Having a bit of time off I was pleasantly surprised when Maria suggested i might fancy a days fishing last night, as she was going over to visit a friend today. I should have known

After my disaster at Lemington last Saturday I really needed to catch a few just to get the confidence back, so it was off to a favorite of mine ............ Hartleylands Farm.

So 8·30am brings a nudge in my back as my beloved enquirers whether I'm going fishing today?
A peak out of the window reveals it's been pouring down all night, but a hint of sun breaking through promises better for the day ahead.
By 9·15 the car's loaded and I'm on my way with a clearing sky, but as I reach Tonbridge the sun has vanished and the sky is getting greyer.

Reaching the fishery about 10·30 I'm a little disappointed to find a match on the reservoir, so that's the 1st plan scuppered. A steady drizzle is starting to fall as I have a look around and a chat with a couple of anglers that have already been fishing for a couple of hours with only a couple of carp to show for their efforts between them. I settle for peg 8 on Finches, sheltered amongst the trees and with a comfy 8yds to the far bank it will do for me .

Before I've even finished setting up, the rain starts hammering down, so just a couple of simple rigs are set up, 1 for paste and the other for 6mm expander pellet both to be fished over 4mm pellet (all G.O.T baits) both across and in the margin to my left.
Both rigs are KC Carpa 2's on 0·16 carptek with Fox match series2 in a 14 for paste and a 16 for the expanders.

1st put in across with paste, and 30secs later the float has buried and the black hydro stretches out and safely into the net is the 1st of the day, an nice ghost common .

A couple of looks over with expander produces a couple of gudgeon, so back to the paste. This is definitely what the carp want with most bites coming within a minute of cupping the paste in, and the bites are nice and definite, no messing about with the float, just vanishing straight down the plughole.

With the rain still pouring down I get a phone call from Dave about 12, and he remarks that he can hear the rain, but it's lovely in Leeds. The action that I've been having encourages the chap in the next but one peg down from me to come over for a chat to see what I'm doing differently from him. 10 mins under the brolly showing him how to prepare expanders with a pump and explaining the basics of paste and he's off back to his peg with a box of prepared expanders to give them a go.

Back out with the paste and the rain is starting to ease, but the carp are still there .............

By 1·30 the rain has finally stopped but because I'm under the trees it's still coming down on me, so a move is called for if I'm ever going to get anything dried out. A quick look over the back reveals that there are only 4 anglers on Nick's, so I move all of 10yards onto Nick's peg 3. With nobody on the adjacent pegs it was going to be margins all the way and 1st put in on the right hand margin produced an instant bite resulting in a super common gracing the net .

The afternoon proved to be fairly hectic, I doubt if I had to wait much more than 30 secs for a bite on paste, with most being so positive that the elastic just streamed out without any need to strike, smaller fish in general than those in Finches, mostly commons but occasionally a nice example of the resident ghosties putting in an appearance ............

4·30 and as I'm packing away after what has been a good confidence building session Paul Ward, the owner pops round for a chat, always interesting, he tells me that he's finished digging another new lake and is just letting it fill naturally as he's in no hurry to stock it yet.
Packing up, thankfully almost everything has dried out and on the way out I decide to stop and have a look at the new lake........

As you can see there's a quite wide marginal shelf around 2-3 ft below water level and it then drops to around 6-7ft, while it just rises up to the island without a noticeable shelf.
It promises to be another decent addition to the fishery once it's up and running, probably not until next summer though at the earliest, as Paul likes to let things settle and establish themselves before he allows fishing.

The JINX Series 2006

Match 6.

Well The Jinx Series really lived up to it's name, as it returned with a vengance, reducing even Rolf's Lake to mediocrity and biting most of us on the bum in the process.

but with Eric winning his section, I knew he had pipped me by a point, but it was all academic once Brian put an excellent 109lbs 8ozs on the scales to win his section and the Individual Jinx Series overall .

I'd just like to say a big WELL DONE to Brian, he's fished a superbly consistent series with 4 section wins and 2 seconds, all on venues that were new to him, making him a worthy winner of the series .

I'd just like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Malc for organising what is probably the most enjoyable and friendly match series I've ever fished, and another BIG THANK YOU to all the anglers that have fished the series, It's you that makes the series the success it is .
Let's do it all again next year .

Overall Individual Series Result.

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Championship.

Having dropped Maria off at work at 6am and then loaded the car up, I took a leisurely drive down to Monk Lakes arriving earlier than anticipated at around 8am. Once again the fishery had put the "Welcome Maggotdrowners" sign out, and after parking up I thought I'd take a quick look at match lake 2, only to find that Terry (wily) Clive (blackhydro) & Darren (badatfishing) along with RonB had beaten me to it .

A quick look confirmed that you would either have the wind full in your face all day or off your back depending on your draw.

Some seemed to fancy peg 45, whether for the short walk or the fact it was a corner end-peg was open to debate. whoever drew it would have the wind full in their face however with very little chance of getting a brolly up should the threatened bad weather appear .

Back for a bit of breakfast and the draw, and pulling into the car park is a white Carlton estate and Dai's arrived for his 1st outing since he had his operation. He'd spoken to me a couple of days earlier saying that he fancied it having not been out for months, and my mention that he just might just finally catch a GOLDEN TENCH here, probably made his mind up though.

At the draw Vince announced that the previous match had been won from peg 45, so you can imagine just how delighted he was to see it resting in my hand when I pulled it out of the hat .

Setting up it was obvious that fishing long up in the water would be hard work, and as I had been off work for the previous 3 days with a pulled muscle in my back it wasn't really an option for me . Plumbing up though revealed a good 2?feet on a top 2 line with just 3 feet at about 5 meters.
With every other peg missed out I was pretty sure that I could catch close, so made up my mind to go for it from the off, and with Clive (blackhydro) to my left setting up to fish further out I would be able to see if I needed to lengthen my line as things progressed .

