Jon Arthur has returned from his annual pilgrimage to Cornwall for the White Acres Milo Festival. Here’s how he got on:

You never stop learning when you compete in a White Acres festival and this year was no different. I was down to fish the Milo Festival, which is the final big individual festival of the spring calendar with 179 anglers taking part. Usually the fish are quite spread out by this time of year and  the weather is good – but this is Cornwall and you can have gales, rain, hail and blazing sunshine in the space of an hour. You can also spend five hours wrapped up with two hoods on and still find you’ve got sunburn when you get back to your lodge!

After an uneventful and fairly predictable Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier on the Saturday I was all packed and straight down the M5 to Cornwall. I had Neil McKinnon and Paul Cannon for lodge pals, along with Paul’s wife and top chef Jane looking after us. I certainly needed some TLC as I was stricken with the lurgi as soon as I stepped out of my van onto Cornish soil. Not the best of starts. A full week later and I’m not sure where all this snot is still coming from!

I found myself drawn in E Section; a nice rotation which starts at Bolingey and ends at Porth Reservoir. It was refreshing to be on the main carp lakes for four days, then swapping to silverfish tackle at the end of the week. On paper it looked like a tough section with plenty of big names to try and avoid, but none of the sections are ever easy…

Sunday was the official practice day, so I took the opportunity to spend a few hours at Bolingey. I sat on Peg 11, arguably one of the best pegs on the ‘back lake’ with so much space and options. I learnt a lot. The main thing was just how many silverfish are now in the place. They were like piranhas! That immediately meant meat fishing on the short pole would be difficult as it’s quite deep here and even 8mm meat would struggle to bypass them. I have had some success in the past feeding casters down the edge but that could also be ruled out because of all the silvers. Plopping in 6mm and 8mm hard pellets short and long seemed the obvious solution on the pole. I still fancied meat down the edge and hoped the lumps would edge the silvers out the way once they arrived in the usual mad last hour you always get on this place. I also fished a waggler for quite some time, more out of enjoyment than anything, but the Method feeder seemed much more reliable. Plenty of useful pointers for the next day, I hoped…

Day One – Bolingey

Peg 17 on Bolingey stuck to my hand at the draw. I was fairly happy as it was in a line of good pegs and a similar area to where I had practised. I had Tommy Pickering on 18 so I knew I was immediately up against it. A £1 was duly wagered!

While setting up, Tommy hooked an 8lb mirror on the waggler that took his bare bait band. As he hadn’t even set his landing net up I had to scoop it for him! Us superstitious match anglers often see catching fish on bare hooks before the start as a bad sign. Not today, as Tommy was into a carp on the waggler literally seconds into the match beginning. There was no way I was netting that one for him, though!

My match was a bit of everything. I was really surprised to not catch an early ‘mug fish’ short, so I was soon out holding 14.5 metres of Acolyte Carp and pinging hard pellets. Using a 0.3g Carp 2 float to a 0.16mm Supplex hooklength and size 16 Carp Hair Riggers hook to pink Bungee I managed three or four quick fish here before trying shallow with a 0.2g AS2. This produced a couple more about 3ft deep but it was quite a chilly, blustery day and I could see no one was emptying it.

Tommy was swapping between the waggler and a small Method feeder across to the island so I was keeping an eye on his catch rate and others around me. I had left my island swim alone but now was the time to hopefully plunder it.

Using a small 25g Drennan In-Line Method with wetted 2m micros and a banded pellet I had a nice run of around eight or nine carp to 9lb before foul-hooking one mid water as I reeled in. It was a huge fish that eventually came off at the net. The next fish I hooked broke my 0.20mm hooklength, and I am sure it must have been damaged by the previous battle.

This seemed to unsettle things and I suffered a tough 40-minute spell. The short pole swim produced just one carp and a foul-hooker and despite the relatively tight pegging it felt like the margins were where it would have to happen.

For this swim I had a 0.3g AS4 on 0.18mm line to pink Carp Bungee. I managed another eight carp on 8mm meat over micros here (groundbait is not allowed down the edge at Bolingey any more) and when the whistle blew I felt quite happy with my five hours.

I felt Chris Telling on Peg 11 would be the danger man so when he weighed 117lb I knew it would be close. Then Mark Eves’ estimated 90lb turned into a surprise 122lb two pegs to my right. As per usual, I hadn’t a clue what I would weigh. I guessed 110lb and was well chuffed to see my four nets total 146lb 12oz. Tommy was clearly annoyed by both Mark and my own underestimates… but his own 80-90lb guess turned out to be 115lb, so we were all way off! These Bolingey carp are all much much heavier than you think!

As my section was spread all over the place it took a while to finally learn that my weight was indeed enough to win the section and the whole of the back lake. A great start!

