The Jinx Series 2012
Match 4

It's back down to Rolfs Lake today for the 4th match of this year's Jinx Series . With the Series reaching its halfway point there will be a fresh draw for the sections on the final three matches today which could have a big say in deciding the outcome of the Series so there will be a few anxious anglers come draw time.
A peak out of the window today confirmed that it promised to be a scorcher today so having fed the cats and loaded the kit I made an early start. Things went horribly wrong when I reached Battersea however when I found the Café where I usually stop for breakfast closed totally throwing my pre match preparations into disarray , so back into the car and off to Rolfs with a quick stop at Asda's for a couple of wraps to sustain me which meant that I arrived at the lake around 9am.

A few of the lads were already there having fished the Friday Night Match, and chatting to Malc it seemed that it had fished hard and the general consensus seemed to be that it was going to be more of the same today. The fresh draw for sections today seemed to have ensured that most were there in good time, however three were missing today, Dave Moore, Geoff Palmer and Ade Williams meaning they would have to take their chances on which section was drawn for them, however it did give Michael Corsini and Paul Jay the opportunity to fish today .

Meanwhile Gem had been to Asda's and returned with Cornetto's for all. Thanks Gem, much appreciated and it went down a treat . Next up was one of those events that you only see in a Jinx Match, Paul received The Pink Hat much to everyones amusement with a photo being immediately posted on Facebook for Paul's wife Jayne to see ......

So around Noon Malc called the draw. I got in early and got peg 24 in C section for my troubles. It hadn't been fished last night so wouldn't have had any bait, but at least it would be shaded on the car park bank for most of the match . Side bets of a Golden Nugget were struck with Neil, Gem and Michael and having collected my kit I made my way to the peg. For company in the section I had Nick Williams on peg 28 and Michael on peg 26 (fishing for Ade) while on peg 22 was Nick W-P. Opposite on peg 18 was Paul with Neil on 16 and Budgie on 14 completing C section .

The rigs today were all freshly tied and were my favourite Nick Gilbert handmade Power Pencils in 0·5g and 0·4g sizes that were made up on 0·21 Ultima power match with size 14 Guru MWG's to finish off to cover a 5mtr line, the bottom of the slope at the end of the right hand bush and a third in front of the platform on empty peg 25. I also set up a bomb rod to fish a banded pellet out by the aerator. Bait was a mix of 4 and 6mm fishery pellets for feed with about 3 pints of them wetted down and 6, 8 and 11mm hard pellets along with some paste and corn for the hook.

At 2pm the All-In was called and with all three lines fed it was out to the aerator with a banded 8mm on the bomb rod to see if I could nick an early fish. It was not to be, however Paul had an early fish over on peg 18 on the pellet wag before taking a look with the pole ......

...... and it looked as if Tony down on peg 32 had some early action as well, but it was Simon on peg 8 who had got off to the best start storming into an early lead with 5 fish .

20 minutes on the bomb hadn't produced as much as a knock for me so out to 5mtrs with a banded 8mm as there were a few signs of fish over the feed. It really wasn't happening though for most of us in the Big Lake today and it was starting to look like it would be a real struggle for most and in fact an hour had passed when Neil called over to me asking if I'd had any bites and as I replied 'No' the float slid away !!!! Straight away I could feel that the fish was foul hooked as I struggled to control it, however slow steady pressure saw me prevail and finally slide a Mirror tail first over the net and at 11½lbs I was off the mark .

The next bite produced a similar result and produced an 11lb'er, but young Michael wasn't quite so impressed as he'd suffered with a couple of foul hookers but hadn't managed to get them into the net which led to plenty of banter between the two of us ......

Over the course of the next hour or so a couple of net fish put in an appearance for me to keep things ticking over but the next bite saw a fish power off and in all honesty all I could do was hang on as this fish gave the gear a real work out. I finally managed to get a look at it after around 5 minutes, a big common which appeared to be hooked in the pectoral fin before it charged off again. Of course Michael was full of encouragement and seemed genuinely delighted when I managed to slide the landing net under it, even more so when the scales on the weigh station registered a weight of 19½lbs .

Landing the fish had taken a while though and it had ploughed through the swim wreaking havoc, so I re-fed and took a short stroll to see how others were doing. Tony was up on peg 32 and it looked like he'd had a reasonably good start to the match, but it turned out that he'd suffered with foul hookers and had lost a few fish so was now taking a look down his right hand margin ......

Simon was nowhere to be seen, but he was having such a good match that he'd gone off to get another keepnet . However Simon's good fortune meant that he was stopping the fish coming round to peg 9 and Malc was suffering a real grueller of a match ......

Clive seemed to be suffering a similar fate on peg 10 with no fish coming round from the right and Paul Jay on peg 13 seeming to stop the fish moving round from the left as he appeared to be catching better than most on the Big Lake ......

I could see that The Minx was down on peg 38, but it didn't look it was happening for her either, though it was one of those pegs where the fish can turn up at any time, meaning she could still be a danger as the match wore on ......

Fred was trying his best on peg 34, but yet again it didn't seem to be producing the goods today, and that seemed to be the story for most ......

Back at my peg there was a bit of fizzing on the 5mtr line to offer some encouragement and the next hour and a half produced another 5 net fish to keep things ticking over for me and Nick W on peg 28 started to put a few together to put pressure on Michael who was still suffering frustrations with foul hookers .