11am and Vince called all-in and I fed 3 lines, 2 just a comfortable underarm for 4mm pellets and another cupping in at 5 meters. Baits for the day were just GOT 6mm expanders and Paste, but before I could put a pellet on a shout from Dai had me running down the bank to capture this moment .....

.......... Just the sort of thing that makes it all worthwhile, the smile wouldn't leave Dai's face for the rest of the match .
Back on my peg and I dropped the top2 rig in and the float just kept going!! Had I overshotted it? obviously not as the black hydro streamed out of the top. 30 seconds later and an 8oz Barbel is safely in the net and I'm off and running.
Looking around it was soon evident that plenty of people were putting a few fish in their nets and miraculously the wind was holding the threat of rain off despite plenty of grey clouds scudding past.
It soon became evident that my peg appeared to be solid with small Barbel, super fit fish in perfect condition that gave a good account of themselves on soft set Black Hydro.

Now a constant bone of contention on forums is Barbel in still waters, I can only say that these fish in Monks are as fit as any that I've caught in rivers over the years and appear none the worse for wear due to their environment.
Indeed they have been bred at the fish farm that adjoins the Monk Lakes complex.

Sport was steady and with 3 and a bit hours gone Dave the Fish came along for his customary chat while he had a sarnie, and admitting to around 40lbs for his efforts so far . I estimated I had around 100 fish split between my 2 nets and decided to use a 3rd net for the final part of the match. Getting up to reposition my nets, I slipped !!!!!! Both feet straight in past my ankles , thankfully I had a spare pair of boots in the car, so a quick time out to change and sort things out left me with around 1hrs to go.

Thankfully despite this disruption they were still there and I caught steadily right up to the end at 4pm landing my last fish as Vince called the all out.

Weigh in time, and our bank had obviously been Barbel Alley, Dave starting off with 65lbs just edging RonB's 63lbs. Dai proving he was back in the groove putting a very creditable 81lbs on for a section win, Clive just missing out with 78lbs.

My 3 nets totaled 100lbs putting me into pole, but with Nick Gilbert admitting to 80lbs or maybe a tad more.

Next up was Polemad who had been opposite me, just missing out on a "TON" with 95lbs.

Then we came to Mr Gilbert. What can I say? other than "I'll NEVER BELIEVE ANOTHER OF HIS ESTIMATES AGAIN!!!!!!!" as his 80lbs guesstimate transformed itself into 170lbs!!!!!!. a superb weight on the day comprising of nearly all carp as with the wind behind him he had been able to catch up in the water on banded pellet all day.

It proved to be Nick's biggest ever match weight making him a worthy winner and MD's Southern Champion 2006.

The rest of the weigh-in Produced yet more weights between 50-80lbs, even Vince's daughter Jessica managing a creditable 21lbs with dad's help.

While Vince himself despite spending time with Jessica putting together a nice bag weighing 52lbs .

So back for a welcome cuppa and the results revealing that the 16 anglers present had put 1120lbs on the scales, an average of 70lbs per angler.

All that remains is to say a BIG THANK YOU to Vince for organising the day, and all those that turned up to make it a most enjoyable day, I'm sure we'll be doing it all again in the not to distant future.

Maggotdrowning.com

 Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2006.

Well where can I start?

I suppose that the beginning is a good a point as any.
Anticipation had been building up for this weekend for a couple of months, Ian(Chin)Ward counting everyone down to the big day.

9·15 in the services at junction 8a and Adrian(BigladWigan)Wood was the 1st to greet me, closely followed by Vince Gould.
Soon the wafting aroma of chip fat and Chinese takeaway preceded the arrival of Northern Boy himself, Gaz Malman who was already halfway through the umpteenth pie of the day clutched in his right hand as he pulled up. Dave(Red Leader)Webster phoned to announce that both he, Tony Prentice and Geoff Palmer were in the services already so we headed off to join them, along with Ant Haywood, Ian Ward, Tom Little and Chris Ellis.
Dave fancied a Breakfast, but being faced with paying £8 for it brought back his Yorkshire frugality and he settled for a burger.

10am and it was "wagons roll" as a small convoy made it's way the short distance from the services to Rolf's Lake.
Into the car park and it's nearly full already, and there's a buzz about the place as a number of Rolf's "Virgins" got their 1st look at the venue, while others were renewing acquaintances and meeting others for the 1st time in person away from a computer screen.

Bivvies and Tents were soon in place for the evenings accommodation while elsewhere nets were dipped with military efficiency and feed pellets purchased for what lay ahead.

At 11am the pairing for the weekend ahead were announced and with those duly recorded and the pools paid, the individual draw for the day took place.

I had been paired with Dave Collier, almost inevitable really given the number of times we've fished together in the past. Dave getting peg24 on the car park bank, while I ended up with peg 36 on the little lake.

For company on the match I had Geoff Palmer to my right, in the corner on peg 34. While to my left on 37 I found Dave(Red Leader)Webster and Matt Nutt on 38. The sun was already blasting from the sky and we just knew that it was going to be a scorcher, but hopefully with us fishing from 1pm- 6pm hopefully everyone would get at least a couple of good hours towards the end.

1pm and the all in and within 5 minutes Geoff was walking over for me to witness his 1st weigher, all 16½lbs of Common Carp and a new PB for him.

I have to say that I wasn't inspired by my peg, although I knew it was capable of producing there are no real obvious features in comparison to a lot of the other pegs, so it was just a question of getting my head down and concentrating on putting a few together.

Looking across I could see David Ashby (under a bit of pressure as Gemma was fishing for the 1st time in 5 years) and Ian Ward and Nick Williams in front of me on 4 (though I had to look twice as his grey hair had vanished to be replaced by a deep brown dye job )

Plenty of splashing kept coming from Geoff's direction though some were doing a Houdini act .

