darren cox

Darren Cox In Depth

Darrens first-ever Van den Eynde Festival at White
Acres was a big success, after resurrecting some
old ideas and methods that hed stored away in his
angling brain for just such an occasion

White Acres Van den Eynde Festival

or anybody who thinks that all I ever

do is go down to White Acres to fish
every festival, it may come as a bit of
a shock when I tell you I fished the Van
den Eynde Festival this year for the first
time ever! Work commitments mean that
I can only fish one festival in spring and
one in summer (er, what about the one in
the winter? - Ed). Because Garbolino was
attending the tcf Showcase I switched
festivals this year, so that I could still fish
one in spring.

to noise when searching out food,

especially on pellet-dominated venues.
I had a few days down at White Acres
with the family before the festival started,
and made a point of visiting most of
the venues every day to see what was
happening. It became obvious that there
were plenty of fish feeding but the anglers
fishing were largely using pellets. The
pellet waggler was working very well
on some pools as the fish homed in on
the noise of 8mm pellets catapulted at

Fish sometimes take a few days to respond to

other baits when their staple diet is pellets.
Fishing a new festival was quite exciting
for me. Although theres a hard core
of names that attend every event there
are plenty of anglers who only fish one
festival every year, and who I may not
have met before. The main difference
between the Van den Eynde Festival and
the other festivals on the complex through
the year is that pellets are not allowed
for this week. This does seem strange
but, looking back, it was only a few years
ago when pellets werent allowed on any
White Acres festivals.
Before going down there I asked around
to try and find out what effect the nopellets rule usually has on this event. I
also tried to cast my mind back to the time
before pellets. Anglers have been using
pellets on this fishery for years and, as I
have mentioned before, it can sometimes
take a few days for fish to respond to
other baits when their staple diet is pellets.
When you only have five days to get
it right and give yourself a chance, its
imperative to understand what the effects
are likely to be on the fish.
Once the fish get the munchies from
spring onwards they are very responsive

36 matchfishing June 08

distance. Some anglers were also catching

on the feeder and bomb but these were
slower than the waggler. I guessed that
the cold rain wed recently experienced
had cooled down the lower layers of
water and encouraged the fish to find
the warmer, shallower thermoclines that
exist in conditions like this. The days were
warm and the nights cold, so the water
wasnt really warming up enough, on the
whole.
The liquidised-meat feeder works well
at White Acres and I guessed it would
play a part in the shallow water around
the islands, but I was also interested
in how I could catch the fish that were
already willing to take pellets up in the
air in deeper water.
A little trick that I learnt years ago from
White Acres fishery manager Clint Elliott
(who had an incredible record on these
festivals when he fished them) has stood
me in good stead for many years on many
venues, and I figured it would come in
handy this week too.
Before pellets were allowed we used
to catch fish on waggler and meat but we
always had problems getting the feed far

June 08 matchfishing 37

darren cox
Three sizes of meat cutter cover
all of Darrens needs.

enough out in windy

conditions. Clint then
showed me how to
dust the meat. This
dramatically adds
weight, meaning you
can fire it further
and, even more
importantly these
days, it makes a
lovely pellet-like
plop when
it hits the
water. I was
convinced
that this
would work
and spent a lot of

time in my lodge getting the right size of

meat coated correctly.
Clint originally used a groundbait called
Sensas Strawberry Fizz for dusting, which
he found made the meat very sticky. After
discussing this with Sensas he discovered
that it was the heavy sugar content that
emulsified the fat in the meat and enabled
the additive to be drawn in. Subsequently,
Sensas Magic Meat was born as a result
Clint has always been a clever bugger!
This sugary substance is basically icing
sugar and turns the meat sticky, which
then allows you to coat your cubes with a
powder such as fishmeal.
The week started off very well for me
on Peg 7 on Pollawyn; not exactly where
Id choose to be on the first day of the

festival but it can throw up a few. As

always, Pegs 1 and 13 would be the
danger pegs in this section. The match
didnt start very well for me as, after
45 minutes, I foul hooked one ghostie
of about 5lb and lost it. There werent
many other signs of fish at all, and
although I had been Kinder-potting
liquidised meat to the island in front of
me, where I could reach at 14 metres,
it just wasnt happening for me or
anyone else in the section.
However, my other plan, which was
to ping dusted 8mm cubes of meat at
16 metres along the island and try and
encourage a few carp over it, worked
like a dream! I fed just two cubes every
few minutes and used a long line to

flick my pole rig up the rat holes. A few

odd fish were responding to the noise
and I ended up with 10 carp for 57lb and
a comfortable section win. Without those
dusted cubes Id have been in trouble!
Day Two and I was on Peg 34 on
Python, but John Pantry was on the flier
Peg 36; he knows his stuff and was going
to be hard to beat. It was blowing a gale,
which made it very difficult to fish across.
I kicked off in four feet of water about
1.5 metres off the far bank and really
struggled to keep the rig still enough
to get a bite. To cut a long story short, I
religiously fed 6mm dusted cubes right
across and went on it in the last hour to
find brown goldfish queuing up to be
caught. I had left it too late, though, and

weighed in 25lb 12oz to Johns 30lb 4oz. It

was my mistake, because I had felt that Id
never be able to control the rig properly
at the longer distance. In fact, I discovered
too late that it was easier, as it was just a
case of plopping a light rig in the shallow
water for a few seconds! If I didnt get
a bite I repeated the process until I did,
while still feeding the odd cube. I was
second in the section and really kicking
myself!
I caught a few fish at Gwinear, on
Day Three, by pinging the dusted meat
at 16 metres, but it wasnt until Friday,
on Bolingey Lake, when it really came
into play again. I drew next to Tommy
Pickering, one of my all-time heroes, who
is hard to beat on any venue. He drew

