Clive

  • Monk Lakes. Match Lake 4.

     Marsh AC club match.

    Match Lake 4 at Monk Lakes.

    Well today would see me fishing the first Marsh AC match of the season down at Monk Lakes on Match Lake 4 . Having not fished since the last club match in the middle of October I was really looking forward to this, getting back on the bank and blowing a few cobwebs away. I was soon back into the old routine, up early, get the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee for myself before loading up the car and setting off for the venue.
    It was a dull grey overcast morning as I drove down toward Staplehurst with the temperature showing just 8°C . I'd like to say that it was an uneventful trip, but a bit of debris falling from a truck I was following shot under the car, with a bang signalling that it had hit something!!!!! The centre box of the exhaust as it happens, which will now need fixing . Anyway I made it to the fishery with Rod and Clive arriving behind me. Getting out of the cars Clive looked around and uttered the immortal words "Well at least it isn't windy"....he really should have known better .

    Over to the food bar for a breakfast roll and a cuppa where a healthy turn out of club members was assembling along with Mick the Chippy who was my guest for the day .
    The draw took a little longer than usual as Dave had club fees to collect, but the draw was soon underway and I found peg 154 was mine while Mick drew 155 meaning we would have a good old chat today if nothing else.

    Peg Plan for the match.

    Into the cars and up to the lake, I soon had my gear at my peg as I was able to park within 20 yards of it. I can't say I was delighted with it as pegs 154-160 are generally regarded as "The Corner of Death" and not the most favoured to say the least, but hopefully we would still get a few .

    As we started to set up the wind got up, a nasty chill north easterly from my right blowing down into the corner, making it feel cooler still . Having not fished for a while it took a bit longer than usual to get set up, even though I was going to keep it pretty simple today. Just 2 top kits loaded with black hydro and a couple of rigs the first was an 0·4 NG XT Gimp on 0·14 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X to fish on the deck at around 10mtrs, while the second was a, 0·3 NG XT Power Pencil Mk 2 again on 0·14 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for a 4mtr line on the deck. Both lines had a similar 4ft of depth. Bait for the day was going to be a mix of maggot and hard 6mm pellet along with some 6mm GOT Rippers .

    Peter had drawn peg 154 today

    Mick meanwhile had the site of a couple of randy swans on his pole line that decided it was the perfect time and spot to make cygnets !!!!!!!!!!!!! Thankfully they soon departed though.
    Kev also appeared with a welcome cup of coffee from Jean . Dave signalled the All-In at 10am and I fed a mixed pot of maggot and pellet at 10mtrs, before starting with double red maggot over it, while Mick started on the method just short of the island. Mick was soon off the mark with a gudgeon which led to a discussion of the merits of the humble gobio and soon followed it with a small carp and another gudgeon before my float dipped and I bumped a bottle top off. However it was soon followed by another, all of 2 inches long, but at least I landed it saving myself the dreaded DNW .

    I could already hear splashing from up on peg 151 though where Al was able to fish across to the side of the island in relative comfort and seemed to be catching carp already.
    Mick was ticking along till he got broken by an unseen denizen of the deep, but I was starting to worry about the destination of the Golden Nugget that was riding on our head to head. Maggot appeared to just attract tiny skimmers and roach so a pot of 6mm's was followed by the rig with a 6mm ripper on the hook. a bit of lifting and dropping resulted in a positive bite and finally a carp was on it's way to the net, a nice plump little mirror of around 1½lbs .

    It was still hard graft for me, though Mick kept slipping one or two into the net. By 12o'clock I just had 6 carp and that solitary tiny skimmer to show for my efforts so I fed 3 handfuls of pellet onto the 4mtr line and decided to take a stroll with the camera .

    Rod and Ken on the other bank of the Corner of Death were having an ever worse time of it than Mick and I as they had the North Easterly blowing full into their faces ......

    Rod and Ken had the wind in their faces all match

    Graham at least was sheltered by the island, but was still having a struggle to find some fish and had an early look down his margin with some paste to try and snare a carp or two ......

    An early look down the margin for Graham

    Vic's peg looked lovely but he was having to work hard for fish that really didn't want to play ball ........

    Vic was working hard on peg 162

    Kev was also struggling despite encouragement from Jean (at least I think that was what it was ) I found Tony fishing his right hand margin as his main swim appeared to have died on him, and was lucky enough to get him to pose for a photo with his next fish ........

    A gudgeon for Tony

    Simon was struggling as well despite using his new Maver Elite Carp for the first time and I managed to talk him into letting me have a go with it. A nice pole, but not for me as the balance didn't feel quite right I'm afraid even after I got Simon to fit the 13mtr extension the right way round .

    Round to Keith who complained he was being battered by Mick on the next peg, but he was soon into a fish, but as I raised the camera for an action shot the hook gave way. The curse of the camera? who knows but I felt it best to depart before copping a top two round the ear-hole .

    Chris was whittling a few out on his first session since recovering from his broken arm, while Dave had gone for a stroll. Looking back though I could see that Keith and Mick were having a good old ding-dong with the two of them both playing fish ......

    Keith and Mick were having a good battle on adjacent pegs

    Clive seemed utterly miserable as he found fishing at 16mtrs to reach the island to much in the wind that was buffeting him and had resorted to the feeder but with little joy . It didn't help that he had to watch Al on the next peg catching well from the side of the island as it sheltered him from the wind, and it was pretty obvious already that he would be the one to beat today ......

    Al had the island to himself on peg 151

    As I returned to my peg Jean arrived with a welcome cuppa and a cheeseburger from the food bar, so that was consumed before I got back to the business in hand.
    Time to attack the 4mtr line and see if I could make something happen. Feed a small handful of 6mm's and swing a banded 6mm out to the same spot. A couple of lift and drops and the job's a good un as the float buried resulting in a nice little Mirror . It was never hectic but by sticking at it I soon had small carp and F1's coming regularly to the net, forcing Mick into trying a similar approach in an effort to avoid the loss of a Golden Nugget.

    Fortunately for me, I managed to keep them coming at a greater rate than Mick and when Dave called the All-Out at 4pm we both knew the destination of the Nugget.

    With the kit back in the cars the Weigh-In started at Mick's peg with a hard earned 39½lbs while my net came to a level 63lbs . John chipped in with 23½lbs. Al had made the most of his island peg with a fine 113½lbs . Clive had suffered with just 29lbs and Martin had fared even worse with 17¾lbs . Dave and Chris had had 84lbs and 53lbs and Jim 27½lbs. Mick's 83lbs left him short of Keith's 97½lbs. Zack added 23lbs to the total and Simon could only muster 20lbs while Terry was rewarded with 46lbs. Tony put 61½lbs on the scales, while Jean's coaching had resulted in 37lbs for Kev. Vic's hard work produced 70¼lbs for him while Graham could only muster 20½lbs. Rod and Ken finished things off with 9½lbs and 18¾lbs respectively.

    Back to the car park for the results, with Al taking the win . Keith second and Dave 3rd 3rd .   Al, Dave, Keith and Vic taking the sections on the day and Mick's Golden Nugget found a new home in my pocket .

    Next up for me is Al's Knock Up at Hawkhurst on the 14th so keep your eyes out for that report .

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 151 Al Loader   113lbs 08ozs
     2nd Peg 141 Keith Ashby    97lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 146 Dave Collier    84lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 142 Mick Wright    83lbs 00ozs
     5th Peg 162 Vic Nugent    70lbs 04ozs
     6th Peg 154 Peter Morton    63lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 136 Tony Roberts    61lbs 08ozs
     8th Peg 145 Chris Withall    52lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg 137 Terry Goff    46lbs 00ozs
     10th Peg 155 Mick PearsonGuest   39lbs 08ozs
     11th Peg 163 Kevin Loveland    37lbs 00ozs
     12th Peg 150 Clive Pritchard    29lbs 00ozs
     13th Peg 143 Jim Boase    27lbs 08ozs
     14th Peg 152 John Holdsworth    23lbs 08ozs
     15th Peg 139 Zack Johnson    23lbs 00ozs
     16th Peg 161 Graham Manning    20lbs 08ozs
     17th Peg 138 Simon Watkins    20lbs 00ozs
     18th Peg 158 Ken Walker    18lbs 12ozs
     19th Peg 148 Martin Hucker    17lbs 12ozs
     20th Peg 159 Rod Turner     9lbs 08ozs

     

  • Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir.

    Marsh AC club match.

    Hartleylands Farm Reservoir

    Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrook in Kent is the venue today for the final Marsh AC match this year. The club has booked The Reservoir for today, which should make a nice change as we normally fish Nick's Lake . It was an early start for me as I'd arranged to meet up with Mick Pearson who was coming along as my guest today for a spot of breakfast prior to the match.
    There was a noticeable chill in the air as I loaded up the car, and as I made my way down the temperature was only registering 4°C on the car thermometer . I arrived at The Knoxbridge Café just after 7am to find Mick waiting for me. We were soon tucking into a hearty breakfast and catching up with events since we'd last met. Kevin & Jean along with Graham,John,Martin and Zack arrived for breakfast as well, and with that taken care of it was just a matter of a five minute drive up to the fishery.

    Pulling into the car park it was the usual hive of activity as greetings were exchanged and tackle was assembled prior to the draw ......

    Gathering up all the kit prior to the draw

    Paul East was actually fishing today!!!! complete with new shuttle, space station and pole that he's treated himself to, but unfortunately there were a few faces missing due to a combination of work, illness and prior engagements , which meant there were just 15 of us fishing, but with the whole reservoir booked it meant that we would have plenty of space. A quick chat with the bailiff revealed there had been a frost this morning and the day before, not the best of news as it may have had an effect on the fish feeding, though it promised to be a nice sunny day with what wind there was, blowing toward the earlier pegs.

    Just after 8·30am Dave started the draw and I found peg 16 sticking to my hand, probably the furthest walk, but the end of the reservoir I prefer. You can see where it is, and where everyone ended up on the peg plan below ......

    Peg Plan for todays match

    As I made my way round I found Terry was on peg 18, where he'd fished a couple of weeks ago, while Zack was on peg 20, the peg I'd fished with Dave keeping him company on peg 21 along with Chris who'd come along to watch again as his hand is still in plaster . Settling my gear into the peg I planned to tackle it in a similar way to the way I'd fished peg 20 a couple of weeks ago, and that was to just fish 2 lines, the first at 2 sections and a top 2 straight out where I had around 4 feet of water and the second down the left and right hand margins. Rigs were two 4x12 CX pencils on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 14 Guru MWG's for straight out and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 14 Guru MWG for the margin line. Bait today was simply 6mm pellet for feed and 8mm pellet for the hook ......

    Peg 16 was mine for the match

    With a bit of time before the off, I took a stroll down to see Mick and Paul who were on pegs 12 & 10 and the side bet of a 'Golden Nugget' was struck with Mick who was obviously confident in the pulling power of MaryQ . Jean had provided a welcome cup of coffee which went down well as the breeze had a bit of a nip to it as we waited for the start. As I sat there I couldn't help noticing that some of the colour seemed to have dropped out of the water, no doubt due to those first frosts, would it effect things? We'd soon find out .

    10am and Dave called the All-In, I was determined to be positive and fed a good handful of pellet straight out and down the margins before shipping a banded 8mm out in front. The first couple of put ins resulted in a couple of tentative dips of the float that I didn't connect with, but the third put in saw me connect with what was obviously a carp, they do pull a bit these reservoir carp as they seek the deeper water, but steady pressure soon took its toll as a feisty Mirror found its way to the waiting landing net, at around 4lbs a nice way to get off the mark .

    Bites weren't coming instantly like they were a couple of weeks ago, but by feeding every put in and continually working the bait there were bites to be had, and in what seemed like no time at all I'd put 8 carp in the nets . The reality was that it had taken 50 minutes as I looked at my watch which said 10 to 11. I really shouldn't have looked though, as that seemed to be the signal for the fish to switch off .

    The next hour or so was pure torture as there wasn't a bite to be had, but from what I could hear and see everyone else seemed to be pretty much in the same boat, though I was sure I'd heard a top kit smash from down toward Paul's peg . I could see that nothing had touched the bait in the margins as the water hadn't coloured up at all, but I kept bait trickling in on all the lines as I didn't want fish to move in and find nothing to hold them. Around midday I'd heard that Mick and Paul had taken a few fish, so fed a good handful straight out and took a stroll with the camera to see what was happening and take my mug back to Jean .

    It appeared that Mick was alternating between a pole line and the method feeder to tempt a few fish and he was owning up to around 25lbs in the net, though as I strolled away he was into another fish on the feeder ......

    Mick playing a fish taken on the feeder

    Paul revealed that the earlier sound of splintering carbon had indeed coming from his peg, his top kit not being up to the task of heaving a double figure carp into his landing net when it had other ideas ......

    Chris chatting to Paul on peg 10

    Kevin was having a real struggle as were Rod and Martin on that bank, in fact it was hard to tell if Martin was watching the tip of his feeder rod or just staring despondently into the distance ......

    Not the best of days for Martin

    Round to peg 29 and there was Clive struggling for a bite on the peg that according to the bailiff had won the last match with 176lbs, talk about "You should have been here last week" added to which was the fact that the peg was in almost total shade, it would be fair to say that the moustachioed one wasn't exactly ecstatic with the prospect of another few hours sat there .......

    Clive was having a grueller today

    Ken wasn't fairing a whole lot better on 27, another shaded peg, though he had a few small silvers in the net to show for his efforts ......

    Ken on peg 27

    Graham was next up on the last of the shaded pegs and was just unhooking a small roach as I arrived, always positive he was hopeful that a few carp would put in an appearance later in the day .....

    Graham was taking a few silvers and waiting for the carp to show

    onto 23 and Nick at least had a carp in the net to show for his efforts, while Dave had managed 3 carp early before they switched off, but he was now feeding small pinches of hemp with a tare on the hook trying to tempt some roach, and while he was getting the odd one or two, even they were proving reluctant to feed .......

    Dave was trying to tempt a few roach with tares

    On peg 20 Zack had concentrated on his right hand margin from the off and it had yielded a carp and a few silvers for him, while Terry had been unable resist a look down his left hand margin having seen a fish down there .......

    Terry hoped there were carp in the margins

    Back at my peg and a glance down both margins revealed that nothing had visited for a munch so it was back out with a banded 8mm in front, followed by some pellets. A quick dip of the float followed by a lift saw me attached not to a carp but a skimmer, still it was something to add to the net even if it did slime me .
    Next put in and the same again only this time it wasn't a skimmer, obviously a substantial carp it powered off in unstoppable fashion, the rig returning with a straightened out hook Luckily I had a second identical rig to hand and the next 3 put ins saw 3 more skimmers deposited in the net. Next put in and a lift was met with stronger resistance, a carp this time, a chunky Common around the 6lbs mark and very welcome. This was rapidly followed by a similar sized Mirror that took a bit of getting in as it was hooked in the pectoral fin, but come in it did .

    This stirred the peg up a bit and led to a lull, but after around 10 minutes another skimmer joined its mates in the silvers net. By now Dave was targeting his margins and I watched as he landed a couple of carp, and I knew that if there were fish there he would give me a run for my money. Next put in and I was briefly attached to a lump that took off before launching itself out of the water like a Polaris missile and crashing back on the line smashing the rig .

    Time to compose myself and tie up another couple of rigs, and with that done get back to fishing. Kev appeared with another cup of coffee, but it dropped to the floor, emptying its contents before I could reach it . Kev trundled off with the empty cup after I retrieved it from the water promising a refill. 10 minutes later and Dave came wandering along to bring me the refill and tried to convince me that I already had 100lbs in my nets.............I wish .

    Unfortunately it was back to scratching for bites after that, though Dave gave us all a bit of amusement with the length of time he spent playing a Ghostie , but he had the last laugh as it ended safely in the net. Meanwhile I was just picking up the odd skimmer here and there. Terry however suddenly seemed to have the carp turn up in front of him with an hour to go , and Dave was still getting the odd fish from the margins. Thankfully I managed 3 more carp among the skimmers while Terry suffered a run of bumped bites and lost fish in the last 20 minutes .

    4pm and Dave called the All-Out. it had been a hard days fishing and the reservoir hadn't fished up to its potential. I felt I had around 70lbs in the nets, but I'd soon find out for sure come the Weigh-In .

    I packed my gear away but left it at my peg and went to get on with the Weigh-In. Rod kicked things off with just 9¼lbs while Martin could only muster 6lbs. Kev had 20¼lbs and John 14lbs proving just how hard the fishing on that bank had been . Paul despite his early woes had managed to get the better of a few decent lumps down the margin and put 77½lbs on the scales and take 2nd on the day . Mick had enjoyed his day with 52lbs, but Jim had suffered a torrid day with just 5¾lbs. I was next and my carp nets came up short of Paul's weight, but 15lbs of skimmers gave me a total of 81¾lbs and the win today . Terry had 50½lbs and Zack 29¼lbs. Dave's 69¼lbs took 3rd overall . Nick weighed 15lbs while Graham did manage some afternoon carp to take 42¼lbs to the scales. Ken had 8¾lbs while Clive was last to weigh with a level 20lbs.

    Back at the car park Dave collated the scores and monies with the top 3 taking their sections on the day and I relieved Mick of a 'Golden Nugget' before we loaded our gear up, bade our farewells and headed off for home .

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

     

    Weight

     1st Peg 16 Peter Morton     81lbs 12ozs
     2nd Peg 10 Paul East     77lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 21 Dave Collier     69lbs 04ozs
     4th Peg 12 Mick PearsonGuest    52lbs 00ozs
     5th Peg 18 Terry Goff     50lbs 08ozs
     6th Peg 25 Graham Manning     42lbs 04ozs
     7th Peg 20 Zack JohnsonGuest    29lbs 04ozs
     8th Peg 6 Kevin Loveland     20lbs 12ozs
     9th Peg 29 Clive Pritchard     20lbs 00ozs
     10th Peg 23 Nick BondeauGuest    15lbs 00ozs
     11th Peg 8 John Holdsworth     14lbs 00ozs
     12th Peg 2 Rod Turner      9lbs 04ozs
     13th Peg 27 Ken Walker      8lbs 12ozs
     14th Peg 4 Martin Hucker      6lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 14 Jim Boase      5lbs 12ozs

    The club does run a points table over the course of the matches (Guests results are not included in the table) and as you can see Dave Collier reaped the rewards of a very consistent season that included 3 match wins, coming out on top with 218 points 1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123 while I was Runner-Up with 204 points 2nd.gif 2nd picture by pnm123and Al finished 3rd on 194 points 3rd.gif 3rd picture by pnm123 despite missing the final Match. I'd just like to say Thank You to all the club members and guests who've fished this years matches. They've been great company on the bankside, with some hilarious banter meaning the matches have been enjoyable as always, and I'm looking forward to next year already .

    Finally, MANY THANKS to Dave Collier (Mr Chairman) for his organisational efforts on behalf of the club, we give him plenty of ribbing at times, but we do appreciate his efforts. .

