The JINX Series 2008 

Match 4.

Well after a gap of eight weeks The Jinx Series returned to Rolf's today for the penultimate round of the Series. Blue sky and sunshine greeted me as I set off which was nice as the weather in the past week hadn't been the best . A trouble free run down after my customary breakfast stop saw me arrive with plenty of time to spare, with just Dave, Tim and Nick along with John there to greet me. First things first, so nets dipped and laid out to dry then a look at the Lake. John's got some plant on site digging out some flood defenses so pegs 19 and 20 are out of the match today as the work is going on right behind them, and I couldn't help wondering if it might just have an effect on the fishing today for those pegged on the Big Lake .

Soon the car park was filling up and the usual banter and micky taking was starting to flow as is customary on these matches . Even Malc was on time as he'd traveled up with Dai (Yes the Rover is still dead ) and today he had his 2 youngsters in tow (Crystal & Liam) could Rolf's survive the presence of 4 members of The Jinx Family ? Indeed many were wondering whether the change in weather would affect things too as a lot of venues have been fishing poorly recently.

Anyway with 23 anglers assembled it was time for the draw (yes it was late ) and I was hoping for the car park bank and a nice short walk, and peg 29 was my reward, a stroll of around 5 yards as my car was parked right behind it .

For company today I had Keith to my left on peg 31 and Mitch on 32 with Kevin to my right on peg 28 and Dave on peg 26.

I was planning on keeping it reasonably simple today and just set up 3 rigs. I to fish paste just on the slope of the shelf at the ends of the bushes to my left and right and this was simply a Mk3 Malman self cocking paste float on 0·21 to a size 12 Drennan Carp Method. The second was to fish pellet straight out at around 6mtrs where I had around 5ft and was a Malman 4x12 Adam on 0·18 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match and I also set up a Malman 0·3g MTD1 dibber on 0·18 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match in case they wanted it up in the water. I also set up the feeder as I had it there in its ready sleeve, but wasn't expecting to use it. Bait wise it was just 6 and 8mm fishery pellets and some paste.

With plenty of time till the all in people could be seen discussing the prospects for the day ahead............

...... or maybe not in some cases .....................

So 1pm and Malc called the All-in, a handful of pellet by each bush and 2 big pots of pellet went out onto the 6mtr line which I followed out with an 8mm banded pellet onto the 6mtr line just as I heard Malc's shout signifying his 1st fish from peg 7. After raising and dropping the rig a couple of times the float buried and a Common of around 7lbs was safely in the net to get me off the mark . This was swiftly followed by another Common around the 9lb mark, a great start, but short lived .

Looking to my left I could see that Keith was into his 1st fish of the day which appeared to be a Skimmer while across on peg 10 Clive was also into his first of the day............

I then went through a frustrating spell, suffering from a number of foul hooked fish resulting in a collection of scales on my sidetray but nothing added to the net . Kevin with nothing to show from his pole line except a solitary Roach decided to go for it on the feeder, and it seemed to be the right choice as it produced the occasional fish for him throughout the rest of the match .

Keith meanwhile seemed to be bringing a steady stream of fish to the net, but this was deceptive as a number of them were lost as it turned out . Dave Moore meanwhile having been through numerous variations in an attempt to find a fish had been back to his van to retrieve his pellet waggler rod to implement 'PLAN Z' as he put it .

By around 3·30pm it was obvious that most were struggling. I hadn't seen Tony on peg 14 land a single fish and he was having a stroll around. Slim was having a bit of a mare losing a few fish while Clive next to him on 10 continued to slip the odd fish into the net .........

Having tried my 2 inside lines with no success and with just a lone skimmer taken on the feeder, I decided to concentrate on the 6mtr line which I'd been feeding regularly for the remainder of the match. I soon had a couple of Carp one of which was a weigher, to add to the net and as Tony arrived for a chat I latched into a slightly better one. Into the waiting landing net and it proved to be a weigher and at 14lbs was just the inspiration that Tony needed to get back to his peg and try and avoid the dreaded DNW .

The pellet wag finally produced a very welcome Carp for Dave as I was attached to a rather fed up foul hooker, a decent Common which I briefly saw before it did me underneath the right hand bush. This seemed to kill things for me as i couldn't buy a bite in the following 30 minutes .

With an hour to go I was in again and had a run of fish including another weigher of 16lbs . With around 10 minutes to go I had another 5lb'er and Kevin asked me what I thought I had. I reckoned that one more fish could see me reach the 'Ton'.
Sure enough the float buried once more and an obviously decent fish tore off bottoming the elastic!!! Fortunately the rig held and as a rather disoriented Common with the hook firmly in it's pectoral fin surfaced on it's side I scooped it into the net, a weigher that went 16½lbs and before I had the chance to get the rig in again Malc called the All-out.

Chatting to others while packing up it was obvious that a lot had struggled, though Malc was owning up to a 'Ton' and I was sure that Clive had won the match, but Slim was really worried that he could be on the receiving end of a Minxing. However while we waited for the weigh-in, Slim's good lady showed fine form demonstrating to Slim how it should be done when she had a go .......

What a star she proved to be, even coming round with the iced lollies during the afternoon . While I'm at it, I mustn't forget a big Thank You to Kevin's partner Jean who kept me supplied with cups of coffee during the day and a sticky bun at the end .

Soon the weigh-in revealed just how hard it had been. My fish weighed 113lbs for the early lead that I felt sure I would to lose to Clive. Ant had managed 76½lbs. Gemma managed 31¼lbs from peg 2 leaving Slim looking nervous, much to everyone's amusement . Malc's fish went 109½lbs, a very relieved Slim just avoided a Minxing with a level 35lbs and sure enough Clive took the win on the day when he put 154lbs on the scales. Nice one Clive .

Marsh AC club match.

Today was the Marsh AC match at Rockells Farm in Essex and I'd arranged to meet Dave Collier at his house at 6.45am and follow him and Colin down to the venue as it's rather tucked away off the beaten track and a pig to find, Chris Withall had the same idea, and as we set off in convoy it was raining and the weather forcasts in the week previously hadn't been good, so it looked like we may be in for a wet old day . Round the M25 and onto the M11 and we were brought to a halt by a crash, though thankfully we were soon moving. Intent on following Dave I got a phonecall from Paul East, who had missed his turning and taken the scenic route via Colchester, and by the time we'd sorted that one out it was obvious we would have to draw for him.

Arriving in the fishery car park around 8·15am Kevin Loveland and I were dispatched to arrange the pegging for the 18 of us fishing while Dave organised the draw. We were under instructions to leave as many of the pegs close to the car park out as we could, so pegged 9 down the left and the other 9 round the top and down the right of the lake. Happily the rain had stopped and the sky was lightening as we started the draw so perhaps a decent day was on the cards .

I'd been looking forward to this match for a while as Rockells has a reputation of producing some decent weights, I'd only fished there once previously in the depths of winter and blanked, but last years club match which I missed as I was on holiday had produced a 200lbs+ winning weight and a few tons to back it up . I'd spoken to Trevor Price of GOT Baits prior to the match and he'd told me how he would fish it if he was there, so at least I had a good idea of how I was going to approach the day given a half decent draw .

Into the draw bag and I pulled out Peg 3, one of the three pegs at the top of the fishery, and I was more than happy with that . Tony Roberts had drawn Peg1, which I was informed by Dave was the out and out flyer, while Judy Hermite joined us on Peg2. Opposite I could see Martin Hucker who had won the previous match at Churchgate Lakes and Paul finally arrived to take Peg5.

Peg 3

 

Settling into the peg I just set up 3 top 2's, 2 fitted with Teepee's paste pots and Mk3 Malman self cocking paste floats, one to fish straight out into about 2ft of water and the other for the margin where there was around 18 inches depth. The third rig was just a Malman MTD1 Dibber for up in the water if the fish rose up to intercept the pellets I was planning to feed. Bait was simple, all I was planning to use was paste, which was the new Atomic Paste from GOT Baits. I'd been forewarned that you can use a fair bit at Rockells, so had premixed a good 6 pints of it the night before. For feed it would just be 4mm pellet and some hemp. The reason for the hemp was that todays match was being split into two 3 hour sessions with a 1 hour break mid way through for a mid-match weigh-in taken at the fishery owners insistence, and I wanted something that I could feed just prior to the break that would stand a chance of holding the fish during this break when we couldn't feed .

Tony was happy with his peg.

So 10am and Dave blew the whistle for the all-in. A pinch of pellet and hemp out in front of me and the same down the left hand side. Going out with the deeper rig in front I potted in the paste and the float settled and 5 seconds later buried and I was off and running with a little Mirror Carp of around the pound safely in the net . After that it was just a case of trying to get into some sort of rhythm with just a pinch of feed going into both swims regularly and trying to sort the liners from the real bites.
After an hour i had 30 fish in the nets but they were all pretty small, ranging from 6ozs to 1½lbs, but I could see that Martin opposite was getting a better stamp of fish. He was fishing floaters down his right hand margin and I could hear the fish slurping them off the top. Looking down the margin I could see a few tail patterns so decided to have a look down there to see if the fish were of a better stamp and straight away was rewarded with a Common around the 2½lb mark . One of the frustrating things was the number of missed bites, a lot of which you would think were liners, but with very few foul hookers I felt that it was due to the poor condition of a lot of the fish's mouths making it hard to get a decent hook hold . Sport remained pretty constant but I trashed 3 rigs when fish took me through brambles that were trailing into the water, and I took 15 minutes out to tie some new rigs, knowing that we would be stopping for an hour at 1pm for a mid match weigh-in. I knew that Tony was catching reasonably well along with Martin, but felt that it would fish even better during the afternoon session.
The problem would be keeping the fish in the margins during the hour's break for the weigh in and the ensuing commotion of the nets coming out and fish being returned, so with a couple of minutes to go I fed 3 pints of hemp into the margin swim along with a pint of pellet before Dave signaled the all-out .

A chat while we waited for the scales revealed that Judy wanted both Tony and I to give her an hours start in the afternoon , Tony was owning up to having around 70lbs on his clicker (but can you believe one of Pinocchio's relatives?) while I felt I should have a good 80lbs. By the time the scales arrived Colin had weighed 83½lbs from Peg17 and Martin 110¼lbs.
Tony's fish weighed in at a level 82lbs while my 2 nets registered 107½lbs. So 2 Ton weights caught in 3 hours and all to play for come the afternoon session .

 

Martin partakes of some mid match refreshment

Thirsty work this baggin.

Waiting for Dave to signal the afternoon all-in I mixed up another 3 pints of paste just to be on the safe side as I could see the tail patterns still in my margin swim so felt confident . Just after 2pm Dave blew the whistle for the all-in, straight down the margin and the float buried and I was off again as a bright silver Common around 2lbs nestled in the landing net . To be honest the sport remained pretty constant for the next 3 hours and while the average size wasn't big I did manage to find a few larger examples around the 6-8lbs mark in the last hour. Martin had another good session, but I was pretty confident that I'd caught more than him this time, especially as he'd run out of bait with 5 minutes to go and I'd had another 4 fish in that time .

With the scales starting from our side this time round, a quick chat with Tony revealed that he thought he was in with a chance of his 1st Double ton on aggregate, while I felt that just maybe I was in with a chance of a Treble Ton as I'd caught much better in the afternoon session . Soon the Weigh-in got underway with Tony posting a level 130lbs for an aggregate of 212lbs, Mission accomplished . Judy added 45½lbs for a total of 70¼lbs which is her best ever match weight. My turn next and lifting the 1st net I needed John to give me a hand. As it turned out I was a little bit short of what i needed for a Triple Ton as the 2 nets came to a level 186lbs giving me an aggregate of 293½lbs, by far my best ever match weight by over 100lbs .

