Maggotdrowning.com

Badpegpicker’s Southern Pairs 2010.

 It was off down to a Private Lake in East Sussex today for me to fish the Southern Pairs Match organised by Steve Oswick aka badpegpicker through the Maggotdrowning.com forum. The weather looked pretty promising as I loaded up the car and after a stop in Bromley for a spot of breakfast I made good time and pulled into the fishery car park around 8·10am .

 There was a good turn out come draw time, but unfortunately we had one no show, not a problem normally, but with this being a Pairs match a bit of a problem . The solution decided on was that after the draw the angler short of a partner would be allowed to count his weight twice, and that angler turned out to be Keith(shallowman)Haynes .

 I had found myself with peg 3 on the dam wall. Keith(gandhi) had drawn peg 1, and I had Steve on peg 2………..

   and Keith(keith74)Powell on peg 4 in the corner for immediate company today……….

My Pairs partner for the day was Paul(nomorelongwalks)East who had drawn peg 13. Mark(moleman)Hathaway was tucked away behind the island on peg 11 which was effectively an end peg meaning that he and Keith would have to be in with a chance as they are both more than capable of making the most of decent draws .

Now I don’t fish the lake that much, but I tend to treat it in a similar way to Rolfs as there’s a decent head of Carp present that run into double figures though the average is probably around the 6lbs mark, and with only Carp and Tench counting in todays match I just set up 3 rigs. A Malman 4×12 Adam on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hook for the 5mtr line on the deck, an a similarly rigged Malman Paste float but with a size 12 Ashima hook for paste while a 0·2 MW HC margin again on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1 was set up to fish the margins and double up as an up in the water rig if needed. Bait for today was a mix of hard pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers and Atomic paste with 4mm pellets for feed.

With a bit of time to go before the All-In I took a quick stroll to see where others were drawn. Clive was ready for action on peg 16 and guaranteed at least one bite today …..

 Sven was trying to pick a few bits of local knowledge from Bill’s brain, but unfortunately the strain appeared to be getting to Bill (it’s not easy trying to hold a stomach that size in )…….

 I managed to get back just before Steve called the All-In. I shipped out a couple of pots of pellet and corn to 5mtrs and fed a couple of handfuls of pellet down the margins before shipping a grain of corn out to 5mtrs………….

Steve was into a fish first put in, but only briefly as it shed the hook however he was in again straight after, and soon had that one safely in the net . A couple of people had taken quick fish and it looked as if Jeff on peg 6 was in for a good match as he was soon into fish fishing the method out toward the island.

Fifteen minutes in and a change to banded 6mm pellet saw me into my first fish, a fighting fit Mirror of around 6lbs that was more than welcome to get me off the mark . However it was soon obvious that nobody was really taking it apart. It took me another twenty minutes before I got another bite, A Common this time, slightly smaller than the first fish but very welcome none the less. Jean strolled down with a very welcome cup of coffee and reported that things were slow all round. After around 1½hours I’d managed another couple of Carp when fellow Jinx Squad member Jon Hatch appeared, He was visiting relatives locally and had snuck down to the lake to see how we were all doing, it was a shame he couldn’t fish, but family has to come first at times .

By 1·30pm I couldn’t buy a bite so re-fed the 5mtr line quite heavily and took a stroll with the camera. Keith on peg 1 was having a frustrating time trying to work out just where in his swim his next bite would come from ……

 Dave on peg 18 was attached to what appeared to be a decent fish that was giving him a bit of a run around, but he was slowly gaining the upper hand …….

 Clive was plugging away but only had a couple of fish to show for his efforts at this stage and had that look that I’ve seen before (normally when he’s on peg 32 at Rolfs )………

 Bill was into a decent fish on the feeder and enjoying every minute of it, giving Clive a running commentary alluding to the final destination of the ‘Golden Nugget’ involved in their side bet ……..

 Then I got to my Pairs partner Paul. I have to say that his news didn’t inspire me when it came to our chances of framing in the match as he hadn’t had a single fish apart from Perch which didn’t count today . Kevin was admitting to 3 fish on peg 12 but was being handicapped by an aching shoulder meaning that he couldn’t fish right across to the island……..

 Fellow Chelsea supporter Hathers was into a fish as I arrived and certainly seemed to be going well for at least a section win, though he was a tad put out at having to return 5 chub weighing around a pound a piece as they didn’t count today ……..

 Richie(BME) seemed happy enough, this really isn’t his normal type of fishing being more of a river man, but he had a Carp in the net that he was sure was a new PB so was well chuffed . Terry was sitting it out on the feeder at peg 7 and owning up to 4 in the net…….

 Jeff who I felt was well away for the section had been alternating between the method and the pellet waggler had it seemed had a bit of trouble keeping the fish on the hook and while he appeared to have been catching well, had lost a few to many for his liking before he could get them to the net ……

 Nick on peg 5 was having a bit of a grueller, he’s just getting back into his match fishing having had a bit of a lay off and only had a single carp to show for his efforts . Keith on peg 4 as just slipping the net under a Carp as I arrived , so despite him being a Spurs supporter I did the decent thing and took a picture of it for him ……

 Back to my peg and there were a few bubbles showing at 5mtrs, and first put in produced a fifth Carp for me almost straight away, a better fish of around 8lbs , but try as I might I couldn’t tempt another bite after a further 30 minutes. Time for a look in the margins. Lowering a grain of corn into the right hand margin the float cocked and disappeared. The fish gave a good account of itself………….

 ………. before finally slipping over the net, a really chunky Mirror of around 10lbs . Time to take a look down the left hand margin and once again an instant response saw another fish power off …….

