Ok here goes ! :D
6 days of silvers fishing at Stafford Moor , devon organised by herbie for the MFS crew ........ yippeeee!
Having never fished Stafford Moor before the weeks leading up to the festival was a matter of spending hours via the web , texts etc gleaning info off Stafford Moor silver festival anglers and Stafford Moor silver maniac anglers including Diddy
then getting rigs prepared, elastics , groundbait etc, etc.
The festival was to be fished via alternate sections on Tanners and Woodpeckers over 4 days with a warm up match on Pines on the sunday for the early arrivals plus an open on the last day (friday) again split between Tanners ans Woodies.
On arrival we meet up with Andy Seery who made us all welcome and talked through the fishing and lakes plus the superb lodge (cedar) we were staying in
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Rigs were basically Sensas Jean Francois floats , 0.4 gram to 2 gram and Garbolino DC 18s (thicker tips) 0.4 gram to 1 gram all tied to 0.12 mainline with 0.92 hook lengths , the heavier rigs 1 gram to 2 gram were all double bulk rigs with olivettes and 2 no 10s or no 9s 3 ins from the hook ! the lighter rigs were bulked with no 9s with 3 no 10s droppers ....... hook patterns ranged from Drennan Silverfish , Tubertini 808s and Milo T213s , the latter being by far the best for the silver fishing encountered at Stafford Moor imho. Elastics ranged from single 3s latex right up to doubled 5s......... Middy purple single 4-6 was by far the best for me over the week.
Sunday warm up open Pines.......
Word was you needed to draw the deeper pegs at the top end of the lake ....... i pulled out peg 23 in the shallows ! ::) plumbed up and found just 3 ft of water all over the peg ........ decided on just 3 lines , chop worm and gb @ 13 mtrs , dead reds and gb @ 9 mtrs and caster @ 4 mtrs. The chop worm line just never happened , couldnt buy a bite throughout the match on it , managed an odd skimmer plus a few roach to 4oz in spurts on the 9 mtr line ...... the 4 mtr line loose feeding casters saved the day in the last hour again odd skimmers to 14 oz plus roach and a bonus 1lb tench saw me weigh 19.12 for 6th in match. 30 lb won from the deeper section with 24 lb and 22lb 2nd and 3rd.
Festival Day 1
Sections were drew at the lodge and i found myself on peg 10 on Woodies. after walking the whole complex on the saturday i knew peg 10 could prove difficult , its a funny looking peg that faces the wrong way into a bay so its a matter of fishing long on an angle into the main lake plus several swims in the bay. The day proved to be a disaster silverfish wise , again chop worm didnt work plus the bay was full of feeding carp which seemed to like my groundbait ! in short i spent most of the day playing and pulling out of big lethargic carp and not enough time catching skimmers ..... weighed in just 14.6 and 5th in section so no chance of winning the festival and a rethink for day 2 required ! :(
Day 2
Tanners 33 was pulled from the bag ....... end peg 36 had produced 63 lb of skimmers , roach and tench on day 1 for Jim Macdowell and peg 35 had produced 54lb for Steve May so i was in a good area to say the least but a bit off the main bagging area near to a bridge which has a nice flow coming through it from adjacent Beatties lake. I decided to go for it and feed heavy even though festival regulars told me the 2nd day always fishes harder than the 1st day plus i needed to pull fish from the pegs 36 and 35 to my right (34 left out), 1.5 & 1 gram double bulked rigs were used @ 5 & 13 mtrs both lines 4.5 ft deep, in went 5 cupped in jaffas @ 13 mtrs and 2 @ 5mtrs ....... chop worm was put to one side and totally disregarded , dead red maggs were used intstead ! first put in @ 5mtrs the float lifted and a nice 6oz skimmer was safely landed ...... second put in another ! happy days !!!
after 45 mins even though still catching nicely i decided to have a look on the 13 mtr line ...... first put in the float steadily lifted and a bigger skimmer of 14 oz was landed
4hrs later i weighed 40.4 of skimmers plus a couple of nice crucians and a loads of roach to 6 oz and a much needed section win beating fancied pegs 36 who weighed 35lb and peg 35 16lb. First envelope of the week and 2nd overall on the day yippeee !
Day 3
Back on difficult Woodies lake, my nemisis for the week , never really got my head around that lake .....proper difficult ! anyway peg 28 for me , the weather by now was freezing cold , we woke to ice and frost as devon had become the coldest place in England ! Day 3 turned into a tuffie for nearly everyone and Woodies was fishing difficult anyway so a softly softly approach it was to be. Tbh it was another struggle , dead reds over gb @ 16 mtrs and 13 mtrs only produced odd skimmers in 2 or 3s then long biteless spells for everyone in the section , i kept dripping in a few casters @ 4 mtrs and eventually decided to have a look with 60 mins to go , this line promptly produced a 2.5 lb bream and a 1.5 lb tench !
a few roach plus a 1 lb skimmer followed and the all out went. I knew it had been a struggle for everyone and it was going to be very very tight at the scales between a few of us ..... the scales arrived and Chris Haines had 22lb from peg 34 Col Mercer 23lb from 32 , mine went 20.14 peg 26 Jaap the cockney 22.2
that was my festival over , a proper skimmer short of a section win and only 4th ...... oh well beer to be drunk in the village pub
Day 4
Proper sore head at the draw
another freezing cold day saw me sitting on peg 1 on Tanners ::). This peg was in the same section as the 30s opposite and hadnt produced a big weight all week so 30lb and 3rd in section was all i was fishing for in reality
to cut a longstory short he whole complex fished hard again , peg 36 still came up with the goods winning the section with 34lb , i had a steadyish day finishing with 22.12 and got 3rd in section and a nice envelope !
Thursday evening saw us all squeeze into the Duke of York pub iddesleigh for the presentation ....... Steve May had fished a blinder all week finishing with a fantastic 5pts from a possible 4 to win the festival easily
I ended up with 13 pts and 10th overall i think ...... 2 good days , 1 almost day and 1 proper disaster lol
Friday open
Drew Tanners 35 yippeeeeee ! went for it again , emptied it ...... 45.1 of skimmers and won the match
HOME JAMES !
Massive thanks to the MFS lads
Andy Seery
and last but not least Herbie ! one of anglings unsung heroes and smashing fella even though he is a Man Utd fan !
