Jinx Match 6

Well it's the Final Jinx Match of the year today, and it's still all to play for with Malc, Clive and myself all still in with a chance of individual glory . It's been a fantastic Series this year , really enjoyable and we're finishing off with a BBQ at the end of the match . The cats decided they wanted feeding and got me up early this morning so the car was soon loaded up and found it's way straight to The Jimmy Griddle in Battersea for my customary 'Full English' before transporting me to Rolfs .

Pulling into the car park just after 9am there were a good few people present already as they had fished the Friday Night Open and were just starting to surface from their slumbers, In fact the first friendly face to great me was Dai's German Shepherd 'Gina'......

 Time for a coffee and a chat and it seemed that the night match hadn't fished that well, which most put down to low oxygen levels, and with that being the case John soon had the aerators and the pump up and running, then I set off to help Malc,Liam and John pack away the lights that had been set up from the previous night.

Just as we were finishing Malc's wife Julie put in an appearance, somehow Malc had persuaded her to come down and camp in a tent over the weekend, although she's not keen on either fishing or camping . It's taken me 9 years to meet this Saint, although I've spoken to her over the phone on numerous occasions, though it was a bit of a worry as it meant for the first time ever the whole Jinx Clan  would be in attendance at a Jinx Match !!!!!!!!!!!

So with the car park filling up Nick's wife Lisa arrived with a batch of homemade Eccles cakes, and while we sampled them (and very nice they were too ) talk turned to what lay ahead, and the general consensus was that it would probably be hard.
Draw time approached at 12ish and with B section being my home for the day and the honour of drawing first having won my section on the last match it meant that Peg13 was lurking in the bag for me, much to everyones amusement. Plunging my hand into the bag I was rewarded with....................................... peg 29 , Mat being the lucky angler on Peg13 today.

Well at least it meant a nice short walk, but with Simon on peg 32 and Dave Moore on peg 9 I was going to have my work cut out today.

I had Nick Jones, making a welcome return as a guest to my left on peg 30 and Steve(steak) my pairs partner to my right on peg 28 for company today. With a cloudy grey sky which the sun was trying to break through and a strong south westerly wind blowing down into the little lake today I couldn't help feeling that we could be in for a bit of a grueller .

The rigs were simple and freshly tied as we had plenty of time before the 1·30 pm start, consisting of a couple of Malman 4x12 Adam's on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hooks for the 5mtr line on the deck while a 0·2 MW HC margin again on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1 was set up to fish to the bushes in the margins. I also set up my feeder rod as a back up, but was hoping I wouldn't need it. Bait for today would be the usual variety of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

So at 1·30pm John rang the fishery bell to signal the All-In. A couple of pots of pellet and corn and a handful of pellet to each bush took care of the feed before a banded 8mm was shipped out to the 5mtr line.

A few people were quickly into fish, so perhaps a good day was in the offing after all, indeed after 5 minutes my float buried and I lifted into what was obviously a Carp and within a couple of minutes a Common of around 8lbs was safely in the keepnet . However within 20 minutes the vast majority of the big lake appeared to switch off, in fact for the next 2 hours all I managed to add was a Bream of around 2½lbs and a few Roach. Steve was using worm but all he could find were small Perch no matter where he tried in his peg, though he was briefly attached to a Carp that was obviously foul hooked before it trashed his rig .

Indeed it was turning into the predicted grueller, though Simon was picking of the odd fish fishing to the bush on peg 32....

 ...... and along with a couple of weigher's he also managed a Chub of 4lbs which was a new PB for him  ......

 Jean arrived with a very welcome cup of coffee  while I had a look on the feeder and managed to nick another Carp of around 6lbs, but with Dave on peg 9.........

 ........... and Steve on peg 11 .......

 ....... still taking the odd fish it wasn't enough, so after re-feeding the peg it was time to let it settle and take a walk with the camera.

Paul's wife Jayne had pulled peg 8 out of the bag for him today and I caught him in the middle of a spirited fight with one of the pegs residents  .......

