Being our last planned holiday break for 2023 Liz and I headed to White Acres, a well known venue in match angling circles that hosts competitions such as the Parkdean Masters and others which are often televised. The venue has 9 onsite lakes for ‘Pleasure fishing’ plus 2 ‘Specimen fishing’ lakes and a there are a further 2 lakes offsite but nearby. Details of the available fishing plus rules and water descriptions can be found at https://www.parkdeanresorts.co.uk/location/cornwall/white-acres/fishing-holidays/
[The holiday didn’t get off to a good start as we had news during the previous week that Liz’s Mom (her parents moved to Cyprus 20 years ago) had been admitted to hospital and it had been found that her kidneys had failed and she had been put on dialysis … started to improve slightly then suffered a major heart attack and things looked very bleak … but again she started to recover and picked up a bit day-by-day … but on the Wednesday we were at WA she had a relapse and again her kidneys failed … and Thursday evening she unfortunately passed away :(]
We left home at 1100 on Monday 2nd October for the 240 mile/4 hour trip …. and arrived at 1530 having stopped off for a break at the Gordano Services near Bristol. As the van wasn’t due to be ready until 1600 we popped into the bar to wait…
1600, had access to our ‘van – humble but suited us to the ground as it had all we needed – and only a couple of hundred yards from the Pollawyn and Sycamore Pools and the onsite tackle shop which was only needed to pick up my pre-booked £30 week permit for the pleasure pools. The specimen pools required a different permit – not sure if that was a stand-alone permit or if a ‘pleasure’ permit was also required – but I was quite happy to fish the pleasure pools. Liz was intending to get a day permit but, given the circumstances, on the Saturday she had intended to fish she didn’t feel up to it.
As it happened there was a 5-day event (The Maver Festival) on during the week and several of the pools were closed to cater for that and so I fished Sycamore as my originally intended Pollawyn was in use … and even on the Saturday when all the pools were available I returned to Sycamore for the day as it was quite a pleasant pool to fish and Pollawyn, which was alongside, looked a bit ‘open’ and not so scenic.
Sycamore Pool
Monday evening was spent sorting fishing clothing, tackle and bait ready for an 0800 start on Tuesday (3rd) morning which was a bit later than I’d hoped but on our arrival onsite on Monday the tackle shop had closed at 1515 and I was unable to pick up my permit until it opened at 0800 on Tuesday…
Tuesday, permit collected, I headed down the track to Sycamore pool…and tackled up to float fish, lift method, fishing between the two beds of lilies from peg 7 with 6lb line and size 14 hook baited with maggot and maggot/worm combo.
0840, first fish to the net … a 4lb 10oz mirror carp on maggot…
0920 – a common carp of around 1lb on maggot/worm…
Unfortunately, I found my worms hadn’t survived the travelling too well and had to be discarded…
1007 – a small (few ounce) bream..
I was having a fair few bites but very tentative ones and mostly missed and those caught were small silvers…
I did lose a good fish though – after unhooking a small roach I had dropped the hook down the edge of the water and then Liz rang me to see how I was doing … and whilst answering the line shot out … and due to phone in one hand and the rod in the other I had little control and fish gained sanctuary in the left hand lilies snapping me off above the float so I lost all my tackle…
I retackled and fished until about 1400 catching a few small bits but did have another mishap before packing down… I trod on the pole of my landing net, a 2.5 metre telescopic Korum Snapper Cult, with the sound of crunching material denoting damage done in the form of several splits down the second section from butt… at that time it was still temporarily usable if held at 3rd section. I since ordered a replacement which arrived this morning – a 2.8 metre Korum Opportunist XTND, a bit longer than the original Cult which packed down to 60cm while this packs to 65cm – and its stiffer too – a good thing to me – and even better the ‘bung’ that holds the collapsed pole for transporting is now made of Duplon whereas the Cult’s was cork and that got too wet at one time and swelled so that, even after drying out, it wouldn’t fit into the pole and so I’d had to remove that and wrapped duct tape around in its place to create a suitable fitment.
Wednesday (4th), again off to Sycamore at 0715, a bit earlier as I’d now the permit in my possession and set up again at peg 7, this time with the leger rod (8lb line, size 8 hook – the largest hook allowed – and a 20g frame feeder which was loaded with crumb, particles and dead maggots). Bait generally was bread although sweetcorn was also used. As we were intending to visit Padstow in the afternoon, I fished until 1100 and then returned to the van for breakfast. I was casting out to the island in front of me and catch of the morning consisted of 5-6 crucian carp with the best coming in at 1lb 10oz.
Unfortunately, during the morning the scrunched landing net pole finally gave up the ghost and ended up in the skip… however, during the afternoon exploration of Padstow we came across a tackle shop and found a good buy in a quite reasonable 3 metre telescopic pole for £11 and a few pennies which sufficed my needs and will be kept as a spare…
Thursday, the weather forecast hadn’t been good when checked before travelling down and we’d already pencilled it in to visit Newquay – however, weather was actually ok but Liz had had news of her mother’s relapse and we just stayed around the van. Later that evening the bad news came…
Friday was another day in the van … I’d decided to have my ‘pill’ as that would allow me to be clear for the weekend and the drive home on Monday …
Saturday, Liz decided against fishing so I went out solo again to Sycamore Peg 7, again legering in the same manners as previously. Bait was mainly bread with the addition of a coating of Plumrose Cheese& Prawn spread – and there must be a decent prawn content in it as the first fish taken was a perch! Bait had been stationary for several minutes too so it wasn’t as if it attacked a moving target… Came in at 2lb 2oz, my second every biggest perch..
This was followed by a 1lb 12oz crucian carp and 3lb 5oz common carp and then, on changing bait to sweetcorn, a 1lb 7oz crucian carp and a ghost carp of around 2lb…
Sunday was spent sorting tackle/baits and car packing generally …
Monday, 9th, 0930, start of the journey home arriving back about 1530… quick unload of the car and a cuppa … and 1700 off to the cattery to rescue our moggy, Mollie…
PLANS
I had thought to head out on my first pike outing tomorrow (Thursday 12th) as I write this but, despite having sorted most of the pike tackle out before we left for Cornwall, I, again, underestimated the time taken to unload cases, put unused clothing away and wash/dry the used, etc….
So now looking at Monday 16th ….
Friday, 13th, YET ANOTHER CT scan for me too … then next week an Hearing Aid MOT and possibly something else too! :rolleyes:….
stevetheangler 
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