Drennan International Coca Cola Junior Festival
Fishing Information call 01726 862519
It is once again time for our annual White Acres Junior festival, this year sees a slight change to the format with the matches being held mid-week instead of the weekend allowing the youngsters to get in a few days extra practise on the lakes.
There are 31 entrants in the festival which is sponsored by Coca Cola who generously add £500 sponsorship to the prize fund as well as the backing from angling giants Drennan International who have donated some of the best prizes to date for the festival, this year each of the young anglers will walk away with a goodie bag packed with Drennan products that totals over £50 as well as amazing prizes for the top 8 in the festival.
Rather than draw the sections for the festival we have once again left it for the anglers to draw their own sections by having a random on the first morning with all the pegs for Jennys & Trelawney in the same bag. So the sections and pegs were drawn and they were off, lets see how the first day of the festival went.
Day One
A Section Jennys
The pegs being used on Jennys are between 2 and 22 and these have been split into two sections of 8 anglers. The lake winner and picking up 8 points today was Sam Hughes on peg 15, Sam caught carp on the pellet waggler with 8 mil pellets for a weight of 53lb. Second on the lake and also winning his section was Luke Butterworth, Luke was on peg 3 and had a weight of 43lb 9oz which was 3 carp and F1's which were caught on the method feeder. Rory Jones was on peg 19 and picked up 7 points with a weight of 52lb 7oz, Rory caught all F1's on the method feeder. Jake Gallagher caught on the groundbait feeder with meat for a weight of 39lb 11oz; Jake was on peg 7 and picked up 7 points. The anglers picking up 6 points were Chris Tomlinson and Kirsty Hicks, Chris was on peg 17 and caught tench on chopped worm and caster for a weight of 28lb 11oz and Kirsty was on peg 4 and caught on the feeder with pellet & meat for a weight of 20lb 8oz.
Section winners
Sam Hughes 8 points peg 15 53lb
Luke Butterworth 8 points peg 3 43lb 9oz
B Section Trelawney
The anglers have also been split into two sections on Trelawney with half the pack fishing pegs 4 - 18 and the other half fishing 21 - 31. The best weight from the 2 sections and picking up 8 points was Charlotte Gore, Charlotte was on peg 22 and caught on the pole with caster for a weight of 45lb 7oz. Kingsley Davis was on peg 25 and had the next best weight with 42lb 13oz, Kingsley caught carp on the bomb with 8 mil pellets and picked up 7 points. Josh Balodis was in the first section and won it with 29lb 6oz to give him 8 points, Josh was on peg 10 and caught on the pole at 6 meters with pellet. Liam Reynolds was picking up 6 points with 38lb 13oz from peg 27, Liam caught down the edge on maggot. On the low numbered pegs Kieron Wood weighed in with 25lb 4oz to pick up 7 points, Kieron was on peg 18 and caught 2 carp and 20 F1's on the deck at 13 meters with pellet. Third in that section and 6 points went to Connor Barlow on peg 6, Connor caught short on the pole with caster for a weight of 20lb 11oz
Section Winners
Charlotte Gore 8 points peg 22 45lb 7oz
Josh Balodis 8 points peg 10 29lb 6oz
That was day one and it was a good all round start for the young anglers. Seeing that it is only a two-day festival some of the anglers will be pulling out all the stops to claw back some points for the final day to rise up the rankings.
Day Two
It was torrential rain overnight and with it lashing down for over 6 hours, that amount of cold water is never going to have a positive affect on the fishing, luckily because of the nature of the lakes and their all round qualities this did not have to much of an adverse affect on the fishing and we still saw some reasonable weights.
A Section Trelawney
It was on to Trelawney for A section for the final day of the festival Luke and Sam went in to the final day with a section win behind them which was a positive boost for them, especially for Luke who then went on to win another perfect section result. Luke was on peg 24 and picked up his 8 points with 29lb 10oz. The overall lake winner was Rory Jones on peg 16, Rory caught on the straight lead with 8 mill pellets picking up 8 points for the section win with a weight of 31lb 2oz. Sam Hughes weighed in with 28lb 1oz to pick up 7 section points, Sam was on peg 18 and caught on the pole and pellet waggler. Ben Proctor also picked up 7 points; Ben was on peg 22 and weighed in with 24lb 10oz.