I was slowly getting in on the act fishing paste on the deck at around 9 mtrs, while Dave struggled to get to grips with his peg, and Matt slowly started to edge ahead in the section.

Being pegged on the small lake we were somewhat removed from what was happening on the rest of the lake, though word filtered down that Keith on peg 25 was having a good un, and we were treated to the site of Brian Bevan in hot pursuit of his pole as a carp headed towards us with it, though Brian was fortunate enough to retrieve it, but not the fish.

Vince Gould, a Rolf's virgin was hidden away on peg13 out of my site but struggled to come to terms with things but still managed 41½lbs, better than some have managed on their 1st visit.

The last hour proved to be the best though a couple of the larger carp saw Matt having to resort to climbing onto his box to net them, while I managed a run of 6 fish right at the end.

So match 1 was completed, and that left the weigh in, a real eye opener for some in terms of the weights recorded and the efficiency with which it takes place.

Keith Ashby on peg 25 soon took the lead, and wasn't going to be caught on the day having put 242¾lb on the scales for a new PB match weight, nearly all caught on a top 3 with meat GOT soft hookers and GOT Paste. A superb result. Kevin Arathoon had pushed him all the way with a fine 230lbs and Brian Bevan had put together a fine 184¼lbs for 3rd individual on the day.

As the weigh in progressed peg after peg produced tales of new PB's both for total weights and individual fish.

Attention was however focused on a little match within a match between Gemma, Malc Doyle's daughter who had decided to fish for the 1st time in nearly 5 years and Keith Ashby's son David. (No pressure then)
With Gemma putting 92lbs on the scales.

David was always struggling to hang onto his £1 side bet,

even breaking his landing net at one stage , and unfortunately came up short on the day with 79½lbs, leading to a ribbing from all assembled that was to last all the way through the rest of the day and well into the next morning .

Ian (Chin) Ward had managed his 1st ever ton with a fine 115½lbs, and was looking a bit shattered as his arms hurt, and would continue to do so for the rest of the weekend,

Matt Nutt, using all his experience of the venue managed a 149½lb section winning bag, while Dave Webster who had struggled for 29lbs was the meat in a "Ton" sandwich as I weighed in 121½ lbs, Geoff Palmer also beating him with an 89lb bag (His PB match weight) that would surely have been his 1st Ton if he had had more than the 1 weigher.

So match day one ended with everyone retreating for a well earned beer in the bivvy village. Dave being Mr Efficient had brought his large gas barbecue down with him for the weekend and soon had it fired up and Tony(teepee)Prentice soon had a great selection of burgers and sausages flowing off the production line for willing mouths to devour.

With copious quantities of beer, Lager augmented by a bottle of rum and another of whiskey , the entertainment revolved around how much stick could be dished out to yound David, and I have to say that he took it all on the chin.
I'm sure you'll have the last laugh sooner or later David.

Things wound down around 1am as bodies retired ready for round 2 on Sunday.

Sunday at 7am and those same bodies in various states of disrepair emerged into the daylight craving nothing stronger than tea or coffee, while once more the Barbecue was fired up to provide breakfast from the mountain of food that was left.

Sundays draw was at 9am with a 10·30 start and joining us for the day were Steve Wilson fresh from his holiday and Gary (Gaza) Thorpe, fresh from a match win at Oakfield the previous day. They paired up with the pair with the worst result from Saturday which meant that Wily Coyote(Terry) was paired with Gaza the venue World Record Holder, so no pressure there then, while Nick Williams paired up with Steve.

I found myself fishing my partners swim from the previous day (peg24) with Matt for company on peg 25 (Keith's winning peg) and Ant Haywood to my right on 23.

Gary Thorpe drew my peg from Saturday, so i would see the pegs potential with a decent angler on it, with Kevin Arathoon on 34 (Geoff's peg) Ian Ward was on peg 7, a bit of a flyer, but would his arms hold out . While David and Gemma drew next to each other on pegs 9 & 10 in full view of their dads, Keith being on 12 with Malc opposite on 30.

At the all in I settled on a paste attack at around 7mtrs, a distance i could feed comfortably feed pellet by hand and fed a margin line by the small bush to my right. while Matt started on a longer line up in the water . Ant appeared to be into action straight away, and all around I could see people already into fish.

Terry Goff had somehow managed to draw the same peg twice in a row, but at least managed to put a few together  this time for a creditable 90¾lbs.

Next up on 17 was Dirk Williams who finished just short of a 2nd ton with 93lbs after suffering with a load of foul hookers.

Tony (teepee) Prentice managed a very creditable 164¼lbs from peg 18 to better his Saturday weight of 119lbs 2ozs (Thanks for showing me your paste pots Tony, I'm sure he'll be sharing the idea soon )

Colin, Keith's partner was on 19 and just missed out on a 2nd ton with 98lbs on the day.

I had a mare with foul hookers and lost a number of big fish that I had trouble controlling with Red Hydro!!! Thankfully a decent spell towards the end enabled me to get a 2nd ton with a level 110lbs.

Matt Nutt came short to the bush in his margin and had a magic last hour with a ton of weighers for a creditable 173lbs.

While Ant Haywood just made his 2nd ton of the weekend despite only having the 1 weigher all day, putting 104lbs on the scales.

Elsewhere David Ashby restored his pride in his peg to peg with Gemma weighing 85½lb to Gemma's 41½lbs and so reclaiming his £1 side bet.

Top weight on the day smashing his previous best match weight out of site with a fine display was young Ian Ward with an excellent 272lbs. Well Done Mate.

