Day One, Porth Reservoir. My first festival and my first day, I had a good look round on Sunday to familiar myself with lakes as I haven't fished at White acres for a few years, and had not even seen the off site waters! Any way my first day was to be on Porth, a very pretty water which I did manage to sneak a couple of hours practice in on Sunday! I pulled peg 18 out of the bag at the draw, this put me in the section closest to the dam, although it was still a fair hike with all the tackle! A lot of the pegs at Porth are wade able, but this had a nice platform to fish from, and I didn't need my waders or platform, despite dragging it down there! Having a quick practice the previous day helped as I honed my pole rigs and had my feeder set raring to go. Pole rigs were 1grm. kc porth floats on 0.10 to 0.08, 611-18 and 20. The depth was about 11ft at 13m, and with the nice warm breeze this was comfortable, the feeder was clipped up at 25 yards, 3lb main line to 0.12 hook length, 611-18. I also set up an insert waggler set shallow ( 4ft ) for going beyond the pole, again 3lb main line to 0.12 611-18. I mixed up 3 kilo of ground bait the night before and had to dampen it down a little before pushing it through a riddle. I had worm, caster, maggot and pinkie on the bait table, all within the festival limits, but I had more of caster than any thing else. Having the quick practice the previous day I knew there were a few fish on the pole line, and with the wind being kinder I was hoping to catch quite quickly on this. At the all in I put 10 balls on the pole line laced with chopped worm and caster and a few pinkies, before starting on the feeder.
Looking Back Towards The Dam At Porth. The first half hour resulted in some small roach and a couple of small skimmers on the feeder, before it slowed, so I switched to the pole line. I kept a steady stream of small fish coming in on the pole, feeding a nougat of ground bait every couple of fish, nothing big but it was building the weight slowly, the odd bigger perch showed on the worm hook bait which boosted things along. I was going along quite nicely beating the lad to my left, before the first of the pike struck. 3.00 o'clock was Pike time, and I had 12 Pike strikes! It basically ruined my pole line for a good hour or so, even when I switched to the feeder they were still grabbing the fish on the way in!
My Peg, 18 On Porth. I cupped in 5 more balls on the pole line to try and let it settle again, before having a go on the waggler, I did have a few fish on the waggler with caster hook bait, some small skimmers, but my waggler rod was a little "over gunned" and I was bumping them off, so I switched to the feeder, two better skimmers, 5-6oz ! were the result, but that was it for a while. Picking the pole back up for the last hour and the pike had gone, Phew! The funny thing was the lads to my left never had any strikes all day! Must of been doing something wrong! A steady steam of small roach and perch continued till the end of the match. The scales came round and I weighed in 8lb 6oz, not too bad, middle of the section, the pike trouble in the middle of the match cost me a couple of section points, as there were a couple of weights around the 10lb mark, but I was quite pleased with efforts for my first trip to Porth, just need to re-ty all my hook lengths and rigs that the Pike trashed!
Looking Back Towards The Dam At Porth. The first half hour resulted in some small roach and a couple of small skimmers on the feeder, before it slowed, so I switched to the pole line. I kept a steady stream of small fish coming in on the pole, feeding a nougat of ground bait every couple of fish, nothing big but it was building the weight slowly, the odd bigger perch showed on the worm hook bait which boosted things along. I was going along quite nicely beating the lad to my left, before the first of the pike struck. 3.00 o'clock was Pike time, and I had 12 Pike strikes! It basically ruined my pole line for a good hour or so, even when I switched to the feeder they were still grabbing the fish on the way in! 
My Peg, 18 On Porth. I cupped in 5 more balls on the pole line to try and let it settle again, before having a go on the waggler, I did have a few fish on the waggler with caster hook bait, some small skimmers, but my waggler rod was a little "over gunned" and I was bumping them off, so I switched to the feeder, two better skimmers, 5-6oz ! were the result, but that was it for a while. Picking the pole back up for the last hour and the pike had gone, Phew! The funny thing was the lads to my left never had any strikes all day! Must of been doing something wrong! A steady steam of small roach and perch continued till the end of the match. The scales came round and I weighed in 8lb 6oz, not too bad, middle of the section, the pike trouble in the middle of the match cost me a couple of section points, as there were a couple of weights around the 10lb mark, but I was quite pleased with efforts for my first trip to Porth, just need to re-ty all my hook lengths and rigs that the Pike trashed!
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