The last hour cost me however as I just couldn't buy a bite from any of my lines while Neil over on peg 16 started to put a run of fish together ......

and Paul added a couple of decent fish late on as well, along with Budgie getting in on the action over on peg 14 ......

7pm saw the All-Out called leaving me frustrated, as I'd hoped for a decent last hour, but it hadn't happened and I felt that it had cost me the section , the Weigh-In would tell all though but I wasn't feeling confident. I soon had my kit packed away and back to the car and chatting to a few of the lads it was obvious that it had been a struggle for a lot of people today.

Round to peg 34 for the Weigh-In and Fred started things off in A section with 45lbs 5ozs followed by Dai with 38lbs 11ozs. The Minx has a real struggle today and could only manage 23lbs 11ozs leaving a lot of very relieved anglers . Mat had managed a decent 90lbs 11ozs closely followed by Terry with 83lbs 5ozs, but it was Kevin who took the A section honours today taking full advantage of peg 4 not being fished with 103lbs 7ozs from peg 6 . Onto the first half of B section and Steve had managed 66lbs 9ozs but had been totally eclipsed by Simon who put an excellent 225lbs 2ozs on the scales . Malc's day didn't get any better either, his 22lbs 10ozs meaning that daughter Gem added him to The Minx List again. Clive managed 27lbs 1oz but Paul Jay took 126lbs 3ozs from peg 13 to complete the first part of B section. C section saw Budgie weigh 61lbs 10ozs and Neil recorded 91lbs 3ozs only to be edged out by Paul and The Pink Hat with 95lbs 4ozs. Round on peg 22 Nick W-P put 25lbs 9ozs on the scales and at least avoided a Minxing , while my fish came to 81½lbs. Michael weighed 43¼lbs and Nick W put 68lbs 10ozs on the scales to complete C section. Dave C recorded 34lbs 15ozs from peg 30 and Tony was last to weigh with 99¼lbs to complete B section.

Once more it was back to the hut for the results and the winner today by the proverbial country mile was Simon for the second Jinx Match on the trot with Paul Jay in second and third going to Kevin . The section winners were Kevin, Simon, and Paul Roberts .
The Minx claimed just 1 victim today, her Dad (The Jinx ) for the second Jinx Match running guaranteeing that he'll be wearing it on the next match , and while I collected a Golden Nugget from Michael and Gem, I had to hand one over to Neil .

The penultimate match is on September 22nd, and it's all still to play for in the Series. Can Simon make it three wins in a row? we'll see on the day .

Overall Result

Maggotdrowning.com

Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2012.

This weekend I'm travelling back to Rolfs Lake oncemore for the annual Maggotdrowning.com Rolfs Pairs Tournament. I normally fish Dave Collier's Friday match the day before, but this year I wasn't able to get Friday off . so it was an early start around 6am to try and avoid the Olympic road closures that would be in place. I couldn't avoid the closures as it happened, but the early start meant very light traffic and it was just after 7·30am when I arrived at the car park at Rolfs. It was already packed as the vast majority had been there since Friday having fished Dave's match .

As usual Dave Moore was one of the early birds and was up and about and kindly made me a coffee as we discussed the prospects for the two days to come and he filled me in on how it had fished on the Friday. All this as he tied up some fresh rigs for the day ahead, I have to say that Dave deserves a prize for his preparation as he can always be found tying up fresh rigs on the morning of a match .

As usual some were pitching tents for an overnight stay, most notably Steve Wilson who'd arrived with his latest purchase that looked more of a Big Top than a bivvie and seemed to be minus the instructions which caused some chuckles as we watched him trying to erect it ......

Chatting away to Tony and a couple of the other lads I asked Tony if he was ready for the New Pairs format, and when he asked what that was I explained that a pair drew a single peg and one fished to the left and the other to the right , the bite was spectacular till everyones laughter gave the game away . 

I'd decided that as I was staying for just one night I would be sleeping in the car rather than go through all the palaver of pitching a bivvie so spent a bit of time catching up with people including Paul's wife Jayne who had come down for the weekend with their new puppy Hector ......

The pleasing thing to see was just how well the lake looked, two weeks previously when I was down the banks resembled a muddy swamp in places, but a week of sun and a lot of hard work by John and his team had dried it out and got it looking good again .

By 11·30am people were assembled outside the fishery hut as the draw for the weekends pairings took place and they worked out like this ........

Dave (dave the fish) Collier & Marcus (Budgie65) Burgess
Scott (methodgob) Weston & Paul (NMLW's) East
Nick (Neo1) Williams & Ant (antwood) Haywood
Steve (steak) Akal & Geoff (Geoff P) Palmer
Paul (The Turk) Roberts & Gem (The Minx) Doyle
Barry (Bazza C) Cullen & Dave (Paste King) Moore
Tony (spamwham) Roberts & Simon (Simple) Mound
Terry (Wily Coyote) Goff & Clive (black hydro) Pritchard
Steve (smiler) Wilson & Keith (keith74) Powell
Al (al) Loader & Simon (sidev77) Watkins
Jon (hatchye) Hatch & Peter (Mugger) Morton
Dai (dai-fish) Thomas & Malc (The Jinx) Doyle
Kevin (Kev the catch) Loveland & Dave (Webbo) Webster
Dave (drynet) Wall & Terry (Auto) Pearce

So with that done and out of the way it was time for the Day 1 draw for pegs. Jon my partner for the weekend came away with peg 35, one that sees very little use in matches and when I drew peg 10 I wasn't to happy myself, as with peg 11 in as well I wasn't expecting great things from it today especially as it hadn't been fished yesterday . Collecting my kit I made my way round to my peg and on the way struck my usual side bet of a Golden Nugget with Dave Wall on peg 25 and Gem on peg 18 .