2nd on the day was Keith Ashby with a fine 230¾lbs again caught on a top 3 down the edge with meat and GOT Paste for 2 double tons in a row, an awesome display over the weekend.
Third on the day was Kevin Arathoon with 228lbs for another pair of double tons.

In 4th was Malc with 224¼lbs for a new personal best match weight.
5th was Gaz Malman with 219¼lbs, while a 6th and Final Double ton was added by Gary Thorpe with 206½lbs off my peg from the previous day. (it must have been down to my feeding on the Saturday )

One of the happiest on the day however must have been Steve Wilson who finally managed a match ton with a dead level 100lbs. It even made him smile, Well Done Steve.

So Presentation Time, and with two pairs,Keith Ashby & Colin Sharrard and Kevin Arathoon & Clive Pritchard tied on 26 points apiece it was probably appropriate that it was finally decided on weight with the verdict going in Keith and Colin's favour by 706½lbs to 638lbs.

Congratulations to them both.
A Big vote of Thanks to Dave for getting the whole thing up and running, I'm pretty sure that it will be an annual fixture from now on, and another Big Thank You to Rolf, for allowing us to use what is a very special fishery for the weekend.
Finally Thanks to all that attended and made it one of the Best Maggotdrowning Weekends i can remember, We must do it again sometime, now form an.a orderly queue for the next one.

Here's the full results list starting with the Pairs:
Saturday

Total weight caught over the weekend was 6,134lb

You can find Rolf's version of events HERE

The JINX Series 2006

Match 4.

What a great day out.

I pulled into the car park at Stockton around 10·30am in glorious sunshine, and a quick look around found the yorkie's Dave & Tim wandering around with Nick(monkey) along with Neo and Brian with Darren(badatfishing) in tow.
I thought that the water looked spot on, but there again I really like Stockton as a venue, although I know there are a few that really hate the place.

With a bit of time to kill before the draw we adjourned to the garden of The Blue Lias for a pint or two where we were joined by John(Bucko) and his good lady, who though they weren't fishing had decided to come down and meet the lunatics who fish The Jinx Series.

Anyway at around noon we were back in the car park for the draw.

 Now at Stockton any of the pegs between 1-15 and 22-25 have a feature in the form of reed beds or islands to fish to so of course i pick 20 with absolutely jack in the way of a feature, unless you're crazy or desperate enough to try tempting them out from under the boards.

Setting up it was obvious that if nothing else the company for the day was going to be good with Dirk, Simon(Me) and Neo to my left and Paul with his better half, Malc, Keith and Matt to the right.

Setting up was pretty simple as I had decided on one approach that I was confident would get me a few fish. Pole at 9mtrs to fish paste over pellet in 4feet of water.
Last time we fished the same pegs I found that the tow could be a bit of a problem as it can be quite exposed, so I had made my paste up stiffer than usual to stop the hook being dragged out.

1·30pm saw the all-in so a ball of paste along with a few GOT 4mm sinkers was shipped out and I was ready for action.

About 10 mins in and the float buried and I was attached to one of Stockton's residents, a nice Mirror that gave the usual good account of itself before it was safely in the net. As usual the "support and encouragement" from those around me was outstanding and set the tone for the day early on.

For anyone that hasn't been to Stockton, it's hard to appreciate just how fit these fish are and what a good account of themselves they give, also they are without exception in stunning condition which is great to see.

About an hour in and the sun vanished as the wind brought in an ominously grey sky with the threat of rain to come, however apart from a couple of very brief showers, it thankfully didn't materialise though the sun struggled to put in an appearance for the rest of the match.

After about 90 minutes I'd had 3 carp and was into a 4th, however this one led me a merry dance and dived under my platform, however I managed to get it out but before I could net it, it got under again and out round my keepnets. Needless to say I lost it. I'd like to say thanks for the sympathy shown by my fellow anglers at this point, but I think you can probably guess that it wasn't forthcoming.

Looking down to the right I saw Keith finally get of the mark, fishing double cat meat he soon had the fish under control and in the net.......................... a 2" Rudd.

Paul was fishing The Method with his little red men as hookbait, and only a lightning reaction saved his new Preston Carbonactive going for a swim as he was finally into one. Now they reckon you can't lock up a Carbonactive, but Paul seemed a tad reluctant to try this theory out despite encouragement from the rest of us.

Meanwhile Simon(me) was devastating the resident Perch with paste while studiously avoiding any nuisance Carp, leaving these for Dirk on his right.

After my carp under the platform out came the bung and a foot and a bit of elastic removed and I soon had a common in the net. However I then had a spell where I pulled out of three fish. Sympathy and advise flowed freely of course, telling me that I'd removed to much, Malc even offering some superglue so I could stick the discarded elastic back on. It really does your heart good to be sharing the bank with such caring mates.

Further down Matt could be seen fishing his usual tidy match, though we were treated to a couple of box climbing incidents (no photo though as we've seen it all before )

With a couple of hours to go I had 5 Carp and had lost 3, and both Paul and Dirk had caught me with 5 Carp each, however I then had 3 more in rapid succession to pull away from them again.
Going into the last half hour I managed one more, but lost another two, while Simon finally finally found himself attached to something other than a Perch, however after a high speed charge through Dirks swim he managed to lose the nuisance.

6·30pm and the all out saw Paul still refusing to try out the anti-lock properties of his new rod as he brought a final Carp to the net.

With Malc doing the Honours on the scales my 9 carp weighed 59lbs 12ozs, enough for 4th overall and a 1st in section.

 Dave (yorkie) Moore took the honours on the day with a fine 84lb bag, while MarkC on yet another end peg!!!!!! was just edged  out into 3rd by Matt, both having 70lbs+ bags.

Back to the pub for the results and a pint, an enjoyable day all round, and well done to Nick WP (Monkey) who picked up his section money with a fine 40lbs+, his best Jinx result so far.

