July 27, 2007
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Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.
Maggotdrowning.com
Rolf’s Pairs Tournament 2007.
So there i was 6·30am on Saturday with the car all loaded up and ready to get off to Rolf’s Lake for the 2nd Annual Maggotdrowning Pairs Tournament.
A quick stop off on route in Battersea for a spot of breakfast followed by a trouble free run down the M40 saw me pulling into the services just after 8am, closely followed by Paul East (NoMoreLongWalks) along with Dai and his good lady Anne and Vince (vg1037).
A short phone call soon revealed that Ady (BigLadWigan) was doing a passable impression of lost & confused driving around Holton trying to remember where the lake was, so he elected to return to the services and follow us down there.
Soon it was a case of back into the cars and down to Rolf’s, arriving just after 9am you can imagine my shock to find Malc and his daughter Gemma already there, indeed the car park was almost full as various Maggotdrowners arrived from all corners of the country.
Geoff P had taken the long distance award, having been chauffeured down from Scotland by his son for the weekend. While looking around you could see a mini Maggotville emerging as a number of bivvies went up.
Talk as usual was about just how many “tons” would come out over the weekend but as I took a walk round the lake, nagging away in the back of my head was a little voice telling me that things might prove to be a lot harder than many people thought owing to all the water that had been in and out of the venue during the preceding weeks.
It was good to see that pegs 16-18 had been reinstated opening up the choice of pegs available, indeed standing in the car park it was hard to believe that the lake had been bursting it’s banks the previous weekend and it was a tribute to the efforts of John and his helpers even going to the trouble of running a pump round the clock in order to make sure that the venue was eminently fishable, leading many to wonder why another website’s match due for the Friday had been canceled by them the previous Monday.
Finally Dave Webster (RedLeader) arrived, having collected Tony Prentice (teepee) on the way he’d obviously had a “Blonde” moment setting the Sat Nav so that the route from Yorkshire to Wheatly was via the M25??????
So finally we’re all assembled and the draw takes place for pairs, which finds me paired for the weekend with Tony Roberts (spamwham) a fellow Marsh AC member, and then the draw for pegs. Dave and I were the last to draw and I found myself holding Peg 34, considered by many to be a flyer, so no pressure. However on arriving I found that the rope that marks the far edge of the swim had been moved away from it’s usual position???? Tony. my partner had drawn peg 38 so at least we could keep an eye on each other.
Settling into the peg I set the box up on the submerged platform and elected to concentrate on the margins which were about 18″ deeper than usual, but also taking advantage of the new ruling that allows the use of rod and reel, set up a feeder rig to cover my options.
Next door on peg 35 I had Dave “Yorkie” Moore for company, a fellow competitor in The Jinx Series of matches, so if nothing else a good bit of banter was assured.
12noon and the all in sounds, and it would be nice to say that we all got off to flyers, but it was Gazmalman who had flown off his platform before the match had even started, Malman Floats? well it would appear he does, even if he is well dotted down due to consuming a few to many pies
………………………….the crazy bit is that he did it again during the match, this time losing a weigher in the process that probably cost him the section.
For a lot of the anglers it proved to be a hard old day, most had fish in their swims at some point in the day but getting them to show an interest in a bait was another matter. Try as they might it proved to be a struggle, some like Dave grafted away for 5 hours and were only rewarded with a single fish proving once again that there is more to it than just turning up at Rolf’s to guarantee a ton-up bag.
I was lashing in the pellet on the margin line while fishing the feeder out by the rope but for no reward, while teepee opposite on peg 6 had landed 1 and lost a couple. However we all had to watch as Ian Ward (Chin) on peg 7 and Gemma on peg 8 caught steadily from the off and with the lake not fishing to it’s potential strolled away from the rest of us. Ian winning the day with 108lbs 8ozs, while Gemma was unfortunate enough to lose a good fish in the final minutes that could have pushed Ian all the way, but still finishing in overall 2nd place with 98lbs, a really top performance on the day allowing her to take more than a few £1 coins off of the assembled company.
I had been fortunate enough to nick a few decent fish at the end with a final 12½lb’er with 5 mins to go, my 73¼lbs pushing up to 9th on the day while Tony had found out about the power of Rolf’s fish, putting 45lbs on the scales for 13th overall but losing many more. A lesson learned hopefully.
As most know Rolf’s health has not been the best so it was especially good to see him put in an appearance during the afternoon and have a gentle stroll round having a chat with those present.
The weigh-in proved just how hard it had been for most with only the 1 “ton” and more weights under 50lbs than above it, Rolf’s had indeed shown us it’s hard side, though hopefully with plenty of feed having gone in, things would improve on Sunday.
Soon the Barbecue was lit and the beers cracked open with Rolf stopping on for a bite to eat before returning home.
Around 9pm the rain stared to fall, but with Dave’s gazebo and countless brollies available the banter continued for some long into the night.
Sunday dawned dry and sunny and with breakfast cooked once more on the barbecue for most it was just a question of waiting for Pete Archer (Vespe) and Keith Arthur (Fishermans Blues) fresh from his morning radio show to join us for the draw. Both duly arrived and the draw was underway.
I found myself on peg 9 this time while Tony had draw sock on with peg 8, while I had Chin to my left on 10.
with the all in at 12noon, Ady on peg 31 was looking like Raison, Nudd & Wilson rolled into one as his paste attack brought immediate rewards, alas it was not to last, but he looked good while it lasted, unfortunately all to briefly.