    Position

    Angler

    Monk

    Rayne

    MillBarn

    Colemans

    Blasford

    Private

    Rockells

    Hartlylands

    Total Weight

    Points

     1st

     Dave Collier

    21

    30

    28

    27

    30

    24

    30

    28

    695lbs 12ozs

    		 218 pts
     2nd Peter Morton

    29

    27

    29

    29

    17

    25

    22

    30

    628lbs 00ozs

    		 208 pts
     3rd Al Loader

    30

    25

    30

    28

    27

    28

    29

    d.n.f

    702lbs 00ozs 

    		 197 pts
     4th Keith Ashby

    28

    26

    25

    26

    25

    29

    27

    d.n.f

    567lbs 12ozs

    		 186 pts
     5th Clive Pritchard

    27

    28

    d.n.f

    25

    26

    30

    19

    24

    453lbs 04ozs

    		 179 pts
     6th Terry Goff

    25

    18

    24

    24

    12

    22

    20

    27

    308lbs 08ozs

    		 172 pts
     7th= John Holdsworth

    20

    d.n.f

    20

    20

    19

    23

    28

    23

    330lbs 00ozs

    		 153 pts
     7th= Kevin Loveland

    23

    19

    21

    15

    14

    19

    17

    25

    172lbs 00ozs

    		 153 pts
     9th Martin Hucker

    d.n.f

    29

    15

    14

    23

    20

    26

    20

    350lbs 12ozs

    		 147 pts
     10th Jim Boase

    22

    21

    15

    12

    29

    d.n.f

    21

    19

    211lbs 08ozs

    		 139 pts
     11th Tony Roberts

    d.n.f

    23

    26

    30

    21

    d.n.f

    25

    d.n.f

    411lbs 04ozs

    		 125 pts
     12th Simon Watkins

    18

    25

    18

    18

    d.n.f

    21

    23

    d.n.f

    291lbs 04ozs

    		 123 pts
     13th Graham Manning

    24

    d.n.f

    19

    22

    28

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    26

    178lbs 04ozs

    		 119 pts
     14th Rod Turner

    15

    d.n.f

    22

    17

    21

    d.n.f

    18

    22

    109lbs 12ozs

    		 115 pts
     15th  Paul East

    26

    d.n.f

    16

    16

    d.n.f

    27

    d.n.f

    29

    227lbs 12ozs

    		 114 pts
     16th Ken Walker

    19

    d.n.f

    27

    21

    13

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    21

    127lbs 00ozs

    		 101 pts
     17th Vic Nugent

    d.n.f

    20

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    22

    26

    24

    d.n.f

    264lbs 12ozs

    		  92 pts
     18th Judy Hermite

    16

    16

    17

    13

    24

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    87lbs 08ozs

    		  86 pts
     19th Chris Withall

    17

    17

    23

    19

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    101lbs 12ozs

    		  76 pts
     20th=

     Ron Mannister

    d.n.f

    15

    d.n.f

    11

    16

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    31lbs 04ozs

    		  42 pts
     20th= Roger Noakes

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    23

    19

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    63lbs 08ozs

    		  42 pts
     22nd Eddie Dobson

    d.n.f

    22

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    15

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    59lbs 04ozs

    		  37 pts

    (d.n.f = Did not Fish. 30 = Match Winner.)

     

  • Alders Farm Fishery. Great Brickhill. Buckinghamshire.

    Aldersaward.jpg Alders Farm Match Lake.

    Marsh AC
    Alders Farm Fishery

    Well today sees me and some other members of Marsh AC visiting Alders Farm Fishery just outside the village of Great Brickhill. It's really nothing more than a friendly mid-week knock up that's been arranged by club member Keith Ashby who lives reasonably close to the fishery. It's a venue that's capable of throwing up some mega match weights, so it will be interesting to see how we get on fishing the Match Lake today .

    However that means an early start for me today to avoid as much weekday traffic as I can, so I'm up at silly O'clock and have the car loaded and ready to go in time to drop Maria off at work at 6am, then it's a case of driving straight through Central London to get onto the M1, then onto the A5 to get to Alders Farm. This saw me pulling into the car park just before 9am along with Al and Keith P . We soon had our kit unloaded and with our nets dipped and feed pellet purchased from Gary who pointed us in the right direction and we made our way down to the pump house where Gwen had kindly opened up so we could get a pre match bacon sarnie and a cuppa that was much appreciated . Joining us today were Trev and Bert from GOT Baits along with Mick and John B who work with Keith. Standing outside on the patio you could see plenty of carp cruising around Peg 1 and a couple of crusts were eagerly devoured by them. Trev as usual was a mine of information for those that hadn't fished the venue before . Unfortunately Simon phoned to say he'd had been delayed, so at 9·30am we went ahead with the draw and peg 1 was the one that ended up in my hand. Nice short walk then .

    Peg Plan for the match

    Unfortunately the weather had taken a bit of a turn for the worse after the glorious sunshine we'd had for the past few days with grey overcast skies and just the odd glimpse of sun along with a stiff wind blowing straight into the peg, but having been advised by Trev to stick to fishing top 2's and 3's hopefully that wouldn't be to much of a problem. Jean provided a welcome cuppa so I set about sorting out my gear. I elected to keep it simple and set up just 3 identical rigs. these were all 0·2 NG Mk 2 Edger's on 0·20 Ultima Power Match straight through to size 14 Guru MWG's. As it was just a friendly knock up bait was simply going to be the fishery 6mm pellet for feed and 8mm hard pellet for the hook, though Trev did give me some new 6mm hookers he's working on to try as well .

    Peg 1 for me today

    Simon had arrived by now and Keith delayed the start to give him a chance to set up, so I took a stroll to chat with Al and Keith on pegs 2 & 3. Unfortunately over on the other side Dave had taken a tumble getting down to his peg but Trev and the rest of the lads on his side rallied round to check that he was OK . Al appeared to be well up for it today with visions of breaking his match PB today from what was a decent peg ......

    Al getting ready for the All-In

    ......... while Keith had been put under a bit of pressure from the Alders regulars among us as they were of the opinion that he'd drawn 'The Flyer' in Peg 3, though in Keith's defence it should be noted that he doesn't fish that many matches there, not that it seemed to make any difference to Trev, Vic or Bert .

    Peter waiting for the match to start

    Looking across I could see Keith P on Peg 28, another guest today taking advantage of a sunny interlude and apparently lost in thought, he'd never had a 'Ton' in a match, and was hoping that today would be the day. Trev has sorted him out with some advise on how to tackle the peg and even given him one of his own rigs so hopefully today would be the day ......

    Keith ponders on what the day ahead will bring

    So at 10·45 Keith called the All-In and this seemed to be the cue for the sun to vanish and the wind increase in my corner . A handful of pellet toward the pump house wall and another to the bush to my right and out with a banded 8mm to the bush. This led to a number of super fast bites which turned out to be from small rudd trying to engulf the pellet, but they weren't what I was after so I switched across toward the wall. Within a minute the float sailed away and soon the first Alders carp of the day was safely in the net, a Common of around 2lbs to get me off the mark . What I had hoped to do was alternate between the wall and the bush and take fish from both sides and then come back to a top 2 in the edges as the day wore on, but with the bush seeming to be solid with small rudd I had to concentrate on the wall swim and I felt that slowed my catch rate down.

    Meanwhile Simon opposite me was targeting the end of the bush on his left hand margin, however it was turning into a day of frustration for him which would end up costing him a damaged top kit and No4 section before the match was over .......

    Simon goes long down the margin

    Steady away probably describes my progress, the wind gusting into the peg was the real problem as I was having to wait for lulls to feed as when it was gusting I couldn't even throw 6mm's 3 sections out!!! By around 1·30pm my calf was starting to ache, a legacy of pulling it at Rockells Farm, so I had a stroll up to see how Al and Keith were doing.
    Al was going along steadily, feeding and fishing off the end of his nets, taking fish regularly and obviously on his way to a decent weight ......

    Another fish on its way to the net for Al

    Meanwhile Keith was targeting his right hand margin and although he was catching reasonably steadily felt that Al was pulling away from him ......

    Keith was trying his right hand margin

    A quick chat with Kev revealed that he was enjoying his day and although his catch rate was nowhere near either Keith or Al's he was regularly putting the odd fish in the net fishing down his right hand margin .....

    Kev was fishing the margins as well

    Back at my peg the bush was still solid with rudd, however I'd been feeding close in as well and felt it was time to take a look and see if I could pick up some bonus margin fish.
    Indeed the fish were there, but they seemed to be much smaller fish around the 8-12oz mark, not quite what I'd planned so back to the wall swim. Thankfully this was still producing and I ended up fishing there for the rest of the match as it steadily produced fish right up to when Keith called the All-Out at 3·45pm. I'd ended up with 76 carp which I felt should give me somewhere around 150lbs .

    As I was packing my kit away Kevin came round for the scales. He and John were planning to fish on after the match, so they were going to start our half of the weigh-in straight away. I soon caught up with them, JohnB had a day fishing the method on Peg 9 and had 34½lbs. Next up was Vic who'd made full use of his knowledge of the water to put an excellent 310lbs on the scales . John was next with 136½lbs and Kevin 74½lbs. Keith had 199¼lbs just short of a 'Double Ton'. Al had a fantastic day shattering his best ever match weight with 343lbs.

    Just a small part of Al's catch

      However Alders operates a strict 100lbs per net limit and he was over on all 3 nets resulting in a disqualification . Finally my fish took the scales round to 176¼lbs .

    With our part of the Weigh-In completed we assembled back at the pump house for the results. Gwen had kindly returned and opened it up and had left us a tin of cakes and tea and coffee, an unexpected treat and greatly appreciated . Keith collated the final results and as a result of Al's misfortune it meant that Trevor took the honours on the day with 333¼lbs while Vic was second and Bert's weight of 229lbs taking third so a clean sweep for the GOT Bait lads. A hard lesson for Al as he'd never caught anything close to that weight of fish before, but a mistake I'm sure he won't repeat again . Keith P was well made up however as his weight of 186¼lbs had enabled him to record his first ever match 'Ton'.

    Overall a very enjoyable day and Thanks to Keith for organising it today  , Alders Farm is a very special fishery that unfortunately attracts some unwarrented criticism for the weights it produces, however the most noticeable thing is that while a lot of waters are way down on their normal levels this year Alders has maintained its normal levels as it's spring fed and it's this that allows it to sustain the large head of fish and indeed allows them to breed successfully. Dinah and Gary have a quality, well managed fishery in beautiful surroundings that I'm sure Marsh AC and its members will be returning to in the future . Just a pity that it's not a bit closer to home for me, as I could see myself becoming a regular there with the other lakes and facilities that the fishery has on offer .

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 2 Al Loader *343lbs 00ozs*
     2nd Peg 32 Trevor Price   333lbs 12ozs
     3rd Peg 7 Vic Nugent   310lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 30 Bert Gibbs   229lbs 00ozs
     5th Peg 3 Keith Ashby   199lbs 04ozs
     6th Peg 28 Keith Powell   186lbs 04ozs
     7th Peg 1 Peter Morton   176lbs 04ozs
     8th Peg 36 Mick Wright   160lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg 34 Clive Pritchard   145lbs 00ozs
     10th Peg 29 Dave Collier   143lbs 12ozs
     11th Peg 5 John Holdsworth   136lbs 08ozs
     12th Peg 38 Simon Watkins    84lbs 00ozs
     13th Peg 4 Kevin Loveland    74lbs 08ozs
     14th Peg 9 John Button    34lbs 08ozs

    * Alders operates a strict 100lbs per net rule in matches, and unfortunately Al was over on all 3 of his nets resulting in a disqualification.*

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Jinx Match 6

    Well it's time for the final match of The Jinx Series and Clive has wrapped it up with a match to go to retain the title . That leaves Tony, Malc, Steve and Dai to fight it out for the placings, while Steve & Dai along with Simon & Webbo battle for The Pairs. So hopefully we can all sit back and rip it out of them offer them encouragement today . Now today is also my 28th Wedding Anniversary and to celebrate Maria is coming with me today , so with the cats fed and a few extra bits loaded up in the car we set off just before 8am. As usual the first stop was at The Jimmy's Griddle Café in Battersea where I treated her to breakfast (never let it be said that I don't know how to treat a Lady ) before we climbed back into the car and resumed the journey, and after a smooth run down and a quick stop off at Asda for a few bits and bobs, we pulled into the car park at the lake around 10·30am.

    Greetings and introductions took place with those that hadn't met Maria before, and the discussions soon turned to the prospects for the day ahead. The final Night Match of the year had taken place last night, but it hard fished hard for most with Chris Lovelock winning from Peg 30 with 104½lbs. 8 of The Jinx Squad were missing today, but with 4 guests there would still be 23 fishing. Section C for me today and I said that I fancied anywhere between 14-16 to Maria prior to the draw.

    Just before 11·30am Malc called the Draw. Maria was chatting to Ann in the caravan, so I drew for myself when my turn came. Peg 14 was my reward and I wasn't unhappy with that . I took 2 trips round, one with with my gear and the second with a bed chair and the cooker for Maria. It's not a peg I've fished much but it throws up its fair share of decent weights so I was quite keen to give it a go. To my right on Peg 13 was Paul with his wife Jayne for company, while Webbo was to my left on Peg 16......

    Peg Plan for todays match

    Set up today was simply 3 rigs, 2 were 0·3 NG Springer Open Water XT's on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 14 Guru MWG's which would be used on the 5mtr line, while the 3rd was a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 14 Guru MWG for the margins where I had bushes both sides. Bait today was just 6 and 8mm fishery pellet and some GOT Ghost Pellets for a change bait on the hook.

    Peg 14 for me today

    With a bit of time to spare before the All-In I put the kettle on for a coffee and took a stroll with the camera. Clive was on peg 11 and hoping for a better day than he'd had last weekend on our club match ......

    Clive was hoping for a better day today

    Terry was all alone on Peg 7 as Peg 8 had remained in the draw bag, but he did have The Pink Elephant to keep him company today ......

    Terry had The Pink Elephant for company today

    As I made my way back Budgie was settling into Peg 9 and Geoff was eager to get going on Peg 10 ......

    Geoff was ready for the All-In

    With the kettle boiling on my return I made myself a coffee and settled down to await the off. Well at 1pm the fishery bell was rung signalling the All-In. I fed 2 small pots of pellets onto the 5mtr line and a handful in each margin and then shipped a banded 8mm out to 5mtrs. Within a couple of minutes the float buried, but lifting into it I could tell straight away that it was a carp that was foul hooked . Of course Malc on Peg 20 noticed this and was soon instructing me to take care not to loose it . Of course this was the cue for the rig to come flying back with just a scale on the hook among a chorus of laughter from those looking on, and Neil's call of "Nobody likes to see that" .

    Shortly after this Maria appeared having finished chatting to Ann . I settled back to concentrate on the 5mtr line, but it refused to offer up a single bite, but I stuck at it as you know that the fish can turn up at any time. After around an hour I added another couple of sections of pole and went out to 7mtrs. There was only about 4 inches more water there, but I cupped a pot of pellets in and followed it out with the rig which slid away before it really had a chance to settle. This was a carp that came in fairly easily and was gratefully netted. I decided to weigh it just to get some idea, but it only went 8lbs, still I was off the mark .

    Paul, a Lake regular was guesting on Peg 32 today and had been catching steadily from the off, helped no doubt by Peg 8 not being drawn, and was already looking like todays winner unless sport dropped off for him. Opposite me on Peg 26 Dave had Chris keeping him company, and he was starting to pick up the odd decent fish from the bush to his right ......

    Dave was into a decent fish as Chris looked on

    Meanwhile I was starting to get really frustrated as the only fish I could connect with were foul hookers over which I had no control as they trashed my rigs and the swim.
    In fact it was a good job that Maria was there as it stopped me throwing my teddies right out of the pram . Then just to ratchet up the pressure a few more notches I looked over to see Gem playing a carp, which soon produced the familiar cry of YEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! so now a Minxing could be on the cards .

    A carp for Gem would mean a Minxing for some.

    I decided to take a look down my right hand margin, but it didn't produce anything at all, so I switched to the left. A couple of dips and a tentative strike saw me hook a bream, but as I brought it to the top it shed the hook. Back out and as I lifted the rig it went solid before a carp charged off smashing the rig . A couple of deep breaths and I tied up a new rig and as I took a few minutes to re-plumb I found a small drop off, no more than 6 inches deeper 3 feet off of the bush. Maria provided another cup of coffee and even made one for Webbo as I fed the new spot and shipped an 8mm pellet out. A few lift and drops and the float dipped then slid away, and soon a Common of around 9lbs was safely in the net .

    This was soon followed by a slightly larger Mirror, Things were finally starting to pick up . Next up came a better fish and it really didn't want to get its head up and I wasn't about to bully it, however Terry appeared wanting a photo of a carp that he'd caught and been weighed and witnessed by Budgie at 25lbs. I explained that I was otherwise occupied but Maria did the honours with the camera ......

    A 25lb Common for Terry

    I finally managed to net the troublesome carp and when I put it on the scales it went 15½lbs, needless to say Webbo seemed happy for me . I then managed to loose another bream, but a couple of smaller commons and another weigher soon made up for that. Dave C had landed a real lump as well, at 20½lbs a new PB and Maria was kind enough to stroll round with my camera to do the honours for him ......

    A 20¼lb Common for Dave. A new PB.

    When she returned a final cup of coffee went down rather well as I managed another weigher and a net Mirror before the All-Out was sounded by the fishery bell at 6pm.
    Packing the kit away it became apparent how hard some had found it today with Paul suffering a blank on Peg 13 , and I felt I may have around 70lbs if I was lucky. Anyway with the kit back at the car it was time for the Weigh-In.

    Simon kicked things off with 53¼lbs from Peg 34. Dai and Jon had suffered with just 23lbs and 26lbs respectively while Chris had 46¾lbs on 2. Simon had 88¾lbs followed By Dave Moore with 69½lbs and Terry with 95lbs . Budgie had a level 50lbs while Geoff's 30¾lbs edged out Clive's 29¼lbs. My fish weighed 76¼ but Webbo could only muster 36¾lbs . Tony had 64½lbs from Peg 18 while Nick had caught in the final 15 minutes to record 15¼lbs. The Jinx had extracted 61¾lbs from peg 20 while Neil's 41¼lbs was just 4ozs short of Steve's 41½lbs. Dave recorded a level 86lbs from 26 Nick W had 38½lbs and Pete T 40lbs. Gem put 42½lbs on the scales and handed out 11 Minxings in the process . Finally Paul weighed 167lbs to take the win on the day , meaning that Terry was second and Simon 3rd .

    By now the dark was drawing in and back at the hut John had fired up the Barbecue and soon had everyone fed as we waited for Malc to sort out todays results and also the Series results. Olly made sure he didn't miss out, helping Paul to finish off his burger ......

    Olly helps Paul out with his burger

    And Beau waited patiently for Ann to share hers as well ......

    Beau waits his turn for a bit of burger

    Finally Malc had things sorted, well as sorted as Malc can be with Terry, Paul and Me taking the sections today with Simon, Dave C and Tony runners up . Then onto the final Series results. As we already knew Clive had won the Series retaining his title from last year . Tony took 2nd place and Malc had managed 3rd place .

    In the Pairs Simon and Webbo had triumphed over Steve W and Dai having been neck and neck going into todays match.

    So with     The Jinx Series finished for yet another year it's just a question of a few words of Thanks to finish off .
    It's been another great Series of matches this year, due in no small way to the efforts of Malc(    The Jinx) for organising and running the whole thing .

    John & Pauline who once again have been kind enough to put up with     The Jinx Squad at their Fishery which continues to do them and Rolf's memory great credit .

    Finally as always,     The Jinx Squad     and those that have fished as Guests over the Series. It's the anglers fishing the Series that make it the event it is. Take a bow, and see you all next year .