Next up Manor Farm for the penultimate round of the series, should be fun.

The JINX Series 2006

Match 3.

Well after the disaster that was Earlswood, The Jinx Squad moved on to Drayton Reservoir for the 3rd match of the series

As with all things to do with The Jinx, things however weren't as smooth as they could have been and instead of the pegs on the boards that had been fishing well beside the sailing club we ended up with pegs 1-20 in the shallows at the end of the walkway.

At least Malc had managed to arrive on time so we had plenty of time after the draw for the trek to our allocated pegs allowing us sufficent time to tackle up.

Things had been looking good in the week prior to our match, with all areas fishing well and plenty of fish coming out all over. However things can change and it was soon clear looking down the walkway that the weights would not be as high as we hoped when after an hour only a couple of fish had been landed.

I was on peg 7, and all I ended up with was 1 carp for 8lbs.
Eric on peg 6 however managed to put a few together late on to weigh 44lbs 8ozs and take 2nd place......

....just pushing young Dave Ashby into 3rd place by 4ozs.

Winner on the day however was Brian Bevan who managed 7 fish in the last hour on the long pole for a very creditable 68lbs 8ozs.

With 19 anglers fishing on the day and only 2 DNW's the total weight put on the scales was 433lb 14oz, which goes to show just how hard the venue fished on the day.

Next up it's Stockton on July 29th.

The NKH Club Weekend.

Due to a few matters arising from the cancellation of this years Northern Fish-In, a few of us decided to have a weekend away, and that's how we ended up in the car park at Yateley on Friday morning.

Those present were Dave, Stu, Jason, Beebs and Myself.

Unfortunately Trogg with his 24/7 work pattern and Dirk with a previous commitment to the South Cerney Festival couldn't attend, but Jason (NoFinPhish) living about 5 minutes away decided to join us.

The plan was for a 48hr session from Friday to Sunday, and Friday 11·30am saw us all pulling into the carpark for a recce round the lake.

With the temperature edging into the 30's, we settled for 5 pegs on the left hand bank (11-15) that offered plenty of shade amongst the trees and allowed us to unload the cars at our pegs rather than cart it right round the lake. Slowly we settled into our pegs, the heat even in the shade ensuring we all worked up a sweat.

I was in peg 11 and in common with the others soon realised that this wasn't your average gravel pit. Instead of the expected variations in depth and features, there appeared to be a constant depth of 4-5 ft as far as you could cast. There was even a distinct lack of weed as it had been treated as there had evidently been complaints that there was to much earlier in the year.

I set up both my rods with method feeders, 1 with a Pulse boilie and the other with maggots, hoping to gradually lay down a bed of bait, and I also set up a float rod for a bit of fun if needed.
As the afternoon moved on we all settled down and with 14 baits in the water awaited developments.

By 7pm we hadn't managed a run between us so it was decided to adjourn to the local pub for a pint (purely to replace lost fluids) and to get some grub in the form of a takeaway as the pub didn't serve food on a Friday night.

Fed and watered we all settled back in, sure that the evening would bring a drop in temperature would encourage the fish to have a graze and provide some action.

7am on Saturday with the temperature already climbing and the 5 of us were still fishless, not quite the plan but thing were sure to pick up sooner than later as a chap 2 pegs up from Dave had managed a 23lb'er during the night.
I decided that I needed to avoid a complete blank and cheated by sneaking over to the River Blackwater that ran behind with my float rod and some maggots and managed my 1st fish of the river season, a little chublet.

After another couple of similar size it was back to reality, and it was decided that a trip into Yateley for breakfast at the Café, though Beebs declined in favour of a bit more sleep.
Full and with the Saturday papers collected, we returned with renewed vigour, as fish could be seen moving so it was just a matter of time surely???

Well the day moved on, but still no fish, but at least the family of Great Crested Grebes were catching, allowing Dad to feed the kids.

Still no action to our rods, and with us all trying various combinations of baits and rigs, the papers were read from cover to cover and the only thing that moved apart from the Grebes & Coots were the swarms of Damselflies in the margins.

By 3·30pm with something like 350 rod hours and nothing to show for it Dave, Jason and I decided to watch the England match down the pub, while Stu and Beebs decided to stick it out as they didn't want to miss the moment when the fish switched on.

The match is probably best glossed over except to say that with England playing on a Saturday at 4pm with the temperature in the 30's, along with extra time and penalties it must qualify as a publicans idea of heaven.

On our return we were greeted with the news that there had been loads of fish in front of Stu and Beebs pegs but they had still refused to feed.
However Beebs had the barbecue going and if nothing else we were fed. A couple of beers, cider in Beebs case and it was back to the swims for another concerted effort.

Around 10pm I heard an alarm off to my left, and looking up could see Stu running towards Dave's swim, grabbing the camera I was off in hot pursuit.
I arrived to find Dave obviously into a decent fish with Jason standing by ready to do the business with the net. Slowly Dave was gaining line as we all held our breath and there it was in the net.
Onto the mat and as the net was pulled back we could see it was an absolutely cracking Mirror which pulled the scales round to 27lbs on the button and a new PB for Dave.

Handshakes and back slaps all round and we were all off back to our swims with renewed vigour, leaving Dave alone with his thoughts.
The early morning brought nothing more than a couple of runs, 1 for Stu and 1 for Beebs but alas no more fish.

Around 9·30am we had started to break our bivvies down in preparation as we had to vacate the swims at noon.At 10am I had just driven my car down to start loading up when I heard a buzzer go and Beebs call that he was in!!!
The fish was giving a good account of itself, but with no snags to speak of, there was only going to be one outcome and it was soon safely netted.
The fish itself turned out to be a fully scaled Mirror with a marked kink in it's tail that weighed just over 14lbs, and the look on Beebs face shows just how pleased he was with it.