Round to Peg4 and Martin had another great session weighing 123½lbs for a total of 232¾lbs and his best ever match weight . As the scales moved round everyone had improved on the morning weights with Dave, Al, John and Paul posting ton plus aggregate weights. Last but one to weigh was Colin, and by all accounts he'd had a cracking afternoon catching a decent stamp of fish and he was admitting to 41 fish in his 3 nets, they weighed 167½lbs giving him an aggregate of 251lbs and second place on the day.

So there you have it, the top 4 anglers all beat their previous best match weights and the top 3 also beat the previous Club match record held by Dave at 231lb. To top it all the final total of 1991lbs of fish weighed in was 300lb higher than the club had ever weighed in and represented an average of 110lb per angler. One hell of a days fishing by anyones standards .

Sorry for the lack of photos, but as you might have guessed from the report, I was a little too busy to take many today .

Position	Peg	Angler	Morning	Afternoon	Total Weight
1st	Peg 3	Peter Morton	107lbs 08ozs	186lbs 00ozs	293lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 17	Colin Sharrard	83lbs 08ozs	167lbs 08ozs	251lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 4	Martin Hucker	110lbs 04ozs	123lbs 08ozs	232lbs 12ozs
4th	Peg 1	Tony Roberts	82lbs 00ozs	130lbs 00ozs	212lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 9	Dave Collier	41lbs 08ozs	83lbs 00ozs	124lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 8	Alan Loader	26lbs 00ozs	94lbs 00ozs	120lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 13	John Holdsworth	32lbs 12ozs	82lbs 08ozs	115lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 5	Paul East	22lbs 00ozs	91lbs 08ozs	113lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 14	Terry Goff	25lbs 04ozs	59lbs 08ozs	84lbs 12ozs
10th	Peg 12	Chris Withall	35lbs 00ozs	49lbs 00ozs	84lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 2	Judy Hermite	24lbs 12ozs	45lbs 08ozs	70lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 18	Roger Noakes	15lbs 08ozs	54lbs 08ozs	70lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 7	Kevin Loveland	22lbs 00ozs	31lbs 08ozs	53lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 6	Bob Hucker	14lbs 08ozs	35lbs 00ozs	49lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 16	Graham Manning	14lbs 08ozs	30lbs 08ozs	45lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 15	Ken Walker	7lbs 00ozs	31lbs 08ozs	38lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 11	Eddie Dobson	8lbs 08ozs	15lbs 08ozs	24lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 10	Rod Turner	3lbs 08ozs	5lbs 08ozs	9lbs 00ozs

Maggotdrowning.com

Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2008.

Having been fortunate enough to receive an invite to Dave Moore's Birthday Bash the previous day, I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning as I looked out of my bivvy on Saturday morning in preparation for the weekend ahead . However as I stuck the kettle on for an early morning cuppa I noticed Teepee sitting on the bench that looks out over the Little Lake. Strolling over for a chat with him it was soon obvious that all was not well, as his face was as white as a sheet. A quick chat revealed that Tony was in a fair bit of pain, and while he thought he ought to go to hospital, he was reluctant to go in case he got stuck down in Oxford. Luckily a few of the lads that had fished Dave's match had stopped overnight and they volunteered to take Tony home to Rotherham, so we bade him farewell before the weekend had had a chance to begin. ( Subsequently Tony had to undergo an operation to fix a hernia and he's thankfully fully recovered. See you soon Tony, you'll be due a result next year )

So with the Draw for The Pairs not due to take place till 11am to allow those traveling down from far away places ample time, a few that had fished the previous day made some running repairs to depleted rigs etc while others geared up in anticipation for battle with Rolf's "Babies" .
Webbo was manfully struggling trying to tie some hair rigged pellet bands and suddenly realised he could see once I'd popped a pair of reading glasses on his nose, should have gone to Spec-Savers fella !!!!!

By 10am the car park had filled up once more as the usual suspects and a couple of new ones assembled. The Malman brothers had arrived, announced by a blast on a airhorn and a few of us had made a beeline to Gaz's motor to stock up on floats while stocks lasted, Others were setting about getting their bivvies and tents pitched, while John and Pauline were doing a roaring trade in pellets and advise about what to expect in the couple of days ahead .

11am and Dave and I did the all important draw for The Pairs. With Teepee's unfortunate departure young Mitch who had traveled up to watch on Friday was the fortunate recipient of the spare place while Steve B was promoted to the Venue Expert/Experienced Matchman class , with the draw over there was quite a bit of discussion as to who would be the pairs to beat and favoured swims prior to the draw for the actual match. Noon and draw time, with us fishing the match from 1·30pm till 6·30pm in an effort to get the best from the venue, however with the temperature steadily rising I did have a few miss-givings .

Into the draw bag and 26 was mine (it had fished well for teepee the day before ), a nice short walk to the car park bank and it would be shaded as the match progressed, which was most welcome after my treks round the lake on Friday, and my partner Paul(tommyturtle)Thompson had drawn peg 40 which I felt would be good for a few fish . Simon had drawn peg 2 for the second day in a row and practically ran to his peg having 200lbs+ from it the day before . Tony(spamwham)Roberts had peg 9 which had fished really well on Friday and appeared to be one of the form pegs .

I had Alex and Ady(biglad) for company on pegs 25 & 24 so £1 side bets were struck for fun, along with one with Chin and another with Vince .

Settling into the swim I elected to keep it simple with a line at 5mtrs straight out in front and another to the edge of the bushes on both sides. I also set up my pellet waggler and feeder rod as I had both of them with me in their ready sleeves. Tommy came along for a chat along with a cold can for refreshment , and soon we were ready for the off.

1·30pm rolled round and with the All-in called we were off, 2 good handfuls of pellet onto the 5mtr line and 1 each to the edge of the bushes, Alex had opted to go shallow at 13mtrs and it would be interesting to see who's approach worked.
Well I wish I could say that the sport was fast and furious, but for the vast majority of us it was anything but, With temperatures pushing into the 30's and fish crashing around I got the distinct impression that the temperature increase had made the Carp think about spawning for a 2nd time . The big problem for most appeared to be foul hooked fish and it didn't seem to matter how you presented a bait, up in the water or hard on the deck, everyone seemed to be having problems. Also the ever present silvers didn't seem to want to play either. Alex was faced with a swim that resembled a jacuzzi and it seemed that every fish he hooked came adrift at some point . By halfway I'd managed 4 Carp when Webbo appeared for a chat as he was fishing my peg (19) from the previous day, Apparently Tony(spamwham) and Vince were doing OK on pegs 9 & 10 and Clive had got among a few on peg 31 but most were finding it hard. Fortunately I connected with another Carp on cue which gave Dave the opportunity to do the honours with my camera ..........

By 4pm we had some relief from the sun on the car park bank as it became shaded by the trees, and John was doing a roaring trade in cold bottles of water and cans of Coke that he'd thoughtfully laid on . I managed another 4 fish in the last couple of hours but others weren't so fortunate and it was probably a relief to most when the All-out was called at 6·30pm. The weigh-in told the tale of the day. Simon on peg2, was unable to repeat his feat of the day before, struggling to put just 52½lbs on the scales , Chris(cybermanc) had got off to a flyer fishing the feeder on peg 7 only to see it die and weighed 81¼lbs. Tony however had made the most of peg 9 with a fine 161¼lbs for the win on the day , Next up Vince on peg 10 put 96lbs 14ozs on the scales for 3rd on the day, just missing out on a 1st Rolf's Ton . My 9 fish came to 72lbs and at least gave me the consolation of a section win while Clive on peg 31 weighed 117¾lbs for 2nd overall and just the 2nd Ton recorded on the day .
So, at the end of day one Ant(antwood)Haywood and Tom(tommodiesel)Little were leading with 25 points from Dave(DTF)Collier and Vince on 23 points and Clive and Tim Westmoreland in third on 21½ points .

So with the gear stowed away it was time to fire up the barbecue and start the inquests. Dave and I shot off to Asda for some grub, but were dragged kicking and screaming into the pub by Dirk, Paul, Chris, Vince & Tom and forced to drink cold beer before returning . Sitting round with a beer later in the evening spirits soon started to rise in anticipation of the day ahead. Tales and jokes were told, beer cans exploded on barbecues and Dave came up with one of those ideas that only he can. Needless to say it scared the life out of John Bennett , but that's all that can be said for the time being . Gradually folk drifted off to bed, and it was gone 1am when I finally climbed into my sleeping bag for some much needed sleep .

Sunday, July 27, 2008.

7am Sunday morning and another bright sunny day greeted us as we rose from our slumbers, I boiled up the kettle for a cuppa while Gaz and Alex got the barbecue fired up to cook everyone breakfast . Time to get the bivvy packed away as it was planned to be a 10am draw with fishing from 11·30am - 4·30pm so that people could get away. After a couple of sausage rolls and a coffee I somehow managed to get the bivvy and all the kit packed away and into the car just as Keith(Fisherman's Blues)Arthur pulled into the car park closely followed by Pete Archer. For the 2nd year running they had both agreed to come down and fish with us on the Sunday(Pairing up with the lowest placed pair from Saturday) and Pete once again brought some goodies from his sponsors Vespe to give out .

All to soon 10am rolled round and it was draw time. Peg 32 for me.........

.......and another short walk to the car park bank peg that Malc fished yesterday. Clive drew well with Peg 8 but had Pete Archer for company on peg 7.

Paul my partner was on peg 23, a peg Colin struggled on yesterday. I'd got Chris(looney)Kendall for company on peg 31 with Terry(WilyCoyote)Goff opposite on 9 and Alex and Webbo on 10 & 11. A quick chat with John Bennett led to me choosing the end of the bush and out at 8mtrs as the 2 lines of attack for the day. It was double or quits for the £1's I won from Alex and Chin yesterday and the chance to get my £1 back from Vince that he took from me yesterday .

11·30am and at the All-in I fed a handful of pellet to the end of the bush and a big pot of pellet at 8mtrs. Straight over the potfull with an 8mm banded pellet and the float buried!!!! Happy Days NOT as a foul hooked Carp took off at a rate of knots towards the Little Lake before the hook pulled. So started one of the most frustrating 5 hours fishing I've experienced in all the time I've fished at Rolf's .
Pete Archer was off to a flyer , fishing shallow at 16mtrs he'd taken 3 weigher's in his first 3 put ins. Chris next to me was fishing long on the deck and soon had a swim that was bubbling away, but he started to suffer with foul hooked fish. Me? 3 more bites resulted in 3 more foul hookers and no fish in the net .
Terry was starting to find a few fish and seemed to be alternating between Carp and 2" Perch ...........

While Webbo appeared to be doing a serene impression of Bhudda  ..................

I finally managed a weigher to get me off and running, but I was already trying to play catch up. Dave"Yorkie"Moore was tucked away on peg 5 and starting to find a few close in at the bottom of the shelf ...................

opposite him though things appeared to be slow with Vince and Paul(nomorelongwalks)East struggling to get any action from their pegs .............

Halfway through and I was struggling with just 1 more weigher and another in the net while Chris was starting to put a run of fish together, Clive was getting into his stride on peg 8 as well and had probably edged ahead of Pete Archer .........

Looking around I could see that a lot were struggling like yesterday, Dave the Fish was sticking at it over on 14 with little to show for all of his efforts ........

but Webbo finally had a fish on only to have his landing net head fall off. Alex lent him his landing net, but then hooked a fish of his own while Webbo was still playing his, and Terry could't lend his to Alex as he was also into a fish of his own. Great entertainment for all of us watching and finally resolved with all fish landed safely .
Steve B over on peg34 in the corner was plugging away and finally getting a few .........

Keith Arthur had taken a Carp that would prove to be a contender for Largest of the Day at 17lbs 07ozs, while Dave(rockyroads)West had a happy smile on his face having bagged a PB carp of 17lbs 04ozs ....................

In the last couple of hours Chris(looney)Kendall was absolutely flying and well on the way to a Ton+ bag ...........