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 32 Paul JayGuest   167lbs 00ozs
     2nd Peg 7 Terry Goff      95lbs 00ozs
     3rdPeg 4 Simon Mound      88lbs 12ozs
     4thPeg 26 Dave Collier      86lbs 00ozs
     5thPeg 14 Peter Morton      76lbs 04ozs
     6thPeg 5 Dave Moore      69lbs 08ozs
     7thPeg 18 Tony Roberts      64lbs 08ozs
     8thPeg 20 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle      61lbs 12ozs
     9thPeg 34 Simon WatkinsGuest     53lbs 04ozs
     10thPeg 2 Chris LovelockGuest     46lbs 12ozs
     11thPeg 9 Marcus Burgess      50lbs 00ozs
     12thPeg 31 Gem(The Minx)Doyle      42lbs 08ozs
     13thPeg 23 Steve Wilson      41lbs 08ozs
     14thPeg 22 Neil Riddy      41lbs 04ozs
     15thPeg 29 Pete TappGuest     40lbs 00ozs
     16thPeg 28 Nick Williams      38lbs 08ozs
     17thPeg 16 Dave Webster      36lbs 12ozs
     18thPeg 10 Geoff Palmer      30lbs 12ozs
     19thPeg 11 Clive Pritchard      29lbs 04ozs
     20thPeg 40 Jon Hatch      26lbs 00ozs
     21stPeg 38 Dai Thomas      23lbs 00ozs
     22ndPeg 19 Nick Watkins-Price      15lbs 04ozs
     23rdPeg 13 Paul Roberts 

    DNW

    Names in Pink are those that were "MINXED"

    Section A

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 7 Terry Goff      95lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 4 Simon Mound      88lbs 12ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 5 Dave Moore      69lbs 08ozs

    3

     4th Peg 34 Simon WatkinsGuest     53lbs 04ozs

    0

     5th  Peg 2 Chris LovelockGuest     46lbs 12ozs

    0

     6th  Peg 40 Jon Hatch      26lbs 00ozs

    4

     7th  Peg 38 Dai Thomas      23lbs 00ozs

    5

    Section B

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 32 Paul JayGuest   167lbs 00ozs

    0

     2nd Peg 26 Dave Collier      86lbs 00ozs

    1

     3rd Peg 9 Marcus Burgess      50lbs 00ozs

    2

     4th  Peg 31 Gem(The Minx)Doyle      42lbs 08ozs

    3

     5th  Peg 29 Pete TappGuest     40lbs 00ozs

    0

     6th  Peg 28 Nick Williams      38lbs 08ozs

    4

     7th  Peg 10 Geoff Palmer      30lbs 12ozs

    5

     8th  Peg 11 Clive Pritchard      29lbs 04ozs

    6

     9th  Peg 13 Paul Roberts 

    DNW

    9

    Section C

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 14 Peter Morton      76lbs 04ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 18 Tony Roberts      64lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 20 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle      61lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th  Peg 23 Steve Wilson      41lbs 08ozs

    4

     5st  Peg 22 Neil Riddy      41lbs 04ozs

    5

     6th  Peg 16 Dave Webster      36lbs 12ozs

    6

     7th Peg 19 Nick Watkins-Price      15lbs 04ozs

    7

     

    Overall Individual Series Result

    Position

    Angler

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Weight

    		Points
     1st Clive Pritchard

    2

    1

    2

    1

    1

    6

    		   608lbs 12ozs

    7

     2nd Tony Roberts

    2

    5

    2

    2

    2

    2

    		   514lbs 12ozs

    10

     3rd Malc Doyle

    8

    1

    1

    4

    3

    3

    		   575lbs 12ozs

    12

     4th Steve Wilson

    2

    2

    1

    7

    5

    4

    		   453lbs 04ozs

    14

     5th Dai Thomas

    1

    3

    6

    1

    9

    5

    		   374lbs 00ozs

    16

     6th Dave Collier

    3

    3

    10

    6

    3

    1

    		   304lbs 04ozs

    16

     7th Simon Mound

    4

    2

    3

    10

    6

    2

    		   355lbs 04ozs

    17

     8th Terry Goff

    5

    6

    8

    2

    3

    1

    		   285lbs 00ozs

    17

     9th Marcus Burgess

    4

    6

    2

    7

    5

    2

    		   292lbs 08ozs

    19

     10th Dave Moore

    6

    5

    3

    4

    4

    3

    		   265lbs 08ozs

    19

     11th Jon Hatch

    4

    4

    4

    3

    7

    4

    		   254lbs 00ozs

    19

     12th Dave Webster

    5

    1

    7

    1

    10

    6

    		   391lbs 10ozs

    20

     13th Peter Morton

    7

    8

    3

    5

    4

    1

    		   374lbs 08ozs

    20

     14th Neil Riddy

    6

    4

    10

    6

    1

    5

    		   334lbs 02ozs

    22

     15th Paul Roberts

    1

    7

    6

    4

    4

    9

    		   297lbs 08ozs

    22

     16th Nick Williams

    6

    5

    4

    3

    7

    4

    		   281lbs 04ozs

    22

     17th Gem Doyle

    3

    9

    5

    10

    5

    3

    		   234lbs 04ozs

    25

     18th Geoff Palmer

    8

    10

    7

    5

    2

    5

    		   211lbs 02ozs

    27

     19th Mat Edwards

    3

    10

    1

    6

    8

    10

    		   251lbs 08ozs

    28

     20th Nick Watkins-Price

    6

    7

    4

    8

    6

    7

    		   167lbs 10ozs

    30

     21st Mitch Auger

    1

    7

    10

    10

    2

    10

    		   152lbs 04ozs

    30

     22nd Fred Parker

    10

    10

    4

    5

    1

    10

    		   146lbs 12ozs

    30

     23rd Ant Haywood

    10

    2

    10

    2

    10

    10

    		   183lbs 12ozs

    34

     24th Al Loader

    9

    3

    10

    3

    10

    10

    		   226lbs 12ozs

    35

     25th Ady Williams

    7

    8

    5

    10

    5

    10

    		   112lbs 12ozs

    35

     26th Kevin Loveland

    8

    4

    8

    8

    8

    10

    		   110lbs 00ozs

    36

     27th Alex Clark

    5

    6

    6

    10

    10

    10

    		   111lbs 10ozs

    37

    NB:Anglers were allowed to drop their worst section result during the series so that the Overall Series results were decided by best 5 out of 6 section points. Overall weight counting in the result of Anglers tieing on points.

    Overall Pairs Result

    Position

    Pairs

    		      

    Weight

    		Points
     1st Simon Mound and Dave Webster

    25

    5

    26

    12

    27

    20

    		   934lbs 02ozs

    88

     2nd Steve Wilson and Dai Thomas

    5

    16

    19

    21

    40

    34

    		   827lbs 04ozs

    95

     3rd Malc Doyle and Gem Doyle

    31

    26

    18

    34

    17

    20

    		   809lbs 12ozs

    112

     4th Kevin Loveland and Clive Pritchard

    23

    16

    27

    29

    27

    20

    		   745lbs 04ozs

    113

     5th  Ady Williams and Tony Roberts

    25

    34

    23

    11

    25

    37

    		   724lbs 00ozs

    118

     6th Al Loader and Mat Edwards

    30

    24

    10

    24

    30

    41

    		   723lbs 12ozs

    118

     7th Peter Morton and Fred Parker

    29

    49

    25

    25

    25

    14

    		   633lbs 00ozs

    118

     8th Dave Collier and Terry Goff

    29

    27

    46

    34

    26

    6

    		   616lbs 00ozs

    122

     9th Nick Williams and Neil Riddy

    35

    23

    43

    25

    16

    30

    		   615lbs 06ozs

    129

     10th Ant Haywood and Marcus Burgess

    32

    21

    36

    31

    40

    25

    		   540lbs 04ozs

    145

     11th Paul Roberts and Ant Haywood

    25

    23

    47

    25

    39

    38

    		   545lbs 04ozs

    150

     12th Dave Moore and Geoff Palmer

    51

    39

    28

    38

    22

    24

    		   517lbs 02ozs

    151

     13th Nick Watkins-Price and Jon Hatch 

    38

    40

    22

    29

    43

    42

    		   421lbs 10ozs

    171

     14th Mitch Auger and Alex Clark

    20

    41

    44

    60

    33

    60

    		   338lbs 00ozs

    198

    NB: Pairs were allowed to drop their worst points total during the series so that the results were decided by best 5 out of 6 points scores. Overall weights counting in the result of Pairs tieing on points. Guests fished when a Pairs Partner was absent and their weights and points were included in the overall totals.

     

  • Rockells Farm. Saffron Walden. Essex.

    Marsh AC club match.

    Rockells Farm

    It's Rockells Farm that is the venue for the latest Marsh AC match today. It normally throws up some phenomenal weights so hopes will be high for a good days fishing today among the club members . I'd arranged to meet at Dave's house and follow him to the venue, so with the cats fed and the car loaded I made my way over there arriving around 6·45am. Chris was strolling down the road, he was tagging along today as a spectator, his broken arm preventing him from fishing. Dave appeared and we were off and we made good time arriving at Rockells around 8am .

    A few of the lads set off to peg out as the pegs aren't numbered and I soon had the kit loaded on the trolley, and that's where it all started to go pear shaped. There's a bit of a slope up from the car park to the lake, and halfway up the slope I felt a searing pain in my left calf that brought me to a halt! A couple of the lads came to my aid, but I was left hobbling around and feeling pretty uncomfortable, not the best of starts to my day .

    Anyway Peg 13 came my way in the draw, a number that seems to follow me, and I hobbled off with my kit to set up for the day ahead. John had Peg 10 with Jim for company on Peg 11, while Peg 12 was empty. I arrived to find that I had Simon for company on Peg 14 today, Terry was through the gap on Peg 15 ( where Dave had 344lbs last year) Vic was on 16 with Clive on Peg 17 (my peg last year).

    I have to say that my initial impression was that the swim looked spot on with an overhanging willow to the right and another to the left , but with my box set up I got a bit of a shock as I put my nets in, finding that the water barely covered them, and a closer look confirmed that the water level was at least a foot down, if not a bit more on the normal level when I've fished there previously ! It's not deep at the best of times and as I sorted out the rigs for the day ahead it became apparent just how little water I had in front of me.

    Peg13 for me today at Rockells.

     
    I ended up with 3 rigs, all pretty much identical, being 0.2 NG Edger's on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG's, plus a 0·2 NG Margin paste on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 12 Guru MWG that was set up on my margin pole, these were set between 6 and 18 inches deep as that was all the depth I could find regardless of where I plumbed up. Bait today was 8mm pellet and paste with 6mm pellet for feed. but I also had some 6mm floating pellet as these have proved deadly in the past for sorting out the better fish .

    On previous visits I've caught well on a top 2 tight in to the margins, but that line was dry today, so I would be looking to fish a line at the end of my nets and across to the overhanging trees. With a bit of time before the off I had a hobble along to see how the others were. Pretty much in the same boat, but someone had been doing some gardening removing a lot of cover, most notably in Clive's swim where an overhanging bush had completely vanished and he was struggling to find any depth of water . Vic's platform was way off the water, but at least he'd managed to get set up in front of it at water level, but again all the bank side vegetation had been cut back. Thankfully Kevin had brought a cup of coffee round and I sat down to drink that as I contemplated the two 3 hour sessions ahead .

    So at 10am Dave called the All-In and a handful of pellet to the end of my nets and to the edge of both trees was followed by a banded 8mm to the end of my nets, and I also flicked out a few floaters to the edge of the right hand willow. The float soon slid away and a scrappy little Mirror of no more than 8ozs got me off the mark. Simon was off the mark as well and I soon had another couple of similar sized fish to keep the first one company . Now Rockells isn't really about finesse normally, it's a question of keeping the feed going in and catching quick, but it was noticeable that with so little water, playing fish was making the rest back off, so I was alternating between the end of my nets and across to the willow, while feeding every put in to hold the fish. The floaters weren't drifting out of the swim, but nothing was touching them either .

    Across on the other side I could see Keith who seemed to be picking up a few fish down his margin line ......

    Keith took an early look down the margin

     
    While Dave on the next peg looked like he'd set out his stall to fish his usual floater tactics that work well for him here ......

    Dave had set his stall out for his favorite floater attack

     
    After about an hour I had about 12 fish, not enough by the usual standards so gave the paste rig a try, this is normally a banker for me here as it tends to produce a slightly better stamp of fish, but it wasn't having the desired effect today as I was having to wait to long between bites and the fish that it did produce were of a similar size to the pellet fish so after 30 minutes that was up the bank . Despite keeping a few floaters going in nothing had shown for them so I just had to keep picking off odd fish here and there and at the end of 3 hours when Dave called the All-Out for a half time Weigh-In I had around 35 fish, the biggest of which might have gone 2lbs if I was lucky.

    With a set of scales on each side of the lake we soon had it underway. John had 51¼lbs and Jim 29lbs. I weighed 41lbs and Simon 46½lbs. Terry had 25¼lbs while Vic managed 40lbs and Clive could only muster 19¼lbs. Not the greatest weights and we could tell by the pace of the weigh-in across the lake that there had been some better weights over there. Martin appeared with another coffee from Jean and the news that Dave and Al had both had 80lbs +.

    At 2pm Dave called the All-In for the second half and it was just a question of carrying on with my approach and hope that some better fish would put in an appearance, and I kept flicking out a few floaters hoping they would do the job, but the only thing they seemed to attract were 3 geese ......

    at least the geese liked my floaters

     
    The small fish were still there, but were once again coming in fits and starts and at around a pound a time weren't really large enough to build any sort of weight. I could see Dave across the lake was still taking fish at a steady rate and they appeared to be of a better stamp than the ones I was getting ......

    Dave was catching steadily

     
    Another look with the paste proved to be nothing but a waste of time, still yielding little fish, but at a slower rate than fishing pellet. The strange part was that Simon was catching on floaters in the next swim, whereas they were doing nothing for me. Meanwhile John down on Peg 10 was having a cracking session and steadily building a decent weight , as was Vic on Peg 16 who was finally finding some better fish on paste ......

    on peg 16 Vic started to put a few together

     
    I just plugged away amid rain showers to the end, and while I'd caught more in the 2nd session when Dave called the All-Out at 5pm I didn't expect my 55 fish to weigh more than 60lbs . Thankfully the showers had stopped as we packed away, and with a set of scales at Clive's peg we decided to get our part of the Weigh-In over and done with.

    Poor Clive's day hadn't got any better with a meagre 16lbs to show for his efforts . Vic's second half had been a definite improvement with 100¾lbs . Terry had 41¼lbs and Simon once again beat me with 71½lbs to my 65¼lbs. Jim had added 38¼lbs to his morning total, but John had the best weight on our bank with a fine 128½lbs .

    So with our gear returned to the car park we all assembled as Dave worked out the results and monies. Winner on the day was Mr Chairman Dave with a total of 196¾lbs closely followed by Al on 193¼lbs while John's total of 180¼lbs gave him 3rd on the day just ahead of Keith's 176lbs. Six more 'Ton+' totals followed including my own 106¼lbs so while it would be harsh to say that it had been anything other than a good days fishing , however such is the level of catches that Rockells can produce that it's safe to say that there were a few disappointed anglers that made their way home after the match.

    Anyway the final club match of the season lies ahead at Hartleylands Farm on October 15th when we'll be fishing The Reservoir, however prior to that I'm at Rolfs Lake on Saturday for the final match of The Jinx Series.
     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Morning

    Afternoon

    Total Weight

     1st Peg 7 Dave Collier    89lbs 04ozs  107lbs 08ozs  196lbs 12ozs
     2nd Peg 2 Al Loader    85lbs 08ozs  107lbs 12ozs  193lbs 04ozs
     3rd Peg 10 John Holdsworth    51lbs 12ozs  128lbs 08ozs  180lbs 04ozs
     4th Peg 6 Keith Ashby    62lbs 00ozs  114lbs 00ozs  176lbs 00ozs
     5th Peg 1 Martin Hucker    72lbs 00ozs   96lbs 12ozs  168lbs 12ozs
     6th Peg 4 Tony Roberts    62lbs 08ozs   91lbs 12ozs  154lbs 04ozs
     7th Peg 16 Vic Nugent    40lbs 00ozs  100lbs 12ozs  140lbs 12ozs
     8th Peg 14 Simon Watkins    46lbs08ozs   71lbs 08ozs  118lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg 13 Peter Morton    41lbs 00ozs   65lbs 04ozs  106lbs 04ozs
     10th Peg 9 Mick WrightGuest   50lbs 00ozs   54lbs 12ozs  104lbs 12ozs
     11th Peg 11 Jim Boase    29lbs 00ozs   38lbs 04ozs   67lbs 04ozs
     12th Peg 15 Terry Goff    25lbs 04ozs   41lbs 04ozs   66lbs 08ozs
     13th Peg 5 Zack JohnsonGuest   16lbs 00ozs   26lbs 00ozs   42lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 17 Clive Pritchard    19lbs 04ozs   16lbs 00ozs   35lbs 04ozs
     15th Peg 3 Rod Turner      5lbs 08ozs   20lbs 00ozs   25lbs 08ozs
     16th Peg 8 Kevin Loveland    17lbs 12ozs     5lbs 00ozs   22lbs 12ozs

     

  • Private Lake, East Sussex.

    Marsh AC club match.

    Private.jpg Private Lake

    It was off down to a Private Lake in East Sussex today for a Marsh AC club match and I was hopeful that it would be a decent day as the lake had been fishing well recently .
    It was a bit dull and grey as I looked out of the window this morning, but a quick look on the web reassured me that we were in for a good day weather wise , and after feeding the cats and drinking a couple of cups of coffee to fire up the old grey matter, I soon had the car loaded and was off to East Sussex. With no café close to hand I stopped off at McD's in Bromley on the way where a couple of Sausage and Egg McMuffins were consumed before resuming the journey. It got a bit foggy on the A21, but not enough to delay things and I reached the fishery just after 8am.

    There wasn't our usual turn out today due to a number of reasons, meaning there were just 12 club members and 3 guests to make up the numbers, but at least we should have a bit of room . Al went off to peg out while everyone got there nets dipped. Bill G was guesting today and as he's been running a match series there, people were quizzing him for some info. Dave had brought his daughter Chrissy to fish today, but rumour was that it was really to act as his carer . Anyway with the pegs sorted it was time for the draw, and Peg 2 on the dam wall was mine for the day, a short walk and a peg I seem to draw quite often on my visits there, and with Kevin on Peg 1, I should be good for a couple of cups of coffee . The pegs aren't numbered at the lake, so if you take a look below you'll see where we were all pegged ......

    Private Lake Pegging Plan

    As you might guess, it didn't take long to get my gear to my peg, and having fished it before I had a fair idea of how I was going to approach it. Now when you hear 'dam wall' you tend to think deep water, however it's not the case here, apart from a small marginal shelf close in it just gently drops away to around 3ft which remains pretty constant.
    I had planned to fish paste today so I set up 2 paste rigs, the first was a 0·2 NG XT Power Pencil on 0·18 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 12 Guru MWG for a line at about 5mtrs straight out. I also set up another 0·2 NG XT Power Pencil on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 16 Guru MWG to fish pellet over this line if they didn't want paste. The Margin paste line was taken care of by a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·18 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 12 Guru MWG. Bait was GOT Atomic paste and a mix of 6 and 8mm pellets.

    Peg 2 on the Dam Wall for Peter today.

     
    Jean spoilt me today as prior to the off I was treated not only to a cup of coffee, but also a freshly cooked Sausage and Bacon roll . Sitting there waiting for the off, the fog from earlier had burnt off and a bright sunny day lay ahead. In fact I felt we could do with a bit more cloud as a bright sunny day could make for a hard days fishing.

    Anyway the All-In was called at 10am so we would soon find out. A pot of pellet at 5mtrs and some down the margins, then I shipped a banded 8mm out onto the 5mtr line. My first bite proved to be a bit of a false dawn as a Carp shot off before rolling on top as the rig came flying back with a scale on the hook . Next came a Roach, but it was Carp or nothing for me today and I hadn't put a silvers net in, so it was popped back.

    Clive had got off to a good start tucked awayon Peg 3 fishing to the willow and had taken 3 Carp almost straight away leaving everyone playing catch up already ......

    Clive was soon into fish today

     
    In general though sport was far from hectic from what I could see and from my vantage point on the dam wall I had a good view of all those fishing the railway bank and on the meadow bank ......

    Looking across to the Meadow bank

     
    I managed to get off the mark shortly after when my float slid away, and after a brief scrap a Mirror of around 4lbs was safely in the net . There's a good head of carp in the lake that average around 5lbs and it's generally reckoned that 20 of them will normally give you a ton, but there's also a good percentage that are considerably larger, and a few of them in the course of a session can really boost your weight. After that initial fish I changed to the paste rig, and after a few minutes the float buried and the culprit this time was a Common, again around the 4lbs mark but welcome none the less . I could see Simon over on the railway bank and although he'd had a couple of fish, he appeared to be struggling like me ......

    Simon Watkins waits patiently for a bite.

     
    It was becoming obvious already that Clive would take some stopping today, as although I couldn't really see him from where I was pegged, I could certainly hear the splashing as what seemed like a constant stream of fish were played and netted . I could see that Mick up on Peg on Peg 11 was starting to take the odd fish and knew that he might do some damage as well ......

    Mick Wright was staring to put a few together

     
    My paste fish seemed to be an solitary one so I reverted to the pellet and over the course of the next 90 minutes or so managed to add another 3 Carp to my total, all of which seemed to be around the 4lb mark. The noticeable thing was that I needed a ripple on the water to get a bite, as soon as the ripple stopped so would any chance of a bite .
    So with it flat calm in front of me by 1pm I re-fed and took a stroll with the camera......

    Looking straight across from Peg 2

     
    Kev had just had his 1st fish of the day on the feeder, while Keith was admitting to 5 in the net. Vic in truth was looking a little tired, probably due to the fact he'd caught 400lbs at Alders the day before, only to finish second to a weight of 534lbs!!!!!! However he was still into a Carp as I looked on ......

     
    John had managed a few as well, but Martin was having a bit of a grim time . Mick was indeed catching despite being plagued by small Perch. Bill was locked in a battle with the Carp in his peg and unfortunately the score was Carp 8 - 4 Bill at that point . He was fishing corn across to the island and as I looked on he was into another fish, a good photo opportunity, but before I could even remove the lens cap the score became 9 - 4. Al was having a bit of a moan up and insisting he was having a bad day so I left him to it . As I continued round I met Dave coming the other way who reckoned he had 4, but was struggling. Next up came Dave's daughter Chrissy, she'd lost a good fish first put in, and was now fishing her margins ......