So that was it, session over. With the temperatures in the mid 30's all weekend it wasn't the most productive by a long way, but the good company made up in some measure for the lack of fish. Hopefully we'll do it all again, but with a few more fish.

The JINX Series 2006

Match 2.

How can you do a report on a match where 75% of the field blanked?

I arrived early as is my custom when I haven't been to a venue before, so that I could have a stroll round and try to get a feel for the place.

My 1st impression was "Where has all the water gone?" the level must have been nearly 5ft down with every platform completely out of the water.

Malc had actually arrived early along with his community care worker (Gemma) and with the draw almost happening on time we set off to our pegs.
I had drawn peg 40, a nice short walk and was soon set up.......

.......Looks lovely doesn't it?
Frankly I could have put the whole thing into a glass case and exhibited it at the Tate Modern as a still life.

The only thing that disturbed the water all day were a pair of Great Crested Grebes, and even they didn't catch anything and departed for more prolific parts.

..........and that was all the action in the surrounding pegs for the whole day.

Poor young David A to my left actually had a bite on the feeder, but didn't connect. Antwood on the next peg round was looking like a man that needed the phone number of Samaritans......

........ while further along Paul at least had a smile on his face, but that was probably because he knew he had a can of beer in his bag

During the day of course the banter was flowing, especially from the beach on the right hand side.....

........ and just to put the finishing touch, Malc (who is now so tanned/burnt that he looks like a stick of Pepperami )Latched into a carp and lands it with 3 mins to go, despite throwing himself in up to his neck.

Unfortunately the day was marred by both Nick (polepot) and Matt having pole sections smashed by inconsiderate members of the public, both of whom refused to admit any liability and refused to supply any details so that Insurance claims could be made.

So, a 260 mile round trip for sweet FA, and next up for those of us fishing The Jinx Series? another supposed British Waterways Superwater....... DRAYTON!!!! I can hardly wait.

is alive and well and making us all suffer.

Matt Nutt's Charity Match
supporting
The Disabled-Angler.Co.Uk

Charities Championship 2006

Well 20 anglers assembled in the car park at Rolf's Lake to take part in this Charity Match organised by Matt Nutt of G.O.T. Baits to support the fund raising efforts of The Disabled-Angler.Co.Uk .
They are running a series of matches over the course of the year leading up to an All Winners Final to be fished at Holly Farm on Sept 30th, and while this match wasn't a qualifier, the aim was to boost the funds for the chosen charities: Macmillan (Cancer relief) & Francis House (Children’s Hospice).

The warmest day of the year so far, with the sun streaming from a clear blue sky greeted those who had traveled from as far away as Yorkshire and Wales, such is the draw that Rolf's Lake exerts, being the venue where Gary Thorpe broke The World Match Record with a phenomenal weight of 490lb 8oz.

As always Rolf's proved that it's not the easy venue that some would have you believe, and while some anglers caught well, others struggled as the fish in some pegs seemed more intent in lapping up the sunshine than feeding.

The winner on the day was Matt Nutt with an excellent bag of 231lbs from peg 19 caught on G.O.T 6mm hookers fished up in the water over sprayed caster .

Second on the day was a 1st time visitor to Rolf's, Stuart Joy with a very creditable 142lbs from peg 8 .

While third place was filled by the irrepressible Malc Doyle, better know as The Jinx with a hard earned 114lbs 2ozs .

Spreading the spoils around on the day were the 4 section winners

1st time visitor Wayne Panting from the Disabled Angler website putting together a 70lb net off of Peg 1 late on as the fish made him wait.

Jason Grant with 48lbs 14ozs from a jacuzzi of a swim that proved to be hard work on a day.

Dirk Williams (The Dangler) himself, just missed out on the main frame and his 1st Rolf's Ton with a fine bag of 95lbs 8ozs.

While the final section place went to Keith Ashby aka Gandhi with a weight of 77lbs.

All in all a smashing day, A Big Thank You to Matt for a very well organised match, and to all the anglers who attended on the day who raised a very creditable £575 boosting the overall total so far raised to £1129.
Hopefully we can do it all over again next year.

Results on the day:

_____________________________

From my own point of view the day went something like this...............

Having had an early phone call to Dave, only to find that his Tom Tom was on the blink, I finally caught up with him in the services at junction 8, after he'd finished feeding his face we set off for Rolf's.

Arriving in the car park, it was soon obvious that the usual suspects along with a few new faces were present and with the sun blazing out of the sky a fun filled day was in the offering .

It was good to see Wayne in attendance along with his mum, and a quick look at the lake revealed that the carp were enjoying the sun on their backs as plenty were basking and soaking up the rays.

Into the draw and with Matt drawing 19 a few were already thinking that they were fishing for 2nd at best .

I found myself on 38 by the boat in the corner and was soon set up and went for a stroll round. Up on the car park bank a few of the lads could be found discussing the prospects for the day ahead....

The JINX Series 2006

Match 1.

Well I met up with a few of the lads in the services on the M40 beforehand and around 11·30 we made our way down to Rolf's.
Once in the car park it was soon obvious that nothing had changed and that yet again The Jinx Series was going to be a monumental festival of p*ss taking & fun.
Nick had kindly sorted some shirts for the series and here's the proof........

I was a little taken aback at the draw to recieve a presentation from Malc! however the contents of the envelope set the tone for the day! A set of Lime Green pants with no arse in them. (Maria says they'll avoid the skidmarks at least!!!) and No I don't have a photo of them, but I'm sure someone has.

So draw done and off to our respective pegs. A nice short 5 yard walk for me to peg 30. Rolf has just started rebuilding the pegs and this is the 1st one he's completed, Nice new platform and steps down to it, a real armchair job . To my right was Dan who didn't look to happy as he had a few bad memories of being pegged next to me at Rolf's last year, and to my left I was a little concerned to see Pete Thompson (quietman), who has probably spent more time than most at Rolf's over the years and has a pretty good idea of what makes he place tick.