Chris(Cybermanc) and Tom(tommodiesel) had been having a rare old tussle during the match on pegs 29 & 30, and Chris was more than a little chuffed to get a new PB in the shape of this glorious 14lbs 4oz Common Carp  .........

My day was summed up with a half hour to go as what would have been my 7th Carp disappeared under my platform and smashed me . 4·30pm and the All-out signaled the end of my torture and at least I didn't have far to carry my gear to the car.

Once again the weigh-in told the tale of the day. Steve B missing out on a Ton by just 8ozs from peg 34. Dave Moore's 101½lbs giving him 4th on the day while Pete Archer's 116½lbs took 3rd place. Clive had come good, using his experience of Rolf's to muster 166¼ lbs for the match win  while Terry had managed a very creditable 90¾lbs. Chris had managed 148lbs for 2nd overall on the day, but for many the shock of the day had to be Malc's DNW .

So prize giving time and the Winners and MD's Pairs Champs for 2008 proved to be Ant(antwood)Haywood and Tom(tommodiesel)Little, finishing 10 points clear of the field with 49 points after a very consistent weekends fishing  .............

Thanks must go to John & Pauline Bennett for allowing us the use of their fishery for the weekend, a pleasure to visit as always .

To Webbo for making sure it all happened , Keith Arthur, Pete Archer and Vespe .

 Finally to all of the anglers that attended and helped to make it the event it is .
Let's do it all again next year .

  Dave"Yorkie"Moore's Birthday Bash.

Well 24 of us assembled at Rolf's Lake at Dave Moore's invitation to help him celebrate his 40th Birthday .
An early start so that I could drop Maria off at work meant that my favorite Café in Battersea hadn't opened by the time I got there , but rather than wait for it to open I pressed on reasoning that if I arrived early it would give me a chance to get my bivvy set up in preparation for the weekend, ahead of the draw for the morning match . A couple of burgers and a coffee on route sufficed and saw me arrive at Rolf's by 7·30 am. A good few of the lads from the North had traveled down the previous afternoon and were already buzzing with anticipation, as quite a few of them had never visited before.
So 1st things 1st, nets dipped and laid out to dry, then bivvy pitched and with Dai providing a welcoming cup of coffee I had time for a brief chat with John Bennett before the draw. John had been a busy chap since my last visit and it was good to see that he'd managed to finish the refurbishment of the hut..........

Pride of place however went to the Rolf's Memorial Bench paid for and provided by the members of the total-fishing.com forums, that John's sited looking out over the Little Lake, one of Rolf's favorite views. A great gesture from a really decent bunch of lads .

So with an 8am draw planned for the days 2 matches, the car park soon filled up, though as Dave had asked Malc to organise the draw it was bound to be late of course, even though he'd arrived the day before . Anyway by the time Malc had finished embarrassing  Simon and Gemma , the draw got underway, with everyone going round twice to draw for both matches. I ended up with peg 40 for the morning and 19 for the afternoon. Opposite ends of the lake !!!!!!!!! and definitely a barrow job.
For company on peg 2 I had Mr Maggotdrowning himself, Dave(Webbo)Webster.
It's quite rare for matches to start so early at Rolf's and the general feeling was that the morning could prove difficult, with hopefully better weights coming on the afternoon match. Arriving at the peg I found a Party Bag, thoughtfully provided at Dave's wife's insistence which straight away set the tone for the day ahead .

With the sun shining and a gentle breeze blowing into the peg I was quite hopeful of a few fish to kick the long weekend off and opted to keep things simple, just 2 pole rigs, the 1st to fish at depth at 6mtrs and a margin rig to fish the bush to my left, that would double up as an up in the water rig. I also set up the pellet waggler and my feeder rod as I had them both with me in their ready sleeves. A quick stroll before the off revealed Gemma on peg 7 with just a feeder rod set up, could another Minxing be in the offing ?..........

Clive was tucked round the corner on peg 9, a peg that in the past has been his Nemesis as he'd blanked on it the 3 times he'd previously draw there .

Looking across to the hut I could see the Birthday Boy  himself chilling out with his thoughts prior to the off................

So All-in and a big handful of pellets by the bush to my left (it wasn't hiding from me, unlike the last time Clive fished the peg ) and 2 similar ones at 6mtrs and straight over it, but no instant action. However Gemma was soon shouting signifying her 1st fish of the day (could this mean that another Minxing was on the cards ) and Paul Roberts was off to a quick start as well on peg 4.................

Dave was fishing long and shallow on peg 2 but having no joy, and I had just had a single steamer that resulted in a scale coming back on the hook .
Dave the Fish having had a quiet start, had come down to compare notes with Colin after about an hour and a half...........

and the word was that Clive was actually going well on peg 9 while most were struggling . Tony(Teepee) had drawn peg34 which is normally good for a few fish, but like most he was finding it hard going this morning.....

With nothing much happening for me on the Little Lake I decided to fill it in on the 6mtr line and have a stroll round while it settled.
Clive was indeed having a decent time on peg 9 and although he was having a lot of foul-hookers he was managing to get most of them out...............

Dave Lloyd had managed a couple from peg 19, my peg for the afternoon, so I made a mental note of where he was feeding and filed it away for later use . Next door on peg 20 I found Eric(ejayar) having his 1st visit to Rolf's for a while as he hasn't fished The Jinx Series this year, and it wasn't going well for him (maybe it had something to do with his taste in football shirts ).................

Meanwhile Dai on peg 22 was having a grueller too and was beginning to wonder whether he was going to get as much as a bite, let alone a fish as it was proving to be a real struggle ............

While Steve Wilson had managed a decent Carp that weighed in at 16lbs 4ozs putting him in pole for the mornings largest Carp ..........

Malc was winkling a couple out on peg 28, but Simon was obviously worried that he was on for a Minxing and had decided to distract Gemma .........

Returning to my swim I could see that Dave was still sticking at it on peg 2, still without any reward though ...............

 

Settling down I shipped back out to 6mtrs where there was now a healthy patch of bubbles, and I was soon rewarded with a weigher to get me off the mark at last , which was swiftly followed by a net fish. Cyber and Tommo arrived at this point and must have thought that it was o so easy, and although it wasn't, I managed a fish about every 20 minutes till the end .
So with the All-out called I got busy and quickly shifted my kit the length of the fishery up to peg 19 prior to the weigh in. Come the weigh-in and my 7 fish scaled 60lbs and proved to be enough for a section win . Gemma despite having got off to a flyer had only managed 46lbs for 2nd in section, losing her £1 to me as I avoided a Minxing .
Clive had managed the only Ton of the match with his 139¼lbs giving him the match win and firmly burying his peg 9 hoodoo . On the next peg Mick King had taken 62lbs for 3rd overall, while up on peg 16, 3 late Carp had allowed Simon to take 2nd place with 75½lbs. Dave Lloyd on peg 19 had managed a section winning 35lbs, while Dai had managed to snare a solitary Skimmer and took the prize for largest Silver and on peg 28 Malc had managed to win the final section with 55½lbs .

So time for a quick drink and a sandwich and it was onto the 2nd match of the day. Starting at 4pm, it had started to cloud over and I had Clive for company on peg 20, a peg he'd been eager to fish as it's one of the few he'd never fished before . I was pretty relaxed having decided to concentrate on the bar at around 7mtrs that Dave Lloyd had fed in the morning match.

So All-in and out to the bar with some pellets followed by the rig and within 5 minutes I had my first Carp of the session in the net . Clive was fishing at a similar distance and had plenty of fish fizzing in his swim but was having trouble getting bites while I was nicking a fish around every 15 minutes, Then when he did get one it wasn't staying on the hook .
All through the afternoon more of the lads that were fishing the MD's weekend turned up and as they strolled round watching word came back that Simon was really bagging up on peg 2 and Paul was going well from Clive's morning peg . Malc of course had one of his moments leaping in at one point to retrieve his landing net head complete with Carp that came off as he tried to land it !!!!!!!!!
Clive and I both had loads of trouble with foul hookers during the match , with both of us playing the same fish on more than one occasion as they ploughed through our swims, needless to say Clive pulled out of all of them . I had one snag me by the boat that's moored in the swim, and with a few of the lads watching I climbed into it to try and retrieve the rig. Of course the mooring rope came free much to the watching lads amusement and while I managed to get the rig back the assembled company had a right good laugh at my expense .
That was the highlight I suppose, and I just fished steadily after that taking a dozen fish by the time the All-out was called at 8pm. The Lake had certainly fished better than the morning, with Simon taking the win with an excellent 204½lbs (his best ever match weight), which is some going in 4 hours . Paul Roberts with 159¼lbs and Steve Wilson with 151½lbs taking 2nd and 3rd . Dave(Webbo) managed his 1st ever Ton in a match with 132½lbs , as did young Mitch...........

............ who had fished the afternoon match in place of Dai putting 122½lbs on the scales from peg34 to win his section , while Malc and Tony(teepee) took the other sections with bags of 146¼lbs & 137½lbs respectively . My weight of 117lbs was the final Ton of the match. Mick King just missing out on a Ton by 4ozs but was probably most relieved that his £3000 worth of Airity pole had survived the day in one piece (mind you he fished the feeder down the edge for most of the 2nd match, playing safe) .

So with the fishing out of the way for the day the pools were distributed amongst the winners as some of Big Dave's lads were returning North that night. Then the barbecue got fired up and the beers cracked open as everyone relaxed and discussed the days events and looked forward to the weekend ahead .
Of course someone had to provide the amusement as the day drew to a close, and on this occasion it was Malc who decided to remove all the tent pegs from the tent that Simon and Gemma had retired to for the evening. It's amazing how quickly an erection can collapse, at least I think that's what Malc said before we headed to our bivvies in anticipation of the matches that lay ahead, but that's for another report .

		Morning Match
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	9	Clive Pritchard	139lbs 04ozs
2nd	16	Simon Mound	75lbs 08ozs
3rd	10	Mick King	62lbs 00ozs
4th	40	Peter Morton	60lbs 00ozs
5th	28	Malc Doyle	55lbs 08ozs
6th	7	Gemma Doyle	46lbs 00ozs
7th	26	Steve Wilson	35lbs 04ozs
8th	19	Dave Lloyd	35lbs 00ozs
9th	30	Terry Oaks	29lbs 08ozs
10th	4	Paul Roberts	24lbs 12ozs
11th	5	Keith Fisher	18lbs 12ozs
12th	34	Tony Prentice	18lbs 00ozs
13th	20	Eric Robothan	16lbs 00ozs
14th	38	Ken Leedham	13lbs 12ozs
15th	2	Dave Webster	13lbs 08ozs
16th=	14	Phil Shackleton	13lbs 00ozs
16th=	24	Dave Collier	13lbs 00ozs
18th	36	Colin Sharrard	12lbs 04ozs
19th	11	Geoff Eggison	9lbs 08ozs
20th	8	Jim Leedham	8lbs 00ozs
21st	23	Robin Clarkson	5lbs 00ozs
22nd	32	Dave Moore	4lbs 04ozs
23rd	22	Dai Thomas	1lb  04ozs
24th	18	Nick Williams	1lb 3½ozs
25th	13	Tim Westmoreland	DNW

		Evening Match
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	2	Simon Mound	204lbs 08ozs
2nd	9	Paul Roberts	159lbs 04ozs
3rd	4	Steve Wilson	151lbs 08ozs
4th	16	Malc Doyle	146lbs 04ozs
5th	26	Tony Prentice	137lbs 08ozs
6th	11	Dave Webster	132lbs 08ozs
7th	34	Mitch Auger	122lbs 08ozs
8th	18	Colin Sharrard	121lbs 12ozs
9th	19	Peter Morton	117lbs 00ozs
10th	28	Mick King	99lbs 12ozs
11th	7	Terry Oaks	84lbs 08ozs
12th	36	Phil Shackleton	79lbs 12ozs
13th	24	Eric Robothan	72lbs 12ozs
14th	22	Dave Lloyd	70lbs 08ozs
15th	40	Dave Moore	70lbs 00ozs
16th	5	Geoff Eggison	68lbs 12ozs
17th	13	Nick Williams	67lbs 00ozs
18th	32	Dave Collier	64lbs 08ozs
19th	14	Keith Fisher	54lbs 08ozs
20th	20	Clive Pritchard	53lbs 00ozs
21st	30	Ken Leedham	38lbs 08ozs
22nd	10	Gemma Doyle	34lbs 00ozs
23rd	38	Jim Leedham	24lbs 00ozs
24th	23	Robin Clarkson	21lbs 04ozs
25th	8	Tim Westmoreland	15lbs 04ozs

 

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Championship 2008.

