May 15, 2010
-
Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.
Jinx Match 1
Well here we go again
. Today sees that happy band of idiotsfoolsmaniacsnutters that comprise The Jinx Squad back on the banks to do it all again for yet another year with all 6 of this years matches at Rolfs Lake
.
Peter, Malc, Gem, Tony R, Terry, Steve, Ade.
Simon, Paul D, Paul R, Nick W-P, Nick W, Mitch.
Fred, Matt, Kevin, Jon, Geoff, Dave C, Dave M.
Dai, Clive, Marcus, Ant, Al, Steve, Dave W.There’s loads of questions to be answered over the course of the coming weeks………..
Can I avoid PEG 13
? 
How many will suffer a Minxing and who’ll end up wearing the THE PINK HAT ?
Will Paul ever draw a sunny peg when he brings Jayne with him?
Will Simps and Gem get hitched?
Will Clive finish somewhere other than 2nd overall?
Will Jon actually land a fish if someone points a camera at him?
The answers to these questions and many more will all be revealed in the reports that will appear here in the weeks ahead.
So on to the day, the luxury of fishing these matches is the start time, meaning that I don’t have to get up at silly O’clock
. I could have a lay in till 7·30am, feed the cats and make a coffee, a quick scan of the forums before loading the car and setting off via Battersea for my usual stop at The Jimmy Griddle where one of their ‘Full English Breakfasts’ 
made for a good start to the day . A smooth run down saw me pulling into the car park at Rolf’s around 10·30am along with Clive and Tony. Geoff along with Paul D and his guest Mick were already in situ, and once Pauline had provided a mug of coffee the banter commenced as we waited for the others to arrive. The car park soon filled up, Gem arrived, you couldn’t miss her in her new shirt, along with that PINK HAT!!!!!!!!!!……
…… which was soon passed on to Steve (Steak) for the day as he’d ‘won’ it at the MD’s Lindholme match
. 
Well it was supposed to be an 11·30 draw, but of course it was late, a nesting Moorhen on peg 34 being blamed this time
……
Anyway with the draw underway I found myself with peg 21 (so no peg 13
for me today.) It’s one of those pegs that doesn’t get fished as often as some, so doesn’t get as much bait going in, but can throw up a good weight on its day.
For company I had Marcus(Budgie)Burgess, Gem’s Pairs partner on peg 19, while Paul Roberts was to my left on peg 23. There was a bit of scum on the water, but with the wind blowing into the peg I was hopeful of a few. Fish could be seen topping out towards the middle, ideal for the pellet waggler, but for this match I was on one of the pegs where rods aren’t allowed.
So I set up a 4 pole rigs. One for straight out at around 8mtrs was a MW 0·6g Diamond for the 8mtr line on the deck on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 Drennan Carp Match and a MW Trev with similar line and hook for up in the water. and a further couple of MW 0·4g Power Diamonds on 0·20 Power Match with size 16 series 2 hooks to fish to the end of the bush on my right and down the side of the bush on my left. Bait for the day was to be a mix of soft and hard pellets in various sizes with some corn as a back up, while feed was 4 & 6mm fishery pellets.One worrying aspect of the day however was the fact that John and Pauline were having a day out and were leaving Eddie TG in charge. Now Eddie knows the lake like the back of his hand and has a habit of giving Gem a bit of coaching when he’s in attendance, which is a bit of a worry when you’re looking to avoid a Minxing
.
So at 1·30pm Malc called the All-In, a good handfull of pellet into all 3 swims and out to the 8mtr line with an 8mm banded pellet on the deck rig.. A couple of lift and drops and the float buried. A gentle lift met with a solid resistance, but the fish didn’t bolt off just following the pole back, however just as I got back to the top 2 something spooked it and it dived at the keepnet, neatly transferring the hook in the process. Simon appeared to be suffering similarly as his first fish dived under his platform before snapping him off.
Not the best of starts, and in all honesty it went downhill from there. I had to wait nearly an hour for the next bite, which turned out to be one of the smaller Commons weighing around 5lb, but at least it was a fish in the net. The next bite came around 3pm. Malc was having a stroll, camera in hand, so of course I missed it only to foul hook a fish as I lifted the rig, well that led me a bit of a dance before the rig shot back with a scale on the end, much to Malc’s amusement ……
Most of us in that corner seemed to be struggling, though none of us more than Budgie, who halfway through the match had just a solitary Roach to show for his efforts
……
Needing a break I re fed heavily, then grabbed the camera for a stroll. Clive was fishing long for once and as I looked over it appeared to be paying dividends as he was in the process of landing one
…….
Simps was one of the few who appeared to be catching steadily, so Jon had reverted to the pellet waggler in an attempt to get in on the act……
Most however were feeling the full force of The Jinx Effect, but Dave Moore has a bit of a grin on his face
denoting that he was obviously getting a bit of action despite being on peg13 ……
Al was on peg 12, but was feeling a little rough, so much so that he and Dave would pack up early to get him home……
Malc was on peg 9 with Liam in tow, but apart from the one weigher was in the same boat as a lot of us just waiting for things to happen …….
Round on peg 8 was Nick(monkey) no doubt hoping that this would be the peg to finally provide him with that magic first ‘Ton’, alas it was not to be, in fact it was proving to be a real grueller for him
……
…… and it didn’t make him feel any better to see that Ant on peg 7 was catching regularly without appearing to even have to feed …….
