July 24, 2010

• Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

  

  Jinx Match 4

  Well after a break of 4 weeks I’m getting back on the bank side today with a return to Rolfs Lake for the 4th Jinx Match . Ade (Slim Shady) is in possession of the PINK HAT today, as is Paul D who missed his turn on the third match through illness so there’s bound to be plenty of banter flying about. Initial thoughts when I looked out of the window this morning were that it looked like a lovely day to be going fishing. As usual a full English  was the order of the day at my favorite café in Battersea en route to the lake, and a smooth run down saw me pulling into the car park just after 10am.
  
  A few were already in attendance as there had been a Friday night Open match that they’d fished and stopped over. As usual the car park soon filled up as groups discussed the prospects for the day ahead. Hopefully the feed that had gone in overnight would find the fish with their heads down and ready to have a serious munch. With the 3 sections having been rotated on the previous 3 matches, there was going to be a fresh draw today to decide the sections for the final 3 matches. Unfortunately Ade wasn’t in attendance for his turn on the PINK HAT so Gem decided to wear it herself, but Paul D was and proudly wearing his . Malc had the kids with him once more, so Crystal was dispatched with Liam to collect the ‘Guess the Weight’ monies, so that she wouldn’t feel to bored , and with that out of the way it was time for the draw.

  

  Plunging my hand into the draw bag I found peg 18 was to be my home for the day. I knew that Gem had fished it on the night match so had a quick chat with her to find out how she’d fished it before loading up my gear for the short stroll round there . For company today I had Steve Wilson on peg 17 while Steve(steak) my pairs partner was out of site on peg 19.
  

  

  It’s a peg that I hadn’t fished previously. It’s a decent looking peg with the large bush separating it from peg 19 on the left and another bush in the right hand margin, but it hadn’t produced a ‘Ton+’ since May 22nd. My plan of attack for today would be 2 margin swims at around 4mtrs that Gem had fished the night before and a line straight out at around 9mtrs.

  

    I set up 3 rigs, a Malman Adam on 0·20 with a size 16 Guru QM1 that would cover both margin swims. A MW 0·4 Power Diamond again on 0·20 with a size 16 Guru QM1 for on the deck at 9mtrs where I had around 5 ft of depth and finally a MW Cookie on a similar set up for up in the water over the 9mtr line. Peg 18 is one of the pegs that you can’t use a rod on in this series, so they stayed in the holdall.
  Bait and feed was taken care of by 6 & 8mm fishery pellets and some sweetcorn, along with various soft hookers.
  
  So at 1·30pm Malc called the All-In. I shipped out 2 large pots of mixed pellets and sweetcorn to 9mtrs, fed 2 good handfuls of pellet into the 2 margin swims and went straight out to 9mtrs with an 8mm banded pellet on the hook. The float settled and 5 seconds later buried!!!! and after a spirited fight a chunky Mirror of around 7lbs was safely in the net to get me off the mark .
  Next put in and the float was soon away, this time I could feel straight away that the fish was foul hooked and despite my best efforts to get it in, all I was left to show for it was a large scale on the hook . Now foul hookers can be a bit of a nightmare at Rolfs so I decided to catapult my feed in from that point, hopefully spreading the fish out a bit, rather than group them in too tight an area.
  
  At this point a triumphal scream was heard from Gem who was on Peg 9, it signified that she had her first fish safely in the net and meant that the other 25 anglers were staring down the barrel at a Minxing and a chance of wearing THE PINK HAT, especially as Peg 9 has been consistently been producing big weights, and Eddie TG had arrived with his camera and was bound to give her some coaching during the match .
  
  Next put in for me produced a bit of a surprise in the form of a large skimmer, not quite what I was after, but welcome none the less . Steve was also off the mark but was already starting to suffer with foul hookers that would go on to frustrate him throughout the match . Over on the Car Park bank I’d noticed that Nick on Peg 26 had already been up to the weigh station with a couple of fish…….
  

  

  …. Now Nick started fishing The Jinx Series back in 2005 and while he would only class himself as a pleasure angler, his one ambition is to catch a ‘Ton’ and we’ve all been willing him on to achieve it, but so far in 6 years of Jinx matches he’s been thwarted, but he was off to a decent start today on a peg with a bit of form, so fingers crossed for him .
  