Due to changes to rules and pellets available at Rolf's this year, a few questions have sprung up over the best way to approach things. I had been a couple of times already this season and had frankly struggled coming to terms with it, so for this match I decided to go with what I know, and that was to fish 6mm GOT expanders over loose fed hemp, at a distance I could throw the feed to, hopefully keeping things nice and simple.

As usual with The Jinx matches things were running a bit late and the all in came at 1·30, called by myself as Malc didn't have a watch with him.

Almost straight away David on peg 28 seemed intent on taking the place apart, his 1st fish took a bare hook as he shipped out a pot of pellet and every time i looked around his black hydro seemed to be streaming out.

Things were not quite so hectic for the rest of us, with a few skimmers and the odd carp just keeping things ticking over, though Pete did manage to bag a specimen perch .......

Slowly but surely things started to inprove though, Paul (Mr Buckethead aka Turkish) Finally managed to catch a carp at Rolf's, not just the one either..........

MarkC was putting a few together on peg 32 including some perch in a pretty mixed bag.........

Nick (polepot) came wandering along, hoping for some clues as he was having a bit of a mare, Having drawn peg 34 it seemed that everyone had given him different advise, and if that wasn't bad enough he was trying to get to grips with using a new pole and Hydro for the 1st time. To top it all off he had been further traumatised by watching Malc strip down to his underpants (thankfully a site I missed) and leap in to retrieve a top kit.

By mid afternoon the carp seemed to settle on my feed and I started to put a few together,

David was still in regular action although it was hard to judge the stamp of his fish as he was on Black Hydro.
Matt across on peg 12 was putting together a decent bag having started to sneak a few lumps out from down the edge, you could tell they were decent fish as periodicaly he could be seen climbing onto his box in an attempt to net them .....

Finally the all out came at 6·30 just as I had connected to a final carp that was foulhooked in the tail, a few anxious moments while I tried to get his propeller out of the water to subdue it followed before I managed to net it.

Packing up and taking my gear back prior to the weigh-in, I heard a sound that I couldn't quite place till I realised it was coming from Dai's car!!!!!!!! The engine was running, and had been running for the whole match!!!!!!!! Luckily Dai still had ½ a tank of fuel and at least it was nicely warmed up for a quick get away.

Back for the weigh-in and my 50lbs odd of weighers with what was in my net gave me 125lbs overall which was enough for my section as David had 110lbs (more fish, but a smaller stamp) still allowing both of us to join the exclusive 100lbs+ JINX CLUB.I believe Antwood also joined us on his very 1st Jinx match and Matt took the overall honours on the day with a fine 139lb bag from the little used peg 12.

Finally as this was Churt's Memorial Match, the trophy should have been presented to Matt, but Malc had forgotten it!!!!!!!!
No Surprise there then.

However SteveW and myself did FINALLY get our hands on the Pairs Trophy we won last series.........

.......however as it has to go away for engraving that's probably be the last we'll see of it.

So that's it, 1 down, 5 to go and on to Engine Pool, It should be fun, but with The Jinx you never know.

Individual Results on the day were as follows

You can find Rolf's own report HERE.

Marsh AC club match.

Well what a day!!!!!!!

I was at Hartleylands today on the reservoir to fish a match as a guest of Dave the Fish and his clubmates of Marsh AC. A glance round the car park revealed I wasn't the only one, as Jess & Szabi (jackcatcher & tinkerbelle), Terry (wily coyote) appeared, and a brief walk round revealed that the Carp's thoughts had turned to Lurrrrrrrrrrve as they thrashed around in the marginal reeds.

Draw time saw me get peg20 in the far corner where the inlet pipe comes in. The initial plan was to fish the baggin waggler as it had produced well for me on a previous visit to the venue with Terry the previous month, with the option of fishing paste in the margins later on.

At the all in, I immediately fed 3pints of hemp into each margin, then went out with the Baggin wag. An hour in and despite recasting every 60 seconds to get plenty of bait in I only had 3 small Carp to show for it. The wind was blowing from left to right and into my bank and I was having problems with the presentation, so decided to have a look at the margin.

Out with a bit of paste into the left hand margin, and almost straight away the float buried and a plump little Common of around 3lbs was soon in the net. I started to put a few together but was having trouble with liners, it seemed that there were to many fish in the swim despite me relying purely on struck off paste to do any feeding.

Jess wandered up to try and gather a few tips, but all i could advise was to stick at it, as trying to perfect paste fishing is hard enough, without the added complication of getting used to a pole for the 1st time in a match, which is what Jess was trying to do.

Dave arrived with a welcome hot pie from the farm shop at around 1pm, and shortly after disaster struck. I had latched into a very decent double that appeared jet propelled and it managed to bottom out Red Hydro . Something had to give and unfortunately it was the number 4 section with a BANG followed by a rather loud expletive . The reservoir is deep and all to soon the topkit and what was left of the number 4 was re-enacting The Titanic . Why is Malc never around when you need him????

With no spare number 4 with me it was out with the margin pole to resume once I had calmed down, and slowly started to get a few more by alternating between the left and right hand margins.

With an hour to go Dave wandered up from 2 pegs down to see how I was doing, and ponder whether he should stick with the paste for the last hour.
My swim was getting stronger & stronger and I took my empty silvers net out and replaced it with another carp net as I was pretty sure that there were a good few fish in the 1st one.

The last hour went well with fish coming from both margins, until with 5 mins to go, another lump took off and just kept going!!!!. Something had to give and this time it was the dual core that the kit was rigged up with , and that was it for the match.