Ade(Slim) was tucked away on peg 2, but as I made my way round he was into a fish having been fishing long down into empty peg 3 to his left……
Over on peg 38 I could see Paul D who was returning to the Jinx Series after a few years break carefully playing what transpired to be his first carp of the day
……
Geoff was having a decent day on 36 and putting a few together, as was his old sparring partner Dai who was on peg 32 ……
Steak was having an absolute mare, was it down to that PINK HAT, or the fact that he had The Minx for company on the next peg?……
Jon by now was playing a carp on the waggler, and appeared to have broken the hoodoo of the camera as despite a number of shutters clicking he landed it safely
……..
Back to my peg, and I wish I could say it got better, but the truth is it didn’t
, the final 2 hours yielding just another 2 carp of around 6lbs and a solitary skimmer, and I have to say that it was a bit of a relief when Malc called the All-Out at 6·30pm.
Once I got my kit put away I caught up with the Weigh-In. Geoff had started things off with with 87lbs, but was soon overtaken by Slim’s 100¾lbs, however Ant ended up winning A section with a fine 126½lbs from peg 7
. Dave Moore managed the best weight from the motorway bank with 65¼lbs , my 3carp and a skimmer rolling the scales round to just 20lbs. Clive took the win in C section with just 55lbs, while Simps was the man to beat in B section with a level 156lbs to take the win on the day 
. Gem put 33¼lbs on the scales meaning a dozen of us had been Minxed , while Dai managed 99¼lbs from peg 32 .
So to the results and after that all that remained was for Gem to chose the recipient of THE PINK HAT for the next match.
Well it was no surprise to find it coming my way, much to everyones obvious delight
, so it will be a PINK HAT day for me in 3 weeks time …… 
OVERALL RESULT
Position Peg
Angler
Weight
1st 26
Simon Mound 156lbs 00ozs 2nd 7
Ant Haywood 126lbs 08ozs 3rd 2
Ade Williams 100lbs 12ozs 4th 32
Dai Thomas 99lbs 04ozs 5th 37
Geoff Palmer 87lbs 00ozs 6th 13
Dave Moore 65lbs 04ozs 7th 15
Paul Jay (guest) 55lbs 00ozs 8th 27
John Hatch 51lbs 12ozs 9th= 24
Clive Pritchard 51lbs 00ozs 9th= 9
Malc Doyle 51lbs 00ozs 11th 10
Tony Roberts 45lbs 08ozs 12th 6
Mitch Auger 44lbs 08ozs 13th 29
Gemma Doyle 33lbs 04ozs 14th 14
Dave Webster 31lbs 08ozs 15th= 11
Al Loader 31lbs 04ozs 15th= 18
Steve Wilson 31lbs 04ozs 17th 8
Nick Watkins-Price 21lbs 00ozs 18th= 21
Peter Morton 20lbs 00ozs 18th= 38
Paul Dolby 20lbs 00ozs 20th 23
Paul Roberts 18lbs 04ozs 21st 30
Steve Akal 17lbs 00ozs 22nd 40
Terry Goff 16lbs 00ozs 23rd 4
Mick Lenton (guest) 12lbs 04ozs 24th 17
Dave Collier 8lbs 04ozs 25th 19
Marcus Burgess 2lbs 04ozs Names in PINK are those that were MINXED
SECTION RESULTS
Position Peg
Angler
Weight
1st 7 Ant Haywood 126lbs 08ozs 2nd 2 Ade Williams 100lbs 12ozs 3rd 37 Geoff Palmer 87lbs 00ozs 4th 6 Mitch Auger 44lbs 08ozs 5th 8 Nick Watkins-Price 21lbs 00ozs 6th 38 Paul Dolby 20lbs 00ozs 7th 40 Terry Goff 16lbs 00ozs 8th 4 Mick Lenton (guest) 12lbs 04ozs Position Peg
Angler
Weight
1st 26 Simon Mound 156lbs 00ozs 2nd 32 Dai Thomas 99lbs 04ozs 3rd 13 Dave Moore 65lbs 04ozs 4th 27 John Hatch 51lbs 12ozs 5rd 9 Malc Doyle 51lbs 00ozs 6th 10 Tony Roberts 45lbs 08ozs 7th 29 Gemma Doyle 33lbs 04ozs 8th 11 Al Loader 31lbs 04ozs 9th 30 Steve Akal 17lbs 00ozs Position Peg
Angler
Weight
1st 15 Paul Jay (guest) 55lbs 00ozs 2nd 24 Clive Pritchard 51lbs 00ozs 3rd 14 Dave Webster 31lbs 08ozs 4th 18 Steve Wilson 31lbs 04ozs 5th 21 Peter Morton 20lbs 00ozs 6th 23 Paul Roberts 18lbs 04ozs 7th 17 Dave Collier 8lbs 04ozs 8th 19 Marcus Burgess 2lbs 04ozs 
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Welcome to my Blog.
Comments (6)
Peter,What can be said about the minxing has already been said so I think it best not to comment. Til we meet up again.LOL
Nice read, let’s hope my lack of fear in front of the camera continues!
@hatchye - Cheers Jon, there’s no getting away from the cameras, just a question of either ignoring them or playing to them.
@keithgandhi - Sometimes you just know that you’re not going to dodge the bullet Keith.
Top blogging as always Peter
btw how did you get those smilies in the comments section ?
@clivep - Cheers Clive. E-mail sent regarding the smileys.