 …… unfortunately it totally trashed the margin swim in it’s efforts to make good its escape, but thankfully it was unsuccessful and was soon safely in the net, another decent Mirror . That however was all the action from the margins as yet again the bites dried up.

Steve was trying everything and after going shallow finally managed his 3rd fish of the day, not before it had given him a bit of a run around though . I’d managed another couple of small carp from my 5mtr line, but with half an hour to go I was quite looking forward to the All-Out to put an end to a frustrating day. However at that point it all started to go right for me and in the final 30 minutes I managed to catch another 5 Carp before Steve called the All-Out. It just goes to show that you never can tell, it was just a pity that they didn’t turn up a bit earlier .

So as we packed away the inquest started. Keith strolled round from peg 4 to hand me a ‘Golden Nugget’ that had been our side bet, all the sweeter coming from a Spurs fan , and though I feared that I would have to hand it onto Hathers I knew he would appreciate its origin . As we waited to start the weigh-in at peg 1 Paul strolled past with the news that he had nothing to weigh, so that was us out of the running before the weigh-in had begun .

Keith started the ball rolling with a hard earned 53¼lbs. My fish came in at a level 73lbs which surprisingly gave me the section win as Jeff put 68¾lbs on the scales. Richie had his big Carp weighed separately, and indeed it was a new PB for him at 15¾lbs and his smile said it all ……..

 Hathers had topped the weight today with 95¼lbs and Kev had managed 42lbs despite his shoulder. Greg on peg 14 had obviously nicked all Paul’s fish to record 57¼lbs . Bill had pipped Clive in the Battle of the Nuggets, While Keith was looking to double up having recorded 53¾lbs .

So back to the car park where Steve announced the results. and in first place on the day and the MD’s Southern Pairs Winners 2010 were Keith Ashby & Mark Hathaway with 5 points . 2nd was Keith Haynes & Keith Haynes with 6 points , while Jeff Driscoll & Clive Pritchard took 3rd with 9 points .

All in all a hard days fishing, but fished in the right attitude by the anglers who made it a good day .
A Big Thank You to Steve for organising the match and Congratulations to all the Winners.
Same again next year?

Pairs Result

Individual Result

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 4×12 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

Marsh AC club match.

It’s off to Essex for me today to Colemans Cottage to fish just my 4th club match of the year. Hopefully it’ll be a decent day and everyone will catch a few . However I nearly didn’t make it today having woken at 1·30am and been violently sick for no apparent reason . I finally got back to sleep around 3am, so only got about 3 hours sleep before the alarm went off. A grey drizzly day wasn’t the greatest incentive, but I figured I would probably feel better on the bank out in the fresh air .

I arrived at the fishery just after 8am and decided a small breakfast was in order to check out the state of my stomach . Dave soon had the monies collected and the draw underway. Now normally the low numbers are the favourite pegs on Pathfield Lake, so you can imagine my delight at drawing peg 26 down on the shallow newer part of the lake. Dave of course had his usual low draw and I’m sure I detected a little smirk when he recorded my draw on the sheet .

So out to collect my nets and a stroll down to take a look at my peg, an end peg effectively as peg 25 was empty today and there seemed to be a few fish feeding, so back to the car park to collect my gear and stroll back down to the peg. I’ve got Kevin for company today on peg 28 so I should be good for a mid match cup of coffee courtesy of Jean .

 It’s probably 13mtrs to the island, and the targets today are Carp, Mirrors and Commons + a decent head of recently stocked F1′s along with silvers which include Barbel. Now I said it was shallow but even I was surprised when an initial plumb up revealed a maximum of 15 inches down the track at around 5mtrs and just 12 inches in the margins . Now given that there are some decent carp present and they tend to take off like bullets in such shallow water I set up a couple of modified Rolf’s rigs, and these were Malman Adam 4×10′s on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hooks adjusted to suit + a Malman MTD2 on 0·20 Power Match with a size 16 QM1 hook for shallow. I also set up a 4X12 Middy Paste Float, it’s a really strong line through design made up on ·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a Drennan size 12 Carp Method hook to fish paste in both margins. Bait was just 6 and 8mm hard pellet, 6mm GOT Baits Expanders and GOT Baits Atomic Paste .

So at 10am Dave signalled the All-In, a hand full of pellet onto the 5mtr line and a pinch into each margin. The plan was to concentrate on the 5mtr line and regularly flick pellet into the margins, but not to touch them till a tail pattern showed. Out to the 5mtr line which was already bubbling and fizzing with a 6mm expander produced an instant bite, a small F1 which was immediately followed by it’s twin, not quite what I was hoping for, but I was off the mark . I swapped to a banded 8mm in the hope of attracting something slightly larger, but all I got for my trouble was a couple of foul hookers which tore off at a rate of knots before shedding the hook . A change to banded 6mm produced a series of frustrating little digs at the float until it finally buried and I connected with a feisty Common of around 3lbs which battled all the way to the net. This seemed to set the pattern for the next 3 hours, I wasn’t setting the place alight with maybe 30lbs in the net, but nobody else was apparently from what I could see and gather from a couple of anglers that were strolling around, though Chris Newton on peg 23 reported having had around a dozen fish ……..

…… and I’d noticed that Chris Withall had strolled down from peg 20 to collect a second carp net quite early on .

Around half way through I spotted a tail pattern in the left hand margin and soon had a couple of better Commons of around 5lbs a piece safely in the net . Clive appeared at this point and I had another of around 3lbs which he captured on camera before returning to his peg…….

  Unfortunately the next fish proved to be a foul hooker which absolutely trashed the margin before shedding the hook .
Rather than risk wrecking it further I decided to re-feed both margins with a couple of handfuls of pellet and take a stroll with the camera to allow it to settle.