Sunshine and a bit of a breeze greeted me today as I loaded up the car for the trip down To Hartleylands Farm for the Maggotdrowning.com Southern Individual Championship match.
First port of call was the Knoxbridge Café for a spot of breakfast with a few of the lads that were fishing the match. The best part of the Maggotdrowning matches are that they're not taken to seriously and there's always some decent banter amongst the lads irrespective of whether the fishing proves to be good or not. So having fueled the inner man we made out way down to the fishery for the match .

Into the car park where 19 anglers assembled for the draw. The match this year had been organised by Nick Gilbert, and as usual with Nick's matches Matt Love gave him a hand conducting the draw. So money paid and into the bag and I find I've drawn peg 1, a decent peg normally and one that I had won the corresponding match from back in 2004 . However today I'd fancied a draw in the early teens as with the wind blowing into them I thought that's where the fish would be. Never mind though, at least it was a short walk from the car so no barrow needed.

Settling into the peg I noticed that the fishery staff had pruned the willow quite heavily making it easier to feed and fish under it, but would it produce without the wind blowing into it? I set up the pellet wag and feeder + 3 top kits for the pole. 1 for the margins. 1 for 5mtrs where I had 5ft of water and another for 7mtrs where I had 8ft of water, Bait for the day was pellet, both hard and expander, paste and sweetcorn and the feed was 4 & 6mm pellet and hemp.

11am and the all-in and I fed pellet and hemp into both margins and pellet onto the 5mtr line and followed it with the rig baited with pellet. Matt Love on peg 10 was into a Carp straight away on the waggler swiftly followed by another, as was Dean Lockwood to my left on peg 2 as he had an early look on his margin swim.........

Nick Gilbert had been into fish almost straight away, but had trouble landing them losing the first 4 Carp that he hooked. Me? I couldn't even buy a bite. 2½hrs in and I still didn't have a fish in the net, just a large scale on my sidetray where I'd lost a foul-hooker .

Trevor on peg 7 having heard of the Reservoir's large head of silvers had decided to target them as it's the sort of fishing he enjoys , however they didn't seem to want to play today............

Terry up on peg 13 however had had a fowl (alright a duck actually ) but had safely managed to catch and release it.

Finally I managed a fish, only a small Skimmer from my 7mtr line, but at least I would avoid a dreaded DNW , and more importantly kept me in with a chance of not having to part with £1 to Vince, who seemed to be struggling almost as badly as me though he had owned up to a couple of Skimmers earlier.

Looking straight across I could see Bill on peg 15..........

.......... he was having one of those days we all dream of , with the fish lined up at 4 mtrs and apparently ravenous for his paste bait, resulting in a bite every put in, and he was obviously going to take all the stopping.

Indeed poor Tony Roberts next to him on peg 16 was finding it hard to concentrate on his own fishing and seemed to have resigned himself to a next peg battering of epic proportions.........

......... steadily putting fish in the net, a good performance considering that he'd come straight from work the previous night.

For the rest of the match I struggled on, managing 6 Carp and a few more Skimmers, all from my 7mtr line which was the only place I could get a bite, and to be honest I was glad to hear the whistle blow at 4pm signal the all-out and put an end to my struggles .

So to the weigh-in and Paul soon took the lead putting 91lbs 7ozs onto the scales, but this was soon eclipsed when Bill put a match winning 156lbs on the scales which was also a new PB match weight. Well Done Bill .
Round to peg 10 and Matt Love put 105lbs 11ozs on the scales to seal 2nd place on the day .
My meager total scaled 23lbs, but was enough to take Vince's £1 coin , though Vince had been close till he lost an estimated 15lb'er near the end, unlucky Vince .

So that was it for the day. Congratulations to Bill G, The Maggotdrowning Southern Individual Champion 2008 .
Thanks to Nick for organising the day, and to all the anglers that attended. We'll have to do it all again next year .

 The JINX Series 2008

Match 3.

Back down to Rolf's Lake today for the 3rd match of THE JINX SERIES, and after my second place and a new PB match weight on my last visit to Rolf's 2 weeks ago on a TalkAngling forum match I was really looking forward to this one .
Loading up the car it was quite sunny, but a stiff breeze was blowing plenty of cloud about and the forecast wasn't the best and when I reached the M40 after my customary Brekkie stop the heavens opened . Thankfully it had stopped by the time I reached the services at junction 8 and as I was running early I stopped off for a coffee where I found Kevin and Jean having breakfast.
We soon arrived at the lake and John was just opening the gate so we were soon parked up and got our nets dipped in readiness for the day ahead.

Soon the usual suspects started to turn up. John (Hatchye) stoically taking plenty of stick that he knew was coming his way over his lost (not) car keys on the previous match . Dave(The Fish) was on tenterhooks as his daughter was expecting his 1st grandchildren (twins) and Mark C was missing as his 1st grandchild had arrived early that morning . However it also appeared that Simon And Gem were loved up again and all touchy feely, with Malc threatening to pour a bucket of water over the pair of them .

The previous night Simon and I had discussed where we fancied drawing and I said that as I'd never drawn between pegs 2-8 I'd love one of them, so into the draw and out popped peg 7 for me . A quick chat with John who said it was an out and out feeder peg at the moment put me right. So gear loaded onto the barrow and round to the peg.

For company I had Colin on peg 8 and Slim on Peg 6 . John had told me that it was possible to catch short on the pole if the feeder didn't produce, but I decided to be single minded and just set the feeder up. The rod I use is a Shakespeare Mach3 11ft medium feeder that I've paired with a Shimano Stradic and although a couple of people have remarked that they feel it's not up to the job I find it spot on. It's got a lovely through action which coupled to the clutch on the Stradic I finds eliminates the risk of hook pulls at the net .
Bait for the session was simply dampened 6mm fishery pellets with a good helping of hemp added to put through the feeder and 8mm fishery pellet and punched meat for the hook.

Of course having just the one rod to set up, and that was in a ready sleeve, I had a fair bit of time on my hands to take a few of the photos that I use to illustrate these reports on my blog, but while i was looking for subjects Clive caught me with his camera .................

1pm and the all-in, out with the feeder and the tip pulled round as I tightened up and the resulting Carp was safely in the net before Slim had even cupped his first pot of feed onto his pole line .
Kevin was soon off the mark with a 14lb weigher from peg 34, followed by Colin who also snared an early one on the feeder .

A couple of hours in and Kev's match took a turn for the worse when The Jinx struck as a Carp ripped his rod off of the rest and dragged it out to the pads before he could retrieve it . However Malc was on hand and was soon stripped and in.........

but although he found a few mangled top kits amongst the pads there was no sign of Kevin's rod . I'd had a steady start, though I did experience a lull for around half an hour after Malc's bath, while a concerned Slim finally managed his 1st fish, a Skimmer and that was soon followed by a cracking Perch .........

Colin had a lovely Chub on the feeder that was a new PB for him at 5lbs 8ozs ..........

From my peg I could see up the car park bank on the big lake and there seemed to be a few fish being landed, especially by Tony who seemed to have a fair bit of elastic out at frequent intervals .

As the match wore on I just managed to keep up a steady catch rate and the little lake seemed to wake up for a few of the lads. Dave had a few from down the edge of his peg as did Simon.........

Slim finally managed to get amongst a few, but it was to little to late to enable him to notch up a third double ton in a row..........

Meanwhile Colin decided that as he couldn't match my catch rate on the feeder he would have a look on the pole down by the bush to his left, and although it produced a few fish for him, he had a pretty frustrating time as he lost a fair few as well .

 One of the funniest tales of the day went to Clive on peg 40.........

.......who having fed to the bush on his left at peg 40 during the match, finally went to fish to it, only to find that it had vanished !!!!!!!! The wind being so strong that It had blown it back onto the bank .

With around an hour to go I had 4 weighers on the board and around 10 fish in each of my two nets, so put a third net in, just to avoid crowding the fish that were already in the nets, and by the time the all-out came at 6pm I'd added another five in that net and a weigher to the board . I was pretty confident that I'd beaten everyone that I could see, but felt that Tony could be in contention as I'd seen him catching well up on the car park bank during the match.

So off with the scales, and Clive put the 1st ton on the scales and left him wondering what he could have had if his bush hadn't hidden during the match . With nobody overtaking Clive the scales reached my peg, I nervously watched as the scales gave me a total of 186lbs, and another new PB match weight . Colin also managed to top the ton and we moved on to Nick W-P. Now Nick is a confirmed pleasure angler who only fishes the Jinx matches, and we've all been encouraging him to try and break the ton. Unfortunately he hadn't managed it this time, but his weight of 64lbs 14ozs was a new PB match weight for him so he's getting there . Malc had managed yet another Jinx Ton and we finally came to the car park bank. Gem on 22 had one of her quieter days (Other things on her mind ) and a £1 coin came my way, though she still managed to hand out 7 Minxings. Dai on 23 looked shattered and 129¼lbs was the reason why, his PB match weight and 1st Jinx Ton. Next up Steve finally after 7 years of trying registered 128½lbs for his 1st Jinx Ton. Roy, who seems to have a season ticket for the car park bank weighed 126lbs. Then we came to Tony who with 70lbs+ in weighers on the board was going to run me close. Luckily for me he came up a little short, having to settle for 170lbs, still a great days fishing though. A final mention for young Mitch who was last to weigh-in. It's his 1st season fishing The Jinx Series and he dearly wants a Ton, and has improved his weights on all 3 matches, today it was not to be, but I'm sure he'll get there if he just sticks at it .  

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 7	Peter Morton	186lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 30	Tony Roberts	170lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 23	Dai Thomas	129lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 24	Steve Wilson	128lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 28	Roy Ravenhill	126lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 16	Malc Doyle	107lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 40	Clive Pritchard	106lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 8	Colin Sharrard	102lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 38	Dave Collier	87lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 6	Ade Williams	85lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 36	Simon Mound	84lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 32	Mitch Auger	83lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 2	Ant Haywood	69lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 22	Gemma Doyle	67lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 9	Nick Watkins-Price	64lbs 14ozs
16th	Peg 14	Nick Williams	55lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 18	Jon Hatch	50lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 26	Paul Roberts	49lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 4	Keith Fellows	47lbs 04ozs
20th	Peg 13	Dave Moore	35lbs 00ozs
21st	Peg 34	Kevin Loveland	14lbs 00ozs

So that's it but I'll be back at Rolf's on Friday 25th July for 3 days. The Friday is Dave Moore's 40th Birthday Bash and the Saturday and Sunday is the Maggotdrowning Pairs Championship which I won last year with Tony Roberts. It promises to be great fun and of course a report will be forth coming, but before that there's the MD's Southern Championship at Hartleylands and a Marsh AC match at Churchgate Lakes. I'll keep you posted .
 

 

TalkAngling.co.uk Forum Match.

I was lucky enough to get my name down for this match when it was posted on the TalkAngling forum back in January by Ian Hornby as i really enjoy visiting Rolf's whenever I get the chance.