The right-hand arm dominated the frame, as it did all week. In fact Steve Sanders on red-hot Peg 38 went over the 60lb limit on three keepnets and still weighed in 189lb to win the day. I reckon he’d caught nearer 250lb, truth be told…

Day Two – Pollawyn

With a section win already under my belt I was not a happy bunny when I pulled out Peg 31 on Pollawyn. It’s in with the noted flyers on the High Bank (the closest I’ve ever got to them on a carp match) along with a few pegs on the point pegs opposite. With John Harvey on 15 and Johnny Whincup on 17 I really felt I was fishing for a section 3rd at the very best. However, I have a pretty good record on this place, there are a lot of silver fish to attack and if it’s a low-weight day I might have a very slim chance. It was for me to win and them to lose and I wasn’t giving up without a fight!

My plan was quite simple. I started on the Method tight across without a single bite so I was straight out to 14 metres over big-potted meat and casters. Here I would start on the deck then maybe go shallow and try to catch everything that swims.

A few skimmers came my way along with three good bonus carp. I was using a 0.6g Carp 2 diamond-bodied float and light elastic to avoid bumping the skimmers but this can cause a few problems when you hook a carp. I hate having too much pole in the air and stripping too much elastic from a Side Pull Kit is a recipe for breakages with your elastic as tight as a banjo string, so I actually stood on my Rive to help net them all. I might have looked like a complete plonker but it did the trick and three carp for around 28lb seemed worth the stick I expected afterwards!

A switch to a 0.2g AS2 shallow rig set about 4ft produced a few more fish, a couple of smaller carp and an F1. I really felt I was on the edge of the fish, though, as I couldn’t get any amount of fish queuing up for long. I also couldn’t believe my short pole line was so poor on the day. This swim is normally a banker for me – although I did find myself replumbing it three times because there was a lot of debris on the bottom.

At the weigh in I couldn’t believe it when John Harvey had only caught 51lb off peg 15. He reckoned he had lost at least the same amount, though, and was clearly frustrated with his day. Whinny on 17 made no mistakes to annihilate the lake with over 140lb on the waggler. He’s unbelievably good at that game. My weight of 62lb turned out to be 2nd in section and 3rd on the lake behind Steve Sanders’ 85lb from Peg 27. It was a much better conclusion than I could have ever expected. Could this be my week?

Day Three – Twin Oaks & Trelawney

My stinking cold was at it’s worst today and after pulling out peg 18 I got to my van before realising I wasn’t sure what lake I was on! Was it 18 on Twin Oaks or Trelawney? It turned out to be 18 on Twin Oaks. I was fairly happy with this. It’s a good end peg if the wind’s going that way, which it was. Pegs 12 to 14 had been the winning area for a while and I knew I’d be up against it with Johnny Whincup on 12, Martin Holmes on 8 and Tommy Pickering on 14. Peg 16 is also one of the most famous pegs on the fishery and always worth a few fish, even now they’ve relandscaped the far bank and filled in all the undercuts. There was certainly a lot of fish topping in that area while I set up.

These fish don’t always want loads of feed and with the wind perfect for a waggler approach that’s the first thing I set up. I could reach the far bank perfectly with the fishery 6mm pellets (these are a big Coppins variety that are more like a 7mm). I also set up a Method feeder for this line to try later.

A short pole swim is a must on this lake. However, I had loads of silvers topping everywhere which made me a bit apprehensive fishing meat. I elected to start on pellets instead. I then had too many other options for my snot-filled head to weigh up, so I still wasn’t quite ready when the starting hooter sounded. I had a margin swim 5m to my left which I fancied, plus a long margin swim along the bank to my right (sadly no longer under cut). I could fish at the base of this slope with pinged pellets where it was the same depth as my 5m swim, but would targeting the open water angled towards peg 16 be a safer bet? Would I catch shallow? I decided to simply start short, ping a few pellets on the waggler swim and see what happened.

I had a great start with about 40lb of carp and big F1s in the first hour on the short-pole swim. As bites faded I caught a 2lb tench. Not a great sign, so I decided to try switching to feeding meat here and go on the waggler. A nice run of small carp and F1s followed but after six or seven fish this area really slowed up too. I was foul-hooking a few fish on the really awkward steep slope and they didn’t seem too happy feeding shallow.

Back on the short pole and I was plagued by silvers. Back to pellets and it just wasn’t happening. I had started throwing a few cubes of meat down the edge, saw a tail and was rewarded by a quick 8lb mirror. A good sign that a few more might show.

With the waggler clearly not right I switched to the Method feeder. My first two casts were too tight up the slope, so I decided to drop back a foot from the far bank. This lead to four more fish and they were noticeably bigger than on the float. Again, though, it all slowed up after a quick flurry and I could sense they had drifted towards 16.

