Welcome to the White Acres Preston Innovations Festival 2007. This is our final festival of the autumn and the all-important festival that leads to the one day Parkdean Masters £25,000 final.
It is another sell out festival with 180 anglers heading off to the banks of Pollawyn, Bolingey, Porth, Gwinear & Twin Oaks/Acorn/Canal for the 5 matches that make up the festival.
Preston Innovations always pledge immense support to out festivals and they have arranged some amazing prize for the winners and even a few surprises a long the way.
I shall endeavour to keep you up to date with all the information and this week we will be monitoring the top 24 to find out who will secure themselves in the big money final.
Day One
A Section Pollawyn
Pollawyn is one of the lakes being used for the second week running and we saw mixed results across the lake last week. There has been less pressure on the lake over the weekend but the weather has also changed once again and has a very strange feel to it. The lake today was won by Mick Dagnall on peg 18, Mick caught 5 fish early on the feeder but have the rest of his catch on the pole with pellet and meat finishing with 120lbs. Skip McCabe finished up second with 100lb 9oz, Skip was on peg 26 and caught with pellet on the waggler and pole. Third on the lake was Sean Huggins, Sean was on peg 27 and caught on the meat feeder to have a weight of 91lb 11oz. Rob Wootton had the next best weight with 84lb 3oz, Rob was on peg 32 and caught on the meat feeder.
Section Winners
Mick Dagnall 9 points 120lb
Rob Wootton 9 points 84lb 3oz
Dave Lewis 9 points 41lb 4oz
Darren Cox 9 points 38lb 10oz
B Section Twin Oaks/Acorn/Canal
A change around for this section this week which we do every festival so that Trelawney gets a rest. Canal is in this section this year and is a new lake to many of our festival anglers and it is a first for us using it on one of these festivals so we shall see how it goes throughout the week. The lake winner today was Andy Neal on Twin Oaks peg 10, Andy caught on the ground bait feeder across and on the pole short and down the edge for a weight of 89lb 4oz. Steve Bass on Twin Oaks peg 2 was second with 77lb 2oz, Steve fished pellets down the edge and at 13 meters. On Twin Oaks peg 4 Stewart Lister was third with 76lb 12oz, Stewart caught shallow at 13 meters with pellet. Roger Parnell on peg 18 had the next best weight with 68lb, Roger caught on the long pole down the edge. The best weight on Acorn was 66lb 5oz and this came from Damien Bracken on peg 15, Alex Murray on peg 18 had the best weight on Canal with 65lb 6oz.
Section Winners
Andy Neal 9 points 89lb 4oz
Damien Bracken 9 points 66lb 5oz
Alex Murray 9 points 65lb 6oz
Steve Ringer 9 points 62lb 4oz
C Section Gwinear
Gwinear seems nicely refreshed after a weekend break and although there were no stand out weights today, they were spread fairly across the four sections making it very tight in the fight for important points. Current Parkdean Master Neil Machin got off to a great festival campaign taking the lake win today with 86lb 12oz, Neil was on peg 24 and caught on pellet long and at 6 meters. Second on the lake went to Phil Ringer with 79lb, Phil caught shallow 14.5 meters and at 5 meters on corn from peg 17. John Bradshaw was on peg 14 and caught on pellet to take third with 69lb 15oz. The next best weight came from Paul Greenwood on peg 25, Paul caught on pellet at depth for a weight of 67lb 5oz.
Section Winners
Neil Machin 9 points 86lb 12oz
Gary Stanley 9 points 59lb 2oz
John Palmer 9 points 44lb 4oz
Mark Pleavin 9 points 31lb 4oz
D Section Porth
Well what a turn up for the books it was on Porth today as the lake fished very out of sorts, those anglers that drew in the meadows that usually have a frown on their faces came back with smiles today as virtually every angler in the section weighed in with double figure weights. Malcolm Johnson the winner had a tremendous weight on peg 75, Malcolm caught on the feeder to take the win with 40lb 4oz. Second on the lake with 19lb 5oz was Ian Didcote on peg 18, this was a surprising result for Ian who caught skimmers on the waggler at 25 meters on caster at 5ft deep in 20 ft of water, Ben Leach used the same method to catch on peg 19 and ended up third with 17lb 8oz. Andy Gregory had the next best weight on the lake with 17lb 7oz, Andy was on peg 21.
Section Winners
Malcolm Johnson 9 points 40lb 4oz
Ian Didcote 9 points 19lb 5oz
Sandra Scotthorne 9 points 12lb 5oz
Danny Hallam 9 points 6lb 1oz
E Section Bolingey
On to Bolingey now where we had some great weights last week and have high hopes again this week. The Lake was won today by Karl Webster on peg 17; Karl fished pellet and meat on the pole where he weighed in with 143lb 1oz to take the win. Second went to Des Shipp with 133lb 15oz, Des fished on the bottom at 14.5 meters on the pole with meat and hemp from peg 23. Alan Rutherforth was third, Alan was on peg 44 and fished shallow on the pole for a weight of 131lb 12oz. Grant Albutt on peg 47 had the next best weight with 131lb 5oz, Grant fished meat and corn down the edge.
Section Winners
Karl Webster 9 points 143lb 1oz
Des Shipp 9 points 133lb 15oz
Alan Rutherford 9 points 131lb 12oz
Grant Albutt 9 points 131lb 5oz
So that was day one and whom do we have at the top of the leader board?
Overall Top 24
1st Karl Webster 9 points 143lb 1oz
2nd Des Shipp 9 points 133lb 15oz
3rd Alan Rutherford 9 points 131lb 12oz
4th Grant Albutt 9 points 131lb 5oz
5th Mick Dagnall 9 points 120lb
6th Andy Neal 9 points 89lb 4oz
7th Neil Machin 9 points 86lb 12oz
8th Rob Wootton 9 points 84lb 3oz
9th Damien Bracken 9 points 66lb 5oz
10th Alex Murray 9 points 65lb 6oz
11th Steve Ringer 9 points 62lb 4oz
12th Gary Stanley 9 points 59lb 2oz
13th John Palmer 9 points 44lb 4oz
14th Dave Lewis 9 points 41lb 4oz
15th Malcolm Johnson 9 points 40lb 4oz
16th Darren Cox 9 points 38lb 10oz
17th Mark Pleavin 9 points 31lb 4oz
18th Ian Didcote 9 points 19lb 5oz
19th Sandra Scotthorne 9 points 12lb 5oz
20th Danny Hallam 9 points 6lb 1oz
21st Kerry Kirkwood 8 points 126lb 8oz
22nd Martin Cocks 8 points 125lb 3oz
23rd Adam Rooney 8 points 113lb 4oz
24th Lee Werrett 8 points 110lb 5oz
So these 24 anglers lead the pack on day one, after a cracking start will we see any of these names in the final on Saturday?
Come back tomorrow when I will give you the latest updates, Cheers Kirsty
