White Acres - Gold Match, 70 Pegs

The 3 lakes in were Acorn, Trelawney and Twin Oaks. I was hoping for a nice draw on Trelawney to be honest as I had a nice day pleasure fishing on peg 27 on Sunday. Unfortunately for me I ended up on Twin Oaks 21, not the best of pegs but capable of winning the section I was informed.

All the lakes were quite tightly pegged but I still fancied a few fish. I knew from reports that it was a rod and line water more than anything so I was planning on chucking a straight lead and the waggler to the far bank.

Setting up, the first items out of my bag were my rods and I took plenty of time making sure I was clipped up tight to the far bank. So I clipped on a ½ oz lead and cast just short and finally crept up the bank until I was as tight as I could get. My set up for this was a 12ft Trabucco Signum, medium feeder rod to my Shimano Stradic 4000 reel. I was using 6lb Maxima reel line to a 12 inch hook length of 0.20mm Silstar. I would be using banded pellet and double corn so I had plenty of hook lengths ready. Both incorporated a size 14 PR36 knotless not style, but one with a Mosella micro band and the other with a Korum quickstop. I also set up my pole to fish meat short at 6m. I used a MW Pellet 0.6g on 0.14 Silstar with a number 1 Tubertini 175 hook. Elastic wise I used double number 8 Preston Slip. I didn’t bother with a long line or the waggler rod as the wind was terrible and just wouldn’t get the presentation.

At the all in I fed a ball of 4mm pellet and some cubes of meat, along with a few grains of corn on the 6m line. I then pinged some 8mm pellets to the far bank where I had clipped up. I was only feeding 2 or 3 pellets at a time, every 5 minutes or so. Out went the lead with a banded 8mm bang on the money. After looking around it was obvious I was the wrong end of the lake as the top pegs had fish on within 5 minutes of casting in.

After 10 minutes my tip flew round and the first carp of the say was in the net, about 3lb. I cast out again and pinged some more pellets. The next 40 minutes I went without a real bite, so I fed the pole and chucked my rod up the bank! After 30 minutes on the pole I had 2 roach! It was fishing hard indeed. I fed my pole line and made a few phone calls to see how the rest of the lakes were fishing, my mate Shaun was catching steady on Trelawney and there were a lot of fish coming out of Acorn.

With half of the match left I decided just to fish the tip for the rest of the match knowing I didn’t need much to win my section (as 2 anglers had packed up!) Just as I started to tuck into a warm Cornish pasty that my dad had bought me, my tip flew around and I was into another carp, in the pan at 3lb. I cast back in, pinged some pellets, and just as I picked the pasty up again, the rod once again flew around. This happened again in 3 more casts. After a few more fish (and a nice pasty) bites slowed so I changed to double corn and as I was sinking the line under the water, the rod went round! 2 more fish on corn and again it slowed. I felt I needed one more fish so I cast 5 metres right to where I was feeding, bingo! My last fish turned out to be the biggest of the day at about 5lb.

The best weight in my section was 33lb I weighed in 35lb, what a result on my 1st White Acres match. All the weights did come from Acorn but I knew I was never going to make the frame from my peg, but went away very pleased.