    Chrissy Collier was fishing the margin

     
    Terry was having a bit of a struggle once more, but Paul was putting a few together on the method feeder to the edge of the island, it must have been solid out there as Paul had a fish take a bare hook as he cast to the island prior to the start of the match . It hadn't got any better for Simon either and he was hoping for an improvement in the latter stages. Clive however was sitting very much in the pound seats, his corner peg had the wind blowing into it and a willow providing plenty of cover to fish to ......

    Clive had a peg to die for.

     
    Back to my peg and Jean had another coffee waiting for me . I started back on the paste, but couldn't get a touch on it from any of my lines, so I was soon back to fishing the pellet and slowly started to pick up the odd fish, however they were all of the same stamp, around the 4lb mark without a hint of a better bonus fish. Keith however had started to alternate between his long line and his margin and was starting to put a run of fish together over on peg 15 ......

     
    Try as I may I just couldn't get a run of fish going, it was just a case of nicking the odd fish as the chance arose, and even that was interrupted by a number of foul hookers as the afternoon wore on. Simon did manage another couple of fish late on but it was far from the improvement he'd been hoping for ......

    Simon plays a Carp

     
    I just stuck at it and had 14 fish in the net when the All-Out was called at 4pm. I felt that I had around 60lbs in the nets, and soon had my gear packed away and back in the car before the Weigh-In started from Peg 1. Kev kicked things off with just 17lbs and I was almost spot on when my fish registered 60½lbs. Clive had 25 fish and after 4 weighs recorded 149¼lbs which would prove to be unbeatable on the day . Simon had 38½lbs to show for his efforts, while Paul put 77½lbs on the scales. Terry had 42lbs and Dave 47¼lbs while Chrissy managed 20lbs. Al had been telling everyone what a bad day he'd had but still put 81¼lbs on the scales . Bill's score ended up 21 - 13 in favour of the Carp for 50¼lbs. Mick had kept going all afternoon for 124¼lbs and 2nd on the day . Martin managed just 18¼lbs while John had 46lbs including a new PB Carp to show for his efforts. Vic had 68½lbs while Keith was last to weigh, and his 103½lbs gave him 3rd overall .

    So back to the car park where Dave sorted out the results and monies Next up for Marsh AC is a trip to Rockells Farm in 2 weeks time, a venue that I always look forward to .
    Before that however I have a trip to Rolfs on Thursday for a match with the  TalkAngling  lads and then a return to The Private Lake on Saturday to fish one of Bill G's Matches.

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 3 Clive Pritchard    149lbs 04ozs
     2nd Peg 11 Mick WrightGuest    124lbs 04ozs
     3rd Peg 15 Keith Ashby    103lbs 08ozs
     4th Peg 9 Al Loader      81lbs 12ozs
     5th Peg 5 Paul East     77lbs 08ozs
     6th Peg 14 Vic Nugent     68lbs 08ozs
     7th Peg 2 Peter Morton     60lbs 08ozs
     8th Peg 10 Bill GibbinsGuest    50lbs 04ozs
     9th Peg 7 Dave Collier     47lbs 04ozs
     10th Peg 13 John Holdsworth     46lbs 00ozs
     11th Peg 6 Terry Goff     42lbs 00ozs
     12th Peg 4 Simon Watkins     38lbs 08ozs
     13th Peg 8 Christine CollierGuest    20lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 12 Martin Hucker     18lbs 04ozs
     15th Peg 1 Kevin Loveland     17lbs 00ozs

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

     

    Jinx Match 5

    Well an earlyish start for me today as it's the fifth Jinx Match in this years Series. I'm not having the best of Series myself this year, but as always it's been a great set of matches to fish . However as an added bonus this weekend I'm stopping over and fishing as a guest on a club match on Sunday . Anyway a look through the curtains revealed a sunny start to the day , so having fed the cats and and demolished a couple of cups of coffee, I soon had the car loaded up with my gear and a few extra bits (sleeping bag, pillows etc) and was on my way. It wouldn't be a trip to Rolfs with out my customary stop in Battersea for breakfast at the Jimmy's Griddle café and a 'Full English' soon had me set up for the day ahead before I climbed back into the car and headed for Rolfs.

    I pulled into the car park just after 10am to find that it was already quite full. A number of the lads had arrived on Friday and had fished the night match which Simon has won with 136¾lbs from peg 16 . Discussion as always focused on how it would fish today, and with it having fished relatively hard last night I wasn't expecting it to produce any mega weights today.

    11·30am and time for the draw. Webbo wasn't fishing today and young Liam (Jinx Jnr) at just 8 years old would be fishing his first 5 hour match in his place , and it was agreed that Malc (The Jinx) would have the next peg to keep an eye on him. Well Liam drew Peg 31 meaning Malc had Peg 32, Steve drew Peg 13 but seemed more than happy with that, probably because he'd fished it on Wednesday in the open and had a 'Ton' off of it . My dip into the bag yielded Peg 10, a swift return to to a peg where I'd had a mare on the Sunday of the MD's Pairs Weekend . Take a look at the picture below to see where everyone ended up......

    Jinx Match 5 peg plan

    So with my kit collected I made my way round to my peg. I had Neil Riddy for company today tucked behind the bush on my right on Peg 9, and club-mate Tony to my left on Peg 11, while across from me I would have the perfect view as The Jinx and Jinx Jnr went head to head . The set up today wouldn't be to dissimilar to the way I fished it the last time. Two 6mtrs lines (a tad further out than last time) at 10 and 2 o'clock to the platform taken care of by a 0·3 NG XT Power Pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG. A 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru MWG would be used on top of the ledge tight to the bank on my left, while a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru MWG would be used to fish by the bush to my right. The bait on the sidetray was 6, 8 and 11mm fishery pellets and a selection of various soft hookers, along with sweetcorn and paste.

    Peg 10 for Peter today

     
    With a few minutes to kill prior to the off I had a quick stroll round to see how my Pairs partner Fred(Milo) was doing, and as usual he was his laid back self catching up with the news in the paper. However the finishing touch was The Pink Elephant proudly adorning his head as the latest victim of The Minx ......

    Fred was the proud wearer of that hat today

     
    So at 1pm the All-In was called and we were underway. A pot of mixed pellets and corn were shipped out onto both 6mtr lines and a handful of pellets to the bush and margin swims. An 8mm banded pellet followed out to the right hand 6mtr line. Not a lot happened straight away but Malc was into a fish almost straight away as was Steve. My first action saw the float bury, but the fish bolted off, the rig returning with a scale embedded on the hook, surely I wasn't going another day like the other Sunday .

    The wind was blowing down into the Little Lake today, but despite that I heard a YEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!! from down on Peg 40, so that was The Minx up and running ......

    Gem, The Minx

     
    Forty five minutes in and my float slid away, obviously another carp, but it felt right and after a short but spirited scrap it was safely in the net, I weighed it to be on the safe side, but at just 8½lbs I needn't have bothered. Liam had seemed to get off to a cracking start with Richard, one of the Rolf's regulars keeping an eye on him .

    Tony had got of the mark with a couple of fish and then lifted into another only to have improbable lengths of elastic stripped from his top kit , obviously a foul hooker but slow steady pressure saw Tony sliding the net under it after a few anxious minutes, a big 15lbs+ fish and he repeated this next put in with another weigher that went about 10lbs.

    My next fish wasn't quite of the same stamp, a Bream of around 3½lbs but welcome none the less, which was soon followed by a roach. Liam however was having a rare old tussle over on Peg 31. He played it really patiently though and with it safely in the net it was obvious that it was something special. Onto the scales with it and it weighed an even 20lbs!!!!!!!! A PB for Liam and thankfully caught on camera ......

    Liam with his PB 20lbs Common Carp

     
    Jean had arrived with a welcome cup of coffee , and while I took a few moments for a much needed caffeine hit I could see that Neil was having a bit of a mare with foul hookers and lost fish, and Steve was suffering too ......

    Steve Wilson on Peg 13.

     
    Rumour had it that Simon, fresh from his win in the night match was really struggling to avoid a Minxing from his better half as well . As the match wore on I was falling further back, I did manage another couple of Carp and another couple of Bream, but Tony was steadily pulling away, as were Liam and Malc, but a glance up toward Pegs 19 and 20 revealed that I was probably having a better day than Jon and Dave on what have become 2 pegs that nobody wants to draw in this Jinx Series ......

    Dave Moore in his fluro Bib & Brace on Peg 20.

     
    Malc as per usual was doing his best to provide a bit of entertainment , one fish storming off into the distance before diving under the platform on Peg 33 before snapping him up ......

    Heading off to Peg 33 at a rate of knots

     
    The next one did the best job however diving under his platform and making drop his landing net into the lake before Malc was on his knees and threading his top kit under the platform and retrieving his landing net in the process ......

    Malc on his knees to land a fish

     
    ...... Somehow though through all this Malc somehow managed to stay connected with the fish and finally got it into the net .

    With around an hour to go Paul had taken over from Richard keeping an eye on Liam who was steadily putting a good bag together .......

    Paul watches on as Liam plays a Carp

     
    ....... but it was Neil on Peg 9 who seemed to have finally sorted things out and was steadily putting a string of weigher's together in a late run . I did manage to add another 2 Carp to my tally in the last hour, but it was to little to late as the All-Out was called at 6pm.

    As I was stopping over it didn't take to long for me to get packed away and get my kit back to the car park and as I walked round it was obvious that C section in particular had fished hard today. Soon the Weigh-In was under way with Clive on Peg 34 kicking off with 110¾lbs, which would prove to be enough for the section and 2nd overall today . Dave had 78¾lbs while Gem set The Minx Mark at a level 65lbs. Nick W had 51¼lbs to be her first victim but Budgie scraped though after matching her 65lbs. Paul followed with 70¼lbs and Geoff had 102lbs 10ozs for his first ever Jinx Ton and 3rd overall . Kev could only muster 20¼lbs though. Neil had indeed sorted it out weighing 113½lbs for the section and the win on the day . My 57¾lbs ensured another Minxing for me while Tony had 102¼lbs for 2nd in section. Steve weighed 51½lbs while Simon's 24lbs ensured Gem took the bragging rights today . Terry had 38¼lbs while Fred with 62½lbs and Mitch with 44¾lbs took 1st and 2nd in section. Jon weighed 21½lbs and Dave M 32¼lbs Ady had a level 30lbs, Mat 21¼lbs but Dai had suffered a real mare on Peg 25 with just 7¼lbs to show for his efforts . Simon W had 48lbs and Pete T a fine 95lbs and Nick W-P 30¼lbs. Which brought us to young Liam who weighed in a magnificent 100lbs in his first ever match beating 21 of us on the day . Finally Malc weighed 84½lbs and was delighted to be beaten by his son off the next peg .

    So back to the hut where Malc sorted the results and monies. With todays results Clive has won The Jinx Series for a second year in a row , this time with a match to go. Well Done Fella . The Star of the day however was young Liam (Jinx Jnr), and there's no doubt that he'll take plenty more scalps in the years ahead .

    So with the days events over some departed, while some of us stopped on to fish tomorrow. Dave Moore and I grabbed a Chinese takeaway, and spent the rest of the evening chatting by the hut to Kayley, Matt and Malc and I have to say it made for an educational and hilarious evening before I climbed into the car around 11·30pm for a few hour kip ahead of tomorrow .

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 9 Neil Riddy    113lbs 08ozs
     2nd  Peg 34 Clive Pritchard     110lbs 12ozs
     3rd  Peg 7 Geoff Palmer    102lbs 10ozs
     4th Peg 11 Tony Roberts    102lbs 04ozs
     5th  Peg 31 Liam(Jinx Jnr)Doyle  Guest  100lbs 00ozs
     6th  Peg 28 Pete Tapp  Guest   95lbs 00ozs
     7th  Peg 32 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle     84lbs 08ozs
     8th  Peg 38 Dave Collier     78lbs 12ozs
     9th  Peg 5 Paul Roberts     70lbs 04ozs
     10th=  Peg 4 Marcus Burgess     65lbs 00ozs
     10th=  Peg 40 Gem(The Minx)Doyle     65lbs 00ozs
     12th  Peg 17 Fred Parker     62lbs 08ozs
     13th  Peg 10 Peter Morton     57lbs 12ozs
     14th  Peg 13 Steve Wilson     51lbs 08ozs
     15th  Peg 2 Nick Williams     51lbs 04ozs
     16th  Peg 26 Simon Watkins  Guest   48lbs 00ozs
     17nd  Peg 18 Mitch Auger     44lbs 12ozs
     18rd  Peg 15 Terry Goff     38lbs 12ozs
     19th  Peg 20 Dave Moore     32lbs 04ozs 
     20th  Peg 29 Nick Watkins-Price     30lbs 04ozs
     21st  Peg 22 Ady Williams     30lbs 00ozs 
     22nd  Peg 14 Simon Mound     24lbs 00ozs 
     23rd  Peg 19 Jon Hatch     21lbs 08ozs
     24th  Peg23 Mat Edwards     21lbs 04ozs
     25th  Peg 8 Kevin Loveland     20lbs 04ozs
     26th  Peg 25 Dai Thomas       7lbs 04ozs

    Names in Pink are those that were "MINXED"

    Section A

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 34 Clive Pritchard     110lbs 12ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 7 Geoff Palmer    102lbs 10ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 38 Dave Collier     78lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th Peg 5 Paul Roberts     70lbs 04ozs

    4

     5th=  Peg 4 Marcus Burgess     65lbs 00ozs

    5

     5th=  Peg 40 Gem(The Minx)Doyle     65lbs 00ozs

    5

     7th  Peg 2 Nick Williams     51lbs 04ozs

    7

     8th  Peg 8 Kevin Loveland     20lbs 04ozs

    8

    Section B

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 9 Neil Riddy    113lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 11 Tony Roberts    102lbs 04ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 31 Liam(Jinx Jnr)Doyle  Guest  100lbs 00ozs

    0

     4th  Peg 28 Pete Tapp  Guest   95lbs 00ozs

    0

     5th  Peg 32 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle     84lbs 08ozs

    3

     6th  Peg 10 Peter Morton     57lbs 12ozs

    4

     7th  Peg 13 Steve Wilson     51lbs 08ozs

    5

     8th  Peg 26 Simon Watkins  Guest   48lbs 00ozs

    0

     9th  Peg 29 Nick Watkins-Price     30lbs 04ozs

    6

    Section C

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 17 Fred Parker     62lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 18 Mitch Auger     44lbs 12ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 15 Terry Goff     38lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th  Peg 20 Dave Moore     32lbs 04ozs 

    4

     5st  Peg 22 Ady Williams     30lbs 00ozs 

    5

     6th  Peg 14 Simon Mound     24lbs 00ozs 

    6

     7th Peg 19 Jon Hatch     21lbs 08ozs

    7

     8th  Peg 23 Mat Edwards     21lbs 04ozs

    8

     9th  Peg 25 Dai Thomas       7lbs 04ozs

    9

     

     

  • Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Maggotdrowning.com

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2011.

    DAY 1



    Well having stayed over at Rolfs after Dave Collier's match, I awoke around 7am to a lovely sunny morning, and a cup of coffee courtesy of Dave soon had the desired effect. A dozen of us had decided that The Harvester was the best option for breakfast and we were there for 8am when it opened its doors.
    Breakfast was soon ordered. However it has to be said that the service wasn't quite what we expected, the chef obviously wasn't ready for a dozen hungry anglers to descend first thing in the morning, and some of the orders went a little wrong, however eventually everyone was fed, though maybe not with what they ordered, but after a bit of negotiation by Dave Moore the bill for 12 breakfasts came to just £40.

    Back to the lake, and the other anglers that were fishing were arriving, making a total of 28 members of the Maggotdrowning forum (20 of them being members of this years Jinx Squad) assembled from all over the country to fish the Maggotdrowning.com Rolfs Pairs Tournament 2011. It's a 2 legged affair fished over Saturday & Sunday and this is the 6th year running that the competition has taken place.

    Everyone waits for the draw on Saturday

    There was plenty of banter flowing, with speculation about who would be drawn with who, and where the favoured draws would be. At 11·30am the fishery bell rang signalling the draw for the Pairs which was done by Paul and I and produced the following Pairs............

            Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff & Kev(The Catch)Loveland
            Clive(black hydro)Pritchard & Tony(spamwham)Roberts
            Dave(The Fish)Collier & Paul(NMLW's)East
            Peter(mugger)Morton & Richard(tricky)East
            Barry(Bazza C)Cullen & Alex(bagger j)Clark
            Malc(The Jinx)Doyle & Al(al)Loader
            Ant(antwood)Haywood & Gem(The Minx)Doyle
            Keith(keith74)Powell & Mitch(mitchfish)Auger
            Marcus(budgie)Burgess & Jon(hatchye)Hatch
            Steve(steak)Akal & Dave(webbo)Webster
            Dai(daifish)Thomas & Steve(smiler)Wilson
            Pete(crayfishtraps)Tapp & Scott(methodgob)Weston
            Simon(simple)Mound & Terry(auto)Pearce
            Nick(Neo-1)Williams & Dave Moore

    With that out of the way it was time for the draw for todays pegs, and with the wind still blowing up into the Big Lake, that by general consent was where everyone wanted to be, so you can imagine my delight to find Peg 2 in my hand when I pulled it from the draw bag. Kev had fished it yesterday and struggled, but to be fair most of us had yesterday with only Dai sorting it out on the Little Lake.

    Saturday pegging plan

    Back to my bivvie where I collected my gear for the short walk round to peg 2. It was going to be a warm one with the sun blazing down, but I could at least see a few more fish showing than yesterday so hopefully sport might improve today. Webbo was grinning like the Cheshire Cathaving drawn Peg 34 which is tailor made for his favourite 'Feederless Feeder' approach, Alex was next up on Peg 35 while Simps had drawn Peg 37 and Terry Peg 38. Paul had drawn Peg 40, Dai's peg yesterday. Further round from me Ant was on Peg 4 and Gem (The Minx) was on Peg 5.

    Peg 2 was my home for the match

    Settling into the peg the 3 rigs I'd used yesterday covered my needs today although I re-tied the 0·2g NG XT Power Pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG for straight out at 5mtrs as I had around 4 feet of water, a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1 would be used to fish by the bush/grass to my right, and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1 would be used on top of the ledge tight to the bush on my left. With hindsight a mistake was to leave the feeder rod in its ready sleeve as I could have thrown a feeder to the trees on the left of the empty Peg 3 but I didn't. Bait was 6,8 and 11mm fishery pellets and a selection of various soft hookers, along with sweetcorn and some paste.

    A quick chat with Paul about our prospects and at 2pm John rang the fishery bell to signal the All-In. A pot of pellet onto the 5mtr line and a handful into the 2 margin swims was the opening gambit, followed by a 6mm pellet shipped out to the 5mtr line. A couple of dinks and the float slid away, not with the hoped for Carp, but a small scale perfect Roach, but at least I was off the mark. Looking across to 34 Webbo was already into what was obviously a Carp.
    Paul soon reported that he'd been seen off by a Carp, so at least there were a few about and after half an hour it was my turn to latch into one and a few nervous moments followed before I slid it over the net, it looked like a weigher and Liam appeared and followed me over to the scales. 10¾lbs was the weight on the dial which Liam wrote on the sheet while I returned the fish.

    By now Ant had started to target his right hand margin, tucking his float in tight under the overhanging bushes and was starting to pick up one or two fish......

    Satimage044.jpg Ant fishing down the right hand margin on Peg 4

    This ensured that there was plenty of banter back and forth across the lake between him and Simon. The two of them have had a bit of friendly rivalry going for a fair while and Simon currently holds the advantage, so it was a given that he'd try everything to stop that being whittled away.
    With that in mind Simon was fishing long and shallow (one of his favourite methods at Rolfs) and was starting to put a few together himself ......

    Simon fishing long on Peg 37

    I managed to add another couple of carp myself before Jean arrived with a welcome cup of coffee.

     Geoff Palmer appeared for a flying visit, having driven up from Wales along with Mags who's still recovering from a broken femur, the lure of Rolfs proving just to much to miss out on completely, having had to pull out of this event to help Mags with her convalecense. 

    Paul was still struggling with just a couple of skimmers to show for his efforts, but it looked as if Terry was off and running as he carefully guided a Carp toward his waiting landing net......