Section Winners
Rory Jones 8 points peg 16 31lb 2oz
Luke Butterworth 8 points peg 24 29lb 10oz
B Section Jennys
The weights were fairly tight across both sections on Jennys with the exception being our lake winner Connor Barlow, Connor picked up 8 points with a fantastic weight of 66lb 15oz he was on peg 19 and caught on the method feeder. Jake Blackmon had the next best weight with 21lb 2oz; Jake was on peg 18 and caught on the feeder with pellet to take 7 points. Chris Pentland was the 8 point section winner on the lower peg numbers, Chris had a weight of 21lb 1oz caught on the pole at 10 meters with pellet from peg 7. Josh Balodis & Joe Cartwright both weighed in with 20lb 10oz but they were in different sections so picked up different points. Joe was on peg 5 and picked up 7 points, he caught on the method feeder and Josh caught on the feeder to take 6 points from peg 15. Jake Wooley had the next best weight taking 6 points with 20lb 4oz; Jake was on peg 6 and caught on the method feeder.
Section Winners
Connor Barlow 8 points peg 19 66lb 15oz
Chris Pentland 8 points peg 7 21lb 1oz
So that was all the action from the two-day festival and here is how the final leader board looks, showing off the up and coming stars of the Uk's angling scene.
Overall Competition Results
| Name | Weight | Points | |
| 1st | Luke Butterworth | 73lb 3oz | 16 points |
| 2nd | Rory Jones | 83lb 9oz | 15 points |
| 3rd | Sam Hughes | 81lb 1oz | 15 points |
| 4th | Connor Barlow | 87lb 10oz | 14 points |
| 5th | Josh Balodis | 50lb | 14 points |
| 6th | Charlotte Gore | 59lb 1oz | 13 points |
| 7th | Chris Pentland | 46lb 6oz | 13 points |
| 8th | Jake Gallagher | 4lb 4oz | 12 points 5 |
| 9th | Chris Tomlinson | 52lb 6oz | 12 points |
| 10th | Kieron Wood | 44lb 12oz | 12 points |
| 11th | Ben Proctor |
43lb | 12 points |
| 12th | Kingsley Davis | 52lb 7oz | 11 points |
| 13th | Jake Wolley |
42lb 12oz | 10 points |
| 14th | Jack Blackmon | 33lb 12oz | 10 points |
| 15th | Joe Cartwright | 34lb 15oz | 9 points |
| 16th | Grant Merrett | 36lb 2oz | 8 points |
| 17th | Bradley Proctor | 35lb 11oz | 8 points |
| 18th | Liam Reynolds | 35lb 1oz | 8 points |
| 19th | Dan Garnett | 28lb 8oz | 8 points |
| 20th | Kirsty Hicks | 23lb 9oz | 8 points |
| 21st | Daniel Ball |
33lb 5oz | 7 points |
| 22nd | Reece Nicholson | 29lb 13oz | 7 points |
| 23rd | Bradley Inglis | 26lb 15oz | 6 points |
| 24th | Slade Stevens | 22lb 2oz | 6 points |
| 25th | Sam Brown | 19lb 15oz | 6 points |
| 26th | Jordan Flynn | 16lb 9oz | 6 points |
| 27th | Thomas Moretti | 25lb 12oz | 5 points |
| 28th | Joshua Gilbert |
20lb | 5 points |
| 29th | Eliot Faye | 22lb 2oz | 4 points |
| 30th | Ben Ellis | 6lb 9oz | 3 points |
| 31st | Joel Ellis | 4lb 13oz | 2 points |
With a perfect score of 16 points, Luke Butterworth is crowned this years Coca Cola Drennan International Junior winner. Luke has put in a great performance winning his section on both days, this is one of the best line ups we have seen in the festivals and I'm sure if you are reading the match results in the next ten years time some of these names will be heavily featured.
The combination of the entry fees, sponsorship from Coca Cola and prizes from Drennan International and ensured that the juniors go away with an amazing haul of prizes. Places from 1st to 8th received prizes as well as all of the entrants getting a Drennan Goodie bag.
All in all it has been another successful event and huge thanks to the entrants and the sponsors Coca & Cola and Drennan for making it possible to hold such a great festival. Congratulations to all the anglers that fished especially our top three of Luke Butterworth, Rory Jones & Sam Hughes
Cheers, Kirsty