With 90 minutes to go it’s usually ‘fill your boots’ time closer in. My short pole swim seemed to now be full of 1lb skimmers. Not so welcome at this late stage when you really want those big ‘uns. I therefore plodded away down my left-hand margin and managed five or six more good carp to 10lb plus three bream and a 1lb perch.

I had definitely lost my way a bit, though, and began swapping and changing. I also started worrying about my keepnets and what was in them. I actually popped a new net in just to put my silvers in, which also wasted a few unnecessary minutes. I then messed around feeding a new margin swim up the bank to my right and missed a bite seconds before the whistle with a huge swirl following it. I felt these errors would cost me and I was right.

John Whincup weighed 180lb on peg 12, Tommy had 150lb on 14 and the friendly chap on 16 who’s name escapes me also had 100lb+. After never really feeling settled all day I was really surprised to total 172lb! I couldn’t really argue with a 2nd in section but deep down I reckon that section win was well within reach. I couldn’t beat myself up too much though as with a 1st and two 2nds I was still well in contention for a top-10 prize.

Oh, and I must add the match was topped off nicely with us all hearing Tommy Pickering screaming and cursing after realising Mark Eves had sneakily pinched his flask – arguably his most important and beloved item of tackle!

Day Four – Trewaters, Acorn & Canal

Day four was on the ‘little lakes’ and Peg 15 on Acorn was my destination. I was happy with this as it’s always been one of my favourite pools. This peg is one of the wider ones with plenty of options (actually, options are not always a good thing with me!). I fancied anywhere from pegs 9 to 19, but as I barrowed my gear down to the lake I could see the warm wind blowing nicely into peg 11 where Carl Williams had drawn. Carl is a really in-form paste specialist and I felt he could be dangerous…

As we set up, carp were seen tailing down the edges in front of most of our platforms. This often happens on this lake for some reason and gave me high hopes of an early edge fish. Sadly that never happened. Two big carp came in and bolted away seconds into the match and that was that.

I soon discovered the lake was absolutely heaving with tiny silver fish; more than I have ever seen at this place before. I have seen 40lb+ weights of quality roach from Acorn in the past and with the fishing expected to be hard, and 70-80lb my target, I had brought three units of casters and set up several roach rigs in case I needed to target them. They never saw any action, however. I soon clocked that the silvers were too small and with carp on the feed I would need nearer 100lb+ to do any damage.

I had a great start with a quick 20lb of carp in the net on meat short. Jamie Hawkins on 13 was also catching well with carp on the tip and I could see Andy Dare on 9 and John Harvey on 19 also snaring fish.

I tried long on the deck with pellets for nothing so swapped to a shallow pellet rig and had a nice run of small carassio and F1s before that died. A switch to a small pellet feeder brought four more fish then nothing. This is where it all went a bit wrong for me as the next two hours saw me swapping and changing attacks to try and put a few fish together with little reward.

Meanwhile, after a very slow start Carl put 30lb of fish in the net in three put ins down the edge on paste. He then continued to empty it right until the whistle. John Harvey had also continued to put fish in the net all day on worms to his island. I could tell the fish wanted to be in shallower water and with my peg being so wide I needed to catch down the edge.

I soon deduced that anything soft or that made a cloud was getting whittled away by the ravenous silverfish in seconds. A switch to a new swim with hard pellets down the edge did the trick and I managed a good 35lb of carp in the last hour. I am sure I could have doubled this and was kicking myself for not making the switch sooner.

John weighed 117lb, which was a very impressive split of carp and silvers. Carl had eclipsed that with a really impressive 190lb of great big units! My 92lb effort limped into 3rd in section. A good weight, but nowhere near enough on what turned out to be a bit of a one-off red-letter day on this lake!

Day Five – Porth

I made a prediction before the start of the week that Porth’s famous head of big bream would show on the pole. This seemed to be bang on as the roach were conspicuous by their absence and the bream were showing up in shallower water, presumably because of spawning.

I drew peg 39 and was certainly not complaining as the lake had been won off it the previous day with 40lb of bream on the pole! Deep down I knew the chances of catching bream two days running off the same peg is often rare at this place, but it nevertheless filled me with hope. I had never caught one of these big Porth slabs before so I was really excited by the thought of latching into one.

I had Mikey Williams for company on end peg 40, with Tommy Pickering, Simon Gould and Luke Sears amongst others in the section. Ten minutes before the all in, Mikey apologised as he was going to ‘ball it in’. That actually helped make my own mind up as I wanted to attack my pole swim too. I made a nice mix of crushed pellet, Sensas Magic and brown crumb, then added a liberal amount of casters and chopped worms and threw nine big jaffas in. It was a rich mix but with the skimmers and bream clearly feeding it felt right.

