lakes, we were left with a choice of Pollawyn pegs 33 to 35 or Jennys pegs 20 to 24.  Although I like the pegs we could have had on Pollawyn, Chrissi has never done any good on this lake and with the wind blowing towards the available pegs on Jennys we chose to fish pegs 23 and 24 Jennys.

To cut along story short we really struggled and although I could catch the odd F1 on the feeder tight across we couldn’t get much on our pole lines and decided to end the session early, fed up with the strong wind in our faces.  It was only 3ft deep at 10m here, I did have a few shallow in a 15 minute spell at 10M, but it was almost impossible to fish shallow in the strong wind, so I couldn’t be bothered persevering with this line.

20lb on the ticker and probably the worst ever pleasure session at  Whiteacres

Day 5 – Rover – separate blog

Day 6 – Acorn peg 5 (11.30am to 6.30pm), Weather, Sunny intervals, 19C, 15mph SE wind

We hadn’t fished Acorn for a while and with having fished Twin Oaks 4 times this week this made a nice change. Chrissi wanted a comfortable sheltered peg as she was fed up with me choosing wind end pegs in the strong winds we were having this week.  Pegs 5 and 6 fitted the bill and there was a nice ripple at 11m.

I decided to fish pole only today and I started short at 4m on hard 6ml pellet and I put 18lb in the net in the first half hour and I also lost a Barney Rubble, which would have taken me around the 30lb mark, so a promising start. This line went dead for the next half an hour so I decided to give it a rest and try shallow at 11M where I put 3 quick F1’s in the net before they backed off.  I went back short for half an hour with no fish whilst I continued to feed my shallow line and when I when back on it I had a good spell of catching F1’s shallow and I took my clicker weight to about 75lb in the next 90 minutes, before they backed off.  From about 3pm until the end I decided to alternate between the margins and 4m until eventually sticking with the margins from 5pm onwards.  I was catching fish but they were not coming thick and fast.  I did have a good run on worm over ground-bait but I eventually got snapped up.  I ended up with 125lb on the clicker but I had lost 4 fish which I think were all over 10lb, with 3 of the fish being hook pulls and one snapped.  Although I don’t lose too many fish from hook pulls using a B911, I lost a little confidence in them for fishing for Barney Rubbles on strong elastics, maybe they opened up slightly under pressure?  I would try a stronger hook pattern on my margins the next day, being a Guru X Strong.

Most of the margin carp I got in today were around the 4lb mark, which is not the usual stamp of margin fish for this lake.  I ended up with 112lb on the clicker.

Day 7 – Acorn peg 5 (11am to 6.30pm), Weather, Cloudy, 15C, 15mph W wind

Chrissi had her favourite days fishing of the week on the Friday so we decided to finish of our week on the same pegs and have a nice peaceful day on Acorn, in fact we had the whole lake to ourselves all day.

We had a lot of overnight rain and the day was colder and I had predicted that the fishing would be a little slower today.  I was proved right and after only getting 8lb from my pole lines in the first 90 minutes I decided I would take a break and go and get us some lunch and I would come back with my rods from the car.  Back fishing at 1.30pm I began to fish pellet feeder across and for the next hour I got a fish on most chucks but I didn’t get anything over 3lb.  I took my clicker weight to 40lb before this line went dead. I decided I would fish the margins for the rest of the session hoping to finish my week with a load of Barney Rubbles.  I fed the left hand margin with ground-bait as I had done the same before and I kept feeding it for the rest of the session trying to pull in the carp, but all I could attract over it was shoals of small Roach.  The carp would feed under my feet and I managed a few but again it was manly 3lb fish that I was getting and the although the big carp would occasionally move in they would easily spook away.  I ended up with 75lb on the clicker after a disappointing margin attack!

Well the week was quickly over and although the weights were much lower than we usually get and the big carp didn’t show as much this week, it was still thoroughly enjoyable.  I think the high pressure we had experienced this week had pushed the weights down – 4 Barney Rubbles from a week at Whiteacres is unheard of!

44 weeks and counting until my next visit!

Tight Lines

Whiteacres – The Gold and Silvers 2009-2013

I wasn’t going to bother writing a blog for these matches as I have never done that well in them and I have never framed, but I think it is important to keep a record of what I have done on these matches and the mistakes I have made.  Also for me looking back there are some comical moments, although they were a little embarrassing at the time, particularly in the first match.  I can’t remember my exact weights and where and how much the overall winner had but I think my recollection of my weights and performance are pretty close.