Arriving at the peg I found that I had Budgie for company on peg 11 and Terry P on peg 9. More worrying for Budgie and I was the large raft of scum that was covering our pegs that was sure to make presentation difficult .

I've simplified my approach at Rolfs this year and today would be no different, just 3 rigs all for 5mtr lines, one straight out, another to the edge of the bush on the right hand side and the third for down the left hand margin. The first two were Nick Gilbert's handmade 0·5g Power Pencils that were made up on 0·21 Ultima power match with size 14 Guru MWG's to finish off with while the margin rig was a 0.3 NG Edger again on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to a size 14 Guru MWG. Bait was a mix of 4 and 6mm fishery pellets for feed and 6, 8 and 11mm hard pellets along with some paste and corn.

With plenty of time before the All-In I went for a stroll to see how others were doing. I could see that Webbo down on peg 7 was holding court and extolling the merits of "The Feederless Feeder" to an interested audience ......

Gem was setting up on peg 18 and with fiancée Simon just a couple of pegs away on peg 16 would be looking to hand out a few Minxings today ......

A few had gathered round by the hut getting a last minute drink and trying to work out what the match had in store for all of us .......

The big shock came when I got round to Malc on peg 39, he had virtually all of his pole assembled , this is a sight that's beyond rare as he just doesn't do more than 5mtrs and that's considered long for Malc as he's happiest just fishing a top kit, surely he was trying to fool those around him ......

Back at my peg and with the wind blowing into us Budgie and I were resigned to fighting the scum as John called the All-In at 2pm. I had soaked down some of my feed pellets and it was these that I fed down the margin and to the end of the bush before cupping a pot of mixed pellet and corn out to 5mtrs in front and following it out with a banded 8mm. It was a slow start however with no real action, but Terry G over on peg 32 was off to a flyer with a carp straight away ......

Next up came Steve on peg 8 with a weigher of around 17lbs and when Webbo followed up a few minutes later with an 18½lb'er I was starting to fear the worst. However my float soon slipped away and after a brief struggle a common of around 7lbs was soon in the net to get me off the mark. This was soon followed by one of the bream that show more nowadays and another small carp which made me feel a lot better . Club mate John (tutu) Holdsworth had fished yesterday and had stopped over to watch the action today and take a few pictures and he was on hand when the shout of YEEEEEESSSSSSSSS went out , Never a good sound to hear early in a match as it signifies that The Minx is off the mark and worries a lot of the other anglers around the lake .......

Simon wasn't one of those today though as he was back on peg 16, the peg he'd had 315lbs from a couple of weeks ago and while he would be hard pushed to beat that today, he was starting to put a few fish together .......

I was struggling, Terry P on peg 9 had started catching and it seemed as if he was blocking any fish from coming my way as nothing was coming from the left for either Budgie or Kev on peg 13. Dave Wall was having a bit of a hard time of it up on peg 25, he's spent a fair few matches on that part of the lake and I was sure that he would rather have been elsewhere on the lake .......

As the match wore on Terry G was still picking up the odd fish from peg 32 and Simon Watkins on peg 29 was starting to get a bit of action .......

That left Scott between them on peg 31 facing a real struggle with just a couple of small silvers in his net to show for his efforts ......

News was starting to filter through from the Little Lake that Ant was starting to get among a few decent fish on peg 6 while Jon on un-fancied peg 35 was also starting to find a few, as was Keith fishing the feeder down on peg 38 ......

Just after halfway through Terry P on peg 9 stopped catching and as if on cue I started catching with a couple of weighers and a bream coming my way in double quick time. A couple of foul hookers didn't help matters but by taking my time and keeping some feed trickling in they didn't cause to much disruption and I even managed to land one of them at 13lbs ......

Budgie had managed to get in on the act as well fishing paste and although he lost a couple of foul hookers he was rewarded with an absolute belter of a Common that tipped the scales at 22lbs, a new PB for him and one I was happy to photograph ......

My peg seemed to get stronger as the match drew to a close with another 5 weighers and I hooked one final fish just as John called the All-Out at 7pm which I safely landed around four minutes later.

Packing my kit away I was actually pretty happy with how my match had gone in the end after my initial misgivings before the start and felt sure I'd managed 100lbs+ . I had already decided to leave my kit behind the peg tonight, not that I wanted to draw it again tomorrow, but it was just easier than taking it back to the car park.

Word was already circulating that Ant would be the one to beat as he'd had a good day on peg 6 and Webbo was looking pretty happy with his efforts from peg 7 as we made our way round to peg 34 to start the Weigh-In.

Bazza hadn't really got to grips with peg 34 with just over 23lbs but my Pairs partner Jon had a creditable 88lbs 7ozs from 35 . Nick had a mare on 37 and recorded a DNW as Keith weighed 89lbs 7ozs from 38. Malc took 66lbs 9ozs from 39......