Graham was on peg 30 which had plenty of marginal cover along with fish obviously feeding, but he was having a bit of a struggle trying to tempt them to take a bait ……

 Martin opposite seemed pretty quiet with what looked like a feeder rod set up to try and tempt a few…….

 Next was Keith on peg 33, who I noticed already had a second carp net in, he was pretty cagey about it though reckoning that it was empty at that point, but he’s a damn good angler and I couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t telling porkies …….

 Tony on peg 36 hadn’t broken any BeastMaster sections, but said that he was struggling to get to grips with things today……

 My last port of call was to Clive who was on peg 3 today. He had an overflow pipe trickling water into his left hand margin, and it was here that he was fishing, and judging by the tail patterns the fish were there too …….

 He said that he was being plagued by foul hookers though which was really frustrating him, but as I went to return to my peg he hooked and landed a lively pearl white Ghostie  ……

 As I made my way back down the bank I noticed Tony was also into a Ghostie himself, this one a lovely brassy flanked fish ……

 So it was starting to look that a few people were sandbagging with their tales of struggle, and with Keith also sliding a Carp over the landing net as I passed him, I knew that I was going to need a decent final couple of hours……

 Ever the optimist I grabbed a second carp net for myself as I returned to my peg and staked it out on my return. Jean supplied a welcome cup of coffee  as I made my mind up to ignore the 5mtr line and just fish paste in the margin for the remainder. It was slow at first with a few hesitant bites that I missed, but I soon got into a rhythm feeding and fishing both margins close to my nets……

…….. taking a fish from either side before swapping over to avoid to much disturbance, the odd foul hooker disturbed this, but on the whole the last hour and a half saw my catch rate increase nicely .

By the time Dave called the all out at 4pm, I was confident that I had high double figures, but had lost track a bit having mislaid my clicker, but I was kicking myself a bit for not having fished the paste sooner and hoping that it hadn’t cost me to badly.

With the gear back in the car, the inquests started, Keith was owning up to 60-70ish as was Clive, all would be revealed by the scales. Clive soon set the mark with 77½lbs which he seemed reasonably pleased with , but in general the low numbers hadn’t fished as well as expected today with Dave Colliers’s 66lbs being the next best. Indeed it wasn’t till we got to peg 17 that we saw another weight to overtake Clive’s, Ken Walker following up his 2nd place on the previous club match at Blasford Hill with a fine 80½lbs today , which would bring him a similar result . Chris Withall on peg 20 had a busy day, his 77½lbs equalling Clive’s weight . Round to my peg and I was honestly surprised when my weight was called at a level 131lbs  which would prove to be the best of the day . The last weigh of note was Keith’s at 78½lbs which gave him 3rd overall , just pipping Clive and Chris.

The nice bit about Colemans is going back to the clubhouse for the results and being able to get a cuppa and a bite to eat while Dave sorts the results and dishes out the section pools, before we bid our farewells .

The next club match is at Rockells Farm which is always one to look forward to, but before that I’m back at Rolfs Lake next Saturday for the final Jinx Match of the year.

Maggotdrowning.com

Rolf’s Pairs Tournament 2010.

DAY 1

Well having stayed over at Rolfs after Dave Collier’s match, I awoke around 7·30am to a rather grey and cloudy day, it had obviously rained during the night, but I soon had the kettle on and breakfast sorted . There was going to be a full house today with some more anglers arriving, making 30 members of the Maggotdrowning forum (18 of them members of this years Jinx Squad  ) assembled from all over the country to fish the Maggotdrowning.com Rolfs Pairs Tournament 2010, a 2 legged affair fished over both the Saturday & Sunday and this is the 5th year running that the competition has taken place.

Soon people were sorting out their kit while others were arriving and adding to the tented village for the weekend. Conversations were turning to what pegs were going to be fancied draws and how the pairings would turn out. At 11am I had a phone call from Al Loader to let us know that unfortunately work had conspired to stop him fishing this weekend , this left us one short but luckily John kindly agreed to lend Paul East his gear to fish so we were soon back up to the required number .

Around 11·30am John sounded he fishery bell signalling that Dave and I were going to conduct the Pairs Draw, and it has to be said that there were a few strong pairs drawn including 5 pairs made up of anglers that had all been fishing The Jinx Series this year so they were up to speed with how the lake was fishing. My partner for the weekend was Richard(tricky)East, one of the newer forum members and a newcomer to Rolfs.

With that out of the way it was time to draw for todays pegs, and it was around this time that things started to go wrong for me, Yes you guessed it, I opened my hand to find my Nemesis staring back at me………Peg 13 . Unfortunately for Clive he committed the schoolboy error of standing right behind me in the draw and got caught up in the vortex of my misfortune and was duly rewarded with peg 32  once more. Well it provided plenty of amusement for the assembled crowd while Clive and I debated what punishment was suitable for our drawing hands………

Well with the match being fished from 2 – 7pm there was plenty of time to set up, even if I didn’t exactly rush to my peg …….

 The rigs were simple, a Malman Adam 4×12 on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hook for the 10mtr line on the deck. A Malman Adam 4×10 on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hook for the 5mtr line. I also set up a MW Trev on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 Drennan Carp Match for down the margin. Bait for the session would be my usual mix of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

Well at 2pm John sounded the fishery bell to signal the All-In. My initial feed was at 5 and 10mtrs and down the right hand margin, and my 1st put in at 10mtrs with a banded 8mm pellet produced almost instant action as a Carp tore off across the lake leaving just a scale on the hook ……..