    Terry brings a fish to the net on Peg 38

    The next fish caught me a little off guard as after lifting into a bite a decent Bream leaped clear of the water 3 times like a Dolphin before shedding the hook. The next one wasn't so lucky though and after a couple of prodigious leaps it was soon safely in the net.

    Time marched on and I realised I hadn't heard the customary scream from Gem yet, However I heard Malc arrive to see how she was doing and he was more than a bit disparaging about the rig she was usingand he let the whole lake know his opinion of it.

    Looking over to Webbo, he was still putting a few together, but it appeared that he'd slowed down a bit, but he was still comfortably ahead of the rest of us in the Little Lake ......

    Webbo on Peg 34

    Indeed Alex next door to him on Peg 35 appeared to have gone over to the feeder in an attempt to tempt a few for himself......

    Alex on Peg 35

    With around an hour to go I'd looked up and noticed an awful lot of orange elastic coming out from Gem's peg, sure enough she got the fish in and a shout of YYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!echoed round the bank side, leaving a few souls worried about a MINXING. The thing is Peg 5 has a habit of throwing up big fish late on if they move into the margins, and when she slid the net under another big weigher a few bums were definitely twitching.

    Paul had finally manged a Carp down on Peg 40, but I'd lost a couple of foul hookers, one of which had me fearing for my pole as it bottomed out the elastic and just kept going before the rig came flying back with a huge scale on it, but I did manage another small Carp and a couple more acrobatic Bream before John rang the fishery bell at 7pm for the All-Out.

    The gear was soon packed away and taken back to my bivvie before the Weigh-In got under way.

    As usual it started from Peg 34 and Webbo kicked things off with a fine 138¾lbs and 2nd overall on the daywhile Alex had 37lbs. Simon had a creditable 73¼lbswhile Terry suffered with just 20½lbs. Paul had just 26½lbs and my fish came to 57¾lbs, while Ant's 89¾lbs gave him the verdict over Simon today.

    Weigh-In

    Gem's 2 weigher's came to 29¾lbs. Dai managed 78¼lbs and Terry 33¾lbs from Peg 8. Dave the Fish weighed a fine 82¾lbs from Peg 9 while Malc had just 3 weigher's for 48¼lbs, and Tony on Peg 11 recorded 56lbs. Peg 13 came up trumps for Steve(steak) with 114lbs for 3rd on the day and put him and Webbo into a strong position in the Pairs . Clive followed that up with 111lbs, but Steve W took the honours on the day with 161½lbs from Peg 15 leaving him and Dai well in contention. Kev managed just 29lbs from 17 and Nick had 64¼lbs from 18. Round on 19 Al was a picture of misery with just 28½lbs and a MINXING as well, but Scott just avoided one with 32¼lbs . Mitch's 63lbs just edged Jon's 62½lbs. Pete,Marcus and Richard all had weights in the 40's, Bazza had 37¼lbs
    and Keith 73¼lbs , Dave Moore being last to weigh with his 82¾lbs equalling Dave Colliers weight.

    So back to the hut for the results and the scores from day one, and once they were all sorted Webbo and Steak were leading on 5 points from Dai and Steve W on 9 points, While Nick and Dave Moore on 18 points and Clive and Tony with 19 points were well within striking distance .

    With that people drifted away to sort out their gear or some food for the evening. Malc though took Julie round to his peg for a go with his gear, and she was soon demonstrating that here was yet another Doyle capable of putting a few fish in the net ......

     Jon got in on the act as well with young Sam getting a go of Dad's gear before he packed it away for the day .......

    So although there hadn't been huge quantities of fish caught today, it had proved to be a good day that almost everyone seemed to have enjoyed one way or another, though it had to be said that little Ollie finally found it all to much and flaked out having found a comfy spot ......


    The chat and drink flowed long into the night , and was still going strong for some when I retreated to my bivvie around 11·30pm and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow

    _______________________________________________________________________

    DAY 2



    7am on Sunday morning and I'm woken from my slumber by Jean tapping on my bivvie to tell me there was a cup of coffee waiting for me .
    There are a few sorry looking sights to be seen, as it seemed the drinking went on well into the night and words were had at some point over a radio being played , however apologies had been offered and accepted and no real harm was done . Anyway first things first and it's off to The Harvester again for Breakfast . It all runs smoothly today as we ordered in advance before we left yesterday, so with the inner angler satisfied it's back to the Lake.

    We are fishing from 12-5pm today, but the first job is to pack all the bivvies and tents away. Once again I manage to amaze myself by managing to pack the bivvie away into its unfeasibly small storage bag and get it and all the rest of the kit stowed away in the car .

    Looking at the lake today it's noticeable that the wind is blowing from the Big Lake straight down into the Little Lake today for the first time this weekend, so what's the betting I'll draw the Big Lake today . I didn't have a long wait to find out as just after 10am the draw took place and I found Peg 10 was my home for the day.

    Sunday pegging plan

    Steak struggled for a single fish from there on Friday and Malc only had three from it yesterday, so I can't say that I was full of confidence as I made my way round to it ......

    Peg 10 for me today

    I had Steak to my right on Peg 9, but he was hidden by the bush, however to my left on Peg 11 was Dave Moore......

    Dave Moore to my left on Peg 11

    ....... and Clive back on Peg 13 for the 2nd time in 3 days, and I have to say that the mustachioed one didn't look to be to excited about it ......

    The moustachio'd one didn't look best pleased with Peg 13

    However with the 3 of us in a line and in plain view of each other there was bound to be a bit of banter during the match .

    Malc had told me where he'd fed yesterday so the rigs were set up for those spots. Two 5mtrs lines at 10 and 2 o'clock to the platform taken care of by a Sackup CX 4x12 pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG. A 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1 would be used on top of the ledge tight to the bank on my left, while a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1 would be used to fish by the bush to my right. The usual suspects were on the bait table, 6,8 and 11mm fishery pellets and a selection of various soft hookers, along with sweetcorn and paste.

    A quick stroll prior to the off found Terry(auto) back on Peg 8 for the second day in the row, Golden Hand or what !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but it was what was on the back of his box that made me laugh a subtle dig in Webbo's direction perhaps ......

    Sunimage062.jpg It made me laugh

    Midday and John rang the fishery bell for the All-In, a pot of pellet onto both 5mtr lines and a handful to the 2 others then I shipped a banded 8mm out to the right hand 5mtr line. The float settled and then buried and the resultant lift brought a pleasing resistance before a Bream of around 3lbs surfaced and slid over the waiting landing net. Disaster then followed after unhooking it as it flipped out of the net, hit the keepnet in front, landed on the platform, flipped again onto the frame of my silvers net and back into the lake !!!! Looking round I could see Dave's shoulders shaking and I'm sure that Clive was grinning It looked like it was going to be one of those day again.

    Next up came a hand sized skimmer, no real compensation, but at least I actually had something in the net, but as I looked round Dave was carefully playing what was obviously a Carp that he'd hooked on the feeder. Of course I wished him well in his efforts to land it , meaning of course that the hook instantly gave way Did I laugh?..............you bet I did .

    Then a pattern started to form for me, I'd take a couple of silvers and then a Carp would be foul hooked and charge off at a rate of knots, before the rig would come flying back at a rate of knots with a scale attached to the hook .

    Clive was looking down his margin line, hoping some fish would turn up for him like they had on Friday, but it didn't seem to be happening for him today ......

    Clive hoped something would fancy his bait

    Dave was the next to join me with a foul hooker, and this fish was ripping lots of elastic from his pole ......

    Foul hooker took plenty of elastic

    ...... however the gods appeared to be smiling down on him as after a prolonged tug of war a double figure fish slid into his landing net ......

    Safely in the net

    As the match wore on things never really picked up for me, it was just a case of rotating between my swims and hoping that something decent would turn up among the silvers ......

    I didn't have a lot of joy on Peg 10

    Of the leaders going into the second day, Steak was having trouble keeping fish out of the bushes, and although he got a few decent ones out he lost an awful lot more and smashed a top kit . I couldn't see his partner Webbo as he was tucked away on 14. Dai was opposite on Peg 31 and while he wasn't catching a lot, those that were coming to the net appeared to be decent sized fish and his partner Steve W seemed to be taking fish on a regular basis ......

    Steve Wilson was picking up fish on a regular basis

    Dave Moore started to pick up weigher's as the day wore on, and he walked past me with every one of them, this one proving to be the best of the bunch at around 15lbs ......

    A cracker for Dave

    I could see my partner Tricky up on peg 19 along with John on Peg 20, but it looked as if we were on our way to finishing nowhere in the scheme of thing, just like last year in fact  ......

    Tricky (peg19) and Jon (peg20)

    Clive finally found a few fish, and was lead a merry dance by one of them as it dived under his keepnets, undaunted Clive managed to extract it and finally had it safely in the net ......

    Safely in the net for Clive

    As the match wound down it was Carp 8 Peter 0 and the scales on my sidetray weren't enough to complete the jigsaw of a whole Carp. I did manage 3 more decent Bream before the end, but if I'm honest I was quite relieved when John rang the fishery bell for the All-Out at 5pm.

    I soon had my kit packed away and back to the car park before I set off to catch up with the Weigh-In .

    It had started from Peg 34 as usual where Dave the Fish had put 48½lbs on the scales, Simps had 39½lbs while Pete(crayfishtraps) on 37 recorded 20½lbs and Nick 36lbs from 38. Malc had made the most of the Wind blowing into Peg 40 with a fine 121lbs that would take the honours today 1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123. A shock was that Gem had only a single fish of 4½lbs from peg 2 saving us all from a MINXING . Bazza followed with 40¼lbs and Kev had 57lbs from Peg 5. Alex only managed 35lbs on Peg 7 but Terry had 71lbs from Peg 8. Steak was ruing lost fish with 40lbs and my silvers registered just 13lbs. Dave Moore ended with 59¼lbs and Clive just 21lbs. Webbo's fish weighed 62½lbs and Budgie just 5½lbs from Peg 15. Tony had enjoyed his day on Peg 18 with 94¼lbs giving him 2nd today . My partner Tricky had 27¼lbs with Jon just behind with 26½lbs. Al had a better day today with 56¾lbs , but Paul could only muster 11lbs. On 25 Scott managed 44lbs but Steve W's 71¾lbs gave him 3rd overall . Keith had a level 48lbs and Terry 55¾lbs. Dai finished with 56½lbs and finally Ant had 66¾lbs to get another result over Simps .

    With that it was back to the hut, and after a brief wait while Dave worked out the results we were finally ready for the results to be read out, pools to be paid out and the trophies awarded by Mr Maggotdrowning himself , Dave(Webbo)Webster to the winning team of...........

    Dai and Steve, MD's Rolfs Pairs Champs 2011

    1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123 Dai Thomas & Steve Wilson  1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123

    Congratulations to them both, coming from 4 points behind on day 1
    to take victory from Steak & Webbo by 5 points.

    Finally a few words of Thanks are due to the following people.........
    John,  Pauline & Ollie  for allowing us the use of their superb fishery during the weekend  .
    Dave Webster, for bringing us all Maggotdrowning.com and organising the whole weekend .
    Finally, all those Maggotdrowners that took part, the weekend wouldn't be the success it is without you .

    Pairs Result

    Position

    Pairs

    Saturday

    Sunday

    Total

    Weight

     1st Dai(daifish)Thomas & Steve(smiler)Wilson8/1=910/3=13

    22

    		 368lbs 00ozs
     2nd Steve(steak)Akal & Dave(webbo)Webster3/2=516/6=22

    27

    		 355lbs 04ozs
     3rd Nick(Neo-1)Williams & Dave Moore11/6=1718/7=25

    42

    		 242lbs 04ozs
     4th Clive(black hydro)Pritchard & Tony(spamwham)Roberts4/15=1922/2=24

    43

    		 282lbs 04ozs
     5th Malc(The Jinx)Doyle & Al(al)Loader16/26=421/9=10

    52

    		 254lbs 08ozs
     6th Simon(simple)Mound & Terry(auto)Pearce10/22=3217/4=21

    55

    		 217lbs 08ozs
     7th Keith(keith74)Powell & Mitch(mitchfish)Auger9/12=2113/26=39

    60

    		 192lbs 00ozs
     8th Ant(antwood)Haywood & Gem(The Minx)Doyle5/24=295/28=33

    62

    		 190lbs 12ozs
     9th Dave(The Fish)Collier & Paul(NMLW's)East6/27=3312/25=37

    70

    		 168lbs 12ozs
     10th Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff & Kev(The Catch)Loveland28/25=5311///8=19

    72

    		 162lbs 04ozs
     11th Barry(Bazza C)Cullen & Alex(bagger j)Clark20/21=4115/19=34

    75

    		 149lbs 08ozs
     12th Peter(mugger)Morton & Richard(tricky)East14/17=3124/20=44

    75

    		 143lbs 08ozs
     13th Marcus(budgie)Burgess & John(hatchye)Hatch18/13=3127/21=48

    79

    		 139lbs 08ozs
     14th Pete(crayfishtraps)Tapp & Scott(methodgob)Weston19/23=4223/14=37

    79

    		 137lbs 00ozs

    Saturday Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 15  Steve(smiler)Wilson   161lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 34 Dave(webbo)Webster   138lbs 12ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 13 Steve(steak)Akal   114lbs 00ozs

    3

     4th Peg 14 Clive(black hydro)Pritchard   111lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 4 Ant(antwood)Haywood    89lbs 12ozs

    5

     6th= Peg 32 Dave Moore    82lbs 12ozs

    6

     6th= Peg 9 Dave(The Fish)Collier    82lbs 12ozs

    6

     8th Peg 7 Dai(daifish)Thomas    78lbs 04ozs

    8

     9th Peg 31 Keith(keith74)Powell    74lbs 00ozs

    9

     10th Peg 37 Simon(simple)Mound    73lbs 04ozs

    10

     11th Peg 18 Nick(neo-1)Williams    64lbs 04ozs

    11

     12th Peg 22 Mitch(mitchfish)Auger    63lbs 00ozs

    12

     13th Peg 23 Jon(Hatchye)Hatch    62lbs 08ozs

    13

     14th Peg 2 Peter(mugger)Morton    57lbs 12ozs

    14

     15th Peg 11 Tony(spamwham)Roberts    56lbs 00ozs

    15

     16th Peg 10 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle    48lbs 04ozs

    16

     17th Peg 28 Richard(tricky)East    45lbs 08ozs

    17

     18th Peg 26 Marcus(budgie)Burgess    45lbs 00ozs

    18

     19th Peg 25 Pete(crayfishtraps)Tapp    40lbs 04ozs

    19

     20th Peg 29 Barry(Bazza C)Cullen    37lbs 04ozs

    20

     21st Peg 35 Alex(bagger j)Clark    37lbs 00ozs

    21

     22nd Peg 8 Terry(auto)Pearce    33lbs 12ozs

    22

     23rd Peg 20 Scott(methodgob)Weston    32lbs 04ozs

    23

     24th Peg 5 Gem(The Minx)Doyle    29lbs 12ozs

    24

     25th Peg 17 Kevin(The Catch)Loveland    29lbs 00ozs

    25

     26th Peg 19 Al(al)Loader    28lbs 08ozs

    26

     27th Peg 40 Paul(NMLW's)East    26lbs 08ozs

    27

     28th Peg 38 Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff    20lbs 08ozs

    28

    Sunday Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 40 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle   121lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 18 Tony(spamwham)Roberts    94lbs 04ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 26 Steve(smiler)Wilson    71lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th Peg 8 Terry(auto)Pearce    71lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 32 Ant(antwood)Haywood    66lbs 12ozs

    5

     6th Peg 14 Dave(webbo)Webster    62lbs 08ozs

    6

     7th Peg 11 Dave Moore    59lbs 04ozs

    7

     8th Peg 5 Kev(The Catch)Loveland    57lbs 00ozs

    8

     9th Peg 22 Al(al)Loader    56lbs 12ozs

    9

     10th Peg 31 Dai(daifish)Thomas    56lbs 08ozs

    10

     11th Peg 29 Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff    55lbs 12ozs

    11

     12th Peg 34 Dave(The Fish)Collier    48lbs 08ozs

    12

     13th Peg 28 Keith(keith74)Powell    48lbs 00ozs

    13

     14th Peg 25 Scott(methodgob)Weston    44lbs 00ozs

    14

     15th Peg 4 Barry(Bazza C)Cullen    40lbs 04ozs

    15

     16th Peg 9 Steve(steak)Akal    40lbs 00ozs

    16

     17th Peg 35 Simon(simple)Mound    39lbs 08ozs

    17

     18th Peg 38 Nick(Neo-1)Williams    36lbs 00ozs

    18

     19th Peg 7 Alex(bagger j)Clark    35lbs 00ozs

    19

     20th Peg 19 Richard(tricky)East    27lbs 04ozs

    20

     21st Peg 20 Jon(hatchye)Hatch    26lbs 08ozs

    21

     22nd Peg 13 Clive(black hydro)Pritchard    21lbs 00ozs

    22

     23rd Peg 37 Pete(crayfishtraps)Tapp    20lbs 08ozs

    23

     24th Peg 10 Peter(mugger)Morton    13lbs 00ozs

    24

     25th Peg 23 Paul(NMLW's)East    11lbs 00ozs

    25

     26th Peg 17 Mitch(mitchfish)Auger     7lbs 00ozs

    26

     27th Peg 15 Marcus(budgie)Burgess     5lbs 08ozs

    27

     28th Peg 2 Gem(TheMinx)Doyle     4lbs 08ozs

    28

     

  • Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Dave the Fish's

    Invitation Match.

    Well today sees the start of what has become an annual 3 day trip to Rolfs, starting today with Dave the Fish's Invitation match that precedes the Maggotdrowning.com Rolfs Pairs Tournament over the Saturday and Sunday . This has become a match not to be missed as it's fished by a few less people and it normally sees the best fishing of the 3 days, and being a member of Dave's club (Marsh AC) ensures that I'm fortunate enough to receive an invitation every year .
    Being a weekday Maria was already up and had fed the cats and I'd promised to take her to work, so with that done I loaded the car up. It's surprising how much extra stuff there was, bivvie, bed chair sleeping bag etc, but it all slotted in without problem before I set off . It was a bit overcast, but warm enough and the forecast for the next 3 days was good with plenty of sun for the weekend. As usual I stopped off in Battersea for Breakfast , Al was hoping to join me, but got delayed and missed out on the delights of a "Full English" before I was back in the car and on my way to Rolfs.

    A steady run down saw me pulling into the car park around 10·15am to find a good few already in situ. Malc had taken Dai and Ann along with Beau up with their caravan on Wednesday and then come back up from Wales early today so we were due to face the might of the whole 'Doyle Clan' over the course of the weekend . Others had also arrived early to ensure a good pitch in Maggotville, so it was out with the bivvie to secure a spot. My little 1 man bivvie has seen a fair bit of use over the years, and today one of the poles decided it had enough and snapped . However with some gaffer tape from Scott and a hacksaw from Dai it was soon repaired and in place .

    A stroll round soon came to an abrupt halt however as i came face to face with John's new guard dog !!!!!!!, Black and Tan, was it a Doberman, Rottweiler???

    No, Ollie is a Dachshund, and at around 8 weeks old the cutest bundle of fun you could imagine on 4 legs, and already proving a huge hit with everyone .

    Well with 19 of us assembled. and only a single Rolfs Virgin in fellow club member Simon Watkins present, Midday signalled draw time. The general opinion seemed to be that the Big Lake was the place to draw today as the wind had been blowing up into it for the past 3 days, so you can imagine my delight to find Peg 38 in my hand , I couldn't be further away if I'd tried.

    DTFMatchpegging.jpg Fr1day

    As I made my way down to my peg I saw that Mitch had drawn Peg 34, while Dai was on Peg 40 with Kevin on Peg 2, so I was OK for a mid match coffee .
    Opposite me on Peg 4 was Jon, with Scott for company on Peg 5. Alex had drawn Peg 7 while Simon was on Peg 8, a great draw for a 1st timer .

    Setting up was a matter of 3 rigs, A 0·2g NG XT Power Pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG would be for straight out at 7mtrs where I had an even 3 feet of water in all directions, a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1 would be used to fish by the bush/grass to my left, and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1 would be used on top of the ledge tight to the grass next to Peg 37, while the waggler rod was on standby to have a search around if it got really tough. Bait was 6,8 and 11mm fishery pellets and a selection of various soft hookers, along with sweetcorn and some paste should the lumps turn up in the margin.

    Clive popped round as we waited for the All-In with news that he'd ended up on Peg 13 , I didn't laugh much though as I'd have happily swapped with him today.