It was only about 6-7ft so I set up two pole rigs weighing 1g and 1.5g. Both were prototype wire-stemmed silverfish patterns I’m already really impressed with. These were on 0.12mm line. One had a 0.10mm hooklength to a size 16 black nickel and No5 elastic and the other was 0.11mm to a 16 B560 and some light hollow elastic I’ve been experimenting with.

I also set up a couple of short pole rigs, as I’ve won the lake with 24lb of roach doing this here before, plus a pellet feeder rod and a small cage feeder.

Starting on the feeder I had an erratic start but managed a couple of small skimmers before it went quiet. A quick look on the short pole surprised me with a few quality roach and hybrids immediately, then a few small skimmers, then a pike strike, then a pike hooked, then not a bite there for the rest of the match!

Onto the long pole and I was into chunky skimmers immediately on worm before lifting into something altogether more substantial on double caster. I played it very gingerly and prayed it was a bream. Eventually my 4m Acolyte Landing Net Handle was at full stretch with a 5lb Porth slab wallowing in the net. Get in! I was grinning from ear to ear and shaking. I had finally got one!

I tried to compose myself and immediately swapped to the heavier rig. A few small skimmers followed but I only started to motor again when I reverted back to the lighter setup. Even when I popped a lighter 0.10mm hooklength on the heavier rig I found the lighter float was much better on the day.

By now Mikey was also on the pole and getting a few skimmers. He had also caught well with better skimmers on the tip so I knew it was close. He then managed a big slab of his own on the pole and, if anything, it looked even bigger than mine. I rallied back with a 3lb fish and then he went back on the tip and managed a good fish of his own.

The all-out eventually sounded and although we both felt I was a pound or two ahead we also agreed it was a close and enjoyable battle. Mikey was first to weigh and put a level 21lb on the scales. My skimmers were clearly smaller and I was now fearing the worst when I watched the needle hovering around the 21lb mark. A weight of 21lb 2oz was eventually called. I couldn’t believe my fortune. I have been ounced so many times at Porth over the years but it was finally time for it to go my way. Sorry Mikey! He did get a default section win and a shiny new Drennan groundbait bucket from me as a consolation prize. We’d had a great ding-dong battle and a good laugh all day too before helping each other haul our gear up Cardiac Hill on the ever-enjoyable journey back.

Andy Dare won the lake with 30lb of bream on the pole from end Peg 89 on the opposite bank while tip ace Jamie Hawkins came 2nd with 29lb of Method feeder caught slabs from peg 72.

It was nice to get back to our lodge to discover Neil had also won his section on Twin Oaks and Paul had won his entire lake on Pollawyn. Happy days all round for the three of us and a fitting end to a great week!

The Result

With two 1sts, two 2nds and a 3rd in section, plus three lake 3rds and a lake 4th I was surely going to be in the top 10… wasn’t I? Any other year that would be a 100% certainty. This year was different! No fewer than six anglers had scored a maximum 36 points, with three more on 35, so that was the top 9 places already accounted for! I was therefore so relieved to have my name called out at the presentation. I had just done enough to edge it on weight and section count back to make that all-important top-10 finish. That earned me another £200 and gave me something to smile about during the three and a half hour journey home late that night. I also know I could have nicked another point or two, which is what keeps us coming back each year.

Well done to in-form Jamie Wilde for taking 1st spot, just ahead on weight over Rob Jones, then John Whincup, Des Shipp, Darren Cox and Paul Holland also on maximum points. Paul nearly made it three festival wins on the bounce, so there’s a man in form if ever there was one!

It was yet another great week down in Cornwall. White Acres had done us all proud, so thanks to Clint, Lorna and the fisheries team for making us all so welcome, not forgetting Milo, apparently its 25th year of sponsoring this event.

Despite a stinking cold I’d still really enjoyed my week, drawn well, fished reasonably well, had more than my fair share of luck and caught nearly 500lb of fish in five days, topped off by my first ever Porth bream. Let’s hope the all-important Preston Festival in October is even better!

White Acres Milo Festival Top 10
1st Jamie Wilde, 36pts (dropping a 2nd) 434lb 11oz
2nd Rob Jones, 36pts (dropping a 2nd) 425lb 5oz
3rd John Whincup, 36pts (dropping a 3rd) 613lb 1oz
4th Des Shipp, 36pts (dropping a 3rd) 437lb 1oz
5th Darren Cox, 36pts (dropping a 3rd) 396lb 12oz
6th Paul Holland, 36pts (dropping a 6th) 544lb 8oz
7th Tom Wallis, 35pts (dropping a 3rd) 402lb 13oz
8th Andy Dare, 35pts (dropping a 4th) 317lb 5oz
9th Andy Power, 35pts (dropping a 6th) 438lb 10oz
10th Jon Arthur, 34pts (dropping a 3rd) 495lb 14oz