...... while Paul could only manage 27lbs 2ozs from peg 1 and Dai had 52½lbs from peg 3 to edge out Geoff's 47lbs 9oz from peg 4. Ant had indeed had a decent day recording a fine 202lbs 13ozs from 6 and Webbo managed 135lbs 6ozs on peg 7. Steak chipped in with 62lbs 15ozs from 7 and Terry P 36lbs 15ozs on peg 9. My fish came to a total of 125lbs 7ozs followed by Budgie with 66lbs 13ozs and Kev's 18¼lbs....... 

Tony had a level 87lbs and Simon took a fine 189¾lbs. The Minx's first fish had proved to be a solitary individual as her 9lbs 10ozs showed, leaving a lot of very relieved anglers . Al's 65lbs 13ozs and Dave Collier's 36lbs 15ozs led onto Paul who was only the second angler to suffer a Minxing today when he came up a couple of ounces short with just 9½lbs . Steve had 94¼lbs from peg 23 while Dave Wall managed 34½lbs from peg 25 and Dave Moore had 41lbs 9ozs from 26. Clive had 72¾lbs and Simon Watkins 47lbs. Scott had managed 3 small carp late on to avoid a Minxing with 17lbs and Terry G was last to weigh with 84lbs 3ozs .

Back at the hut the post-mortem on the days events started as we waited for the scores to be posted and I collected a Golden Nugget from Gem and Dave . Individually today Ant had taken the win with Simon second and Webbo third . Finally the scores from the day appeared on the board and it was surprisingly close with.........

......Tony and Simon leading on 10 points, just one ahead of Jon and I along with Steve and Keith tied on 11 points.

While the results were mulled over Malc returned to his peg with Liam who had a go with dad's tackle and promptly had a carp himself ......

Some decided to barbecue some food, but Dave Moore and I set off for the Harvester with Al and Keith for a meal before returning later on for a chat and a drink with the rest which was still going on when when I left them to it and climbed into my sleeping bag around 1am .

Day 2. Sunday 29th July.

At around 6·30am a sharp knock on the car window woke me from my slumbers to find Dave Moore grinning like the Cheshire Cat . It transpired that Steak had awoken early for a call of nature and as he was in situ his van had locked itself with his keys and everything else inside. Dave being Dave had decided that Steak's misfortune was to good to keep to himself and he needed an accomplice to help with the micky taking . By pure chance the bolt on the bottom of the back door hadn't locked, so with twenty stone of Yorkshireman (Dave) persuading it to open a bit and Terry P with a bit of wire, Steak's keys were rescued, but it made for a fun start to the day.......

With bodies rising from their various sleeping quarters a few of us decided that breakfast was called for, meaning that we ended up at The Harvester and after Webbo had played Thunderbirds and rescued Paul's van with a jump start we were back at the lake in time for the draw which was early as we were fishing from 12 till 5pm today.

Into the draw bag for me and it's peg 32 today, happy with that , Jon my partner had peg 13, not a good draw as Kev had struggled there yesterday and it didn't bode well for us in the pairs but we'd try our best . So round to collect my kit and get ready. 32 is an end peg and I'd got Kevin to my right on peg 31 while Terry G was opposite me again on peg 9 with Simon Watkins on 10 and Dai on 11.

 Setting up was just a case of adjusting the depths on yesterdays rigs as I'd be concentrating on just two lines today, one at 5mtrs out to the left of peg 9 and the second over the back of the bush in the left hand margin using the same baits as yesterday.

With a bit of time to kill Dave Wall came down for a chat as he was on peg 23 today and keen to finally take a Golden Nugget back off of me, we would have to see about that later on as I fancied my chances of taking yet another yam yam Nugget today ......

At Midday John signalled the All-In and after feeding some wetted down pellets over the back of the bush I fed a pot of mixed pellets and corn at 5mtrs and followed it out with a banded 6mm and after a couple of lift and drops the float buried and I was into my first carp of the day, a mirror of around 7lbs to get me off the mark .
I have to admit that I feared that fishing from 12-5pm would mean that fish would be hard to come by early on as they normally tend to feed late at this time of the year but that didn't seem to be the case today as most seemed to pick up fish early doors. I picked up another carp, a weigher this time and the obligatory bream before a foul hooker went mental in the swim before shedding the hook and killed it for a while .

Terry G had started to get some action over on peg 9 ......

And Simon had got of to a good start over on peg 10 with a decent weigher but then suffered a blank period which I felt was down to the fact that he was fishing further out past the area that I'd fed yesterday ......

YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS had been heard from down on peg 3 and I felt that a few Minxings could be on the cards today as Gem would be determined to have a better day today ......

Things were starting to look up for me again as the bites returned at 5mtrs with another couple of net fish and another weigher and although I had another couple of foul hookers they swam well clear of the swim before the rig had come flying back on both occasions. Ant had drawn peg 7 today and was enjoying a head to head with Simon over on peg 34 and looking to get one over him again ......

Malc had moved one peg to 38 today but was having no joy at all and struggling to tempt as much as a bite from there today ......

while Simon had suffered a torrid start to the match with a number of fish escaping through the bush in the right hand margin of peg 34 while Clive seemed to be finding some fish on peg 35 ......

Back on the Big lake I could see Webbo up on peg 38 and today his "Feederless Feeder" hadn't worked for him forcing him into fishing the pole and it has to be said that he didn't look as he was having a lot of joy with that either ........

Looking up the car park bank it didn't seem to be going to well for most there either ......

especially Al who'd broken the tip of his pellet waggler rod and smashed a top kit as well today, meaning it was turning into an expensive weekend as he'd broken a number 5 on the Friday as well and to add insult to injury Tony was catching better from the bush between their two swims that they were both targeting. The final straw was probably Tony catching a 14lb weigher less than a minute after Al had weighed and returned it to his peg .