  Tony was opposite me on Peg 22 and seemed to be having a bit of a struggle, indeed he’d been unfortunate enough to bust a top kit trying to keep a fish out of the bush to his left earlier on, and things wouldn’t improve as he would break another later in the match ……..
  

  

  While Dave Moore next to Tony on Peg 23 had also started quietly and was struggling to make anything happen, though he may have been glad of the slow start having fished last nights match as well  …….
  

  

  After my quick start it had slowed down a bit and after a couple of hours I had 6 carp, but had lost another 5 that had been foul hooked, so I decided to re-feed with 3 big pot fulls and take a stroll with the camera.
  
  Fred, fresh from joining the Rolfs 200+ club with a win on Wednesday’s Open was ticking along on Peg 15 and hopeful of a decent last couple of hours down the margin. Simon was tucked away on Peg 14 and owning up to 8 fish, but you could tell that in the back of his mind lay the spectre of a Minxing ……
  

  

   Budgie was the lucky occupier of Peg 13 today and reckoned he only had half a dozen skimmers and a solitary carp to show for his efforts, though he appeared to be playing another carp as I walked away…….
  

  

   Jon on Peg 11 had the look on his face that told you just how much he was struggling, while Al had gone walkabout from Peg 10 which said it all as he seldom leaves his peg in the course of the match …….
  

  

   I arrived at Peg 9 to find The Minx doing battle with what was obviously a decent fish………
  

  

   Of course Eddie was there as well offering a few hints and tips so things weren’t looking good, a feeling that was reinforced when Gem put the culprit on the scales, a cracking Common of 16½lbs ……
  

  

   Geoff and Dave the Fish were next door on pegs 8 & 7, but things obviously weren’t going to plan as Geoff was fishing the feeder!!!! something I haven’t seen him do for a long while……
  

  

  

   Dave was also on the feeder, and if anything was having a worse time of it than Geoff which was strange as there had been a load of fish feeding there prior to the match. However they did seem to be cheered up by watching Dave(Webbo) working his way through his supply of feeders over on Peg 34 as a number of carp took a tour of the lilies in his peg ……
  

  

   Malc was on Peg 5, sitting behind him were Crystal & Liam, Crystal looked a little bored so Liam decided she needed his help to smile for the camera …….
  

  

   Clive on Peg 4 was just retrieving a rig from a tree when I arrived. He’d had a decent start then lost the fish so had decided to take a look down the margin toward the corner ……
  

  

   Nick Williams was over on Peg 38 and it seemed that the peg was producing a few for him today ……
  

  

   Dai on Peg 36 however had that fixed expression that only comes from having a grueller, while watching almost everyone else putting fish in their nets ……
  

  

   So back to my peg and with a few bubbles coming up at 9mtrs my first put in resulted in……………. another foul hooker .
  I decided at this point to fish the 6mm hard pellets that I was feeding and that seemed to make the difference. 3 carp and another couple of decent skimmers followed in short order. The one thing puzzling me however is the lack of weigher’s I’ve had fishing at Rolfs this year, in the three previous matches I’ve only had two weigher’s that weighed 10lbs and 13lbs. You really need a few bonus fish to do the decent weights, but I just haven’t been able to find them. Still fortunately for me the fish kept coming regularly a mix of Mirrors and Commons that were all around the 7-8lb mark, though I did manage to find one bonus, a Common of 11½lbs before Malc called the All-Out at 6·30pm. Looking down at my clicker I’d estimated that I had around 125lbs, but with rumours of Gem having 100lbs of weigher’s on the board the Weigh-In was going to be a nervous affair for many of us .
  
  So with the gear back in the car, the general consensus was that an awful lot were on for a Minxing as we made our way to peg 34 to start the Weigh-In. Webbo kicked of things with a level 81lbs. Nick soon set the pace with 123lbs , but Malc put 176¼lbs on the scales, a mark that wouldn’t be beaten, giving him the win on the day . Next was the weight that we’d all been secretly dreading , and you could hear the sighs of resignation when 126¾lbs was called for Gem. Fred on peg 15 ran Malc really close with an excellent 173lbs, giving him 2nd on the day . My carp came up 8ozs short of Gem’s weight but my 3 skimmers saved the day giving me a total of 133¾lbs which was good enough for 3rd overall . The largest cheer of the day was reserved for Nick (Monkey) who recorded 109¾lbs to finally get his ‘Ton’ after 6 years of trying. Nice one Nick .
  
