Match Fishing Magazine

I try to do at two festivals a year but after missing last years Preston festival due to work commitments (the one where sharing partner Lee kerry netted a cool £29K) I was really keen to get back. I have quite a good record at White Acres so I always give it my all to make that continue.

The main thing about the ‘Acres’ is that you need a run of draws that give you a chance to compete. Now I don’t tend to struggle at the draw bag so this isn’t generally a problem.

I won’t bore you with the details of the first three days but I managed a section win on the Monday a third on Tuesday and a win at Porth on the Wednesday but with two rounds of ‘aqua bingo’ to go my final result was sort of out of my hands.

Come the Thursday and it was my bogey venue – Bolingey. I have always drawn poor pegs at this venue so I was certain that today was my chance to put that straight. When Peg 27 stuck to my mitt I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. This is a fantastic peg next to a bridge but with the good pegs in the back lake being in my section I knew I would have my work cut out. It was also to be a real test for my Preston GiS 14 pole as I was probably going to have to be a bit brutal with the carp as there is the odd snag under the bridge.

My match started slowly and after an hour I had about five carp, there were what looked to be several fish under the bridge so I decided to set a rig up that was six inches deep with a Middy 18-22 hollow elastic. I fully expected to catch a couple before the fish spooked, what I didn’t expect was to catch one every chuck for the next two hours! With 35 carp now safely in the keepnet and 90 minutes left to go I was seriously thinking I might need the fifth keepnet! However the sun crept around and I never saw another fish near the bridge. Luckily I had primed a 5m line with meat and I managed six carp from there that weighed about 50lb between them.

At the all out it was clear that I had a good weight but with Andy Lloyd on peg 22 admitting to 51 carp I knew my chance of a section win was limited. And so it proved with Andy weighing an awesome 195lb, I still had a brilliant day and weighed 150lb to take second in the match.

I had a section second on the last day too so ended the week on 34 points. This got me sixth in the festival, which I was more than happy with as getting in the top 10 is always my priority.

Joe Carass