With a couple of hours left I took a look over the back of the bush and the float buried straight away, a weigher at 12lbs and the next 2 put ins produced fish of 13 and 14lbs . Meanwhile on peg 8 Keith was starting to catch a few as well, obviously the coaching session that he'd had with Andy May at Cudmore on Thursday was starting to pay dividends .......

With about an hour to go Kev was really struggling but a few words of advice from John Bennett saw him finally start to find some fish to save his day . I just kept alternating between my two swims which saw me catching regularly right up till the end of the match when John called the All-Out at 5pm. Packing away my kit I was happy enough with my day as I was sure that I had around 150lbs to show for my efforts and thankfully with the car so close I soon had my kit packed away before the Weigh-In started.

Simon kicked things off on peg 34 with 78lbs 10ozs followed by Clive's 60lbs 11ozs and Steak's 21lbs 14ozs but on 38 Malc suffered with a DNW  much to daughter Gem's delight . Steve had 34lbs 7ozs and Nick 29lbs 10ozs before Gem set The Minx Mark with a much improved 52lbs 1oz today. Terry P fell victim with 45lbs 15ozs while Scott suffered another mare on 6 with just 8lbs 5ozs . Ant had another good match with 139lbs followed by Keith with 88lbs 11ozs. Terry had 83lbs 1oz. Simon 57½lbs and Dai 42½lbs while my partner Jon took 59lbs 6ozs from peg 13 ......

Dave Collier had 37lbs 6ozs while Budgie managed a creditable 91lbs 11ozs from peg 16 while Webbo had just 34lbs 6ozs for his efforts today. Geoff had 56lbs and Bazza 12½lbs while Paul managed a slightly better 30¼lbs from peg 22 today. Dave Wall weighed in with 37lbs and Tony had won his peg to peg battle with Al by 114lbs 2ozs to 57lbs 10ozs. Paul had 44lbs and Dave Moore 37¾lbs.

Kevin mustered 27¼lbs and I was last to weigh in with a level 166lbs .

Webbo and Dave Collier retired to work out the Pairs results while the banter got into full swing around the hut. I had taken the Individual win today with Ant in second and Tony third . Ant had managed to draw level with Simps on 18 matches each in their long running duel and I collected another Golden Nugget from Dave Wall and Gem . Gem was happy enough though with 15 additions to The Minx List today including a first time entrant in Dave Wall and sweetest of all, her Dad once more .

Finally the two Dave's returned with the all important Pairs results to be read out, and the trophies awarded by Mr Maggotdrowning himself , Dave(Webbo)Webster to the winning team of...........

Tony Roberts & Simon Mound  

Congratulations to them both, maintaining their 1 point lead from day 1 to take victory from Jon Hatch and myself,
no complaints as they caught 30lbs more over the 2 matches to prove worthy winners, In Tony's case for the Third Time .

Finally a few words of Thanks are due to the following people.........
John, Pauline & Ollie for once again allowing us the use of their superb fishery over the weekend .
Dave Webster, for bringing us all Maggotdrowning.com and Dave Collier for organising the whole weekend .
Finally, to all those Maggotdrowners that took part, It's you that make the weekend the success it is .

Pairs Result

Saturday Individual Result

The Jinx Series 2012
Match 3

It's match 3 of this year's Jinx Series today and having stopped over I was up early just after 6am and soon had the kettle on for a coffee . Dave Moore was also up and about so I made him a coffee too. We sat on the bench in front of the hut discussing the prospects for the day ahead and watched the resident Red Kite patrolling above the lake and were fortunate enough to see it swoop and take a fish from the surface of the lake not 10 yards away from us. Why is it you never have your camera with you to capture moments like that ?

Soon we were joined by several others including Dave Wall who had stopped over on the off chance that there might be a spare peg allowing him to fish today . As the morning wore on more people started to stir from their slumbers and after another coffee Dave and I headed for The Harvester for a spot of breakfast . With that taken care of it was back to the lake where the banter was in full swing. The weather was looking similar to yesterday but the forecast warned of showers later in the day.

Around Noon Malc called for the draw and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't hoping to draw peg 6 again. However it was not to be and I found peg 38 resting in my hand when I pulled it from the draw bag .

 So time for a stroll round to peg 6 to collect my kit and move it round to peg 38. Ade had peg 6 today with Dai on peg 4 ..... 

and Neil on peg 2...... 

Nick W would be to my left on peg 40 ......

while to my right was Geoff on peg 36 ...... 

while Terry on peg 34 completed A section .......

Setting up was once again simplicity itself as the rigs from yesterday were still set up on the top kits, but to recap for those that haven't read the previous report they were a couple of Nick Gilbert's handmade 0·5g Power Pencils that were made up on 0·21 Ultima power match with size 14 Guru MWG's at the sharp end to cover the seven metre line along with a 0.3 NG Edger again on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for the left hand margin where there was about 18 inches against the clump of grass that overhangs the water. Bait was a mix of 4 and 6mm fishery pellet for feed, some of which was well wetted down. Hookbaits would be 6 and 8mm's to band along with some soft hookers and corn.