DARRENS DUSTED-MEAT PELLETS

01

Push a tin of meat through a

meat cutter 6mm or 8mm
sizes are best.

02

Bag up the meat in a large

polythene bag, leaving plenty
of air inside.

03

Add a generous amount of

Sensas Magic Meat (or icing
sugar) until its all coated.

04

Seal the bag and leave for 20

minutes so the meat sweats and
absorbs the sticky powder.

05

Cover with pellet powder or

fishmeal and shake vigorously
until the meat is coated.

06

Leave it in the fridge overnight to

harden up; the longer you fridge
it, the harder it becomes!

darren cox
on Peg 10 and I was on Peg 11. I knew
Tommy would start on the liquidisedmeat feeder, as Id also planned to, but I
was conscious that I couldnt let him have
that line all to himself. He was casting to
the corner of the island while I was in the
middle, with Peg 12 also cutting the fish
off from me on the other side.
I went with Tommy on the feeder for
almost two hours and we were neck and
neck on fish. It was gradually getting
worse, though, and Tommy was the first
to come off it to try his pole line. I stayed
on the feeder for another 20 minutes and
picked up two more carp.
All through the match I had been
feeding dusted meat with the catapult
over my feeder line, because I believed (as
I had all week) that the fish were really
responding to the noise and picking off
falling baits. The carp also appeared to be
backing off the feeder unless there were
lots of fish in the swim and Tommy and I
never had that luxury!
I then decided to leave this swim alone
for a good hour,

Part of Darrens
section-winning
Bolingey catch.

Dont leave home

without it!

in the hope that some fish would hear

me feeding. With some 90 minutes to
go I decided it was time to have another
look. Instead of a feeder, though, I cast
out a pellet waggler and was into a fish
immediately. Using dusted meat I caught
13 fish in this last period of the match
to win the section with 121lb, while
Tommy and big Wayne Sharman
both had 80lb weights on either
side of me.
It was definitely the
dusted meat that won me
the section, because I
actually ran out of it

with 15 minutes to go and had to revert

back to standard cubes, but in the wind I
couldnt get these tight enough across to
the island. Thankfully, I had done enough
to win by then.
That result gave me three wins and two
seconds over the week, which put me
fourth overall in an extremely tight top
five. William Raison showed his class yet
again for his second festival win, and after
that it was a Garbolino rout with Grant
Albutt second, Neil Machin third and then
yours truly!
Im so pleased that I took the time out to
prepare that dusted meat, as it definitely
helped. Its something I havent done for a
few years but it still worked like a dream!
Fishing is all about remembering what
works when and why, logging it in your
mind and bringing it out at the right
time to help your fishing. Many people
follow vogue methods but they are soon
forgotten by the majority as the next wave
of theories is bestowed upon us.
Were so lucky these days, as we can
collate so much up-to-date information
from the media, but we must be able to
file it in our brains for future application.
Its the anglers who can do that who will
benefit the most in the long term. These
are the ones who can take the knowledge
stored within their angling brains and
apply it to certain circumstances relevant
to that day, weather conditions, venue,
species and so on.

Back In The Fisho

Final!

Im delighted to be back in the Fish O Mania Final this year,

after qualifying at Witherington Farm Fishery. I really fancied
the venue as I was impressed with it last year, although I was
full of cold and hardly slept a wink the night before through my
constant coughing!
I was happy when I drew Peg 47 in a fancied area on Outer
Snake Lake, but when I saw the wind I knew it was going to
be a tough old day. Because of the wind I decided to fish corn
across and feed micro pellets and corn through a Kinder pot. The
heaviness of the corn would help keep the rig still and hopefully
get me more bites. The key was to keep shipping back regularly
and feeding through the pot, even when I wasnt getting bites.
The constant trickle of feed meant that the fish stopped in my
peg for longer, giving me a better chance of catching them.
I fished relatively light, with a 0.1g DC6 float tied to 0.16mm
main line, 0.14mm Garbo Line hooklength and a Kamasan size
16 B911 hook. My target weight was 20 carp for 80lb, and I
wasnt far off the mark with 19 fish for 79lb!
I was delighted at the weigh-in and felt Id fished a good
match. At times it was seriously strenuous trying to control
the rig but it was all worth it in the end. Im looking forward to
getting some practice in on the new final venue at Cudmore
now. It should be a great venue and very exciting, so Ill keep you
informed on how its going!

40 matchfishing June 08