Holland Leads After Day One of Maver Festival

It is once again time for the autumn festivals and it once again starts with the annual pilgrimage to White Acres for the Maver festival. It is a sell out event with 180 anglers fishing the 5 days on Pollawyn, Jennys/Python, Trewaters, Porth and Bolingey. This is always a very popular festival with some anglers using it as a practise week for the following festival, some as a final chance of qualifying for next week and the rest just because they enjoy the week. We have been stacked out with anglers at White Acres in the three weeks leading up to the festival which is why we have chosen to use the above lakes as they are the most rested. The festival anglers were keen to come down to start practising but this was only possible for a few seeing the park was fully booked and we only had a handful of caravans available. The mass decent happened over the weekend with a steady trickle of anglers arriving throughout both days, some were eager to get straight out on the lakes whist others used the time to relax and catch up with old friend in the pub!

In the weeks leading up to the festival (although hard to believe) there have been only a couple days of rain and it has been mostly bright & sunny although there is a definite autumnal chill in the air. The fishing conditions have not been ideal as there has not been so much of a ripple on the lakes and the glare from the sun has meant the fish have backed right off but there have still been plenty of nice hauls. Fingers crossed the conditions will change favourably and the catch rates increase throughout the week.

At the beginning of the year we change our rules on our festival and allowed the method to be used, this proved to be popular and produced some great nets of fish, this autumn we have changed our bait allowance slightly and although we still only allow 8 pints per angler now they can take a full 8 pints of pellet with them if they wish. Although if they decide to take 8 pints of pellet they will not be allowed any other bait with them and if they do we have taken a firmer stance this year and rather that just not their result for the day counting, they will be out of the festival completely.

So it is full steam ahead and we are all ready for the Maver Festival 2009 read on for the match action from the first day of the festival.

Day One

The normal 9.30am draw is brought forward to 9am on the first day so we can get all the anglers gathered together to go over the rules and format for the festival. There are a few new faces this year as well as the regular crowd so it is always good to double check that everyone knows the process for the week. With the sections drawn prior to the start of the festival everyone knows where they will be heading for day one and in which rotation they will be fishing. With the familiarities over and done with the draw gets going and the festival has officially started, as the first hands go into the bags there are 180 anglers all hoping to draw a flyer, read on to find out how the lakes have fished and who has got off to a great start.

A Section Pollawyn

It was a bit of a slow start on Pollawyn with all sections fishing hard. Simon Gould was the lake winner on peg 19 with 83lb 11oz; Simon had 2 fish on the bomb but caught the rest shallow on the waggler with pellet. Second with 70lb 8oz was Karl Webster, Karl caught on the bomb & pellet from peg 29. Callum Dicks weighed in with 59lb 7oz to take third; Callum was on peg 16 and caught on the method feeder with pellet. The next best weight came from Wayne Sharman on peg 43, Wayne caught on the method feeder for a weight of 57lb 6oz.

Section Winners

Simon Gould Peg 19 9 points 83lb 11oz
Callum Dicks Peg 16 9 points 59lb 7oz
Wayne Sharman Peg 43 9 points 57lb 6oz
Jimmy Wilson Peg 13 9 points 50lb 6oz

B Section Jennys/Python

It was a good start on Jennys and Python with both lakes fishing well. The lake winner was Kev Baxter on Python peg 17, Kev caught shallow and on worms down the edge for an impressive weight of 97lb 4oz. Mark Brown was on Jennys peg 20 and was second with 91lb 7oz, Mark caught on the pole at 13 meters with chopped worm and caster. Paul Selvidge weighed in with 78lb 4oz to take third; Paul was on Jennys peg 21 and caught on the deck with worm. John Howell has the next best weight; Jon was on Jennys peg 16 and caught on the pole at 11 meters with worm on the deck.