So with plenty of time before the All-In I had a wander back to the car to collect my jacket in case the predicted showers arrived and got a coffee as well . The question on my mind was would it fish as well as yesterday? I'd noticed that the wind had changed for a while earlier in the day blowing up into the Big Lake and had to wonder if it had taken the fish with it? we would soon find out.

2pm and the All-In was called and I potted a cup of mixed pellet and corn onto the 7mtr line and a handful of wetted pellet into the margin. Peg 38 has a reputation of being one of those all or nothing pegs, relying on the fish turning up in the margin at some point and if they do they tend to be decent fish and you can do a big weight, if they don't it can be a struggle. Anyway out with a banded 8mm to the 7mtr line and start plugging away .

Well it wasn't fast and furious but after half an hour I was off the mark with a bream. Dai had made the best start out of all of us though with 3 or 4 carp in the net after an hour. A carp was next up for me just after the hour, not a big fish at around 8lbs but welcome none the less and that was soon joined by another bream . Dave Wall came down for a chat, unfortunately for him it was a full house today so he hadn't been able to fish but had stayed on to watch and top lad that he is even went back to his motor to make me another coffee .

It really wasn't happening for us though down in the Little Lake and when Dave returned with the coffee word was filtering down that people were starting to catch up in the Big Lake including The Minx which was worrying along with Kev and Dave the Fish. After Dave had drunk his coffee he said that he was going to have a stroll round before heading home, so I took the opportunity to give him a run down on my camera and sent him off to take a few shots for me and after taking one of me ......

He soon caught Geoff landing what looked to be a weigher and heading off toward the weigh station ......

So the next bit is the story of Dave's stroll around the lake with my camera Ade (Slim Shady) was having a quiet time on peg 6 .......

but round on peg 7 Dave Moore was having a better time of it battling a carp .......

eventually getting it safely in the net ......

Paul Roberts was having a slightly less hectic time on peg 8 which rather sums up his performance so far in this years series ......

Steve Wilson was on peg 9 and hoping to put one over The Jinx .......

who was on the next peg and suffering one of his quieter matches at Rolfs , or was it that he was just missing Julie? .......

Tucked away on peg 13 was Nick W-P (monkey) trying to tempt a fish from the margin ....... 

Tony Robert was working hard on peg 16 but obviously had one eye on what The Minx was doing on peg 18 ......

and it was plain to see that the rumours of impending Minxings were true as there she was with a nice Mirror that she'd just weighed  ......

Round on the car park bank Kev was into more action on the feeder and obviously doing the business today ......

and it looked like the car park bank could be the place to be today .......

with Mat on peg 28 landing a Mirror right on time to have a picture taken with it ........

While Simps and Clive were having a bit of a head to head battle on pegs 30 and 32 ......

and as he made his way back he even managed to capture that rarest of events .... Paul landing a carp over on peg 8 .......

As he arrived back I lifted into a carp which powered of and as he tried to get a photo I suffered the curse of my own camera , the fish shedding the hook and the rig flying back .

Almost immediately though there was a splash as while Nick was feeding his peg a carp made off with his pole before he could react ......

Luckily for Nick though the fish made it's way over to Dai's peg where Dai saved the day and retrieved the pole with the fish still attached. Nick finally landed the fish which wouldn't count to find that it was an 18½lb'er. Dave said his farewells and left us to it . I'd had a couple more carp and another bream while he'd been strolling around the lake but sport still hadn't picked up and most were struggling for a bite and Neil had even given the pellet wag a go in an effort to find something to no avail .

With time marching on it was time to take another look down the margin but all I was getting were bites from little roach so I shortened up one of the pencil rigs to fish the bottom of the shelf around 4 feet out from the bank but had to wait a further 15 minutes for the float to bury. A decent fish powered off determined to go and see Neil on peg 2, then disaster struck, the dacron in the top kit parted meaning I lost not only the fish but the rig and elastic as well .

I shortened up the other pencil rig to match the first and went back out and was soon rewarded with another bite, another decent fish that seemed to take an age to get in but land it I did, a Mirror of 15½lbs that was hooked outside the mouth explaining why I'd had so much trouble controlling it . The worrying thing was that the sky was becoming a darker grey as the match drew to a close. Another decent fish put in an appearance and I was just on my way back from the weigh station when the heavens opened, luckily I had my umbrella ready and was soon huddled under it as it poured down . I managed another couple of carp as the rain persisted but as I slid the second one into the net the All-Out was called.

There's nothing worse than packing away your kit in the rain, but it had to be done. I thought I had around 80lbs and was hopeful that it would be worth some decent section points but it was hard to tell how others had done. I got the kit back to the car just as the rain eased off as is always the way and soon had it loaded up and back in the car before going to the Weigh-In.

As usual it started on peg 34 where Terry had just 25lbs to show for his efforts . Geoff weighed 52½lbs and my fish came to a level 89lbs. Nick W had 87¾lbs and Neil 88lbs.
Dai beat us all with 97lbs to take the section as Ade had just 65lbs on peg 6. Onto B section where Dave Moore had 72lbs and Paul R 31½lbs. Steve had managed 71¼lbs from peg 9 while on peg 10 The Jinx had suffered his own curse to take just 21lbs 14ozs . Nick W-P had taken 42lbs from peg 32 to finish off the first part of the section. Fred kicked off C section with 64lbs followed by Tony R with 60½lbs. Gem obviously had suffered a quiet second half as The Minx Mark was set at 44¾lbs. Round to the car park bank where Kev had a decent day recording 95lbs followed by Dave C with 79¼lbs and Budgie just 28lbs and Mat tied with Dave C on 79¼lbs. The final part of C section was finished off by Simon with 108lbs and Clive with 100lbs exactly .