Pulling back the curtains a grey day with rain greeted me, and to think that today was the longest day !!!!!! Anyway car loaded in good time along with the waterproofs and off. With my usual stop in Battersea for a spot of brekkie I made good time with a trouble free trip down, pulling into the car park at around 8·30am. There were a few of the usual faces from the lads that fish The Jinx Series there, though Malc who should have been fishing was a noteable absentee due to the fact that yet again his car had expired on the roadside the previous day , but it was good to catch up with the TalkAngling lads, some of whom I'd met previously and some who were new faces. It was also good to see that not only was the lake back down to something like it's usual level with all the platforms above water, but the colour had returned to somethind approaching its normal hue after the flooding of a couple of weeks ago.

9am and draw time. Into the bag and peg 24 appeared in my hand !!! A bonus for me as it's on the car park bank, somewhere I rarely get a sniff of and it has a bit of form. No barrow today, just a nice short walk. With a grey cloudy sky and rain still falling it looked like it would be a bit of a grueller, especially as we were fishing from 11am - 4pm which is earlier than most of the summer matches at Rolf's that are normally fished from 2pm - 7pm as the Carp don't seem to get their heads down till around 3pm.

The JINX Series 2008

Match 2.

Sunshine greeted me as I loaded the car up for the trip to Rolf's for the second match in the JINX SERIES. With plenty of time I was able to make my usual stop for Breakfast in Battersea.
While I was there I phoned Malc to find out the state of the fishery as I knew he'd been there since the previous day with Dai, Mitch & Gemma helping John after the flash floods that had hit the area on Wednesday. Telling me that the lake was high but fishable, he then passed on some information that Nick Williams was threatening to fish in his underpants if the lake was too flooded, suffice to say that it nearly put me off my breakfast . However wiping the image from my mind that Malc had described I managed to polish off breakfast and carry on.

Pulling into the fishery car park at around 10·30am people were already arriving for the 11am draw. A chat with John revealed that at it's height the lake had been within 2 inches of overflowing into the car park. With 2 pumps running the effort that John & Pauline had put in along with his helpers had once again got it to a fishable state even if it was still at least 3 feet above normal.

Mind you just how the lake would fish on the day was open to debate though John felt that the huge influx of water into the lake and the fact that some of the fish were still spawning would lead to a hard match.

Inevitably the draw was delayed as Malc sorted out which pegs were fishable, but it wouldn't be a JINX match if it ran smoothly would it !!!!!!!!!

Into the draw-bag and peg 14 stuck to my hand, quite a shock as I always seem to draw on the little lake. Loading up my barrow I set off round the lake and seeing everyone setting up so far up the bank was a bit strange.............

Anyway after lugging all my gear round I found that I had got Mitch to my right on 13 and Neo to my left on 15.....

.....along with Clive on 16 for company today. A quick chat with Clive who spends a fair bit of time at Rolf's reveals I'd got the end of the bar at around 20yds straight out, so I set up the pellet wag and feeder and plumb up a pole line at around 6mtrs where I could feed by hand to fish pellet and paste, though I also had sweetcorn and meat as change baits. Feed was the fisheries 6mm pellets and hemp.

So 1·30 and the all in, 2 big handfuls of pellet and hemp onto the 6mtr line and a pouch of pellet out to the bar followed by the pellet wag, and straight away it buries, softly softly into the net, a nice Common Carp around 6lbs , another pouch of a dozen pellets, into the keepnet with the fish, another dozen pellets followed by the wag which buries again and another Common joins its pal in the net . Well it slowed a bit after that, it seemed that there were a ton of silvers pecking at the pellet and I did connect with a couple of Skimmers, I tried upping the feed but that just turned it into a jacuzzi . I kept altering the depth and managed another 3 Carp, but in all honesty I wasted far to much time trying to make it work . With the swim still fizzing I went out with the feeder onto the bar, but had only had a couple of half hearted taps after about 20 minutes when the rod was ripped off the rest!!!!! This was a big old lump and it just plodded around stubbornly refusing to get its head up. Slowly I gained ground on it and it finally popped to the top, a bleedin great Common, it was certainly the largest fish I've ever hooked at Rolf's, but just as I reached for the net it rolled on the line which parted like cotton.

Now at that point I should have changed my approach as the lads on the car park bank had all started to catch, but I re-tackled and went back out on the feeder and wasted another 40 biteless minutes .

Out onto the 6mtr line that I'd been feeding regularly and 1st put in the float buried resulting in Carp number 6 in the net, then a couple of foul hookers that I parted company with followed.

Roy over on peg 28 was starting to motor taking decent fish regularly...........


Paul on 24 also seemed to be over his Rolf's block, and having got his Ton in the previous match was motoring on towards another ............


While Dave Collier on peg 30 was also romping along after a slow start to the match ..........


I'd blown it after letting my frustration get the better of me and chopping and changing rather than sticking at one approach. With an hour to go I picked up the shallow rig with a banded pellet, shipped out to 13mtrs and just kept firing hemp & pellet at it and had my best hour of the match with another 7 Carp including a weigher that I mugged as the all out was called  ..........

It was to little to late though as I knew in my heart of hearts that I didn't have enough in the net to compete on the day.
The scales told the tale of the day however with their slow progress round the lake. Kevin Loveland had drawn the same peg as his previous match where he'd had a mare, however today he'd managed 136½lbs, to record his 1st ever match TON . Paul had broken the 150lb barrier and Roy put 177lbs on the scales which would only be good enough for 3rd on the day !!!!!!

Meanwhile down on peg 40 Ade Williams (Slim Shady) following up from his DOUBLE TON on the 1st match had managed a 2nd successive DOUBLE TON.........

 but had still been beaten by Simon, fishing his 1st JINX match of the year he had a battle with Ade throughout the whole match............

.......Finally coming out on top with an excellent 221¾lb, a great performance on the day .

My weight? 92½lb only good enough for 15th on the day, though I did have one small consolation in that at least I managed to get my £1 back from Gemma and avoid a Minxing. .

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 2	Simon Mound	221lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 40	Ade Williams	206lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 28	Roy Ravenhill	177lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 32	Malc Doyle	154lbs 12ozs
5th	Peg 24	Paul Roberts	150lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 22	Kevin Loveland	136lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 30	Dave Collier	128lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 35	Mark Causer	126lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 34	Keith Fellows	122lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 16	Clive Prithard	121lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 9	Colin Sharrard	118lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 6	Tony Roberts	112lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 7	Jon Hatch	110lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 15	Nick Williams	100lbs 12ozs
15th	Peg 14	Peter Morton	92lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 4	Dai Thomas	69lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 13	Mitch Auger	69lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 23	Ant Haywood	68lbs 04ozs
19th	Peg 37	Dave Moore	61lbs 00ozs
20th	Peg 8	Tim Westmoreland       (Guest)	48lbs 04ozs
21st	Peg 38	Gemma Doyle	23lbs 00ozs

Maggotdrowning.com

 European Tour 2008.

Monday 5th.

Well, we all assembled at Luton Airport around 11am for our Ryanair flight to Reus Airport.
As fine a body of men as has ever been assembled for a Maggotdrowning quest to catch some fish. Along with myself were Dave, Stu, Trogg, Beebs, Norm & Jason (NoFinPhish).
At the check-in all went smoothly till Stu stuck his case on the scales!!!! some hasty repacking soon took care of that little hiccup though and we had time for a couple of pints prior to departure, though Dave did require counseling for shock after being told the price.

Onto the plane and the usual scramble for seats that's common with these flights, for the short 1 hour 45 minute flight and in seemingly no time at all we were landing at Reus Airport. The baggage handlers certainly weren't British, because as soon as we reached Arrivals the bags were already on the carousel!!!!! While Dave & Stu went to sort out the hire car the rest of us strolled outside to find Pat who would be taking us down to Caspe in his Espace which is around a 2 hour drive away in the Arragon region.

A pretty uneventful trip ensued, with Pat filling us in about the area while Norm monitored the temperature on the Espace's digital thermometer . We finally arrived in Caspe just after 5pm and met up at the apartment with Gary(catman)Sheridan the owner of www.carpdreamfishing.com who was to be our guide for the trip. No way Caspe could be described as a tourist town, it's very much a typical provincial one. He showed us up to the 3rd floor apartment that was to be our base for the next few days and arranged to pick us all up at 8am the next morning.

View from our apartment balcony.

Beds sorted and gear unpacked a quick trip to the local supermarket soon took care of essential supplies (Beer and Wine ). After a few beers we set off in search of the local Chinese and finally found it, and very good it was too. A few more beers before finally returning to the apartment for a few more drinks , saw most of us drifting off to bed at various stages in preparation for the day ahead.

Tuesday 6th.

Most of us surfaced in good time for the day ahead, though Beebs & Jason did seem a little subdued, and Norm seemed to think that I may have snored occasionally during the night. Gary arrived right on time and we set off for his house to collect one of the boats, bait and tackle before traveling down to the Club Nautica to launch the boats from the slipway.

With the kit divided between 2 boats, Dave volunteered his services to skipper one of them, and the more sensible of us (Me. Stu & Trogg) elected to go with Gary.

Soon we were off turning right out of the Club Nautica and on to the main body of The River Ebro. The sheer scale of the river is quite breathtaking and it's soon obvious that without a guide, it would be almost impossible to know where to start. On the way Gary explained to us how he made use of his Hummingbird fish finder and gave us a bit of a run down on his approach to things.

Gary at the helm.

The Catfish tackle was essentially 10ft up-tide boat rods with either Multiplier or Big Pit Fixed Spool reels loaded with heavy braid and shock leaders carrying a single LARGE hook that appeared to be a circle patten with the bait (20mm drilled halibut pellets) fished on a hair. The weights were rocks from the surrounding area fixed onto a sliding swivel by elastic bands that would pull free on the strike, meaning that all the baits had to be boated out and not cast. The feed for the session was a 20kilo bag of pellets per angler that would be fed by hand from the boat once the baits had been placed into position.

So with each of us fishing two rods 14 baits were boated out and fed with pellet, and we settled down besides our rods full of anticipation. Well most of us did, Beebs however was still feeling a shade secondhand especially as he'd slipped on the rocks and cracked his left knee that was still recovering from cruciate surgery and Jason joined him but only succeeded in washing his phone .........

Well the sun beat down, but even with 14 rods and over 100 kilo's of pellet having been fed, not a single bite was forthcoming . Catfish could be seen topping along with Carp, but none appeared to be interested in the baits.

.......... Dave took a more proactive approach and cobbled together a pole of sorts with some line and hooks he'd brought with him ......

However it was no more successful than the other 14 rods.

The view however was spectacular.......

Indeed Gary contacted several of his fellow guides on the way back, but it was soon obvious that nothing was coming out anywhere as both the Cats and Carp appeared to have been on the spawn.

Back at the apartment via the supermarket to top up supplies then a quick SS&S followed by a steak at the local restaurant and a few beers at the local bar, most of us got our heads down earlyish for a fresh start the next day. Norm made me take some of his snore stopping spray before turning in. (It didn't work )

Wednesday 7th.

Another 8am start and as we climbed into the boats Gary told us that we would be heading to a different part of the Ebro up river near to Chacon to a swim where the old river bed comes close to the shore offering the opportunity to present baits in 60 ft of water!!!!! and just to offer a little hope we passed a boat that appeared to be playing a fish, would this prove to be a lucky omen?

On arrival we set up on what appeared to be a shingle beach and with us having more of an idea of what to do Gary was soon boating out the baits and positioning them with the aid of his fish finder.

Soon we were all settled in and keenly anticipating the 1st bite of our trip ..........

Dave even went out with Gary in the boat to check with the fish finder whether or not there were any fish present, There were and Dave even videoed it just to prove it to the rest of us ........

All 81lbs of her, she was then tethered to recover prior to taking some more photos. With a hearty round of congratulations out of the way Jason was soon down to his shorts and into the water despite it not being the warmest and him not being able to swim so we could take some more trophy shots .........

Well after the excitement of the 1st Cat being banked, another rod soon hooped over, and it was Jason's again .......