    2pm saw John ring the fishery bell for the All-In and 2 pots of pellet were deposited onto the 7mtr line along with a good handful into each margin. A banded 8mm pellet was shipped out to 7mtrs but unfortunately didn't provoke the desired response, in fact the Little Lake was proving hard for nearly everyone, with only Mitch appearing to take an early fish .......

     A switch to 6mm pellet finally brought some action for me, but it was only in the shape of a couple of hand sized skimmers, that were welcome none the less to get me off the mark, and looking across it was obvious that Jon was resigned to a hard session as he was already out with a maggot rig in a bid to hunt down some silvers ......

     After a couple of hours I looked across to see that Dai was at last into something substantially larger with plenty of elastic streaming from his pole, but after a good scrap he had it safely in the net, an absolutely superb Common that rolled the scales round to 21¾lbs, a new PB that I was happy to photograph for Dai ......

    I'd hoped that it would be the signal for some fish to get their heads down, but it was not to be , so I re fed all my lines and gathered up the camera for a stroll round to see how others were doing. Scott over on Peg 5 was suffering as well, but he was feeding plenty into the margin next to empty Peg 6 and praying that the fish would turn up over the feed before the match finished ......

     Alex had been more than happy to find Peg 7 was his, but had been brought back down to earth a bit as despite producing a couple of early fish they weren't coming at the rate he'd been hoping for .....

    Simon had a double to show for his first ever visit to Rolfs , but had been left a little shocked by the power of the fish, having also been seen off by a couple ......

    Terry was over on Peg 32 and was getting a bit of action, but unfortunately he'd had the misfortune to have a top kit reduced to more than it's standard two parts by an angry foul hooker that smashed it and vanished with the rig and elastic ......

    Clive was indeed on Peg 13 and at this point in time was suffering with foul hooked fish, but he was confident that sooner or later he'd sort it out and start putting a few in the net ......

    Malc was tucked away in Peg 14 and seemed happy enough with his lot , while a chat with Dave Moore revealed a swim that resembled a jacuzzi, but although there were obviously plenty of fish there, they were reluctant to take a bait . Looking across we could see Al on Peg 24 playing a fish on the pellet waggler, but as I raised the camera having warned him to be careful, it shed the hook, of course we were full of sympathy as " Nobody likes to see that " but Al seemed less than pleased ......

    Dave was on Peg 18, obviously the draw bag had been kind to the organiser , and as we chatted Dave dropped a ball of paste into the left of the peg and the float buried straight away, the fish steamed off and looked like it was foul hooked, and it had the last laugh when it did Dave under the right hand bush ......

    Round to Peg 22 where I found Paul happily playing a fish, he was having what appeared to be a decent day, ticking along nicely and regularly putting fish in the net ......

    Mr Maggotdrowning himself Dave aka 'Webbo' was on Peg 26, but today didn't seem to be quite right for his Feederless Feeder and he'd reverted to the pole in order to keep a few coming his way ......

    Nick was on Peg 29, and it was a case of steady away for him putting one or two fish together, but he'd also sacrificed a top kit to the cause today ......

    Back at my peg things didn't really improve for the rest of the match, in fact the only one to really do anything was Dai who managed another 4 fish during the course of the afternoon . I even spent a while on the waggler, but that was no more successful than my pole lines, However with an hour to go a look on my 7mtr line produced a foul hooker that headed of toward the Big Lake at a rate of knots leaving me with just a scale for a souvenir . Kev finally managed to snare a carp over on peg 2 and with 45 minutes to go I finally managed to hook and land a carp that weighed 13lbs, however it was to little to late and just another couple of small skimmers came my way before John rang the fishery bell for the All-Out at 7pm.

    Packing away didn't take long as I took my kit back to the bivvie that was only about 40 yards away, and so onto the Weigh-In. Mitch kicked off with a hard earned 49lbs while my silvers added to the solitary carp came to 16lbs. Dai's 5 fish weighed a fine 70¾lbs . Kev had 5½lbs to show for his efforts while Jon had all silvers for just over 13lbs. Scott had a couple turn up late for a level 26lbs. Alex recorded 61¾lbs with Simon managing 25¼lbs for his first effort .
    Tricky(Richard) managed 54lbs from peg 9 on his Birthday , while Steve had struggled with just a single carp for 7½lbs on peg 10 . Clive had indeed managed to sort it out recording 83½lbs but it was Malc on peg 14 who would take the win on the day when he put 103½lbs on the scales . For Dave Moore it was a case of what might have been with his fish weighing 36lbs, but he'd fished on for a bit after the whistle and caught 6 fish in 6 put ins . Dave had 95¼lbs from peg 18 to take third in his own match . Paul was the only other angler to record a 'Ton' with 100¼lbs to take 2nd . Al with 65½lbs and Nick with 67lbs were edged out by Webbo's 74lbs while Terry was last to weigh with 81¼lbs .

    So once Dave had sorted out the results and payed out the monies from the day people dispersed to chat over the days events and sort out their food etc.
    Al, Webbo, Paul and I elected to visit The Harvester for Dinner along with Richard and Scott and washed it all down with a couple of pints before returning to the lake where the banter flowed along with a few more beers into the night as Simps, Gem and Budgie joined us ahead of the weekend .

    By around 11·30pm I turned in to get some sleep ahead of the Main Event. How would it go? We would soon find out.

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st

     Peg 14

     Malc Doyle

       103lbs 08ozs

     2nd

     Peg 22

     Paul East

       100lbs 04ozs

     3rd

     Peg 18

     Dave Collier

         95lbs 04ozs

     4th

     Peg 13

     Clive Pritchard

         83lbs 08ozs

     5th

     Peg 32

     Terry Goff

         81lbs 04ozs

     6th

     Peg 26

     Dave Webster

         74lbs 00ozs

     7th

     Peg 40

     Dai Thomas

         70lbs 12ozs

     8th

     Peg 29

     Nick Williams

         67lbs 00ozs

     9th

     Peg 24

     Al Loader

         65lbs 08ozs

     10th

     Peg 7

     Alex Clark

         61lbs 12ozs

     11th

     Peg 9

     Richard East

         54lbs 00ozs

     12th

     Peg 34

     Mitch Auger

         49lbs 00ozs

     13th

     Peg 16

     Dave Moore

         36lbs 00ozs

     14th

     Peg 5

     Scott Weston

         26lbs 00ozs

     15th

     Peg 8

     Simon Watkins

         25lbs 04ozs

     16th

     Peg 38

     Peter Morton

         16lbs 00ozs

     17th

     Peg 4

     Jon Hatch

         13lbs 02ozs

     18th

     Peg 10

     Steve Akal

           7lbs 08ozs

     19th

     Peg 2

     Kevin Loveland

           5lbs 08ozs

     

  • Colemans Cottage Fishery. Wood Lake.

    Marsh AC club match.

    ColemansCottage.jpg Colemans Cottage Fishery. picture by pnm123

    Well it's off to Essex for me today and a club match at Colemans Cottage on Wood Lake.
    The view out of the window this morning promised a nice sunny day ahead and after a couple of cups of coffee and having fed the cats and loaded the car I was off and heading for Whitam in Essex, and a trouble free run down saw me pulling into the car park around 7·30am, where Kevin and Jean, along with Simon were already in attendance . Into the fishery lodge for a Large Breakfast , and we were soon joined by Terry Keith and Pete along with Lee, Dave and a couple of other Morefax lads who were joining us today along with a couple of guests, so it should be a good turn out . Soon the rest of the gang arrived and with breakfast taken care of I went outside to discuss the prospects for the day ahead.
    The club normally fishes Pathfield Lake when we visit Colemans, so this is something new, at least for me as I've never fished Wood Lake before, but luckily for me Paul Law (justin case) has furnished me with a detailed peg by peg rundown on the lake so I wasn't not going into it totally blind . Dave soon had the monies collected and the draw up and running and after dipping into the bag I found myself with peg 14 for the day, which according to Paul's run down was just an average peg.

    So collecting my tackle I made my way down to my peg. Terry was on peg 1, with peg 2 drawn for Paul who was running late due to a blow out on the way down . Keith was on peg 6 (one Paul had reckoned was worth running to ) with Pete Thompson on peg 8. Tony Roberts was on 10, Clive on 11 and Simon on 12 with 13 not drawn. To my left was Martin on peg 15 while I could see Dave in the corner on peg 18.

    Settling into the peg it was time to decide how to tackle it. I had a gap between 2 islands out in front I elected to cover that with a waggler and got out a Shakespeare Micro that was already set up with a 2AA peacock insert waggler. I opted for 3 pole lines. Straight out at 6mtrs where I had 5ft of water with a Sackup CX 4x12 pencil on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG, and 2 margin rigs, both NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin's on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG's plus a paste rig of an NG 0·2 Margin paste float on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 12 Fox series 2. Bait was my usual combination of 6mm hard pellet for feed with 6 and 8mm pellets for the hook along with some corn, a selection of GOT Baits soft hookers and GOT Atomic Paste (green halibut).

    Kevin had arrived while I was setting up with a cup of coffee and with a bit of time prior to the off I strolled back to the car to collect a bottle of water, only to find Paul arriving by Taxi (having changed his blown out tyre only to find the spare knackered as well !!!!!!!!!!! ) so helped him to his peg with his gear, then made my way back to mine. At 10am Dave signalled the All-In and we were off . 2 big pots of pellet at 6mtrs followed by a handful in each margin were then followed by a banded 8mm shipped out to the 6mm line. A couple of tentative digs then the float buried resulting in a Carp tearing off and the rig flying back with a scale on the hook , not quite the start I'd hoped for, but at least there were some fish about. Next put in the float buries and it's fish on again, a good solid surge and it didn't want to get it's head up, a bit more pressure and up it popped, not he expected Carp but a Barbel and at around 3lbs a nice way to get off the mark . A couple of Carp quickly followed this, not big fish, but really solid, giving a good account of themselves which I estimated at around 4lbs each.

    Looking around I could see that Martin had a fish on the feeder that he was playing and most were starting to find a bit of sport, so it was looking like it should be a good day for most, in fact I looked down toward Dave and saw that he was engaged in what looked like a tug of war with plenty of red hydro streaming from his top kit ......

    For the next couple of hours it was just a question of things ticking over, a couple of Carp, then a Barbel or two, still putting some weight in the net, but I couldn't seem to up my catch rate . I'd been using my clicker as there's a net limit at Colemans which I didn't want to fall foul of, and reckoned I had about 35lbs of carp by 12·30pm. I'd had a look down both margins, the right hand had produced hardly anything though despite the next peg being empty, so decided to concentrate on the left hand one. With this in mind I re fed it quite heavily and took a stroll with the camera to allow it to settle and take my coffee mug back to Jean .

    Looking down from my vantage point I saw that Clive was busy unhooking a fish that he'd just netted ......

    While on the next peg along Tony was doing his best to get the landing net under a fish of his own ......

     Pete had left his peg, but I could see him sitting next to Keith and having a chat with him as he netted a small carp .......

     Terry was being a bit cagey as to what he had exactly, but didn't reckon he was setting the place on fire. Paul was having a frustrating time trying to tempt some action from his margins, but Rod seemed to be enjoying a bit of sport ......

     Kev was owning up to 3 fish and hoping things would pick up for him later in the day, and looking across I could see Lee and Judy on adjacent pegs ......

     Strolling back Keith reckoned he had around 35lbs but was adamant that Pete was doing better , and I couldn't help notice that he was fishing short just in front of his nets, and made me realise that last year I'd caught tight to my nets on Pathfield, perhaps that was the way to go today ......

     Pete was back on his peg and of course though that Keith was just edging him as he struck into a carp just as I moved on ......

     Indeed it was starting to become obvious that the fish were starting to get their heads down, and I could see Ken on the far bank getting ready to slide a small Carp over the net ......

     Tony was attached to yet another fish, that seemed to be giving a good account of itself with plenty of orange vespe coming out of his top kit .......

     and there was Clive just slipping the landing net under yet another fish that he'd taken on the method feeder ......

     Simon however wasn't feeling so positive, complaining that he'd never lost as many fish as he'd done today and considering that he'd lost a fair few on the last match at Mill Barn, you could safely say that he wasn't best pleased ......

     Back at my peg I dropped my 6mtr rig in on a top 3 at the end of my nets and found just a couple of inches less on the depth, so fed a handful of pellet there and stuck a 6mm pellet on the band. This soon produced a Barbel of around 3lbs and was swiftly followed by a couple more , then a small Carp as Dave arrived with another Mug of coffee from Jean . The next fish made me jump as an acrobatic skimmer did a passable impression of a Trout leaping clear of the water as I struck . Another couple of Barbel followed and I'd noticed Al on peg 22 collecting a second carp net so he was obviously going well and from what I could see was fishing the method. Dave was still catching well and he was next to go for a second net. Another small carp followed for me before a couple of foul hookers ran me ragged and seemed to kill the swim .

    Time for a look in the margin with the paste rig, a couple of knocks and the float buried , the strike meeting with firm resistance as a good fish powered of into open water. The fish stayed deep not wanting to get its head up, but steady pressure finally told as a double figure Mirror slid into the waiting landing net . With that fish I reckoned I had about 55lbs in the net so went and got a second carp net for myself .
    Back in with the paste and it was obvious that the fish were there as the float buried straight away, a barbel this time with a taste for paste, and I took another 7 carp before Paul came up to see how I was doing with 15 minutes to go. Unfortunately this coincided with a spate of iffy bites and I only managed one more Carp before Dave called the All-Out at 4pm while he played a final fish.

    Packing my kit up and chatting to Martin I was convinced that I had around 80-90lbs, but I wasn't really sure as I'd got it somewhat wrong last year when we fished Pathfield but with the kit packed away in the car all would be revealed as I set off for the weigh-in. Terry kicked off with 63¼lbs from peg 1 , which Keith topped from Peg 6 with 86¾lbs just edging out Pete's level 86lbs to take the bragging rights on their trip home to Milton Keynes .

    Tony on peg 10 put 70lbs+ on the scales with his first net, but thankfully Graham (The Owner) decreed that as long as it wasn't over 80lbs there would be no penalty. His final tally was 143¼lbs, a total that wouldn't be beaten ensuring he took the honours on the day . Clive managed 69½lbs and Simon just 40lbs.
    Round to my peg and as soon as I lifted my 1st net I knew that I'd underestimated as well , thankfully it came in under 80lbs and my total of 141½lbs that would be good enough for 2nd today . Dave had a good day as well on peg 18 with 122¼lbs and Nick Bondeau recorded a new PB match weight of 71lbs .

    Al was left regretting a slow last half hour when his weight came out at 131lbs but still ended up 3rd overall . Lee Rose on peg 34 took the best weight among the Morefax lads with a level 98lbs while Roger, Ken and Graham managed 50lb weights . So back to the fishery lodge for coffee and results.
    Dave soon had the results and the sections sorted and payed out, 1700lbs + had been weighed in for an average of 62lbs+ per angler so it was fair to say a decent day had been had by most . Next up for Marsh AC is Blasford Hill on August 13th.

    For me however the next stop is 3 days at Rolfs Lake next weekend for Dave's Friday Invitation match and the MD's Pairs weekend .

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 10 Tony Roberts   143lbs 04ozs
     2nd Peg 14 Peter Morton   141lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 22 Al Loader   131lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 18 Dave Collier   122lbs 04ozs
     5th Peg 34 Lee Rose              Guest     98lbs 00ozs
     6th Peg 6 Keith Ashby     86lbs 12ozs
     7th Peg 8 Pete Thompson     Guest     86lbs 00ozs
     8th Peg 20 Gary Smithers      Guest     83lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg 33 Tony Moore         Guest     74lbs 00ozs
     10th Peg 19 Nick Bondeau       Guest     71lbs 00ozs
     11th Peg 11 Clive Pritchard     69lbs 08ozs
     12th Peg 1 Terry Goff     63lbs 12ozs
     13th Peg 28 Roger Noakes     53lbs 08ozs
     14th Peg 38 Graham Manning     52lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 37 Ken Walker     50lbs 00ozs
     16th Peg 9 Sean Moore          Guest     46lbs 12ozs
     17th Peg 27 John Holdsworth     46lbs 08ozs
     18th Peg 40 Chris Withall     42lbs 08ozs
     19th Peg 12 Simon Watkins     40lbs 00ozs
     20th Peg 30 Dave Janes           Guest     37lbs 00ozs
     21st Peg 3 Rod Turner     36lbs 00ozs
     22nd Peg 26 Zack Johnson        Guest     31lbs 00ozs
     23rd Peg 2 Paul East     28lbs 08ozs
     24th Peg 4 Kevin Loveland     28lbs 00ozs
     25th Peg15 Martin Hucker           24lbs 00ozs
     26th Peg 35 Judy Hermite     22lbs 00ozs
     27th Peg 24 Jim Boase     19lbs 08ozs
     28th Peg 39 Ron Mannister     14lbs 00ozs

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Jinx Match 4

     Well today's the day for the fourth Jinx Match in this years series of six , and a quick peek through the curtains this morning confirmed that we were in for a wet start to the day as all that could be seen was a heavy grey sky and a stiff breeze, and by the time I loaded up the car the first spots of rain were already falling . As usual the first stop was Battersea to fuel up for the day ahead with a 'Full English' and with that polished off it was next stop Rolfs.

    Unfortunately the closer I got to Rolfs the worse the rain came down, and with about 5 miles to go it was so torrential that the wipers couldn't clear the screen, even on high speed . It had eased a bit as I pulled into the car park. Some of the Jinx Squad had fished the Open Night Match the evening before and had stayed over and were huddled under a brolly and the gazebo by the hut. Malc appeared looking as if he'd been for a swim in the lake, but was just walking proof that his MAP waterproofs weren't anymore . Gem had decided that she wouldn't be fishing today as it was raining, so Simon decided that as they've just moved into a flat together he wouldn't fish either, and instead they would visit IKEA to get some stuff for their flat. Amazing what love can do isn't it IKEA on a Saturday !!!!!!! instead of fishing!!!!!!!!! He'll learn , but at least it meant that nobody would get Minxed today .

    Well the rain continued to fall, and with this being the 4th match todays draw was all in as we redraw sections for the final 3 matches. 11·30am and it's draw time, into the bag and it's peg 5 for me, a peg I've not fished before so I'm quite happy to give it a go . John Bennett had fished it last night and had around 90lbs, so I picked his brains as to how he'd approached it so I would have some idea of the areas to target .

    JinxMatch4pegging.jpg Match 4 pegging

    Taking my gear round to my peg I passed Dave on peg 34 which was going to be tailor made for his feeder-less feeder (pellet cone) approach . Nick was on peg 38, with Neil on peg 40 and Tony on peg 2. Steve Wilson was on peg 4, while Malc was on peg 7 with Al for company on peg 8 to complete A section......

    John had advised me to target 3 areas today, the first at around 5mtrs toward peg 34 where he'd fed heavily, the second to the edge of the bush to my right and thirdly tight to the grass in the left hand margin toward the empty peg 6. The rig for the 5mtr line was an 0·2g NG XT Power Pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 14 Guru QM1, while the 2 margin rigs were NG 0·3 XT Sampson margins on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 12 Guru QM1's. Bait was my usual combination of fishery 6mm hard pellet for feed with 8mm and 11mm pellets for the hook along with some corn and a selection of GOT Baits soft hookers.

    Thankfully the rain started to ease up as we were setting up, but the stiff breeze was blowing straight down toward Neil and Tony. The Fishery bell rang at 1pm to signal the all in. Two pots of pellet onto the 5mtr line were followed by a couple of handfuls into both margin swims. Looking up as I shipped a banded 8mm out Dave was already into his first fish. Laying the rig in the float dipped and buried, Carp on, and after a brief but spirited fight a 5lb Common was safely in the net . My next put in provided a similar outcome and another carp, a Mirror this time joined it's friend in the net.
    Dave was streaking away setting the early pace as his first five casts had produced five Carp. There was a brief lull for me before the float buried again, but this was a much better fish that slowly motored away staying deep, however after about 5 minutes of constant pressure it finally popped its head up ready for the net, a much larger fish and an obvious weigher that took the scales round to 15¼lbs . It also marked the end of the rain as a few patches of blue sky started to break through .

    Unfortunately it also marked the end of sport for me, try as I might I just couldn't tempt another bite, it was as if someone had turned a switch off . Not for Dave over on peg 34 however, indeed another bite proved to be the cue for his brolly to be blown loose hitting him in the head leading him to drop his rod and we were treated to the sight of Dave just managing to grab his rod before it sailed off into the lilies ......