I started off with an absolute nightmare
, there were fish in front of me but regardless of what I put on the hook or the depth I fished at, all I got were foulhookers that proved to be unlandable. By the time that Ian walked past with his 5th weigher and yet another fish trashed another rig, my pole was thrown up the bank, to stop myself from smashing it in a fit of temper.
Once again I reverted to meat fished in conjunction with a feeder full of fishery pellet, which finally allowed me to put a few fish together.
Ian meanwhile was putting another decent net together but was losing a few under the submerged platform costing him several damaged top kits
Tony however was going along steadily and managed to beat his PB Chub 3 times during the course of the match, culminating in a glorious 5¾lb’er.
Tony (Teepee) had drawn peg 6 for the second day running and although he managed to improve on his day 1 weight, it wasn’t by enough to have any effect overall.
Throughout the match even though I couldn’t see him I could hear Malc (The Jinx) mostly as he traded banter and insults with young Ian ………
……… however he played a bit of a blinder edging to a win on the day with a level 143lbs, pushing Tony down to 2nd place with a creditable 136lbs. I managed 91lbs for 7th on the day and both days results gave us a total of 52points which proved to be enough for us to take the title of MD’s Rolf’s Pairs Champions for 2007 and receive our trophies from Fisherman’s Blues himself.
Finally I would like to add my thanks to Dave for organising the whole weekend. To John & Pauline Bennett & John Walker whose efforts to get the fishery ready for us were very much appreciated. To Keith Arthur for joining us on Sunday along with Pete Archer & his sponsor Vespe for providing some goodies for the winners. To Rolf, It was good to see you at your fishery once more and Finally to all The Maggotdrowners in attendance, it’s you that make the weekend the success it is. Let’s do it all again next year.
Position Pairs Points 1st Peter Morton & Tony Roberts 52 2nd Ian Ward & Vince Gould 46 3rd Simon Mound & Paul Thompson 44 4th Clive Pritchard & Adrian Wood 41 5th= Malc Doyle & Chris Kendall 39 5th= Dirk Williams & Dai Thomas 39 7th Ant Haywood & Paul East 38 8th Gaz Malman & Gemma Doyle 35 9th Alex Malman & Geoff Palmer 33 10th Tony Prentice & Steve Bowman 29 11th Chris Ellis & Tom Little 28 12th Keith Arthur & Simon Rowley 26 13th Dave Webster & Dave Collier 20 14th Steve Wilson & Pete Archer 18 15th Dave Moore & Dave West 13 16th Colin Sharrard & Terry Goff 11 Saturday Place Angler Weight 1st Ian Ward 108lbs 08ozs 2nd Gemma Doyle 98lbs 00ozs 3rd Clive Pritchard 91lbs 04ozs 4th Dirk Williams 84lbs 12ozs 5th Paul Thompson 84lbs 08ozs 6th Gaz Malman 80lbs 12ozs 7th= Chris Kendall 77lbs 12ozs 7th= Alex Malman 77lbs 12ozs 9th Peter Morton 73lbs 04ozs 10th Simon Mound 57lbs 08ozs 11th Dave Moore 57lbs 00ozs 12th Ant Haywood 45lbs 08ozs 13th Tony Roberts 45lbs 00ozs 14th Dave Collier 44lbs 08ozs 15th Paul East 42lbs 08ozs 16th Geoff Palmer 40lbs 12ozs 17th Tony Prentice 37lbs 08ozs 18th Adrian Wood 36lbs 12ozs 19th Dai Thomas 30lbs 04ozs 20th= Terry Goff 29lbs 12ozs 20th= Chris Ellis 29lbs 12ozs 22nd Steve Wilson 27lbs 08ozs 23rd Tom Little 23lbs 00ozs 24th Vince Gould 17lbs 00ozs 25th Colin Sharrard 15lbs 08ozs 26th Malc Doyle 15lbs 00ozs 27th Simon Rowley 11lbs 04ozs 28th Steve Bowman 8lbs 04ozs 29th Dave Webster 6lbs 08ozs 30th Dave West 1lb 00ozs Sunday Place Angler Weight 1st Malc Doyle 143lbs 00ozs 2nd Tony Roberts 136lbs 00ozs 3rd Steve Bowman 121lbs 04ozs 4th Dirk Williams 114lbs 08ozs 5th Paul East 111lbs 04ozs 6th Ian Ward 105lbs 12ozs 7th Peter Morton 91lbs 00ozs 8th Keith Arthur 88lbs 12ozs 9th Chris Ellis 87lbs 08ozs 10th Vince Gould 75lbs 12ozs 11th Paul Thompson 65lbs 12ozs 12th Simon Rowley 60lbs 04ozs 13th Clive Pritchard 59lbs 08ozs 14th Simon Mound 58lbs 04ozs 15th Steve Wilson 54lbs 00ozs 16th Ant Haywood 50lbs 12ozs 17th Tony Prentice 49lbs 04ozs 18th Geoff Palmer 48lbs 08ozs 19th Adrian Wood 44lbs 12ozs 20th Dave Webster 44lbs 00ozs 21st Chris Kendall 32lbs 12ozs 22nd Tom Little 26lbs 08ozs 23rd Alex Malman 25lbs 04ozs 24th Pete Archer 25lbs 00ozs 25th= Gaz Malman 24lbs 04ozs 25th= Gemma Doyle 24lbs 04ozs 27th Dave Moore 23lbs 00ozs 28th Dai Thomas 22lbs 08ozs 29th Dave Collier 17lbs 12ozs 30th Dave West 13lbs 08ozs 31st Terry Goff 10lbs 08ozs 32nd Colin Sharrard DNW 
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