With the session drawing to a close Trogg's rod was the next to go, alas this wasn't a cat, but a superbly fit River Common that went 16lbs and was very welcome none the less.

Now with time running out and with fish obviously present we were presented with a dilemma, Would we be able to get the swim tomorrow?
This was solved with Trogg volunteering to stay the night at the swim with Gary for company bringing back a bivvy, bed-chair and sleeping bags after ferrying the rest of us back to the Club Nautica and arranging for Pat to bring us back by road the next morning. Well Done Fella.

The trip back was damp to say the least with The Mistral blowing and whipping up the waves meaning that we all got a good soaking on the way back. By the time we got back to the apartment we got a text from Trogg telling us that he'd had a 37lb Common Carp, a new PB.
A meal and a few beers were the order of the day by way of celebration before we turned in full of anticipation for our final days fishing that lay ahead.

Thursday 8th

8am and Pat was waiting for us and after a stop off at Gary's house to collect even more pellets we were off to Chacon by road and after a little bit of confusion soon found the swim. Nothing more had come out over night just a couple of missed runs.The weather was quite overcast however and there was even the possibility of some rain later in the day forcast. Soon we were all set, although Beebs did swop rods with Stu so that he could be nearer to them as his knee was still giving him trouble.

The first bite of the day came to Webbo but with him nearly missing the rod and Stu's phone sounding the Benny Hill ringtone at the same time he still managed to connect only for the fish which appeared to be a Cat from the way it fought, to shed the hook having crossed several of the other lines which led to the tangle brothers performing a rather intricate dance as they sorted it all out........

They're as fit as hell these Ebro Carp, but soon Stu had a 23lb Common to show for his efforts ......

A degree of tension ensued when Stu realised that it was hooked on a Carp rig he'd set up that had a barbless hook however with the fish safely landed the hook was found firmly in the scissors. Weighing in at 82lbs it didn't take Stu to long to get in for the obligatory photo's even if the water was a little cooler than he would have liked.

As we were finishing up the photos Trogg's rod was nearly dragged from it's rest by a bite of savage proportions, the power of which dragged him down the bank towards the water however he soon appeared to have things under control, so much so that someone decided to drag his shorts round his knees while Gary whispered words of encouragement in his ear

Unfortunately however it was not meant to be as with the fish close to shore it shed the hook.

Sitting down and reflecting with Trogg that I may as well frame my rods and display them in the Tate Gallery as a still life, of course i then had a bite!!!!!!!!!! and made a complete hash of it, ending up going almost base over apex and ending on my backside as the fish slipped the hook..........

Talk about a nightmare, 2½ days and I miss my only bite.

Soon however Jason was in again, and this time the result was a Common Carp of 32lbs...........

........ which just left me, Beebs and Norm blanking, and time running out . Of course just to rub it in Dave's rod was soon away again, and this time it was obvious that it wasn't a Carp........

And fortunately because Stu's cat had been retained on a tether we persuaded Stu to get in once more for some brace photo's although Stu's cat didn't seem to keen on the idea as it had rested up and was now fresh as a daisy.

Well with time running out on the session, Gary decided it would be good to get us all together for a group photo, though with 3 of us still blanking, quite how Norm, Beebs and I managed to look so happy will probably always remain a mystery.

Sitting by my rods, it went through my mind just how much inevitable stick I would get from the forum members on my return, but then out of the corner of my eye my left hand rod dipped and I struck and felt a fish!!!!!! Salvation, now I'm not used to multiplier reels and to say that I played that fish nervously is an understatement of huge proportions.

However Gary soon had it safely banked and there it lay, a glorious River Ebro Common Carp that weighed 28lbs, a new PB. Mugger had got a fish at the death, and I think the photo's show just how happy and relieved i was ............

That was the end of the action for the day, unfortunately, leaving Beebs and Norm fishless, not for the want of trying though.
We said our Farewells and Thanks to Gary on the bankside as he had another group of anglers arriving the next morning and Pat was picking us up for the return to the apartment.

Out for another Chinese by way of winding up, we then hit the bar till we got kicked out as the owner wanted to go home, most of us slept like tops when we finally hit the sack.

Friday 9th.

Surfacing at various times during the morning we packed up and straightened up the apartment before popping out to get a few gifts for those back home, it was dull and overcast once more and had obviously rained at sometime during the night. Pat arrived to pick us up and half way back to Reus Airport the heavens opened!!!!!!! The rain in Spain apparently falling mainly on us by the time we arrived at the airport.

A brief delay saw us flying out about half an hour late, but an uneventful flight saw us almost back on time by the time we landed and collected our bags, bid our farewells and set off to our respective homes. Not quite the results we had hoped for, but a brilliant trip all round, and one that I definitely fancy having a go at again in the future.

Conclusions.

A great experience, we only had 3 days fishing and really you need a full week to get to grips with it as it's so different from the way most of us fish in England.
A guide is essential, the water is vast and would be almost impossible to get to grips with without local knowledge.
Be prepared for the cost of bait that you use, Pellets cost us 59 euros per 20 kg sack and you need at least 1 sack for every day that you fish so it can soon mount up.
It would appear that early May could be a time to avoid in case you catch the fish spawning.
Don't expect the locals to speak any English, this is rural Spain and not the Costa's.

If you fancy a crack at this yourself, click on the logo below and contact Gary Sheridan for details of his guided trips. Mention that you were reccomended by the lads from Maggotdrowning.com and you may even find that you get a bit of a discount. 

The JINX Series 2008

Match 1.

Well Today saw the 1st match of this years Jinx Series run by Malc (The Jinx) Doyle at Rolf's Lake. The entire series this year is being fished at Rolf's Lake.
There's 24 lunatics anglers booked in for this years series, all hopeful that some decent weights will be recorded.

One of the nice things about fishing the series is that the matches start around lunchtime and todays plan was for a 10·30am draw and to fish from noon to 5pm. I arrived at the fishery at about 10am to find plenty already in attendance and eager for the start. I have to say at this point that it was great to see that all the effort that John Bennett and his wife Pauline and their team of helpers have put into the venue since he took over from Rolf are beginning to bear fruit, with all the new platforms and a lot of pruning haven taken place since I last visited. I'm sure Rolf will have approved.

The 1st shock was Malc arriving early , but needless to say the draw still didn't take place on time, and with the delay it meant that we would be fishing from 12·30pm to 5·30pm. As usual I had my customary £1 side bet with Gemma (The Minx) and another with Dirk, as Midge Milnes had asked me to get his pound back that Dirk had taken from him on a previous match.

The weather looked half decent, plenty of Carp were showing on top, and there had been some decent weights recorded the day before, so could we be in for a decent day? Well into the draw bag and I found that peg 40 was to be my home for the day.

Now coincidently Clive had fished this peg on the Open the previous Sunday and I had read the details of the day on Clive's Blog so I had at least an idea of how to tackle it . On the Little Lake I had Colin on peg34 (a peg that's really suited to his style of fishing) Ant was on 38 while to my left I had Dai on peg2 for company with Nick Williams over on 4, while the last angler I could see was Dave Collier on peg7. All the rest were pegged on the Big Lake, but hopefully the recent warmer weather meant that the fish would be spreading out from their winter quarters and we would all be in for a few fish today .

I just set up the 2 pole rigs. The 1st a ·4g MW Diamond to fish dead depth (about 5ft) straight out at 11mtrs, though I could come in to 5mtrs with it as the depth was pretty constant and the 2nd a 4X12 KC Carpa Shelf for the margin that I could utilise as an up in the water rig if need be. These were both made up straight through with 0·16 Antares Silk Shock with size 16 Drennan Carp Match hooks. I also had my pellet waggler rod set up as a back up. Feed was about 12 pints of the fishery 4 & 6mm feed pellets with GOT Baits Liver and Catmeat 6 & 11mm soft hookers and their 6mm expanders for hook baits.

12·30pm and at the All-in I cupped 2 big pot-fulls of pellet in on the 11mtr line and a pot down the right hand margin at about 7mtrs. By the time I had baited my rig and shipped out to 11mtrs there was already a fizz of bubbles coming up, After a minute the float vanished and a sharp lift saw me attached to what was obviously a decent Carp . Looking up as I played it I could see both Colin and Ant already netting their first fish of the day. Something just didn't feel right about my fish though and after a couple of minutes everything went slack and the hook came back with a large scale attached to it.

That set the tone for the first couple of hours, with just 3 Carp to show for my efforts and quite a collection of scales on the sidetray, despite swapping depths, baits and varying the amount of feed I was plagued with foul hookers, none of which I managed to land. A couple of looks in the margin proved it to be "Silvers" city and a session with the pellet waggler had resulted in just a solitary foul hooker which of course came off.

Nick had gone onto the feeder and was catching regularly if not particularly quickly. Ant had started to have a look down his margin swim and was starting to bag up. I got up to stretch my legs and decided to heavily feed at 5mtrs to see if I could make them have it. Dai had had a miserable start but was finally getting some action .

I strolled up to see Dave but although he'd had a few including a decent Chub by chucking the feeder across to the far bank, he'd reverted to the pole as he was more comfortable. Rumours were circulating that the Big Lake was fishing well, but rather than investigate I made my way back determined to avoid too bad a battering .

Back out at 5mtrs and there were fish there, but Skimmers and Roach were ragging the bait before the Carp could get a look in . In an attempt to avoid this I decided to fish the 6mm feed pellet banded onto the hook, and this finally seemed to make the difference . In the final 2 hours I got into a decent run of fish, finishing with 17 Carp though only 3 of them were weigher's.

5·30 and the All-out was called with me still playing a fish which proved to be my largest of the day, a 13½lbs Common .
Packing up it was soon obvious that it had fished well (You can always tell by how long it takes for the scales o come round ). Ant was soon leading with an excellent 228¾lbs, 180lbs+ of which was made up of weigher's . My fish came to 142¾lbs, my best weight from Rolf's and pretty satisfying given my frustrating start to the match . Dirk dipped out, just missing a 'Ton' with 94lbs after his fish dried up towards the end of the match, and had to hand over £1 to me .

The 'Tons' kept coming and Paul Roberts could be found wandering around beating himself up, convinced that he had blown yet another chance to get his first ever Rolf's Ton , but the scales put him out of his misery when they revealed a weight of 118½lbs. I'm sure we were all pleased for him and he was soon walking around like a Cheshire Cat .

Gemma also got her Ton with 149lbs adding yet more members of The Minx Club in the process and relieving me of my £1.

Hard luck story of the day has to be Steve Wilson who found a great big hole in one of his keepnets meaning he only weighed 57lbs. Of course we were all full of sympathy.
Star of the day however was Ade Williams aka Slim Shady, who on his first ever Jinx match weighed a mighty 266¾lbs from peg 24 to set a new Jinx Record.

So there it is, Two Double Tons, Nine Tons and a total of 2316lbs of fish put on the scales between 21 anglers which is an incredible average of 110lbs+ per angler.
Have we peaked to early? We'll find out when we're back for Match 2 on June 7th .

"Who would be up for a bash at hawkhurst fish farm on the match lake, if you are interested let me know and i will sort a list out". That was the post that Bill G put up on the Maggotdrowning Forum in the middle of March that led to us arriving for a 20 peg knock-up.

Pulling into the fishery car park at around 7·45am a host of the usual suspects were in attendance along with a couple of 1st timers for what we hoped would be a good day with plenty of fish for everyone. The weather however obviously had other ideas with a dull grey sky and a cold easterly wind promising the threat of rain during the day.

Hawkhurst is primarily a Carp fishery, a fact that's rather given away by the carving of an old tree stump outside the bailiff's office overlooking the fishery................

I can't say that Hawkhurst is my favorite venue in all honesty. The Match Lake is a strip lake with 10 pegs on either side with very few features for most to fish to except the boards down the edge for most, however it does have fish in abundance and is well capable of throwing up lots of 'Ton+' weights of Carp in matches, so it's normally a great confidence booster .