 Dave next door on peg 11 had snared a quick skimmer on the “feederless feeder” and after about 20 minutes I’d managed a small Carp of around 6lbs. It all went a bit quiet after that however with just a couple of small Roach to break the monotony.

The car park bank looked like the place to be from where I was sitting with all the anglers playing fish at one time or another, indeed Steve snared a Common of 21½lbs but weighed and returned it without as much as a smile much to the consternation of 2 anglers that had dropped in to take a look at the lake before their forthcoming match there. However there was soon a sound that all anglers hate, a loud CRACK and I looked up to see Clive’s pole being towed toward the little lake. The number 5 section had failed but fortunately John managed to hook it out and with the fish still attached Clive played it out from peg 33…….

 This was followed by another sharp CRACK , this time a top 2 belonging to Mitch on peg 3, amazingly Paul(tommyturtle001)Thompson on peg 10 hooked about 15 minutes later with his pellet wag. Well with nothing happening in my peg I reverted to my usual fall back, I filled it in at 5mtrs and set off with my camera . Mick(The Chippy)Pearson was on peg 9 and had been a bit worried about fishing so close to the bush, but he’d gone for it and been rewarded with a 16lb Common early on which gave him the confidence to stick at it  …….

 Alex was on peg 8 and was steadily picking up a few fish from down the track at 6mtrs and across to the far bank ……

Scott on peg 7 was trying to get to grips with his peg but was slowly falling behind Alex despite his best efforts ……

 I found Geoff on peg 5 and it was a case of steady away for him as he looked to be on the way to building a decent net of fish  …..

 Paul was on peg 4 and just pleased to be fishing the match after all, Tony was tucked away in the corner on peg 3 and was admitting to having a few, which knowing Tony meant he was on a shed full , but he too had smashed a number 5 section earlier on . Gem (The Minx) was on peg 1, fishing to the bush and with 3 weigher’s already on the board was looking good to add a few more to The Minxed List  ……

 Working my way round I stopped to commiserate with Clive and try to work out just how many concrete trucks would be needed to fill in pegs 13  and 32  ……..

 Malc was on peg 25 and it looked as if the power of The Jinx was having a positive effect as he was catching from both his swims and well on his way to a really good weight  ……

 Terry on peg 23 was looking a lot happier than I’ve seen him recently at Rolfs, with 3 good Carp in the opening period and the odd fish still putting in an appearance it seemed that there was every chance that he might avoid yet another Minxing today  ……..

 Steve(steak) had moved round a couple of pegs today to peg 20 and still catching, but today he was suffering his fair share of foul hookers and also lost a huge Perch at the net that he felt may have gone 5lbs ……

 Tom admitted to having a real struggle on peg 19  and Colin was suffering with foul hookers on peg 18. Simon was having another decent day on 17, while Gaz on peg 16 was having a frustrating time and struggling to work out just how they wanted it ……

 My Pairs partner Richard was on peg 15 and had just switched to fishing worm, while Dave Collier was on peg 14 for a second day running and not really enjoying it anymore than yesterday . Back at my peg a quick chat with Webbo revealed that I hadn’t missed much, though he’d had a couple of fish that had snagged him in the bush to his left  …….

 Well time marched on with little happening for me, though the car park bank still seemed to be producing and I’d just glanced at my watch and noticed there was an hour to go when my float slid under, lifting into it I was suddenly aware that the amount of resistance indicated something other than a Roach on the other end……..

 It proved to be a decent Common and a weigher to boot at 12½lbs. Happily it wasn’t on its own either as in the last hour I added a further 7 carp to the keepnet before John rang the bell for the All-Out. As we packed away a few of the lads were ribbing me that I may as well leave my gear there as I was bound to draw it again tomorrow , but surely fate wouldn’t be that unkind to me would it  ? Anyway declining to tempt fate I soon had my gear back to the car park.

So to the Weigh-In and the first weight of any note was Jon Hatch who managed the first ‘Ton’ with 100¾lbs from peg 39 . Gem had suffered a quiet second half to her match meaning that the cut off for a Minxing was 45¼lbs today. Tony had a cracking day in more ways than one and recorded an excellent 197½lbs, just short of a ‘Double Ton’ from peg3, yet it would prove to be only good enough for 2nd on the day . Tony’s Pairs Partner Geoff backed him up well with 93½lbs from peg5, which would see them going into day 2 in 1st place . My fish registered 64½lbs which at least meant that I’d escaped a Minxing  while my partner Richard managed 1lb more leaving us in mid table. Simon managed the ‘Ton’ with a fine 155¾lbs from peg 17 for 3rd on the day . Malc had the catch of the day though with a superb ‘Double Ton’ recording 211lbs for the win on the day  While Steve Wilson recorded the days final ‘Ton’ with 113¾lbs from peg 19 .

So with all the results collated it was Tony & Geoff in 1st place with Ant & Steve in 2nd and Malc & Gaz in 3rd .

So it was now time for a BBQ and a beer or two  and as the darkness moved in groups settled down to discuss the day events …..

 ….. or to mull over tactics for the match tomorrow, or simply catch up with the latest gossip and have a good laugh  ……

 It was past midnight when I made my way back to my bivvie. Would I have nightmares of peg 13 ? Surely I couldn’t draw it again could I  ?
All would be revealed in the morning  ………………….

DAY 2

I awoke around 7am and shock horror, I’d had a good nights sleep. Even better, the sun was shining from a blue sky .
On with the kettle for the first cup of coffee, while Webbo’s kind offer of Sausage & Bacon rolls took care of breakfast .