     Malc was attempting to dry out and was fishing the feeder to start off with, but it was probably only a matter of time before he reverted to the pole ......

    Nick over on 38 had a bit of a slow start with just a solitary 5lb'er on the feeder, but a switch to the pole had produced a nice 13lb'er to give him a bit of a boost, though he did manage to crack his No 3 in the process . Neil on 40 however was beginning to think he'd upset someone when a gudgeon managed to snaffle his 11mm pellet . Steve was having a bit of a struggle as well on peg 4 but reckoned that Tony was starting to bag some lumps from down the margin in peg 2.

    I just kept the feed going in and rotating my lines in the hope that something would turn up on one of them, but apart from a solitary roach and a couple of small skimmers it wasn't looking to promising. Al appeared with a grin on his face and asked if I would take a photo of a 19lb'er that he'd just had, so the camera was retrieved from the safety of the holdall to do the honours......

    A foul hooker briefly raised my spirits until the rig came flying back with a large scale embedded on the hook. No such problems for Dave however who still appeared to be catching at a steady rate. More than could be said for those on the car park bank when a quick look revealed what appeared to be a distinct lack of action......

    With around 2 hours to go the float sailed away as I took another look at my 5mtr line and thankfully a nice chunky Common of around 8lbs was added to the net and this was swiftly followed by another of a similar size before someone switched the bites off again . With around an hour to go I noticed some bright orange elastic streaming out from what was obviously Malc's pole. I banded up an 11mm and dropped it in close to the grass in the left hand margin, nothing not even the merest tremble of the float was forthcoming and I was on the point of swapping swims once more when I notice a tail pattern close to the float. A few more pellets and a lift of the rig and the float buried, a lift resulting in a decent fish powering out into open water which proved to be a common of 11lbs+ . That final 45 minutes went by all to quickly with 4 more weigher's and a couple of 9lb'ers coming to the net along with a couple of decent Bream before the All-Out was called at 6pm.

    Packing the gear away I was confident that I'd managed a 'Ton' but cursing that those fish hadn't turned up on the inside line earlier. With the gear back at the car a chat with a couple of the lads revealed similar tales of struggle with fish turning up late in the day on the big lake as well.

    So onto the Weigh-In and first up was Dave on peg 34, he'd only had 3 weigher's, but a rack of smaller fish gave him 147½lbs, enough for A section and the overall win on the day . Tony on peg 2 weighed 138½lbs for 2nd in section and 2nd overall . My 117¼lbs was only good enough for 5th in section as Malc recorded 131lbs for 4th and Al's 138¼ gave him 3rd in section and 3rd overall . Dai on peg 10 had a fine 113lbs to take B section while Ant on peg 14 weighed 108lbs for 2nd in C section as Clive on Peg 15 weighed 124lbs to win C section . A string of lower weights told a tale of struggle till we finally got to Pete on peg 32 who had 96¼lbs for 2nd in B section .

    So back to the hut for the results and section monies. A definite air of relief as no Minxings had been handed out today, The Jinx effect had definitely flexed it's muscles once more with the weather and patchy sport, but we'll all be back to do it all again next month. For me, next up is Woods Lake at Colemans Cottage for a Marsh club match next Sunday .

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st

     Peg 34

     Dave Webster

       147lbs 08ozs

     2nd

     Peg 2

     Tony Roberts

       138lbs 08ozs

     3rd

     Peg 8

     Al Loader

       138lbs 04ozs

     4th

     Peg 7

     Malc (The Jinx) Doyle

       131lbs 00ozs

     5th

     Peg 15

     Clive Pritchard

       124lbs 00ozs

     6th

     Peg 5

     Peter Morton

       117lbs 04ozs

     7th

     Peg 10

     Dai Thomas

       113lbs 00ozs

     8th

     Peg 14

     Ant Haywood

       108lbs 00ozs

     9th

     Peg 32

     Pete Tapp           Guest

        96lbs 04ozs

     10th

     Peg 40

     Neil Riddy

        78lbs 04ozs

     11th

     Peg 31

     Paul Jay             Guest

        77lbs 04ozs

     12th

     Peg 9

     Terry Goff

        58lbs 12ozs

     13th

     Peg 28

     Jon Hatch

        57lbs 12ozs

     14th

     Peg 4

     Steve Wilson

        57lbs 04ozs

     15th

     Peg 23

     Nick Williams

        56lbs 12ozs

     16th

     Peg 38

     Nick Watkins-Price

        49lbs 08ozs

     17th

     Peg 22

     Paul Roberts

        40lbs 00ozs

     18th

     Peg 29

     Dave Moore

        37lbs 00ozs

     19th

     Peg 13

     Fred Parker

        36lbs 12ozs

     20th

     Peg 19

     Geoff Palmer

        34lbs 12ozs

     21st

     Peg 26

     Mat Edwards

        22lbs 14ozs

     22nd

     Peg 17

     Dave Collier

        19lbs 04ozs

     23rd

     Peg 25

     Marcus Burgess

         7lbs 00ozs

     24th

     Peg 18

     Kevin Loveland

         5lbs 08ozs

     No names in Pink today as the "MINX" didn't fish.  

    Section A

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 34 Dave Webster   147lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 2 Tony Roberts   138lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 8 Al Loader   138lbs 04ozs

    3

     4th Peg 7 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle   131lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 5 Peter Morton   117lbs 04ozs

    5

     6th Peg 40 Neil Riddy    78lbs 04ozs

    6

     7th Peg 4 Steve Wilson    57lbs 04ozs

    7

     8th Peg 38 Nick Watkins-Price    49lbs 08ozs

    8

     

    Section B

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 10 Dai Thomas   113lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 32 Pete Tapp           Guest    96lbs 04ozs

    0

     3rd Peg 31 Paul Jay             Guest    77lbs 04ozs

    0

     4th Peg 9 Terry Goff    58lbs 12ozs

    2

     5th Peg 28 Jon Hatch    57lbs 12ozs

    3

     6th Peg 29 Dave Moore    37lbs 00ozs

    4

     7th Peg 13 Fred Parker    36lbs 12ozs

    5

     8th Peg 26 Mat Edwards    22lbs 14ozs

    6

    Section C

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 15 Clive Pritchard   124lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 14 Ant Haywood   108lbs 00ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 23 Nick Williams    56lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th Peg 22 Paul Roberts    40lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 19 Geoff Palmer    34lbs 12ozs

    5

     6th Peg 17 Dave Collier    19lbs 04ozs

    6

     7th Peg 25 Marcus Burgess     7lbs 00ozs

    7

     8th Peg 18 Kevin Loveland     5lbs 08ozs

    8


     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

     

    Jinx Match 3

    Well it's time for the third Jinx Match , and with the way the weather had been in the week leading up to the match I wasn't expecting anything other than the cloudy sky with the promise of rain that greeted me as I looked through the curtains . Our 3 furry alarm clocks ( the cats) had done their usual efficient job, and with them fed, and a couple of cups of coffee drunk I soon had the car loaded, making sure the waterproofs were there, but leaving the brolly out as I find it just gets in the way, especially when I'm pole fishing.

    Setting off the clouds cleared a bit and the sun appeared, surely trying to lull me into a false sense of security . Breakfast in Battersea as usual was my first port of call , and with a 'Full English' duly dispatched  it was off to Rolfs. A smooth run down saw me pulling into an already filling car park around 10am .
    13 hardy souls had fished Malc's Annual JINX Night Match yesterday evening and had stayed over prior to todays match.

    Now never let it be said that The Jinx Squad don't know how to spoil their better halves . Geoff had brought down Mags and Saffi for a threesome in the caravan (Don't worry Saffi is Geoff & Mag's dog ), Paul had brought wife Jayne along to share a tent, Simon and Gem had forsaken their usual spot in the caravan so were also in a tent (providing Gem didn't burn anymore holes in it) and Nick had also brought Wife Lisa and little Josh along for a wet weekends camping to celebrate their 11th Wedding Anniversary . Who said romance is dead?

    Well after that it wasn't the greatest surprise to find that Nick was the proud wearer of The Pink Elephant today ......

    Anyway 11·30am and draw time and I'm in B section today and with the way I've been drawing all bets were off on me pulling Peg13 . Somehow though Nick Williams managed to intercept it and I found myself with Peg 29, a walk of all of 2 yards from the car park . The downside was that that left Peg 9 which has been on fire recently for Gem (The Minx) leaving a lot of very worried anglers .

    JinxMatch3pegging.jpg Match 3 pegging

     Well having dragged my kit the huge distance to my peg I settled in to take stock. Peg 29 is another of those pegs that doesn't get fished a lot and a chat with John revealed he'd had a go on it last night with just 3 carp and a couple of bream to show for his efforts, but he told me where he'd fed and the lines to fish .

    Looking up to my left there was Webbo on Peg 31 with Steve Wilson next up on Peg 32, while to my right I had Paul on peg 28 with wife Jayne keeping him company, Steve(Steak) was next up on Peg 26 while Malc(The Jinx) was hiding behind the bush on Peg 25 .

    Setting up didn't take to long although the wind blew my keepnets into the peg even before I could start setting my kit up (not a good omen ), Anyway the rigs, an NG 0·4 XT Open Water on 0·20 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 14 Guru QM1 for 5 mtrs where I had around 5 ft of water and a couple of NG 0·3 XT Sampson margins on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1's, One for tight to the bush on my left and the other down the shelf in front of it. The feeder rod was set up as a get out of jail back up. Bait was simply fishery 6mm hard pellet for feed with some 8mm and 11mm donkey chokers that would be banded onto the hook along with some corn and a selection of GOT Baits soft hookers.

    All the while it had stayed quite sunny and warm, but the wind was gusting and as the All-In approached the grey clouds were starting to gather . John got us underway at 1pm by ringing the fishery bell. 2 pots of pellet at 5mtrs and a big handful off the end of the bush.
    Steve was in straight away on Peg 32, a weigher that tipped the scales at over 18lbs which Dave managed to capture on camera ......

    Dave was out on his 'Feederless Feeder' but it didn't seem to be having quite the desired effect for him today . Odd fish seemed to be coming out all round, though not for Paul or me. About half an hour in my float vanished and a gentle lift resulted in a bream doing a passable impression of a dolphin!!!!  It was soon in the net and while it wasn't the carp I was hoping for it at least saved the dreaded blank. A little while later I connected with a carp, obviously a foul hooker as I'd connected halfway through lifting the rig out and as it powered off the rig came back alone .

    Paul was suffering to with a number of foul hookers. The dreaded YEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!! had come from Peg 9 spreading the fear of a Minxing to a good few round the lake. The first of a good few heavy showers had arrived and these would continue off and on for the rest of the match. Sport for me had died completely. It seemed every time I looked up Steve was playing yet another fish and even Dave had forsaken his 'Feederless Feeder' for the pole in an attempt to get in on the action ......

     If I'm honest, the weather and the lack of any action made me quite despondent and unusually for me I didn't bother to get up for a stroll to see what others were doing, making do with a couple of hurriedly snapped pictures from my peg. Ady was over on Peg 18 and fishing long trying to tempt fish he could see cruising......

    Lisa however was undaunted and managed to get a couple of decent catch shots between showers, the first being an 18½lb common that Budgie had on peg 11  ......

     And a 13½lb'er for Hubby Nick from peg 8 ......

    Then around a quarter to five things started to look up for me as a carp put in an appearance , only a small one of around 7lbs but welcome none the less, and from there on in I seemed to get one every 10 minutes or so, the rain was back with a vengeance as well, thank heavens for a decent set of waterproofs ......

    A couple of foul hookers did their best to disrupt things, but I was starting to put a weight of sorts together and daring to dream that I might even avoid the dreaded Minxing. The rain had stopped again and glancing at my watch I realised there were just seconds to go when my float vanished, a lift and the fish was on and as it went off on a run the All-Out was called. "FISH ON" and looking up I realised that Gem was in as well along with Malc and a couple of others. Gently does it and within 5 minutes it's in the net and at 11lbs a nice way to end what had been a torturous match .

    Thankfully it stayed dry as we packed away and then it was on to the Weigh-In. Jon kicked things off from peg 34 with 54¼lbs but this was soon eclipsed by Clive's 140½lbs, but he was cursing a cupping kit that had stuck on his only No3 section forcing him to fish short for the majority of the match having caught well at 14½mtrs prior to that , especially as it would prove to be only good enough for 2nd on the day after Mat on Peg 5 put 141lbs 10ozs on the scales to take the overall win and A section .
    Gem set a mark of 48¾lbs to avoid a Minxing. Budgies level 69lbs would give him 2nd in section. Simon had 65¼lbs and Tony had a fine 87½lbs from peg 20 despite being another to suffer a stuck No3 section this time on a top kit. Malc's 110¾lbs, mostly caught late would give him the win in C section today. My fish weighed 55¾lbs, that final fish saving me from a Minxing and Steve took B section and 3rd overall with 138lbs 10ozs .

    So back to the Hut for the results and a couple of Golden Nuggets for me from Dave and Gem. The general feeling was that today had been a proper JINX MATCH, foul weather, and hard fishing for some, reminding everyone just what The Jinx Series can be all about. 11 victims for Gem to add to her Minx List including Fred who had been the only one to survive last year . That leaves just Ant, Mitch, Steve and Clive without a Minxing this Series with 3 matches still to go .

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 5 Mat Edwards   141lbs 10ozs
     2nd Peg 2 Clive Pritchard   140lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 32 Steve Wilson   138lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 25 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle   110lbs 12ozs
     5th Peg 20 Tony Roberts    87lbs 08ozs
     6th Peg 11 Marcus Burgess    69lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 17 Simon Mound    65lbs 04ozs
     8th Peg 4 Dave Moore    64lbs 08ozs
     9th Peg 26 Steve Akal             Guest    57lbs 04ozs
     10th Peg 29 Peter Morton    55lbs 12ozs
     11th= Peg 8 Nick Watkins-Price    54lbs 04ozs
     11th= Peg 34 Jon Hatch    54lbs 04ozs
     13th Peg 13 Nick Williams    51lbs 08ozs
     14th Peg 9 Gem (The Minx) Doyle    48lbs 12ozs
     15th Peg 15 Fred Parker    47lbs 08ozs
     16th Peg 7 Dai Thomas    46lbs 00ozs
     17th Peg 28 Paul Roberts    44lbs 08ozs
     18th Peg 18 Ady Williams    40lbs 12ozs
     19th Peg 31 Dave Webster    38lbs 10ozs
     20th Peg 38 Geoff Palmer    32lbs 08ozs
     21st Peg 14 Alex Clark    29lbs 04ozs
     22nd Peg 23 Pete Tapp              Guest    26lbs 12ozs
     23rd Peg 22 Martin Cannon       Guest    26lbs 02ozs
     24th Peg 40 Terry Goff    20lbs 08ozs
     25th Peg 10 Kevin Loveland

    DNW

    Names in Pink are those that were "MINXED"

    Section A

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 5 Mat Edwards   141lbs 10ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 2 Clive Pritchard   140lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 4 Dave Moore     64lbs 08ozs

    3

     4th= Peg 8 Nick Watkins-Price     54lbs 04ozs

    4

     4th= Peg 34 Jon Hatch     54lbs 04ozs

    4

     6th Peg 7 Dai Thomas     46lbs 00ozs

    6

     7th Peg 38 Geoff Palmer     32lbs 08ozs

    7

     8th Peg 40 Terry Goff     20lbs 08ozs

    8

     

    Section B

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 32 Steve Wilson   138lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 11 Marcus Burgess     69lbs 00ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 26 Steve Akal             Guest     57lbs 04ozs

    0

     4th Peg 29 Peter Morton     55lbs 12ozs

    3

     5th Peg 13 Nick Williams     51lbs 08ozs

    4

     6th Peg 9 Gem (The Minx) Doyle     48lbs 12ozs

    5

     7th Peg 28 Paul Roberts     44lbs 08ozs

    6

     8th Peg 31 Dave Webster     38lbs 10ozs

    7

     9th Peg 10 Kevin Loveland

    DNW

    8

     

    Section C

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 25 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle    110lbs 12ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 20 Tony Roberts     87lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 17 Simon Mound     65lbs 04ozs

    3

     4th Peg 15 Fred Parker     47lbs 08ozs

    4

     5th Peg 18 Ady Williams     40lbs 12ozs

    5

     6th Peg 14 Alex Clark     29lbs 04ozs

    6

     7th Peg 23 Pete Tapp              Guest     26lbs 12ozs

    0

     8th Peg 22 Martin Cannon       Guest     26lbs 02ozs

    0

     

     

  • Rayne Lodge Fishery. The Top Lake.

    Marsh AC club match.

    R.jpg Rayne Lodge. Top Lake. picture by pnm123

    The Top Lake at Rayne Lodge just outside of Braintree in Essex is the venue for what is the second Marsh AC club match of the year. A quick glance through the curtains confirmed that the forecaster hadn't been kidding last night and it promised to be a fine sunny day , so shorts and tee shirt were the order of the day. Cats fed and coffee drunk I loaded up the car and set off round to Dave's house where I met up Chris and Dave for the trip down to the fishery. An accident on the way to the Dartford Tunnel meant we had to divert round it making us a little late, but we still pulled into the car park just after 8am.

    Soon all the kit was transfered down the hill to the lake and discussions were underway about the prospects for the day ahead. Vic( SHANGER) Nugent was fishing his first club match with us since joining and had brought his partner Diane along to fish as well , while Keith had brought workmate Mick along as his guest once more. Into the draw and peg 14 was mine for the day (one away from the one I had on my last visit here)......

    while Keith drew peg 14A to my left......

     with Kevin and partner Jean to my right on peg 12 and Al next up on peg 11A......

    I have to say that the lake looked cock on, There were plenty of fish showing, however they just appeared to be mooching about and it looked as if they were getting ready to spawn to me.

    With us fishing from 10·15am till 4·15pm today there was plenty of time to set up, so everything got an outing today. 2 pellet waggler rods and a method feeder set up came out of their ready sleeves along with 3 top kits for the pole.

    The top kits were set up with 2 Sackup CX 4x12 pencils on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG's and a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG for the margin line. Feed was 6mm hard pellet, with dampened pellet for the method while hook baits were 6 & 8mm hard pellet, corn and a selection of GOT Baits soft hookers.

    Jean kindly provided me with my customary coffee and a bonus today in the shape of a freshly cooked sausage & bacon roll so I was well set by the time Dave sounded the All-In at 10·15am. A pot of pellets and corn onto each my selected lines then I shipped a banded 6mm pellet out to 7mtrs. A minute later and the float slid away and carp number 1 was on its way to the net . Unfortunately it was only a couple of ounces, not quite the stamp I was looking for . A better example of around a pound was next up and this was followed by a couple of skimmers and I got the impression that the fish I was really looking for weren't present in any numbers.

    I'd started catapulting a few pellets across to the corner of the island and after around an hour took a look with the pellet waggler after re-feeding my pole lines. There were fish there alright, I could see them cruising, but after half an hour I'd only managed 3 small carp for my efforts. A quick look with the feeder was unproductive so it was back to the pole.

    At this stage nobody appeared to be running away with it, and the word was that it was generally fishing slow. I started to get a few carp interested on my 7mtr line, nothing remarkable, but enough to make me feel that I was holding my own against Keith . Another coffee and sausage & bacon roll from Jean was most welcome , so having been re-fed myself, I re-fed the swim and took a quick stroll to try and see what was happening elsewhere.

    Keith was starting to find a few on a more regular basis, though he was ruing the loss of a 'Double' that had taken off out of his swim and just kept going ......

     Simon appeared to be ticking along nicely picking up fish by alternating between on the deck and up in the water in an attempt to keep in touch with the fish......

     Diane was playing a fish as I passed and seemed to think that she might have the beating of Vic .......

     ...... and although Vic was also playing a fish, a quick chat revealed that he was far from confident in gaining the upper hand today ......

     Terry on peg 22 claimed to be struggling, though he was playing a fish while we chatted. while Eddie on peg 1 appeared to be ticking along nicely and enjoying his first day out on the bank for a while ......

    Dave had started to catch fishing floaters under the tree to his left and while he was having trouble feeding due to the resident geese he seemed to be getting a decent stamp of fish , and it seemed that Martin had followed his lead and was starting to catch a similar stamp of fish from peg 6 round the corner from Dave ......