Section Winners

Kevin Baxter Peg 17 (PY) 9 points 97lb 4oz
Mark Brown Peg 20 (J) 9 points 91lb 7oz
Rob Wootton Peg 6 (J) 9 points 70lb 10oz
Mikey Williams Peg 34 (PY) 9 points 39lb 12oz

C Section Trewaters

Trewaters has really started to mature over the last 6 moths and the weights today represented this. Phil Ringer on peg 54 was the lake winner, Phil caught on the method feeder with Ringers groundbait for a weight of 64lb 7oz. Second with 60lb 14oz was Luke Sears, Luke was on peg 41 and caught on the method feeder tight to the island with maggot. Will Raison took third on peg 36, Will caught on the waggler with maggot. Steve Homewood was on peg 21 and had the next best weight with 46lb 4oz, Steve caught on the method with maggot.

Section Winners

Phil Ringer Peg 54 9 points 64lb 7oz
Will Raison Peg 36 9 points 58lb 19oz
Simon Fry Peg 26 9 points 45lb 3oz
Andy Dare Peg 26 9 points 42lb 2oz

D Section Porth

Porth can often be a bit “iffy” on the first day with the anglers tending not to catch until a bit more bait has gone in but it has fished reasonable well in practise over the weekend and we saw good weights today with a couple of smaller carp even being caught. Today’s lake winner with a great result of 24lb 3oz was Kelvin Acton; Kelvin was on peg 77 and caught on the waggler with maggot and the feeder with worm & corn. Jamie Widle on peg 21 had 14lb 6oz, Jamie caught on the feeder with dead red maggots and on the pole with worm. Third went to Mark Eves, Mark caught on the pole with worm and had mainly skimmers and one carp, he was on peg 88 and had a weight of 14lb 5oz. 14lb was the next best weight and this came from Lee Pesticcio on peg 78, Lee caught on the pole & waggler with pinkies & maggot.

Section Winners

Kelvin Acton Peg 77 9 points 24lb 3oz
Jamie Wilde Peg 21 9 points 14lb 6oz
Mark Eves Peg 88 9 points 14lb 5oz
Bob Rand Peg 37 9 points 9lb 5oz

E Section Bollingey

A cracking start for the anglers down on Bolingey especially for our lake winner who was Paul Holland, Paul was on peg 21 and weighed in with an impressive 240lb 4oz caught on the method feeder to the island with pellet. Second was Des Shipp with 132lb 13oz, Des was on peg 12 and caught on the method with 2 mil pellets & groundbait and maggots and 6 mil pellets on the hook. Paul Carpenter was third on peg 23, Paul caught tight across on the method & waggler with pellet and weighed in with 122lb 9oz. Andrew Crocker on peg 40 had the next best weight with 109lb 6oz, Andrew caught on the long pole with corn & pellet and in the margins with meat & corn.

Section Winners

Paul Holland Peg 21 9 points 240lb 4oz
Andrew Crocker Peg 40 9 points 109lb 6oz
Richie Hull Peg 25 9 points 109lb 2oz
Adam Rooney Peg 46 9 points 91lb 3oz

That was all the action from Day One and here is how our first leader board looks.

Overall Top Twenty

1st Paul Holland 9 points 240lb 4oz
2nd Andrew Crocker 9 points 109lb 6oz
3rd Richie Hull 9 points 109lb 2oz
4th Kevin Baxter 9 points 97lb 4oz
5th Mark Brown 9 points 91lb 7oz
6th Adam Rooney 9 points 91lb 3oz
7th Simon Gould 9 points 83lb11oz
8th Rob Wootton 9 points 70lb 10oz
9th Phil Ringer 9 points 64lb 7oz
10th Callum Dicks 9 points 58lb 7oz
11th Will Raison 9 points 58lb 10oz
12th Wayne Sharman 9 points 57lb 6oz
13th Jimmy Wilson 9 points 50lb 6oz
14th Simon Fry 9 points 45lb 3oz
15th Andy Dare 9 points 42lb 2oz
16th Mikey Williams 9 points 39lb 12oz
17th Kelvin Acton 9 points 24lb 3oz
18th Jamie Wilde 9 points 14lb 6oz
19th Mark Eves 9 points 14lb 5oz
20th Bob Rand 9 points 9lb 5oz

With a section win and a massive weight Paul Holland goes straight into the top spot. It is always a boost to start the festival on a section win but for those that have faired not as well they will be hoping for a better draw on day two, The weigh sheets are up on the board in morning so the anglers can see what pegs they need to hope to draw for day two.

Come back tomorrow for the next update.