Today was going to be an early draw just after 9am as we were fishing from 11am-4pm so that those that had travelled a considerable distance would be able to get home at a sensible sort of time. So having washed breakfast down with a second cup of coffee it was time to think about packing away the bivvie . It’s one of those jobs I hate, but for a change it seemed to go reasonably well and I managed to cram it all into the unfeasibly small carrying bag on the first attempt , so with everything packed away into the car I was ready for whatever fate would throw my way today .

Lining up for the draw I must admit to a feeling of dread as I knew ‘IT‘ was still in the draw bag as I inched closer .
However I was soon feeling better as I heard a groan from Scott ahead of me, Yes he’d claimed peg 13  for his very own today. I felt I should commiserate with him, but all I could manage was a silly grin and laughter . Plunging my hand into the bag I found myself looking down on peg 1, yet another peg I’d not fished previously, that The Minx had fished yesterday……

 So round to peg 1 with the gear to set up. Now normally it’s just pegs 40 & 2 on this bank that are used, but for a change this weekend pegs 39, 1 & 3 had been used. Geoff had drawn peg 3 and was hoping for a similar result to that achieved by his partner Tony who’d fished it the previous day, while to my right on peg 39 was Gaz hoping for a better result than yesterday.
Poor Jonny Broadbent had just wheeled his Rive to peg 38 and turned round to do something else when there was an almighty SPLASH!!!! The box complete with wheelkit had rolled down the bank depositing itself in his peg, not the ideal start to his day .

Rig wise I just set up a couple of Malman Adam 4×12′s on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1′s to cover the 5 and 10mtr lines which were of similar depth and a Malman 4×12 Snake IV on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1 to fish the bottom of the marginal shelf under the bush to my left. I also got the feeder rod out of it’s ready sleeve just in case things got desperate Bait for the session would be my usual mix of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

I have to say that it felt quite strange setting up so early for a match at Rolfs, and I felt that we may all be in for a bit of a grueller , especially with the change in the weather as well. At 11am John signalled the All-In by ringing the bell and I fed all 3 of my lines before starting on a banded 8mm at 5mtrs. While I couldn’t see Geoff on peg 3 I could hear him and it was obvious that he’d caught a fish pretty quickly . Dave had joined the action pretty quickly as well, winkling out a couple of Carp from down his right hand margin. Other than that though there didn’t seem to be much happening.

 Gaz had gone out long fishing shallow and got of the mark with a Common of around 12lbs……

I couldn’t buy as much as a bite however, nothing not even a solitary silver to show for my efforts after 3 hours. The bush that had produced for Gem yesterday offered little in the way of cover from the sun today and the only signs of anything were at 10mtrs where the usual fizzing kept happening over the feed . The feeder with dampened pellet and double sweetcorn on the hook finally produced a bite just after 2pm and a feisty little Mirror of around 6lbs was soon safely in the net to save the dreaded DNW, but with Gem on peg8 and getting a few fish I just knew that I was on for a Minxing today.

Malc had been on a stroll round and reported that most were struggling today and it appeared that Chris on peg 7 and Tony on peg 26 were having the best of it today and with Geoff having a few on a difficult day it would probably be enough for them to secure the title. However Ant had started to have a couple over on peg 38……

 Strangely despite struggling today I hadn’t filled it in and gone for a walk, just stuck at it and plugged away though it appeared to be all in vain. With about an hour left I managed a Common of around 7lbs on the pole at 10mtrs.

Could this be the start of a decent last hour for me for the third match in a row? In a word NO . All that followed were a couple of foul hookers which just left me with scales for souvenirs, while a third led me a merry dance forcing me to thread my top kit under the platform…….

……. on two separate occasions before the hook pulled free. In fact it ended up feeling like a blessed relief when John rang the bell for the All-Out at 4pm .

So time to pack everything away which was all going smoothly until I noticed that 3 sections of my margin pole were missing . I knew where I’d left them, and knew in my heart where they would be ……………. In the lake .
Oh well it had to be done, down to my underpants and flip flops and in, it wasn’t to unpleasant and I located the sections straight away. Geoff gave me a hand out and as I turned round who should I spy with a camera but Malc ,
A fair cop I suppose after all the times I’ve caught him ……..

 Rather than waste time I weighed my 2 carp at the weigh station behind me, recording a whole 13¼lbs on the board and returned to the business of packing away as the Weigh-In passed me by, the rate of it’s progress revealing just how hard the fishing had been today. Notable weights were Chris(cybermanc)Ellis who’d fished the feeder all day on peg 7 for 111lbs and his 1st ever match win  . Tony coming 2nd overall for the second day running with 90¼lbs . While Clive managed to draw somewhere other than peg 32  and with a level 60lbs was 3rd on the day  . Meanwhile Gem had 50½lbs which meant that apart from the top 3 and the Malman brothers the rest of us got Minxed .

 So with everything out of the way we assembled outside the hut for the results to be read out, pools to be paid out and the trophies awarded by Mr Maggotdrowning himself , Dave(Webbo)Webster to the winning team of………..

 Geoff Palmer & Tony Roberts  

Congratulations to both of them .
Well earnt over the weekend finishing 22 points clear,
and Tony becoming the 1st angler to win it twice .

Finally a few words of Thanks are due to the following people………
John & Pauline Bennett for allowing us the use of their superb fishery during the weekend .
Dave Webster, for bringing us all Maggotdrowning.com and organising the whole weekend .
Tubertini who provided enough goodies to make sure that everyone took home a little something .
Finally, all those Maggotdrowners that took part, the weekend wouldn’t be the success it is without you .

Pairs Result

Dave the Fish’s

Invitation Match.

