White Acres Milo Festival 2009
The year is flying by and we have already reached the final big festival of the spring, welcome to the 2009 White Acres Milo Festival. The festival is a sell out with 180 anglers taking to the banks of Pollawyn, Trelawney/Twin Oaks, Trewaters, Porth & Bolingey for the 5-day festival. On the first 2 festivals we saw some great weights and we are hoping, given that it is a couple of weeks later and the weather has warmed up, that there will be some great results. The weekend leading up to the festival has been glorious with high temperatures and blue sunny skies. On this festival there are some top names anglers as well as some regular festival goers and also some new faces so fingers crossed it should be an exciting and successful festival.
Day One
It was a bright and sunny day for the start festival and there are already a few rosy-faced anglers who caught the sun whilst practising over the weekend. Whilst the anglers are looking forward to fishing in the pleasant weather they are also aware that the blazing sunshine is not the best fishing condition so we shall see what today brings. The scene is set for the first draw and once the rules and format has been explained by Clint we are off, read on to see how day one of the festival went and which “draw bags†have got off to a flying start.
A Section Pollawyn
It was obvious from even before the “all in†that it was going to be a day of mixed fortunes today as the carp had moved down into the arms following the smaller fish who were showing signs of beginning to spawn, down by pegs 2 – 6 there were a load of fish just under the surface, whether they would feed or no was a different story. With many of the carp moving to the arms it was to be a struggle for those on the high bank and today we saw the best weights coming from the more unflavoured pegs.
Paul Blinkhorn was the lake winner today on peg 47, Paul caught on the pole at 14.5 meters with 8 mil pellets feeing 6 mils for a weight of 139lb 8oz. Second with 109ln 1oz was Jason Le Bosquet, Jason was on peg 21 and caught on the long pole with pellet. Karl Webster was third with 87lb 7oz, Karl caught on the long pole at 16 meters with pellet from peg 24. The next best weight on the lake came from Michael Gorman on peg 15, Michael caught 4 carp on the bomb with pellet and 9 carp on the pellet waggler for a weight of 82lb 5oz
Section Winners
Paul Blinkhorn peg 47 9 points 139lb 8oz
Jason Le Bosquet peg 21 9 points 109lb 1oz
Mikey Williams peg 7 9 points 75lb 7oz
Joff Rogers peg 18 9 points 75lb 6oz
B Section Twin Oaks/Trelawney
It was a cracking start for the anglers in this section today. Twin Oaks has been fishing well from the start of the season and today was no exception with weights coming from both sides of the lakes. The weights on Trelawney didn’t compete with Twin Oaks today but they were consistent across most of the pegs with close results for the section points. Roger Young was the lake winner today on Twin Oaks peg 16 with 171lb 10oz, Roger caught on the pole and the pellet waggler. Second with a weight of 161lb 13oz was Tommy Pickering, Tommy was on Twin Oaks peg 10 and caught 4 skimmers and 49 carp on the method feeder. Ian Exall was third on Twin Oaks peg 35, Ian caught on the method feeder for a weight of 155lb 9oz. The next best weight came from Andy Neal on Twin Oaks peg 12 with 76lb 12oz, Andy caught on the feeder to the far bank and down the edge on paste. The best weight on Trelawney was 71lb 10oz and this came from Reg Fearn on peg 32.
Section Winners
Roger Young peg 16(TO) 9 points 171lb 10
Ian Exall peg 35(TO) 9 points 155lb 9oz
Reg Fearn peg 32(T) 9 points 71lb 10oz
Adam Rooney peg 12(T) 9 points 57lb 7oz
C Section Trewaters
Trewaters fished well today, better than it had done on our precious festivals, fingers crossed that the weights will be up all week. The warmer weather seems to have benefited these lakes a lot with all but a couple of anglers getting double figures weights. The sections fished really fairly today with the overall big weights coming from different areas. Steve Barraclough was the lake winner today with an impressive weight of 87lb 12oz, Steve was on peg 20 and caught on the 11-meter pole shallow feeding 4-mil pellets and fishing a 6 mil banded pellet. It was a joint weight on the lake for second with both Callum Dicks & Chris Jenkinson weighing in with 53lb 14oz. Callum Dicks was on peg 36 and caught on the bottom down the edge on pellet and Chris caught on the waggler with maggot and down the edge with pellet and meat from peg 43. The next best weight came from Derek Hertshorn on peg 44, Derek caught on the short pole with pellet for a weight of 51lb 8oz.