Weigh in time and Paul the bailiff arrived to do the honours. John on peg 1 (the willow) got things started with a 50lbs+ net, Terry on peg 8 with another despite protesting that he'd struggled. Colin was well up with a 60lb+ net and the lad next to him just missed out on 50lbs by ounces.

I was next up and I pulled my 2nd net first, which weighed 45lbs, not bad for 55 minutes fishing . Pulling up the other net I realised that I would need a hand, and sure enough there was over 100lbs of fish in there!!!
My total weight came out at 152lbs 4ozs, and represents my best ever weight in a match. To top it off Paul (The Bailiff) told me it was the best weight of the Reservoir so far this year.

Tony, next peg down also manage a 100lb+ bag at 107lbs though he had taken most of his fish on corn whereas I had had all mine on paste bar the 3 i had on the Baggin Wag at the start.

Next up was Dave the Fish with a 70lb+ bag, a third of which came in the last hour as he stuck with the paste.

Finally we got to Jess & Szabi and while Jess managed a creditable 30lb bag in his 1st match with a pole, however Szabi inevitably beat him with a 40lb bag.

So there we are a smashing days fishing (in more ways than one) in excellent company.
Finally a BIG THANK YOU to Dave and the lads & lasses of Marsh AC for allowing me to join them, a pleasure as always and I look forward to doing it again if they'll allow me.

Rolf's Teams of 3. Spring League.

Well the 2nd round of the series and I drew peg 31 on C section, (the previous winning peg) but for me that was just about the highlight .

At the moment Rolf's hasn't settled down with the fish seemingly content to stay in various pegs and avoid others at all costs.
The change in pellet supplier along with a ban on how much you can feed has also effected the water, and in my opinion the new feed pellet is of such poor quality, that the fish appear to actually back off from swims where it's fed .
I feel that the way forward may be to feed Hemp or groundbait in the future ignoring pellet all together, but only time will tell.

Back to the match and just 4 bites produced 3 small carp for me weighing a meagre 13lbs for 2 points .
Keith in B section managed 31lbs 8ozs for 3 points.

The star on the day for the F4W team was Steve Wilson who weighed 97lbs 8ozs from peg 34 for a section win and 8 points, finishing overall runner-up in the match .

This leaves F4W tied on 22 points in 5th after 2 rounds of the series.

Rolf's Teams of 3. Spring League.

Well Sunday morning found me loading the kit into the car for a 70 mile trip to Rolf's Lake in Oxfordshire where I was taking part in the Spring Teams of 3 League with Malc and Nick as part of the Fish4Wales Team .

It was dull and overcast with the threat of rain and a fine drizzle would come and go all day leaving everything soaked by the end .

Waiting in the car park for the draw Malc decided to sort out a couple of rigs for the match ahead. Reaching into his seat box he produced this............

Good Friday, and Maria declares this morning that she's going over to visit one of her friends, so why don't I pop out for a days fishing?
Why not indeed, I've got plenty of pellets and corn, so fill the flask and load up the car and by 9·30am i'm pulling into the carpark at Hartleylands.

Plenty of cars and people gave notice of a busy day, so I popped up to the reservoir to have a look round.
Right on cue as I got out of the car the drizzle started, but I had a stroll round anyway, but as I reached peg 8 i spotted a friendly face in the shape of Terry aka Wily Coyote.
After a brief chat I retieved my gear and settled down on peg 7 next to Terry. It was bit windy from our right to left, but a relatively mild 12 degrees and overcast. Most anglers including Terry were fishing feeders or ledger rigs of various descriptions, but one chap on what looked like peg 13 was catching on a Baggin Wag, showing that some of the fish had to be up in the water.

I set up a waggler to give the pellet a go up in the water, but after an hour without a touch that's up the bank and it's time to christen my new Okuma Twin tip Avon rod, pairing it up with my Capricorn 3500 to fish a Baggin Wag with hair rigged corn 2ft deep. Groundbait was simply GOT Baits pure brown crumb with a couple of handfulls of Swimstim Micro's added.

Within 10 minutes I was into my 1st carp of the day, a really plump fish that Terry and I thought might scrape 10lbs

Terry on seeing this decided to have some of that, as he'd only managed 4 of 5 skimmers up to that point.
He was soon into action

The resulting fish while not being the largest was at least most welcome

I soon had another mirror of a similar stamp to my 1st

however sport was never fast and furious with gaps between bites, then 2 or 3 fish and another gap, well for me at least, Terry was having one of those days where he couldn't buy another bite.

About 12·30 the sky became greyer and the wind got up a bit more, brollies were raised and then the rain came.
At this point Terry's umbrella decided to snap and collapse on him.
Such was the change in the weather that I phoned Malc just to check whether he was in the area???
Having been told it was sunshine and Teeshirt weather in Wales followed by howls of laughter, i bid him a fond farewell just as the rain started to ease.

I seemed to get a run of fish, either mirrors or commons, 2 or 3 at a time, it was if the fish were cruising in small pods.

The commons, while not the largest at the moment, are truely lovely fish, fighting fit and as fat as butter, indeed all the fish appear to have wintered well and bulked up.

As the afternoon went on the wind dropped and the sun tried to poke through the clouds. Terry reverted to the feeder, but alas it wasn't going to produce anything for him, Meanwhile I managed my 20th carp of the day and tried to look apologetic as Terry did the honours with the camera for me once more.

Back to the Baggin Wag for Terry, but still no joy as I coaxed another couple, and as 4·30 arrived I slid my 25th carp of the session over the net, a nicely marked mirror around the 12lb mark

Terry and I looked at each other and decided to call it quits. A good day for me, but one of almost total frustration for Terry, hard to credit that at times our floats were a matter of feet from each other with such wildly different results, but I suppose that's the enigma of fishing.

My thanks to Terry for his company on the day, we must do it again, hopefully with a more even result next time.