May 2009 – Peg 12 Trelawney (Silver)

This was my first time on this water and my first time at Whiteacres and as I have mentioned on another post I was relatively new to method and pellet waggler fishing and I had only gave fishing UITW the odd 1/2 hour stint.  I set up the pellet waggler and method and for the pole I set up a 10m paste rig, UITW dibber and a margin rig for meat.  A guy called Steve Mazza was on peg 14 and before the match we had a conversation about our method feeder chucks as with us being on a bend it meant we would be chucking pretty close to each other, so we agreed on our zones across and we were both happy with the compromise.  Whilst setting up I clipped up my rods to the far bank, but I had left my hook on my method feeder and to my surprise I hooked a carp which I don’t think was foul hooked as the method had landed and the rod ripped round as I was messing about with the clip, it must have shot to the noise and maybe there was a couple of micros still on the feeder from the day before, causing the carp to suck at the empty feeder.   A little embarrassed I began to reel it in and fortunately it came off before it made any splashes that the other anglers would notice.  So lesson learnt about clipping up!

My match started well with 3 carp in 3 casts on the method and then I had 3 casts on the run that hit the island and I snapped up.  I got fed up with re tackling up the method and as I had only one left I decided to give it a break and fish the waggler from which I managed a couple of carp before the ducks arrived and then I managed to hook 2 ducks which I had to get in  fast so I could to limit the commotion and disturbance and also limit my embarrassment.  At this point I was probably getting a few strange looks from the other anglers, but I was too embarrassed to look, and for the last couple of hours besides a couple of carp I had either been fighting with the trees across or fighting with ducks.  My match slowed down from this point and I ended up weighing 38lb which to my surprise was good enough for a default section win, so happy days and some beer tokens for me!  Steve Mazza on peg 14 had framed with 63lb which he had done by catching shallow on meat.  This was the first time I had seen the art of dobbing and thinking back the conditions were crying out for this tactic as there was a lot of fish cruising around on top that were shying away from the feed.

June 2010 – Peg 21 Twin Oaks (Silver)

I was happy with my draw on the day as I was getting better with my method feeder and pellet waggler and I had in fact had some great pleasure sessions on Twin Oaks catching carp after carp.  The weather on the day was miserable and the strong winds was playing havoc with my pellet waggler casting.  I don’t remember a lot about this match other than I think I lost as much fish as I caught on the method. The only other line I tried was the margins but I got nothing there.  I weighed in 18lb with the guy to my left taking the section with 28lb.

June 11 – Peg 47 Pollawyn (Silver)

For the silver this week Pollawyn, Python and I think Jenny’s were to be used as the Preston pairs was and Twin Oaks was unavailable.  I was desperate to get on the high bank on Pollawyn as I had fished this area a lot during my first few years at Whiteacres and I had done pretty well so a draw here would give me confidence and hopefully lead to a good weight.  I drew 47 which when I got to it I found it was in the middle arm and only about 14 meter wide.  I spoke to the guy to my left on the point and he informed me that it wasn’t that bad a draw and a good tactic would be chop worm and caster but stupidly I didn’t listen and decided to concentrate my match on underarming a method across and the margins.  I did set up a pole rig for across but I found that shipping back was difficult due to the steep slope behind.  I think I only managed about 10lb with 2 carp and some roach on meat in the margins and I spent most of the match watching the guy to my left put a good net of skimmers together using paste on his top 4.  I didn’t weigh in and the guy on the point weight in over 70lb of skimmers for the section win.  I remember it was won from Python this day with a 100lb + weight.

Sept 11 – Peg 5 Acorn (Gold)

I promoted myself to the Gold matches for this visit as I had a default win in the Rover in June, so I was fishing with the big boys now!!  I had only fished Acorn once before but had done pretty good on a late afternoon pleasure sessions fishing the margins on paste so I was looking forward to the match and happy with my draw.  I started off with about 20lb in the first 40 minutes chucking a method to the far bank and I had also had lots of feeding carp in the margins where I had put some sweetcorn and paste in.  I couldn’t resist holding back from my margins and I went on it after the good start I had but this proved to be a mistake as I couldn’t catch one and the fish were not settled.  I then spent about 3 frustrating hours trying to hook one which is exactly what I did……. hook one in 3 hours!  I managed a couple more across on the method for 38lb for probably last on the lake.  The guy on peg 3 went from zero to 60lb in the last 2 hours fishing meat at 3ft, the guy on peg 7 had over a hundred pounds fishing worm in the margins all day and the guy on peg 9 won the match fishing paste in the margins all day.  I remember feeling a little embarrassed and out of my depth and I had obviously done something wrong.  Looking back I should have left the margins a lot longer so the fish would settle although the guys on pegs 7 and 9 had gone straight on them and done very well.  I was really inexperienced at margin fishing then and I’m still not that good at it now.  I was feeding it wrong, putting too much of the wrong feed in for the unsettled fish which caused the fish to stir the bottom up and feed on the stirred up (light) groundbait. I was also changing rigs and swims every 5 minutes and I should have had much more patience. Incidentally, peg 5 Acorn won the silver with over a hundred pounds two days later fishing meat on the deck at 5m.