Well today I’m once again making the trip down to Rolfs Lake for an invitation match organised by Dave the Fish as a prequel to the Maggotdrowning.com Rolfs Pairs Tournament 2010. This has become something of an annual event fished by a number of those that will be fishing at the weekend and a few that won’t. It’s a nice light hearted match, fully in keeping with the Maggotdrowning ethos that allows everyone to settle in for the weekend ahead with plenty of time to spare .

I’d been looking forward to this with a keen sense of anticipation for a few weeks prior to the event, but had a bit of a shock on Thursday when I got a phone call from Dave(Webbo) informing me that he’d been unable to get any trophies for the Pairs Match, and asking me if there was anything I could do to remedy the situation Fortunately there is a company local to me who deal in nothing other than trophies and a quick trip down to their shop sorted the problem, so a big THANK YOU to Alan Clarke and his staff at CLASSIC TROPHIES for getting us out of the brown sticky stuff at very short notice .

 It was a bit of a dull grey day with a hint of drizzle in the air when I woke up on Friday morning, so with the car loaded with all my gear, including the extras necessary needed for a 3 day stay it was off to Battersea for breakfast before driving through London to reach the M40, Thankfully this went amazingly well and I pulled into the fishery car park just after 10am . Geoff P and Mick the Chippy were already in situ as were our hosts for the weekend ahead John & Pauline. First things first, so I soon got my bivvie erected as it was obvious that we were going to get some rain at some point in the day. With that out of the way and the car park staring to fill as others arrived I gave Mick a hand with his bivvie. Like many of us, not being a hardened carper the bivvie only comes out for the annual trip to Rolfs and remembering where all the rods go takes a while. we got there in the end though .

By now the car park was filling up, Dai had brought his caravan, along with his wife Anne, daughter Hayley and the dog, while Malc had Liam and Crystal in tow. Now Malc had invested the large sum of £14 in a new 4 man tent and was trying to erect it for the 1st time with the aid of the kids and Hayley, unfortunately the only instructions were a single photo of what it should look like, Despite showing him how to fit the supporting poles, you could tell it wasn’t going well when Hayley told Malc to “Step away from the tent” and as she had a mallet in her hand  it seemed like a good idea at the time . I then got a phone call from Paul(nomorelongwalks)East who had pulled out due to a family commitment, and he told me that the arrangement had been cancelled so he was coming down later anyway for a weekend with the gang despite not being able to fish .

Chris(cybermanc)Ellis and Tom(tommodiesel)Little had arrived early to set up as they were fishing The Pairs at the weekend, but Dave invited them to fish today as they’d arrived ahead of schedule so there were 19 of us ready to go when Dave called for the draw around 12·30pm despite a few of the attendees being caught up in M40 traffic . We were going to fish from 2·15 – 7·15pm anyway so Pauline drew for those missing.
Into the draw bag and I found peg 28 on the car park bank would be my home for 5 hours, a nice short walk and a peg I hadn’t fished before……

 John had mentioned that today looked ideal for the feeder and that seemed as good a starting point as any especially as I had it already set up in its rod sleeve. Pole wise I just set up a couple of Malman Adam 4×12′s on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1′s for fishing to the bushes on either side and a Malman 4×12 Snake IV on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1 for a line at 5mtrs. Bait for the session would be a variety of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

Simps, Gem and Budgie had made it in time for the start so it was a full compliment of 19 by the time that Dave signalled the All-In with what sounded like a strangled duck . Geoff over on peg 10 soon had a few feet of orange Vespe coming from his pole and was soon off the mark with the 1st Carp of the weekend .

I managed a quick Carp on the feeder, a Mirror of around 7lbs to get me off the mark, while Simps was soon out onto the pole line and got a decent 16lb’er to get him off the mark, but it was Dave on peg 24 who seemed to get off to the best start fishing the pellet cone or “Feederless Feeder” as he calls it, it seemed to be doing the business today as a succession of fish came to the net ……

 Gem was on peg 9 and after her customary shout signalling her 1st fish had a lot of us worried about a Minxing as it’s a peg capable of producing a good weight, as Gem had proved taking a ‘Ton+’ and a load of scalps off of it a couple of weeks ago in a Jinx Match …….

Well things didn’t get any better for me with nothing further to show on the feeder or all 3 pole lines apart from foul hooking a rather angry Carp in the tail. This gave me a good run around but I thought I was in with a chance of landing it, unfortunately as I piled on the pressure in an attempt to net it the line close to the hook parted shooting the rest of the rig back towards me and embedding the float into the middle finger of my right hand . Looking at it with a degree of shock I decided that it shouldn’t really be there and pulled it straight out only to be rewarded with the sight of large amounts of blood pouring out of my battered digit. Luckily Maria has always insisted that I carry a small first aid kit in my carryall for just this type of event so I was able to staunch the flow and bandage it up .

So with nothing else having come my way after 2½ hours so I decided to fill it in on the 5mtr line and go for a stroll with the camera. I passed a rather disconsolate Tom(Tommodiesel)Little on peg 30 who was fishless  …….

……. and found Clive on peg 32, now this peg is starting to haunt Clive like peg 13 haunts me, and I have to say that Clive had the look of a man resigned to a Minxing  and just going through the motions as he could see that he was falling behind Gem who was directly opposite him …….

Mick was on peg 34 and was having a bit of a struggle getting to grips with it today, but was plugging away and putting his faith in Mary Q to turn things round …….

 Malc was tucked away down on peg 38 and had Liam and Crystal to keep him company and maybe bring him some luck……

 ………. strangely Malc was fishing the feeder , a surprising site as he normally fishes the pole all the time at Rolfs but it appeared to be working for him as he was into a run of Carp on it …….