    Clive was claiming to have a mare, but the fact that he was happy to pose with a small roach that he caught led me to believe that he might just be sand bagging about how his match was going .....

    I found Mick in the corner on peg 11 and was shocked to see him fishing the waggler , but he was having a bit of a lean time and figured that it was the best way to tempt a few......

     As I got back to my peg Keith was into another fish so it was time to get my head down and concentrate. First put in and the float buried as a carp intercepted the bait and although the sport was never fast or furious, I managed to keep the fish coming on a reasonably regular basis by keeping the pellet going in to hold the fish. It was nip and tuck between me and Keith right the way to the end with a bit of banter back and forth between the two of us right up till the end when Dave called the All-Out at 4·15pm while I played a final fish that took my total up to 51 carp.

    As we packed up I knew it would be to close to call between Keith and I and with the weigh in starting on peg 1 it had made it's way round to Martin on peg 6 before I caught up with it to find Dave leading with a fine 114¾lbs which would prove to be good enough to take the win on the day as Martin's net came up a little short at 103¾lb, but still good enough for 2nd . Clive had indeed been economical with the truth as his net came in at a level 89lbs for 3rd overall . Al managed 64½lbs while my fish weighed a total of 73lbs giving me the section and just edging out Keith's 71½lbs . Simon's 64½lbs allowed him to tie for 6th with Al . Round to peg 20 where Diane placed a level 48lbs on the scales to take the decision from Vic's 34½lbs, though of course we were all full of sympathy for him ................NOT

    Back up the hill to the car park for the results and the section monies and that was it for another match . The next match is at Mill Barn Reservoir on June 11th where I'll be defending a narrow 1 point lead from Al and Clive with Keith just a point further back.

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 4 Dave Collier   114lbs 12ozs
     2nd Peg 6 Martin Hucker   103lbs 12ozs
     3rd Peg 8 Clive Pritchard    89lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 14 Peter Morton    73lbs 00ozs
     5th Peg 14a Keith Ashby    71lbs 08ozs
     6th= Peg 11a Al Loader    64lbs 08ozs
     6th= Peg 17 Simon Watkins    64lbs 08ozs
     8th Peg 7 Tony Roberts    55lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg 1 Eddie Dobson    51lbs 00ozs
     10th Peg 20 Diane                     Guest    48lbs 00ozs
     11th Peg 16 Jim Boase    38lbs 00ozs
     12th Peg 21 Vic Nugent    34lbs 08ozs
     13th Peg 12 Kevin Loveland    30lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 11 Mick Wright           Guest    29lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 22 Terry Goff    19lbs 00ozs
     16th Peg 9 Chris Withall    14lbs 08ozs
     17th Peg 10 Judy Hermite    14lbs 04ozs
     18th Peg 3 Ron Mannister      7lbs 12ozs

     

  • Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Jinx Match 1

    It's that time of year again . Yes that group of angling nutters that make up The Jinx Squad  are back once more to fish The Jinx Series of matches at Rolfs Lake .

    Clive, Malc(The Jinx), Pete(Mugger), Simon(simps), Tony(spamwham), Terry(Wily Coyote), Steve.
    Ady(slim shady), Paul, Nick(monkey), Nick(neo1), Mitch, Fred(milo), Matt.
    Kevin, Jon(hatchye), Geoff(cap'n birdseye), Alex(bagger j), Dave(The Fish), Dave.
    Dai, Marcus(budgie), Neil, Ant, Al, Dave(webbo), Gem(The Minx)

    My usual alarm woke me (3 cats wanting to be fed ) and a lovely sunny morning greeted me as I gazed through the curtains. However this was a Jinx Match day so I wasn't going to be fooled into dressing in just shorts and teeshirt despite the lovely weather we've been having. With the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee consumed I got the car loaded along with a fleece and my waterproofs. All set and as usual first stop was my favourite café in Battersea (The Jimmy Griddle) for a "Full English" Eating.gif Eat picture by pnm123. Suitably fortified it was back into the car for what was an uneventful trip to the lake, however with about 4 miles to go the sunshine vanished to be replaced by grey clouds as far as the eye could see ................Malc (The Jinx) was obviously there before me .

    Pulling into the car park my thoughts were confirmed as who should I see first but Malc and Liam (Jinx Jnr). Climbing out of the car it had already turned noticeably cooler, a good job I'd brought that fleece . Dave Moore appeared along with Simon and it was soon clear that they'd fished the Open Match the night before. Results were mixed, and while some feel it primes the lake to fish well the next day, I always feel that it can make it fish harder especially when there are 27 fishing . Soon the rest of The Jinx Squad started to arrive along with a few spots of rain, but I managed to get a cup of coffee and started to catch up with people while the banter flowed as it does on these occasions......

    Malc almost got ahead of himself, ringing the bell at 11am for the draw, however we soon told him to hold his horses as the draw wasn't due till 11·30am.
    First things though and Gem (The Minx) had to draw a peg number to decide who would have the honour of wearing The Minx's forfeit, a Pink Elephant Hat for this years Series, and Peg 40 was the one .

    Onto the draw and new Jinx Squad member Neil soon found himself in possession of the Pink Elephant for the day ......

    ...........after this the others soon dived in, and I came away holding Peg 20 , now I'm not saying it's a bad draw, but it hardly ever gets used in matches, and there hadn't been a weight recorded from it this year!!!!!!!! On the plus side, just weighing something in would mean that I would become Peg 20's reigning Peg King .

    JinxMatch1pegging.jpg Match 1 pegging

    Making my way round with my gear though that was the only positive I could come up with about my draw. Settling my kit into my peg I could see that Dave (Mr Maggotdrowning ) had drawn cock on with Peg 18 and Al next to him on 17......

    Nick was to my immediate right on Peg 19, while to my left Steve was on peg 22 and Kevin was on peg 23 with Jean, so at least I should be OK for a cup of coffee or two . Simon strolled round taking some photos for the Rolfs Blog and his picture captured my feeling on my draw ......

     Paul Jay offered a bit of advise on lines to fish and with plenty of time I opted to tie up some new rigs. Two of them were MW 0·6 Diamonds on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru MWG's. These would be for 2 swims, one at 10 o'clock and the other at 12 o'clock at around 8mtrs where I had between 3½ and 4 feet of water. A third was a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin again on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 12 Guru QM1 to fish by the bush to my left in around 2½ft of water. Bait was taken care of by 6 and 8mm fishery pellets and a selection of various soft hookers.

    1pm and the bell sounds the All-In, a pot of pellet onto each line and out with a banded 8mm straight in front. Nick's quickly off the mark with a carp and Steve's had a skimmer......

    ...... not a touch for me though. Time marches on, Jean arrives with a cup of coffee as others are starting to catch. Looking over toward Peg 14 there's an ominous site, lots of orange elastic streaming from Gems pole , Simon fished this peg last night and had just under a 'Ton' from it, so it's been well primed......

     ...............She soon had it in the net and her shout of "YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS" sent plenty of shudders round the bank.

    Paul was on Peg 15 and fishing the feeder across to the bar and it looked like it was starting to produce the goods for him ......

     An hour and a half in and I still haven't had a bite , Steve's suffered with a run of 7 foul hookers, Nick's had another one, in fact everyone seems to have caught something apart from me . Gems had another couple and I can see Dai in the distance on Peg 32 putting a few together as well......

    Time to re-feed and a quick stroll with the camera. Down to the Little Lake and it's obvious that very few are catching well. Malc's down the margins trying hard to tempt a fish on what he would call a "Sulky Saturday "......

     while Ady looked as if he was already ringing the changes in an attempt to find out just what they wanted......

     Simon however was into a fish which was giving a good account of itself and refusing to get it's head up......

    Dave the Fish and Tony (spamwham) were up on pegs 7 & 8 and while they were managing a few fish between them, neither was really having the day they'd hoped for when they drew those pegs......

    Dave did manage to get himself a decent Chub though which Geoff caught on camera, that rolled the scales round to 4lbs when he weighed it   ......

    Back at my peg and in an attempt to get a bite I decided to try something different and shallowed my margin rig to a couple of feet and fished it out front pinging half a dozen pellets every 30 seconds. After 30 minutes I was on the point of giving that up when the float vanished  !!!!!! A spirited fight saw me playing a fish with kid gloves as I was determined not to lose it having waited for so long, and it was a very relieved Mugger who slipped the net under a Common that weighed 11lbs after an anxious 5 minutes . Back out and almost straight away another bite resulting in another Common of 9lbs . I'd like to say that I didn't look back after that, but unfortunately that was it apart from 1 small roach that I bumped on the strike .

    Dave had set up his Feeder-less Feeder (a pellet cone to anyone else ) with an hour and a half to go and it produced a few carp for him right up to the all out. Al had nicked a carp on the pellet wag but had to pack up early as he'd promised to be home in time to go out for a meal for his daughters birthday . In fact he was walking past my peg with about 5 minutes of the match remaining when Nick hooked into a fish and to my surprise my float buried as well . Carp no3 thankfully found it's way to the net and weighed 9¼lbs and that was it as the All-Out was called before I could ship back out.

    With the kit back at the car park it was time for the Weigh-In with Mitch setting the early mark with a section winning 67½lbs . Simon had included a 19¼lb Common in his 43½lbs......

     While Tony's 58lbs from peg 8 was good enough for 2nd in section. Jon had a new PB Mirror of 18¾lbs in his 40¼lbs ......

    ...... and Mat had a creditable 65¾lbs from Peg 13. Gem set The Minx Mark with 67½lbs to tie with Mitch . Paul's peg had produced the goods with a Section winning 96¾lbs and 3rd overall on the day . My rather inglorious 29¼lbs  at least meant that I'm the new Peg King on Peg 20 . Steve managed a hard earned 69¼lbs but it was left to Clive on Peg 28 to record the first 'Ton' of the day with 107½lbs, but that would only be good enough for 2nd  as Dai on Peg 32 produced a match winning 122½lbs to take the honours on the day .

    So The Jinx Series is off and running once more, hopefully sport will pick up a bit as the Series progresses. 21 victims for The Minx today . Who gets the PINK ELEPHANT on the next match? She's going to keep us waiting till the next match and think about it while she suns herself on holiday in Portugal .

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 32 Dai Thomas   122lbs 08ozs
     2nd Peg 28 Clive Pritchard   107lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 15 Paul Roberts     96lbs 12ozs
     4th Peg 22 Steve Wilson     69lbs 04ozs
     5th= Peg 14. Gem(The Minx)Doyle     67lbs 08ozs
     5th= Peg 34 Mitch Auger     67lbs 08ozs
     7th Peg 13 Mat Edwards     65lbs 12ozs
     8th Peg 8 Tony Roberts     58lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg 4 Pete Tapp             Guest     50lbs 08ozs
     10th Peg 25 Marcus Burgess     49lbs 00ozs
     11th Peg 7 Dave Collier     48lbs 12ozs
     12th Peg 18 Dave Webster     45lbs 08ozs
     13th Peg 5 Simon Mound     43lbs 08ozs
     14th Peg 10 Jon Hatch     40lbs 04ozs
     15th Peg 2 Alex Clarke     38lbs 08ozs
     16th Peg 40 Neil Riddy     35lbs 08ozs
     17th Peg 38 Ady Williams     31lbs 04ozs
     18th Peg 26 Terry Goff     30lbs 00ozs
     19th Peg 19 Nick Williams     29lbs 12ozs
     20th Peg 20 Peter Morton     29lbs 04ozs
     21st Peg 23 Kevin Loveland     27lbs 00ozs
     22nd Peg 9 Rod Rose              Guest     24lbs 00ozs
     23rd Peg 17 Al Loader     20lbs 08ozs
     24th= Peg 29 Nick Watkins-Price     17lbs 00ozs
     24th= Peg 31 Dave Moore     17lbs 00ozs
     26th Peg 36 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle     12lbs 00ozs
     27th Peg 11 Geoff Palmer     10lbs 08ozs

    Names in Pink are those that were "MINXED"

    Section A

    Position

    Peg  

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 34 Mitch Auger     67lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 8 Tony Roberts     58lbs 00ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 4 Pete Tapp            Guest     50lbs 08ozs

    0

     4th Peg 7 Dave Collier     48lbs 12ozs

    3

     5th Peg 5 Simon Mound     43lbs 08ozs

    4

     6th Peg 2 Alex Clarke     38lbs 08ozs

    5

     7th Peg 40 Neil Riddy     35lbs 08ozs

    6

     8th Peg 38 Ady Williams     31lbs 04ozs

    7

     9th Peg 36 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle     12lbs 00ozs

    8

    Section B

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 32 Dai Thomas   122lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 28 Clive Pritchard   107lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 13 Mat Edwards     65lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th Peg 10 Jon Hatch     40lbs 04ozs

    4

     5th Peg 26 Terry Goff     30lbs 00ozs

    5

     6th Peg 9 Rod Rose             Guest     24lbs 00ozs

    0

     7th= Peg 29 Nick Watkins-Price     17lbs 00ozs

    6

     7th= Peg 31 Dave Moore     17lbs 00ozs

    6

     9th Peg 11 Geoff Palmer     10lbs 08ozs

    8

    Section C

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 15 Paul Roberts     96lbs 12ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 22 Steve Wilson     69lbs 04ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 14. Gem(The Minx)Doyle     67lbs 08ozs

    3

     4th Peg 25 Marcus Burgess     49lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 18 Dave Webster     45lbs 08ozs

    5

     6th Peg 19 Nick Williams     29lbs 12ozs

    6

     7th Peg 20 Peter Morton     29lbs 04ozs

    7

     8th Peg 23 Kevin Loveland     27lbs 00ozs

    8

     9th Peg 17 Al Loader     20lbs 08ozs

    9

     

  • Monk Lakes. Match Lake 4.

    Marsh AC club match.

    MM4.jpg Monk Lakes. Match Lake 4. picture by pnm123

    Down to Monk Lakes today for the first Marsh AC club match of the year. It's always good to be back out with the lads and lasses who make up the club membership for these matches, they're nice light hearted affairs, more like a days pleasure fishing with a weigh-in at the end than a serious match. That's not to say that there aren't a few personal rivalries and scores to settle , but at the end it's all about a good day out with mates . The forecast for today was looking good and with the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee to wake me up the kit was soon loaded into the car I was off by 7am. It's around 40 miles down to Monk Lakes and a steady run down saw me pulling into the car park around 8am.

    Most of the usual suspects were gathered round the food bar with tea's, coffee's and various breakfast concoctions being demolished ahead of the draw. A jumbo sausage stick took care of my needs as the banter flowed back and forth , Dave soon had the monies collected and with 19 of us in attendance the draw got under way. I quite fancied a peg in the 160's today as these pegs frequently produce good bags, however my drawing hand had other ideas and presented me with peg 142 when it emerged from the hat.

    So off to our respective pegs and I found that I had Al for company to my left on peg 143 which is tailor made for his long up in the water approach against the reed lined island, while Mick Wright, Keiths guest and travelling companion had Peg 145. Peg 142 had a very shallow area at the end of the island which the lakes waterfowl, especially the geese love to occupy . Down to my right on peg 140 was Keith on the same peg as he had for last years match and yielded a 2nd place for him, so I was going to have my work cut out for a result today. Next to Keith was Kev on peg 139 and with Jean keeping him company I should be OK for a couple of cups of coffee throughout the match .

    Settling into the peg it looked like the wind could make fishing long awkward so I decided on a line at 8 mtrs as the depth was pretty consistent all the way across and a couple of margin lines. I just set up 3 rigs, all Sackup CX 4x12 pencils on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG's. I find that they're nice stable but sensitive floats and one was set to fish at dead depth at 8mtrs where I had around 4 feet of water while the other two were set for the margins where I had between 18 inches - 2 feet and could also cover if I needed to fish shallow. Bait for today would be a mix of maggot, corn and pellet, with feed taken care of by 6mm pellet.

    With everything set a few of the lads were discussing the prospects for the day ahead...........

     While Paul East could be found wandering around, probably looking for tips as it's been 6 months since he last picked up his kit ...........

    So at 10am Dave sounded the All-In and Marsh AC's season was underway. A pot of mixed pellet, maggot and corn was shipped out to 8mtrs while the left hand margin received a handful of maggots and the right hand one pellets. Out to 8 mtrs with double red maggot and the float soon buried, a 4oz Roach becoming the the first resident of the keepnet today. It was soon joined by a pair of small Tench, a small skimmer and a plump Gudgeon . Al had started with a feeder to the island, but soon reverted to the pole across which produced a Carp for him. Keith had got off the mark after around 10 minutes with a Carp as well, and soon seemed to be putting a few together. Kev had a couple to get him off the mark as well.............

    Meanwhile Jean appeared with a welcome cup of coffee , but I was beginning to feel that I was getting left behind as Al started to get among the Carp. I managed just 3 small Carp in the hour, but didn't feel as if I was getting anywhere. A look in both margins produced just a solitary Orfe to my efforts.

    I felt that Al was already over the hill and far away unless his swim dried up, but thankfully he wasn't in my section. It's funny how you can put yourself under pressure, it seemed that every time I looked Keith was playing a fish and I convinced myself he was walking the section . I decided to add another section and fish out past my fed area to see if the fish had backed off. Sure enough I started to get a few bites and started to get a few small Carp. With this change of fortune I started to feel a bit better but I was still struggling to put a run of fish together.

    Dave appeared having a stroll and judging by his comments nobody was really taking the place apart. Jean had been kind enough to get me a cheeseburger from the food bar and as I consumed it I mulled over my next move. One of my fallbacks that's served me well when I've been struggling has been to fish what I feed so I decided for the rest of the session to fish banded 6mm hard pellet and just feed those as well. It seemed to have the desired effect as slowly but surely I started to put a run of fish together , mostly small Carp but they kept coming at a steady rate . Jean had supplied another welcome cup of coffee  while Kevin had gone out on the feeder with a couple of hours to go, a sure sign that he was struggling. Al was still catching and wasn't going to be caught . It was just a question of whether I could make up the deficit that I thought I had to Keith.

     Sport stayed strong for me and with 5 minutes to go I had my best fish of the day, a nice Common of around 8lbs (a definite Mugger moment©) and managed a further 3 Carp before Dave sounded the All-Out at 4pm. I felt sure that Al had close to the 'Ton' and wouldn't be caught, but Keith felt that I may have edged him. I really couldn't call it as I had been so focused on catching that I had no real idea as to what was in my nets .

    The club has purchased a second set of scales this year and the Weigh-In for our part of the lake started from Al's peg. Two weighs and 94lbs was a fine effort by Al on a day where the wind hadn't made it easy to fish at 16mtrs. I was next to weigh and a figure of 71½lbs was to prove good enough for a section win as Keith's fish weighed 57½lbs, meaning that he had at least secured the bragging rights over his guest Mick today . So with the kit packed away everyone assembled back at the food bar for the full results.

    Over a refreshing cuppa it soon became obvious once the weight sheets were totted up that the lake as a whole hadn't fished up to expectations.  Al's weight had indeed been good enough for 1st on the day 1st while I took 2nd place 2nd.gif 2nd picture by pnm123 and Keith finished 3rd 3rd.gif 3rd picture by pnm123. Clive had managed top weight on the roadside bank with 56¾lbs , while Paul finaly remembered how to catch a few fish after his lay off . The backing weights however weren't quite what we'd hoped for although everyone had a few fish and we're off and running for another year .

     Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 143 Al Loader 94lbs 00ozs
     2nd Peg 142 Peter Morton 71lbs 00ozs
     3rd Peg 140 Keith Ashby 57lbs 08ozs
     4th Peg 163 Clive Pritchard 56lbs 12ozs
     5th Peg 145 Mick Wright      (guest) 56lbs 00ozs
     6th Peg 164 Paul East 35lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 152 Mick Pearson     (guest) 33lbs 08ozs
     8th Peg 146 Terry Goff 27lbs 12ozs
     9th Peg 149 Graham Manning 26lbs 08ozs
     10th Peg 139 Kevin Loveland 22lbs 08ozs
     11th Peg 158 Jim Boase 20lbs 12ozs
     12th Peg 154 Dave Collier 19lbs 00ozs
     13th Peg 136 John Holdsworth 16lbs 08ozs
     14th Peg 137 Ken Walker 15lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 161 Simon Watkins 14lbs 10ozs
     16th Peg 157 Chris Withall 14lbs 00ozs
     17th Peg 151 Judy Hermite 11lbs 08ozs
     18th Peg 148 Zak Johnson     (guest)  5lbs 00ozs
     19th Peg 155 Rod Turner  4lbs 04ozs