June 12 – Peg 1 Acorn (Gold)

Well back on Acorn for me this day and I was determined to put up a better show and lose that inadequate feeling I had on the Gold matches.  I caught my first fish after about 10 minutes fishing across on expander and as I was about to put it in my keepnet when I realised they were still layed out on the bank behind me. I caused a lot of disturbance getting off my box and putting the keepnets in which seemed to kill my swim for a while.  All I remember was I struggled again for the rest of this match and there were no signs of fish in the margins even towards the end.  I settled on fishing shallow for F1’s for the last 2 hours and managed to put just under 50lb on the scales which was only about 10lb off the section win which was won from peg 17.  Although I didn’t get anywhere that day I didn’t have the “out of my depth” feeling as I had managed to fight back on what was a low weight all round day and get 2nd in the section.

Sept 12 – Peg 3 Twin Oaks (Gold)

By this point I was getting to know the lakes and pegs at Whiteacres a lot better and I knew that the favoured pegs on Twin Oaks were pegs 14 to 18 with 16 being the flier, so I was a little disappointed with my draw as I would be up against some good pegs.  I had been experimenting a little with pellet feeder around this time and although I hadn’t done very well with it I decided to set it up as some good results had been achieved with it fishing micros and dead maggots.  I also set up a method, pellet waggler, 2 margin rigs, a UITW rig and 2 plus 2 meat rig.  I started off OK with about 20lb in the first hour and then my match slowed down with about 20lb in the next 3 hours.  The guy on peg 2 was really struggling with 1 carp and the guy on peg 5 who had gone straight on the margins wasn’t doing much better.  I remember keeping an eye on the guy on peg 5 as he had the carp swirling in the margins from the off but he couldn’t catch them, this convinced me to leave my margins alone until the last hour which was a good ploy as I managed to put 40lb in the net in the last hour including a common of about 15lb on paste. I weighed in 79lb for a default section win as the guy on peg 15 had framed with 103lb.  I felt I had fished a good match on a day when many had struggled in the early numbers on Twin Oaks and I was beginning to lose that “out of my depth” feeling.

June 13 – Peg 33 Twin Oaks (Gold)

What I remember about this day was that I probably blew the section by messing about and trying to catch the F1’s quicker than I needed to.  The guy on peg 32 won the section with 53lb and I had about 40lb.  During the match I began to put a good run of 2-3lb F1’s together and stupidly I decided to change rigs to a shorter UITW rig to catch them quicker. I spent an age getting this rig ready as I couldn’t thread the hook with bait band through the minute hoop on the mainline ( I now tie bigger loops on the mainline!!).   By the time I got back fishing the F1’s had moved off and my new rig didn’t produce.  I spoke to the guy on peg 32 after the match, who won the section and he said he actually stopped fishing shallow as he thought he couldn’t compete with my catch rate so he went across on the bomb and this proved to be a success as a slow but steady number of 5lb carp came to his net.  At this point it dawned on me that one of my big problems was chopping and changing too much and when I am on a swim that is producing more than others around me I should stick to what I am doing.

Sept 13 – Peg 9 Acorn (Gold)

I was happy with my draw this day as Acorn had been fishing well but again I didn’t make the most of the peg.   I started off on the method across and got a couple of the smaller carp and a couple of F1’s and after an hour I had about 10lb which was slightly behind the others.  Most anglers had gone straight on the margins or their top 2’s and although they were only catching the odd one the carp they were catching were between 6-12lb.  I switched to my 7m line which I had set up to fish on 8ml hard pellet feeding by hand on which I had a good run of about 15lb of small carp/F1’s in as many minutes until the swim started to fizz. I tried shallow over this swim and this only produced a couple of F1’s.  After 3 hours I was well behind so I tried my margins but I could only get 1 fish out of it even though the fish were there. I chopped and changed in desperation (like I usually do) but I could only pick up the odd fish and my catch rate was half that of every one else.  I weighed in 53lb for last on the lake and everyone else had caught over 90lb so I was well beaten.  On reflection the fizzing on the 7m pellet line was probably caused by fishing 8ml pellet and that the pellets would sink into the silt a little and break up there causing the fish to disturb the silt to get at the pellets – meat would have been a better bait.  I was guilty of chopping and changing and not getting my head down on a swim and making it work.  I also have to admit that I am doing something wrong with my margin fishing during matches when the fish are not settled and a little wary and I need to alter my feeding and what I feed.  I noticed a lot of anglers would feed a lot less than me and play the waiting game, just feeding enough for one fish to come in, I on the other hand feed too much and get too many fish in the swim and when I can’t hook them I try changing things too much and lose patience.  The feeling after this match was probably my lowest and worst feeling and the “out of my depth” feeling was back, in fact it was “way out of my depth” this time.

I am back at Whiteacres in less than a week so hopefully when I blog the Gold match that I will fish it will be a little more successful than my previous experiences.

Tight Lines