  So while Malc sorted the results Paul Roberts provided the cabaret as he went on to retrieve a keepnet fitting he needed for his next days match. Well it would be rude not to record the event wouldn’t it ……..
  

  

   So with that over and the results announced it just remained for The Minx to decide on the lucky recipient of THE PINK HAT for the next match, and she was spoiled for choice with the line up of The Minxed today, but after a couple of suspected heart attacks among the assembled candidates ……
  

  

  …………. it came to rest on Clive .
  

  

   Well that should be that, but someone reminded Nick that he’d once said that if he ever caught his ‘Ton’ he’d jump in the Lake ‘Fisho’ style. Well Top Fella, true to his word he went for it and luckily Simon caught it on Video to save it for posterity ……
  

  OVERALL RESULT

  Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
  1st	5	Malc Doyle	176lbs 04ozs
  2nd	15	Fred Parker	173lbs 00ozs
  3rd	18	Peter Morton	133lbs 12ozs
  4th	9	Gem Doyle	126lbs 12ozs
  5th	38	Nick Williams	123lbs 00ozs
  6th	26	Nick Watkins-Price	109lbs 12ozs
  7th	4	Clive Pritchard	97lbs 12ozs
  8th	13	Marcus Burgess	92lbs 08ozs
  9th	14	Simon Mound	90lbs 12ozs
  10th	17	Steve Wilson	88lbs 08ozs
  11th	34	Dave Webster	81lbs 00ozs
  12th	32	Mitch Auger	79lbs 00ozs
  13th	2	Paul Dolby	68lbs 04ozs
  14th=	31	Terry Goff	66lbs 04ozs
  14th=	25	Ant Haywood	66lbs 04ozs
  16th	10	Al Loader	57lbs 12ozs
  17th	23	Dave Moore	57lbs 00ozs
  18th=	22	Tony Roberts	47lbs 12ozs
  18th=	8	Geoff Palmer	47lbs 12ozs
  20th	11	Jon Hatch	36lbs 00ozs
  21st	20	Mat Edwards	35lbs 04ozs
  22nd	7	Dave Collier	30lbs 00ozs
  23rd	19	Steve Akal	27lbs 13ozs
  24th	28	Paul Roberts	24lbs 00ozs
  25th	36	Dai Thomas	15lbs 08ozs
  26th	40	Kevin Loveland	3lbs 12ozs

  Names in PINK are those that were MINXED

  SECTION RESULTS

  Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
  1st	5	Malc Doyle	176lbs 04ozs
  2nd	38	Nick Williams	123lbs 00ozs
  3rd	4	Clive Pritchard	97lbs 12ozs
  4th	34	Dave Webster	81lbs 00ozs
  5th	2	Paul Dolby	68lbs 04ozs
  6th	8	Geoff Palmer	47lbs 12ozs
  7th	7	Dave Collier	30lbs 00ozs
  8th	36	Dai Thomas	15lbs 08ozs
  9th	40	Kevin Loveland	3lbs 12ozs
  Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
  1st	9	Gem Doyle	126lbs 12ozs
  2nd	26	Nick Watkins-Price	109lbs 12ozs
  3rd	13	Marcus Burgess	92lbs 08ozs
  4th	14	Simon Mound	90lbs 12ozs
  5th	32	Mitch Auger	79lbs 00ozs
  6th	31	Terry Goff	66lbs 04ozs
  7th	10	Al Loader	57lbs 12ozs
  8th	11	Jon Hatch	36lbs 00ozs
  9th	28	Paul Roberts	24lbs 00ozs
  Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
  1st	15	Fred Parker	173lbs 00ozs
  2nd	18	Peter Morton	133lbs 12ozs
  3rd	17	Steve Wilson	88lbs 08ozs
  4th	25	Ant Haywood	66lbs 04ozs
  5th	23	Dave Moore	57lbs 00ozs
  6th	22	Tony Roberts	47lbs 12ozs
  7th	20	Mat Edwards	35lbs 04ozs
  8th	19	Steve Akal	27lbs 13ozs

  

  

   

  • 2:00 am
  • 5 Comments