 Nick(monkey) and Jon were the Pink Hat wearers for this match  and Nick was having a bit of a mare on peg 5  and staring another Minxing firmly in the face despite support from Lisa and son Josh today......

 I could see Gem down on peg 38, tucked up in her fleece against the wind and with weigher's on the board leaving more than a few of us worried  ......

 A chat with Tony on peg 26 revealed that silvers were all he could muster and he was just hoping the Carp would turn up for him before the end of the match.......

Paul was next up on peg 25 and was positively 'bagging', the trouble was that they were all small silvers instead of the hoped for Carp, but fishing maggot was probably asking for it ......

Next up was Dave Collier on peg 23 admitting to a couple of carp and apparently sharing the bush between their pegs with Malc in an attempt to extract a few more from his peg......

 Malc for his part was fishing his usual match as close into the bank as he could get while keeping an eye out for how Clive was doing on peg 20.......

 Now Clive it has to be said isn't exactly enamoured with peg 20 , but with the fishing being hard for everyone was giving it his best shot and owning up to 3 Carp at that point......

 Geoff on peg 19 was happy enough with his lot and asked me to pop along with my camera at the weigh in as he had a couple of Perch that he wanted a picture of  .......

 So back top my peg, Steve was still working his way through what had to be one of the largest shoals of small Perch going, while the tip of my pole float was as dry as a bone, stubbornly refusing to go under and get wet . However it was Mat over on Peg13 who was taking a proper beating from the peg as all he had to show for his efforts was a couple of Roach  .......

 Well with around an hour to go, wonder of wonders, my float slid away , I almost missed it as it caught me by surprise, it gave a really good account of itself and although it didn't feel like a really heavy fish it took a surprisingly large amount of elastic out of the top kit, so much so that I was forced to land it on a top3......

 but a fish is a fish when you're struggling and I was happy just to see the Carp nestling safely in the net . I actually managed to catch another 4 after that, but in all honesty I could have done with another hour before the All-Out was called at 6·30pm, because the fish were bubbling in my swim as we packed away .

It transpired that a few of the lads that were stopping over and travelling back on Sunday started the Weigh-in almost immediately and by the time I'd packed away they were a good half way round the lake. Ade had kicked things off with a level 65lbs from peg 34 while Gem had set The Minx Mark at 34¼lbs from peg 38 . Budgie had managed a very creditable 84lbs from peg 40 but it would only be good enough for 2nd in section and 2nd overall on the day  as Terry on peg 2 had taken 98lbs 6ozs for the section win and his first ever Match win . Steve's 62¼lbs gave him 2nd in B section, while Kevin Loveland weighed 49¾lbs to win C section. Geoff's 44½lbs took 2nd in section and I caught up in time to photograph his 2 Perch......

 ........ my fish came to 41¼lbs but Simon won B section with a fine 68¾lbs and 3rd overall on the day .

So with the Weigh-in complete Malc retired to work out the final positions while we tucked into the BBQ prepared by John and the ladies  ..........

 Nick had brought some home brew for us to try and very palatable it was as well , while Burgers , sausages, chicken etc all found a willing home as the days events were discussed .......

Then Malc stepped up to Thank John and Pauline on behalf of the whole Jinx Squad for allowing us to run the series at the lake  before finally announcing the series result with the rider that it was all subject to verification as it was so close, but the winner of the Series was Clive  at long last having been runner up for the 2 previous years. 3 points back in 2nd place was Malc (The Jinx) , who tied with me on points, but beat me on aggregate weight to leave me in 3rd place .

However Malc  and Simon  had triumphed in the Pairs, while Clive took 2nd place   with his partner Ade  and 3rd place went to Gem (The Minx)  and her partner Budgie .

So with yet another Jinx Series coming to a close farewells were said and plans laid for next year, but as I made my way back to the car park in the gathering gloom I spotted Liam sitting on peg 32 having a go with Simons tackle and he appeared to be playing a Carp.......

..... which was soon landed with Simon acting as Liam's ghillie and proudly displayed for the camera  .......

  Scary really as it looks like we'll have yet another Jinx  to contend with in the future .

OVERALL RESULT