 Budgie on peg 40 was nowhere to be seen, which summed up the way his match was going , while Dai was on peg 2 and putting a few together, but just glad to be there after suffering concussion having cracked his head on the tailgate of Geoff’s car the previous weekend  ……

 Chris Withall was having a real struggle on peg 4 and had resorted to fishing the waggler and maggot for anything with fins to put some fish in the net …….

peg 6 found Dave Moore wrapped up in his hoodie, not in the best of health, he probably shouldn’t have been fishing and the sport wasn’t exactly providing the tonic he needed …….

 Terry had finally managed a half decent draw in peg 7 but the residents had obviously heard of his previous exploits this season and decided to heap a bit more suffering on him leaving him facing a sixth Minxing on the trot …….

……. while Scott(methodgob) had run to peg 8 only to find that he needn’t have rushed as the fish were making him work hard for each one of them …….

 By the time I arrived back at my peg Paul had arrived and came over to say Hello, I was also rewarded with a bite! not the hoped for Carp, but a decent skimmer that was soon safely in the net and it was soon followed by another, and such fish can save a Minxing on a hard day . Over on my Nemesis peg 13  Chris(Cybermanc) was getting a few, but losing to many for his liking ……

Dave over on peg 14 was suffering a bit of a grueller, I reckon it was the sound of that strangled duck at the start had scared his fish off ……

 All the action seem to be coming from the pegs to the right of me though, Simon was playing catch up with Dave who was still getting regular fish, and while Simon was getting quite a few foul hookers from his 5mtr line he was landing quite a few of them……

 However Ant over on peg 18 was coming on strong with a good run of fish late on and Steve(steak) on peg 22 was quietly getting on with things fishing worm and avoiding the foul hookers that were causing havoc for most ……

I’d managed one more Carp by the time that Paul came back to see how I was doing. No sooner had he sat down behind me than I latched into a foul hooker that went tearing off across the lake taking my rig with it. I remarked to Paul that I couldn’t be bothered to set up another rig with 45 minutes to go so just dropped my feeder rig onto the 5mtr line with a single grain of corn on the hook. Well the tip wrapped round almost instantly and I soon had another carp in the net and I managed another six before Dave found that strangled duck again to sound the All-Out. I have to say that I was quite surprised to have finished so well and though I had 50lbs+ which just might save me from a Minxing .

So with the gear packed away it was time for the Weigh-In and Malc soon set the pace with 73¾lbs to easily win his section, after which it was a tale of woe for many with the next weight of any relevance to most being Gem’s who set the mark of 52¼lbs + to avoid a Minxing. The Minxed List grew until the scales reached Ant who recorded the first Ton of the day with 109¼lbs, good enough for 3rd on the day  and just pipping Steve who weighed 108½lbs. Round to Dave who was well chuffed with his 136½lbs, but it was only good enough for 2nd   as Simon took a fine win recording 144½lbs . My late run of fish resulted in a weight of 62lbs for me so no Minxing for me today and a surprise section win as a bonus . THANK YOU to Dave the Fish for todays Invite , an enjoyable match regardless of the weights and a great way to kick off the weekend .

So with everything out of the way it was back to the bivvies as the barbecue and various cookers were fired up, beers were opened and the inquest on the days events were discussed along with the prospects for the weekend ahead. It went on long into the night for some, and was still going when I rolled into my sleeping bag just after midnight and it didn’t take long before I was sound asleep.
What would lie ahead? It wouldn’t be long till we found out .

Jinx Match 5

Well it’s back to Rolfs again today for the 5th match of the Jinx Series . Once more Malc has organised a Friday Jinx 2010 Special Evening Match after the success of the one last year, Although the evening match doesn’t count toward the Jinx Series results a lot of the Series regulars were fishing it as well as a few guests. Unfortunately work has conspired to prevent me fishing it once more but hopefully the feed going in overnight should make for a decent match today . By the time I’d loaded the car it was starting to rain and by the time I was sitting down to breakfast at my usual stop in Battersea it was coming down in stair rods. It had stopped however by the time I got to the M40 and as I drove into the car park at Rolfs the sun was shining .

It was quite strange to arrive at Rolfs and find an almost full car park as I’m normally one of the first to arrive, but with so many of todays anglers having fished Friday’s night match it was to be expected. I soon caught up with the previous nights goings on, and as usual it comprised the usual mix of success and failure. Malc had won the match from peg 8 and with me being in A section today I remarked that I would be quite happy to draw it today. PINK HAT wearers today are Clive and Ade(having missed the previous match) with what must be a first as they are together in The Pairs.

 Well with virtually everyone there early the draw actually started early !!!!!!!!! (quite scary unheard of even ). Into the draw bag and I opened my hand to reveal……….. Peg 8, hopefully a good omen for the day ahead .
So with the gear loaded up it was off round the Little Lake to my peg. For company today I had Mat Edwards on peg 7 to my right, while to my left on peg 9 was Kev along with his partner Jean, so I was guaranteed a mid match cup of coffee (Thanks Jean ).

Now I knew having spoken to Malc that he’d fed and fished tight to the bush during the night so todays plan would revolve around there and a line out front at around 6mtrs. Rigs were just two MW 0·4 Power Diamonds on 0·20 with a size 16 Guru QM1 for on the deck at 6mtrs, while the margin rigs were two 0·2 MW HC margins again on 0·20 with size 16 Guru QM1′s. I decided against setting up a feeder as I wanted to concentrate on just the 2 lines. Bait and feed were a combination of 6 and 8mm fishery pellets along with some sweet corn.