A decent Full English in the on site café and a couple of side bets (£2 with Vince & £1 with Bill) was followed by the draw, which saw me drawing peg 11 at the far end...................

but at least I would have the wind off my back. Vince had drawn the flyer, peg 1 that was black with fish when we arrived while Dave Collier had the other flyer (peg20) opposite him. I had Colin opposite on 10 with Bill G to his left on 9, with Jeff D (on his 1st match with us) to my right on 12.

I set up a couple of top 2's, the 1st around 18" deep to fish tight to the boards on either side and another around 3ft deep to fish at 2mtrs out. These were both 0·14 Antares Silk Shock with size 18 Fox Series 2 hooks with 4X12 KC Carpa Shelf's and I set up another kit using the same line and hook but with a 4X14 Carpa Tricky to fish the 5ft deep 6 mtr line.
Bait was 4mm fishery pellet for feed with 4 & 6mm GOT expanders for the hook, with sweetcorn and GOT paste as alternatives.

10am and the All-in and Jeff on the next peg was straight in having dropped his unbaited rig in to double check it's shotting has a Carp take his bare hook !!!!! I dropped my expander baited 2mtr rig in and the float buried straight away and a nice little Common was soon in the net, Game On .

Or not as it proved . The 1st hour saw me put just 5 fish in the net and from what I could see nobody was exactly taking their peg apart, with Bill suffering a few liners and just a solitary fish in the net ........

Jeff and Jay to my right having a few, but from what I could see smaller fish than mine.
Fishing tight to the boards is normally a banker for a few fish at Hawkhurst but despite keeping a few pellets trickling into both margins I couldn't find a bite there and moved back out to the deeper water at 6mtrs where at least I was picking up the odd fish. Bill had gone walkabout after about an hour and had completed a circuit of the lake by the time he got to me. His report was grim with most struggling , though Dave Collier seemed to be getting a few from peg 20 and to top it all off it started to rain. Kevin's partner Jean however appeared with a very welcome cuppa from the café and with bites few and far between I re-fed all my lines and went for a walk of my own.

Clive down on peg 14 was putting a few together but felt that Paul over on peg 7 was doing a shade better...................

Ryan next door on peg 15 was struggling and pinning his faith on finding a few from the margins.......................

while Matt on 18 had managed a run of fish up in the water but hadn't had a bite for 40 minutes ................

Dave Collier on 20 was indeed putting a few together, he was fishing at 9mtrs to the stump of a cut down tree that had made the peg a real flyer in earlier days ...........

Over on fancied peg 1 Vince was having one of those matches we all dread with just a couple of fish to show for his efforts, while having to watch Dave opposite steadily pull away in terms of fish caught , and Trevor on peg 2 wasn't fairing much better .............

Nick on peg 3 had forgotten about the pole and was fishing the waggler............

with Terry next to him struggling as well. Pete was soldiering on and managing the odd fish from peg 5...........

While Mike Jameson was racking his brains trying to put a few in the net and amazing us all that he hadn't packed up and gone home as he's well known for doing if he isn't enjoying himself ..........

Paul East appeared to be going reasonably well though on peg 7 and a chat with Al next to Bill revealed he was getting bites on banded pellet but having trouble hitting them.
Bill had finally managed to find a couple by fishing corn long at 12 mtrs.

Back at my peg, out came the bait bands and a banded 4mm at 6mtrs soon produced a bite and a 4lb'er in the net. Bill's bites on the corn however appeared to have dried up on him again, though Al was nicking the odd one. Jeff D was catching by swapping lines, though his fish seemed smaller than mine which prompted me to stick to the 6mtr line as my fish still seemed to be of a bigger stamp...........

Jay next to Jeff however seemed to be the only one catching down the margin next to the boards and was also taking some better fish long when he rested the margin line.

Thankfully 4pm saw the all out, and the speed that the scales came round signaled that the lake hadn't produced the expected weights, with Paul East leading the way with a very creditable 69lbs 08ozs from peg 7. My fish came to 43lbs 08ozs which was good enough for 6th on the day and took my 4 peg section . Down to the last peg and it was a question of whether Dave Collier had done enough to edge Paul out of 1st place, but a combination of the cold and Dave's arthritis saw Paul hang on as Dave's fish only came to 62lbs 08ozs, still a very good effort on the day .

So that was it for another day, not the expected weights, but a £2 coin from Vince (we didn't give him much stick for blowing the flyer honest ) a £1 coin from Bill, some good laughs and plenty of banter helped out.
Thanks to Bill G for sorting out the day, just remember to have a word with the weather Gods next time Bill.

"Anyone coming out to play Easter Monday?" That was the perfectly innocent post put up by Pete Midgley on the Maggotdrowning Forum that resulted in this little episode.

Loading up the car, a sunny day appeared to be in the offing and with just a light frost I felt we could be in for a decent day.
A smooth traffic free drive of 40 miles down to Uckfield in East Sussex even allowed me to stop off at  for a bit of breakfast, where I found Pete Thatcher, Martyn Dwayne and Mark Hathaway too, meaning I pulled into the fishery at around 8·20am.
Worryingly the car thermometer still only said 1°C though.

Today was the 1st time that I'd been down to Framfield since March 2005, so I really didn't have a clue what to expect. Anyway into the draw bag and peg 64 stuck to my hand. They say that a good indication of how well you've drawn is how many keepnets they hand you. I was given just the one while Kevin, who had drawn 63 and a few others were given two, so I figured I may have drawn out of the favoured areas.

As i settled into 64 I was faced with probably 17½mtrs to the island which had seen some vigorous pruning since the last time I'd seen it.
Having hurt my ribs at work the previous week long pole was out of the question, so I set up for around a comfortable 8mtrs and found a reasonably level 3ft all over, and with it being just a couple of inches shallower in the margins 1 rig covered all. I also set up a waggler to fish across if need be. Bait was simply sweetcorn to be fished over the fisheries own pellets with a few expanders as a change bait.

To my left I had Bill G for company on peg 65, so a decent bit of banter was guaranteed if nothing else..........

10am and after a warming cup of coffee fortified with a drop of Bushmills generously provided by Kevin, I potted in some pellet and sweetcorn at 8mtrs and fed some pellet by the dead rushes in both margins for later. Straight out to 8mtrs and after 20 mins the 1st bite of the day resulted in a nice Common Carp of around 3lbs gracing the net. I just kept topping up the feed with a T-pot containing a dozen pellets and 3-4 bits of corn at regular intervals, with the same being fed by hand into the margin swims. After a couple of hours I'd managed 6 Carp which had been matched by Bill, though I felt my fish had been a little bigger. Weather wise the day had deteriorated with a mix of rain sleet and snow coupled with the wind making things very cold and unpleasant.

Of course as with all things Maggotdrowning there had to be some Pee taking somewhere along the line and todays target was Pete Midgley, who in the run up to the day had posted........
"I think I would still beat Ryan if I had a bit of bamboo, a length of rope and a lump of cheese."

So of course Bill G hadn't been able to resist producing the relevant bit of Preston Imitations kit ..........

Pete however took it all in the spirit that was meant and even had the good grace to pose for the obligatory photo

Meanwhile word was circulating Mark Hathaway and Martyn Dwayne were doing relatively well with Stephen Tanner putting a few together from the supposed flyer.

Kevin had changed over to a set up incorporating a maggot feeder and polaris float and was soon into a run of Carp as he cast into the gap between the islands. Unfortunately he hooked up on the island after a while losing his float in the process. Not having another he reverted to a straight maggot feeder, but for some reason this didn't seem to be so productive and he reverted to the pole.......

Quite a few were struggling for even a bite however and people were ringing the changes in an attempt to buy a bite. Colin may have taken things a shade to far however, disguising hinself as a bush in attempt to draw fish into his margin swim  ........

Bill meantime had gone for a stroll to stop himself from seizing up and by the time he returned it had allowed me to sneak a couple of fish ahead of him.
With about an hour to go things had started to pick up with Tony Roberts finally getting amongst a few on the maggot feeder hard across to the island, Colin getting a couple of decent Perch as reward for his efforts and even Trevor Little getting a couple although he was to tip back without weighing in.

I managed to tempt 5 more Carp from down the edge in the last hour, though a lump snagging me in the reeds in the last 10 minutes was to cost me at the death.

At last 3·30pm rolled round and the all out, quickly followed by the weigh-in. Mark Hathaway leading with a very decent weight on the day of 55lbs 2ozs followed by Stephen Tanner on 48lbs 12ozs, a very creditable effort as it was his first match.

As the scales reached me I thought I might scrape 40lbs, so it was a pleasant surprise when they recorded 54lbs 8ozs putting me into 2nd place, though it left me ruing that lost fish.

So that was it, just leaving the 14 anglers to pack up and get home to thaw out. Despite the conditions we had caught some fish and had a few laughs as always. We must do it again, but please, can we have some better weather next time?

Well the day promised to be a bit of fun as I was off down to Hartleylands to join a few of the lads that are fishing Nick Gilbert's 1st Invicta Angling Match League and were looking to have a bit of a practice prior to the 1st match there next week. Loading up the car at 7am in Sydenham it looked as if we could be in for a decent day with the sun rising into a bright blue sky, just a breathe of wind and a pleasant 7°C showing on the car thermometer.

By the time I pulled up at the Knoxbridge Café for a spot of breakfast things had taken a turn for the worst however , with wind, thick grey clouds and the 1st hint of rain replacing the sun. A quick bit of breakfast with Matt, Nick, Alan and Ekythump and it was off to the fishery for the draw. Already there were Vince, Trevor, Jay and Kevin and while Nick sorted out the draw we sorted our kit out. Mistake no1 !!!! I'd left my jacket at home !!!!! Thankfully Matt saved the situation lending me his spare jacket for the day. Nice one Matt .

With the wind increasing I fancied one of the pegs in the 30's which were reasonably sheltered and almost flat calm. It was not to be as peg 25 was to be my home for the next few hours............

The wind was already starting to gust strongly as I settled in and set up and I just set up a maggot feeder and a couple of top kits to fish short, as i didn't fancy battling with a long pole in the conditions, not that I was jealous looking across to Alan on peg peg 32 setting up with what appeared to be a millpond in front of him !...........

10·30am and Vince blew the whistle for the All-in. I'd made up a slop of crushed hemp and Pineapple Atomic Cloud to feed the inside line and fished white maggot on the hook and this soon started to produce few small Roach . Sport in general appeared to be slow for most though Jay was getting a few Carp on the feeder over on peg 8, Nick had the wind full in his face on peg 6 (a most unusual occurrence for him ) while Matt was blasting maggot and fishing the waggler on peg 9 but this was producing mostly Roach for him rather than the hoped for Carp. In fairness though most of the lads were trying to sort methods for the upcoming League so it was more of a question of sorting out wouldn't work as opposed to sitting it out on a banker method.

Just after midday I had a look over on the feeder. 3rd cast and I stuck it into a tree on the island and cracked off. Temper? Laziness? I really should have stuck with it but didn't. Instead I had a cup of coffee and went for a walk with the camera to warm up.

Up on peg 21 Trevor was sheltered behind his brolly and had settled on the waggler with a fair bit of open water in front of him, and while it was mostly Roach the occasional Carp was putting in an appearance to keep it interesting........

while Ekythump 2 down on peg 23 was fishing his top 2 and finding a few more Carp amongst the Roach...........

Back down on peg 32 Alan was getting a few on the Waggler but had been feeding a margin line that as it turned out, was to come good for him in the last hour ..........

Kevin on peg 34 was having a bit of a grueller and was sitting it out on the feeder.........

Vince was on peg 32 and complaining that he was freezing despite being sheltered from the worst of the conditions. The feeder was producing the odd Carp for him as it appeared the fish wanted a dead still bait.......