Back to the hut for the results and the winner today was Simon with Clive in second and third going to Dai . The section winners were Simon, Dai and Kev .
The Minx claimed 5 victims today including her Dad (The Jinx) and I collected a Golden Nugget from Neil and Gem .

The next Jinx Match is August 18th when the sections get redrawn for the second half of the series and it'll be interesting to see how those sections work out as it will probably decide who's in with a chance of taking the title this year .

Overall Result

Names in Pink are those that were "MINXED"

A Section

B Section

C Section

Simple Match Fishing
2 Day Summer Challenge
2012

Today (Thursday) sees me travelling back to Oxford where I'm spending 3 days at Rolfs Lake. The first 2 days are to take part in the Simple Match Fishing 2 Day Summer Challenge which has been organised by Simon Mound for members of his forum Simple Match Fishing. Simon is a regular on The Jinx Series at Rolfs and along with Eddie Taylor-Green they are responsible for the Rolfs Lake Blog . After this on the Saturday I'll be fishing the 3rd of this years Jinx Series matches.

With this being a weekday trip I had the car loaded and was away early as along with the rush hour traffic to contend with it was the first day that the traffic lights in London had been re-phased for the Olympics. Actually it wasn't a bad trip up as I was going against the flow for most of the journey and it was just after 10am when I pulled into the car park at Rolfs . A good few of the anglers were already there and settling in, erecting bivvies and sorting their kit, while others had travelled up on Wednesday and fished yesterdays Open match .

One of the first I chatted to was Dave Wall who was waiting at the gate to guide in Gavin (Gavalar) Lee who was paying his first visit to the venue. The forecast for the days ahead wasn't good with rain forecast and I had decided to once again sleep in the car as I find it pretty comfortable and less aggro than a bivvie. Right now though we had a bit of sunshine , so I grabbed a cup of coffee and caught up with the gossip and checked out what had been caught from the various pegs the previous day......

A lot of the chat revolved where everyone wanted to draw, the format for the 2 Dayer being that the match would be decided on section points and weight in the event of a tie meaning that consistency would be rewarded .

Pretty soon we had everyone in attendance apart from Malc who would be arriving later so around midday Simon got the draw underway and I found myself in B section having drawn peg 29 on the car park bank......

At least it was a short walk with my kit, around 15 yards from where the car was parked. Surprise surprise, guess who I had next door on peg 28, yep Neil Riddy, the two of us seem to be almost constantly drawn together recently, but it ensures that the banter always flows during a match and today was double or nothing on the Golden Nugget I'd had off Neil on the previous Jinx Match . To my left was new boy Lee on peg 31 who was on for a Nugget with me along with Dave Wall down on peg 40 for the second day running having had a 'Ton' from it in the Open yesterday and looking to reclaim a Nugget from me and The Minx was on peg 25 and we always have a Nugget as well .

As I settled into my peg it was still quite bright and warm, but the clouds were starting to build ominously. All the rain previously had raised the level despite John having run the pump to keep it in check, so with a couple of hours to set up I decided to make up some new rigs. A couple of Nick Gilbert's handmade 0·5g Power Pencils were made up on 0·21 Ultima power match with size 14 Guru MWG's at the sharp end to cover the five metre line (top2 + 2) along with a 0.3 NG Edger again on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for the margin where there was about 18 inches tight against the grass. Bait was a mix of 4 and 6mm fishery pellet for feed, some of which was well wetted down. Hookbaits would be 6 and 8mm's to band along with some soft hookers and corn.

2pm saw the All-In called and before I could even ship out a pot of pellet Neil was in to his first fish of the day !!!!!!!! He soon had it in the net, a carp and it already looked like I would be needing snookers today. I finally managed to get a bait in the water but couldn't match Neil's effort though others seemed to be in action quite quickly, most notably young Michael Corsini over on Peg 13 who appeared to be sitting on a shed full today. 15 minutes in and my float slid away, not the hoped for carp but a bream but at least I was off the mark . Another followed then a small carp in the next 30 minutes meaning I had at least caught up with Neil as he hadn't had another bite after his fast start.

Budgie was up on peg 32 and appeared to be having a rare old tussle with what was obviously a decent fish intent on giving him the runaround. Gavin with no previous experience of Rolfs had started on purple Hydro and we had been waiting to see what would happen when he hooked his first carp. We didn't have long to wait and he was soon watching an awful lot of elastic streaming from his top kit. Fair play to him though he didn't panic and finally managed to land the fish, though the look on his face told us that he was shocked at the power of the fight ......

Rumour had it that Section A was the place to be today though with Ant on peg 34, Terry on peg 4 and young Mat on peg 7 setting the early pace down there ......

Nick on peg 9 seemed to be connecting with a lot of fish, but the truth was that most of them were foul hookers and he was having a real struggle trying to get one in the net . Michael seemed to be suffering in a similar fashion, but at least he was getting a few in the net.

Around 3 pm the rain started putting a dampener on proceedings and for me it was just a case of plugging away on the 5mtr line where I kept picking up the odd fish. Neil had started looking at his other lines and managed two gudgeon in two put ins from the bush to his right . Malc arrived just after 4pm, a sure signal that the weather wouldn't improve and took a slow stroll to peg 22. Daughter Gem was having a grueller on peg 25, the first carp she hooked snagged Paul Corsini's rig on the next peg and promptly snagged her under the bush and her mood probably wasn't improved by having to watch fiancée Simon catching opposite on peg 16 ......