So at 1pm John rang the fishery bell for the All-In. I potted out 2 large cups of mixed pellet and sweetcorn to 6 mtrs and fed a handful of pellet tight to the bush, then shipped out a banded 8mm pellet to the 6mtr line. Almost before I’d had a chance to start however Mat was landing his 1st feeder caught carp , only a small fish at around 5lbs but a decent start none the less.
Well despite lifting and dropping the rig and flicking a few pellets out continually it was around 15 minutes before my float slid away for the 1st time. It was immediately obvious that it was A: a large fish and B: It was foul hooked. After around 2 minutes I was beginning to think that I might be in with a chance of landing it, however it was not to be as the rig came flying back with a scale the size of a 50p piece attached to the hook . Another 15 minutes passed before the float slid away again, not such a large fish this time but properly hooked which resulted in a nice plump Mirror of around 8lbs safely in the net to get me off the mark.

The next hour however produced nothing more for me other than another 3 foul hooked fish, none of which yielded anything other than a scale to join the collection on the side tray, a small perch on double sweetcorn and a couple of roach. Matt however was still getting a few on the feeder and appeared to be steadily pulling away from me…….

 As I pondered my next step my mind was made up for me by the site of a tail pattern in the water by the bush were I’d been feeding. The problem is getting the fish out before they bury themselves in the snags underneath it. Fish to far out from it and you wont get a bite, so it’s a question of being brave and working your way in toward it till you get a bite. Inch by inch I got a bit braver, then the float buried. Maximum side strain saw the fish come out into open water, then the fun began. This was obviously one of the larger residents and it just plodded around for 5 minutes as I made a little ground on it…….

 Suddenly it popped up at my feet and I gratefully scooped it into my waiting landing net. A glorious Common and obviously a weigher I was more than happy to see it take the scales round to an even 18lbs . With the fish safely returned I edged the rig in carefully once more and the float immediately buried. An almost instant replay of the previous fish followed before I was once again sliding the net under another large Common and making my way up to the Weigh-Station only to find that this fish also weighed an even 18lbs !!!!!
3 in 3 put ins was surely hoping for to much, but once more the float vanished and a spirited tussle ensued before the fish, another Common was safely in the landing net……

  Not quite the size of the previous two, this one was a mere 14lbs, but that was 50lbs on the board in around 20 minutes!
However it couldn’t last and the next bite resulted in the rig being dragged through the snags before flying back completely trashed .
Back in with the spare rig but the disturbance had obviously spooked them so I re-fed and took the opportunity to tie another rig. At this point I heard Malc pipe up from the car park bank “Oi Pete, You’re facing the wrong way” always the joker   he’d noticed that I was sitting with my back to the water as I made up the rig. By now Jean had supplied a welcome coffee  and it was back to business, but as I looked up it was obvious that things were picking up on the car park bank as looking up I could see Clive (peg32) Nick (peg29) and Malc (peg28) all playing fish at the same time……

 By now Mat was alternating between the feeder and his pole and I was convinced he was still ahead of me especially as he’d had a 19½lb Common on the pole. Peg 8 is one of those that stops you from seeing what’s going on around the lake and with very few people having a stroll today I assumed that most were catching. I was still getting bites, but the larger fish seemed to have disappeared, to be replaced by a bunch of psycho Mirrors that seem to fight like fish twice their weight and never know when they are beaten. In the last 1½ hours I did manage to get 8 of them safely into the keepnets but an equal number of them won the battle to stay out of them, but a decent Common weighing 12lbs did grace my landing net in the final 5 minutes before John rang the fishery bell for the All-Out at 6pm .

Packing away my gear and chatting to Mat I was happy that I had caught a ‘Ton’ but still convinced that he’d beaten me, but he was adamant that most of his fish were small and he doubted that he’d got a ‘Ton’, though I was sure he had. Anyway with the gear back at the car park it was obvious that while a good few fish had been caught a few of the lads had struggled.

So onto the Weigh-In and the 1st weight of note was Simon (peg 38) with 98lbs who’d finally managed to catch well in the final 1½hrs. However he was immediately overtaken by Ant (peg2) with 112½lbs. Fred (peg5) managed to top that with 115½lbs which would prove to be good enough for 3rd on the day . Mat did indeed have a ‘Ton’, his 1st in a Jinx Match recording 106½lbs but my fish weighed 128lbs for the A section win and 2nd overall on the day . Dave Collier (peg 11) weighed 100½lbs to take the win in B section, his 1st ever in a Jinx Match . Marcus(Budgie) won C section and took the overall win on the day with a fine 130½lbs, also his 1st ‘Ton’ in a Jinx Match . Al (peg23) weighed 105lbs which included a magnificent Common of 20½lbs which is the heaviest fish ever weighed in on a Jinx Match . Finally Clive weighed 99¾lbs to just miss the ‘Ton’ by 4ozs.

So back to the hut where we all chewed over the day and waited patiently for Malc to sort out the day’s results…….

 So with that out of the way it just remained for The Minx to sort out who would have the honour of THE PINK HAT for the final match .
Now of course there are 2 PINK HATS in circulation now and having missed out on a Full House by not getting Fred today (he’ll miss the final match as he’s away on holiday) she decided to put the peg numbers of those that were Minxed today into the draw bag and draw them, so Step forward Jon(Hatchye)Hatch  …………..

and Nick(Monkey)Watkins-Price   ………….

 …………. who will be the lucky wearers when the final Jinx Match is fished on Saturday 21st August .

As for me, I’ve got a busy weekend ahead as I’m back at Rolfs on Friday for Dave the Fish’s Invitation Match which is followed on the Saturday and Sunday by the Maggotdrowning.com Rolfs Pairs Tournament. Obviously a report of all 3 days will follow but it may be a couple of days after .

OVERALL RESULT

SECTION RESULTS

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

Names in PINK are those that were MINXED

SECTION RESULTS