Nick on peg 6 (a peg he didn't want to put in, so you just knew he would draw it) spent most of his time chopping and changing trying various methods out when he wasn't having a walk about chatting and trying to get out of the wind  .........

That just left Jay and Matt on pegs 8 & 9..........

........ and while Jay stuck it out on the feeder all day, Matt started the match on the waggler spraying maggot before switching to the method halfway through .............

I spent the rest of the match fishing the top 2 but unlike Ekythump, couldn't find a Carp for love or money, I did however manage a Barbel which was a bit of a surprise because as far as I'm aware Paul only stocked about 14 of them into the lake originally !!!! (needless to say it was in perfect condition )

3·30 and Vince blew the All-out, a most welcome sound , which was quickly followed by the weigh-in. 12lbs 12 ozs was my reward for the day, leaving Vince happy that he'd beaten me for the 2nd time this year. The lake had fished hard though in some of the worst conditions I've experienced there, though hopefully it will be better for the lads fishing the League there, starting next week.

Today saw me making an early start for the 55 mile trip from South London up to Alders Farm, just outside the village of Great Brickhill. A good run up the M1 and A5 saw me pulling into the car park just after 8am. Kit loaded onto the barrow for the decent down the hill from the car park and into the pump house cafe for a sausage sandwich and a coffee before the draw.

Now i very rarely fish at Alders, but today was more of an excuse to catch up with some of the GOT Baits anglers that I've been fortunate enough to get to know and fish with over the last couple of years. Chatting to Matt Nutt, Gary Thorpe and Trevor Price before the draw the general opinion was that a few fish would be caught as long as you didn't draw down in the corner (pegs 17-21). I was behind Matt at the draw and the look on his face said it all as he saw peg 19 stick to his hand, and I fared no better with peg 17 being my draw.

Matt was kind enough to fill me in on what to expect, and I have to say I didn't feel to bad as I set my kit up. as it was a nice bright sunny day, though the wind that was blowing into our corner kept it pretty cool. I set up a couple of kits, rigged with MW Diamonds to fish at 13mtrs and 7 mtrs, and with peg 18 not being in another to fish down the edge towards 18 where i would just keep trickling a little bait in for later in the match. I also set up a feeder rod with a small maggot feeder, though with not a lot of water to aim at in the corner it wasn't a real consideration.

Baitwise I had some soft hookers, red maggot and sweetcorn with micro pellet for feed. 10am and all in saw a small pot of micro's with with a pinch of maggot and 6 bits of corn deposited on the 7 and 13mtr lines with some corn and pellet going in next to peg 18 in the margin.

Nearly 3 hours in and all I had to show for my efforts were a few microscopic Rudd while the young lad to my left on peg 16 had managed a solitary Carp on the feeder.......

Matt was plugging away on 19 but at the time was faring no better, despite being familiar with the venue, with just a couple of the forementioned micro Rudd himself.

Lookng around the lake, I could see that Matt's prediction was coming true with other anglers getting amongst the resident Carp. Nobody was bagging, but at least most seemed to be getting one or two. Looking across to Matt I noticed he appeared to have a fair bit of elastic coming from his top kit.   Yes, he was into a Carp, and obviously a decent one, indeed it proved to be a near double. Suddenly my float dipped and I nearly forgot to strike such was the shock . To say that I played it gently may be a bit of an understatement, but I was determined to get it safely in the net. It proved to be only about 4lb, but it was most welcome. Matt even managed to get a similar one while i was playing mine without me noticing, so carefully was I playing my fish.

It would be nice to say that it was the start of a decent last couple of hours, but that was it for both myself and Matt  We didn't get another bite between us for the rest of the match. At the end Matt's fish gave him just over 14lbs while my solitary Carp and a few tiny Rudd made just 4lbs 3ozs, while poor Trevor Jeans on 21 suffered the dreaded DNW. The match itself was won by Gary Thorpe on peg38 at the opposite end of the lake with 10 Carp that he'd caught at 14mtrs on corn and pellet for 58lbs 14ozs.

Keith (gandhi) popped down to watch the weigh-in and he was kind enough to carry both mine and Matt's rodbags back for us. A bit of banter with the lads in the car park brought the day to an end while Trev was kind enough to let me have a couple of samples of as yet unreleased GOT Baits products for me to try. Not the best of days for me fishing wise, but a good crack with Matt for company and I'll definately be going back to Alders, though I may wait till it warms up a bit 1st and the Carp get a bit more spread out and re-discover their appetites.   

First outing of 2008.

My 1st outing of the New Year saw me driving down to Monk Lakes to meet up with Andy (The Hat) Spreadbury from the Maggotdrowning Forum in the car park at 8am. The weather didn't look to promising . A leaden grey sky holding the promise of rain, with heavy clouds scudding across at a rate of knots didn't bode well as Monks is one of the most exposed fisheries going, and with the object of the day being to help Andy refine his waggler fishing I felt we could be in for a struggle .

The original plan was to set up on one of the heavily stocked match lakes, but with matches on all 4 of the match lakes, we elected to try one of the pleasure lakes. A leasurely drive round saw us settle on Bridges, the larger of the 2 pleasure lakes where we could fish 2 adjacent swims with the wind off our backs. Although the temperature was 10°C the wind made it feel like half of that .

Now the thing is that although I fish Monks fairly regularly, it's mostly one of the four match lakes. Andy and I hadn't fished Bridges since November 2004 when the lake hadn't been open long, so neither of us really knew what to expect.

I was soon set up, having brought my Shakespeare 11ft Micro all set up in its ready rod sleeve, selecting a Drennan 3AA peacock insert waggler fishing 3lb straight through to an18 Drennan barbless carp match hook, with red maggot for bait. Andy was using his 11/13 John Wilson rod at 13ft in more relaxed mode fishing from his chair .

The maximum depth I could find was around 3ft about 25mtrs out towards the island, so a pouch of red maggots was followed by my float as I settled back to see if anything showed an interest. The wind was making things difficult, with Andy having to blacken his float tip to see it in the chop.

Soon my float slid away resulting in a nice plump Skimmer of around 2lb in the net and 5 minutes later its twin followed it ................

 Andy finally got of the mark with a little Ide, not quite what he was hoping for but at least it was a start.............

I couldn't help notice that we were getting the odd curious glance from other anglers on the lake as we were the only ones using float tackle, all the others tucked behind brollies or bivvies with the seemingly obligatory pair of Carp rods for the larger Carp that most anglers target on this lake.

Next up for Andy came a Skimmer.................

.......... but we were both struggling to put a run of fish together, I seemed to get a couple then nothing for a half hour, indeed despite trying numerous changes the only way I could get a bite was to lay 6" of line on the deck. Finally I managed to connect with something that felt a little different, and it proved to be the 1st of several Chub of around 1lb, good to see as the last time i'd fished the lake they had been freshly stocked at around 4ozs in an effort to provide year round sport. I'm sure they'll drive the carpers nuts as they're large enough now to swallow a boilie .

Andy spent a while watching me and soon spotted the difference in my approach to his, with my match background I was always doing something, feeding, twitching the bait through my feed and casting more often, whereas Andy with his background in carping was more content to leave his rod in the rest for longer after casting and feeding less frequently.

Around about 1pm I hooked what was obviously a bonus, probably a Carp but i'll never know as it just plodded off and shed the hook .

By 2pm i was getting ready to pack up when Andy was in again............

................. It was soon apparent that this was something better as a Carp surfaced about 20 feet out, Andy's landing net was looking a bit inadequate so I acted as ghillie with mine. On the mat it was obvious that the fish was a bit of an old warrior as unfortunately its fins weren't in the best of condition and it had a nasty scar on one gill cover. A quick weigh before it was returned showed 15lbs, a nice bonus fish, meaning that we had both managed around 20lbs of fish during our session .

With my gear packed Andy decided to fish on for a while, so I bid him farewell after discussing the possibility of a session after Crucians at Marsh Farm later in the year once its warmed up a bit, that should be fun .

For those of you that are interested the following is Andy's take on the day............. 

Posted by Andy Spreadbury.
The object of the exercise was to carry forward what I’d learnt on my first session with the waggler. There were a number of issues to address – what sort of waggler for which conditions, shotting patterns, that sort of thing, and I started off by showing Peter my float-box. He suggested I try an insert peacock carrying 4 AAA and in addition to the bulk, to shot it with a couple of number 8s – one about half-way down, the other nine inches or so from the hook. This was a fairly heavy rig (as wagglers go), unlike the little six-inch jobbies I’d got which only take a few shot to cock them; it was so windy, even the heavy waggler was a job to cast.

Peter was out of the blocks almost immediately and was into a little run of skimmers, unfortunately, the shoal must have moved off as their presence was short-lived. I managed to bag one but as usual was falling way behind Peter’s catch-rate. A problem I identified almost immediately was visibility.

I tried to match the distance Peter was casting – quite a long way for float-fishing, about twenty-five meters or so, maybe thirty – I’m not too sure, it seemed an awful long way though and I have to confess I really couldn’t see the float properly and often not at all. Although the fine tip of the insert is great for lack of resistance to a biting fish, its slimness was a real disadvantage to the optically-challenged such as myself. I struggled with the thing for a good couple of hours before finally admitting defeat and fished shorter – even picking up a couple of fish. As Peter continued to reel ‘em in from his long-range presentation I changed the float for something else.

I’d got several other patterns with me, mostly of the straight variety made of reed, clear plastic, and peacock quill, but after several changes I eventually settled on a Premier Windbeater with a balsa body and straight stem carrying a shed-load of lead. At least this was manageable in the extremely strong wind which got stronger as the day wore on. I finally got the visibility issue sorted and could see the bright orange of the tip pretty well and with some fiddling about managed to get the shotting about right too. Peter however had out-caught me by a ratio of about five to one and I began to get ever so slightly frustrated by my lack of action – whereas Peter was picking up fish (albeit the odd fish, but fish nonetheless) a matter of only a few metres away.

Peter of course had the reason – and not for the first time during our sessions together it was FEEDING.

If there is one thing that is more important than anything else it is giving the fish feed in a consistent and regular manner sufficient to keep them interested in looking around for and finding hookbaits. Almost every time we go fishing, Feeding is the number one issue and today was no different. Peter reckoned it was my carp-fisherman mindset that made me adopt the sit-and-wait style I was using – whereas he was always busy, either feeding, twitching the bait back, re-casting, re-baiting, casting spells, talking to the fish – and whatever other devices he employs to coax, cajole, and coerce fish into taking his bait.

True, twitching the bait by giving the reel handle a turn every minute or so I am sure persuades an otherwise disinterested fish to snatch the bait back, but it is the constant and continual investment of effort that really does the trick, an investment that resulted in Peter far out-fishing me.

It was not only the amount and frequency of feed going in that made a difference – but where it was going also. Peter was pin-pointedly accurate – even in what was at times, a howling wind; my catapulted maggots were often going all over the place, blown by a gusty wind veering in sometimes unpredictable directions. There is a definite knack to it – you must aim low and snappy, not high and gentle – allowing the wind to blow the feed near the float, for it will inevitably blow it exactly where you don’t want it. The feed must be little, often, and in exactly the right place. Easy to talk – more difficult to do.

The carp was a total fluke and I claim no great skill in either luring it or landing it. The skimmers fought ten times harder! I am convinced the fish must have been laying-up – and for some considerable time too as it had a number of leech-like organisms on it.

Carp lay-up in the very harsh weather and I have often noticed that sick or mangy fish are particularly prone to doing this. The one I caught was a very sad individual who had obviously had a hard summer – the evidence of disease was obvious – lesions, partially rotten fins, and poor condition resulting in a fish that was in the recovery stage of previous ill-health.

Peter had to go early as his leg was playing him up (poor old thing) and I spent the last hour doing much better than the previous few hours catching some of the Chub and this Tench.

All in all, not only an enjoyable day in good company, but once again, I learnt a lot from my ‘mentor’.

Thanks Peter.