Section Winners
Stephen Barraclough peg20 9 points 87lb 12oz
Chris Jenkinson peg34 9 points 53lb 14oz
Ian Didcote peg 51 9 points 32lb 10oz
Trevor Robinson peg 26 9 points 25lb 11oz
D Section Porth
Porth was the only real disappointment for day one of the festival with the anglers really struggling, some areas where you would normally find yourself skipping to your pegs fished really poorly, we are just hoping that since it has not been fished for a couple of weeks that the feed from today has livened the fish up a bit and the rest of the week will pick up. Will Raison was the lake winner today on peg 33, Will had a weight of 16lb 8oz caught on the pole with maggot. Second with 14lb 10oz was Darren Cox, Darren caught on the pole at 14 meters with red maggot over groundbait from peg 40. Simon Willsmore was third; Simon was on peg 37 and caught on the pole with soft groundbait for a weight of 14lb 2oz. The next best weight came from Ian Dixon on peg 38, Ian caught on the pole with caster for a weight of 9lb 13oz.
Section Winners
Will Raison peg 33 9 points 16lb 8oz
Paul Holland peg 23 9 points 9lb 3oz
E Section Bolingey
It was a reasonable start to the festival on Bolingey with good weights coming from across all four sections, this is one lake that really suffered with the bright sunshine affecting the anglers and we found out this at the weekend as the anglers that practised there struggled until the sun had gone down a bit. The weights should pick up as the week goes on. Darren Walters was our lake winner today on peg 23, Darren caught on the pole shallow for a weight of 112lb 10oz. Second with 111lb 19oz was Richie Hull, Richie was on peg 21 and caught down the margin on the pole with pellet. Alan Jones was on peg 27 and was third with a weight of 99lb 13oz, Alan caught on the pole with pellet. The next best weight came from Martin Howard with 97lb 3oz, Martin caught shallow and down the edge with pellet from peg 45.
Section Winners
Darren Walters(L) peg 23 9 points 112lb 10oz
Austin Williams peg 38 9 points 93lb 10oz
Tim Greenfield peg 47 9 points 86lb 6oz
Nigel Marchington peg 10 9 points 79lb 12oz
So that was how the festival started and here is how our first top 20 of the week looks.
Overall Top 20
1st Roger Young 9 points 171lb 10oz
2nd Ian Exall 9 points 155lb 9oz
3rd Paul Blinkhorn 9 points 139lb 8oz
4th Darren Walters(L) 9 points 112lb 10oz
5th Jason Le Bosquet 9 points 109lb 1oz
6th Austin Williams 9 points 93lb 10oz
7th Stephen Barraclough 9 points 87lb 12oz
8th Tim Greenfield 9 points 86lb 6oz
9th Nigel Marchington 9 points 79lb 12oz
10th Mikey Williams 9 points 75lb 7oz
11th Joff Rogers 9 points 75lb 6oz
12th Reg Fearn 9 points 71lb 10oz
13th Adam Rooney 9 points 57lb 7oz
14th Chris Jenkinson 9 points 53lb 14oz
15th Ian Didcote 9 points 32lb 10oz
16th Trevor Robinson 9 points 25lb 11oz
17th Will Raison 9 points 16lb 8oz
18th Paul Holland 9 points 9lb 3oz
19th Gary Webber 9 points 7lb 9oz
20th Ian Hudson 9 points 4lb 6oz
So these anglers have started off their festival campaign with a section win and are on a bit of a high they can now only hope to maintain these results of the rest of the week. There are some good weights in the top 20 but there are also many good back up weights from the anglers that have picked up 7 or 8 section points so we shall have to see how the rest of the week unfolds. Will we be crowning any of the above names Milo champion 2009, stay tuned for your daily updates.