The whole of the car park bank wasn't exactly setting the place alight, but Budgie seemed to be having the best of it on end peg 32. For me it was just a question of waiting for the odd bite and making the most of it, a couple of looks down the margin had proved fruitless but I felt that I was doing enough to stay ahead of Neil and Lee. Clive had started to put a few fish together late on over on peg 14, but as he was in Section C today I wasn't too worried ......

The margin finally produce for me with half an hour to go, just the one fish, a weigher of 11lbs but welcome none the less but I have to say I was happy to hear the All-Out at 7pm as the rain continued to fall. Packing away a load of soaking wet kit is never fun and most seemed glad that it was over. The look on Gem's face said it all as she walked past , not happy at all with just a bream and a roach to show for her five hours of effort.

With the gear packed away it was time for the Weigh-In and Ant was first to weigh in Section A recording 134½lbs followed by Dai with 109lbs. Dave W had only managed 68¼lbs from peg 40 today. Pete T had 52¼lbs while Terry had 128½lbs from peg 4 . Geoff had 84¼lbs and Mat 111lbs. Onto the first half of Section B and Dave C had 44¼lbs.
Nick had a real frustrating match on peg 9 with just 26lbs to show for his efforts and Simon W put 43¾lbs. Michael put 106¼lbs on the scales and we moved on to Section C.
Clive had 89lbs and Simon 75¾lbs while Kev had 25lbs from peg 18. Round to Malc who had 34¾lbs and Dave M with 12½lbs. Poor Gem could only muster 3¼lbs so no Minxings today and Paul C ended the section with 19lbs. The second half of Section B saw Neil record 52½lbs while my weight was 78½lbs . Gavin's first Rolfs weigh in saw him put 56¼lbs on the scales and Budgie finished things off with 95¼lbs .

Back to the hut with the rain still falling and Ant, Michael C and Clive were in the pound seats with 1 point each for their section wins, with Terry, Budgie and Simon sitting on 2 points. I'd managed a 3rd in section but had picked up a few Golden Nuggets so all wasn't lost and with the top 4 weights today all coming from Section A today, it was pretty obvious where most people were hoping to draw tomorrow .

A few of us had decided to retire to The Harvester after the match for a meal so after getting changed we set off for a pint and a meal . It was good to get out of the rain in all honesty and relax and chat about the days events over a meal and when we got back just after 10 pm with the rain still falling I was quite happy to climb into my sleeping bag and get some much needed sleep ahead of the match tomorrow..................

Thursday Result

Maggotdrowning.com

Alders Farm Match

Like a lot of these things today's trip to Alders Farm all started when back in early April, Linda (Mermaid) made quite an innocent post on The Maggotdrowning Forum asking whether there would be any interest in a match of some sort at the venue . It was soon obvious there was a bit of interest and before long Linda found herself entering into a new job, that of 'Match Organiser' having managed to get a Saturday in June sorted .

I travelled up with Dave the fish today and it was around 8·20am when we arrived at the fishery, First things first and a quick trip to the new on site tackle shop tackle shop for some fishery pellets and a chat with Trevor Price and then getting the nets dipped while Dave dropped our gear at the bottom of the hill. A good few were in attendance and I found Linda to check in, she handed me a name badge, a nice touch so that everyone would know who was who . Next stop was down to to The Pumphouse overlooking the lake to grab a quick breakfast and catch up with some more of todays participants. Much chat over the prospects for the match and the general consensus was that the unsettled weather and rain during the week would keep the weights down today, though everyone should enjoy some good sport .

Around 9am Linda called everyone to the draw. Gary Thorpe had kindly sorted the choice of pegs for the draw, so into the draw bag and peg 5 was attracted to my hand, not a bad peg and I was happy with that . So off to collect my kit and make my way to my peg......

There were a fair few of us pegged on the pumphouse bank with Jonny on peg 1, Lee peg 2. Fellow Jinx Squad members Fred and Clive had pegs 3 and 4 while to my left was Linda's husband Chris on peg 6. It was nice to see Chris fishing as he tends to be employed as Linda's ghillie normally . Next up was Rod on peg 7 and Nick on peg 8, while Keith had plenty of space to himself on peg 12.

Settling into the swim the first thing that was noticeable was that yet again the wind was blowing firmly into me, not a bad thing in itself, but it meant that I'd be sitting there all match with a fleece on looking across to those sitting there in polo shirts, or in Andrew on peg 27's case a very poor taste in football shirt .

Trev had told me that the end of the bush on the right was the sweet spot in the swim, with a back up at 5mtrs straight out so setting up was quite straight forward. Just 3 rigs all pretty much identical as the swim is pretty shallow(around 18 inches at the end of the bush and around 2½ feet at 5mtrs) . These were all Nick Gilbert's handmade NG Power Pencil's, two 0·4 gm and a 0·5 gm, all made up on on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X's nice and simple and strong enough to stand up to what would hopefully turn into a good bagging session. Bait was simply 2 bags of 6mm fishery pellets, a couple of pints of red maggots and a couple of tins of corn.

With everything set there was a bit of time for a quick chat with Rod, Chris, Clive and Fred before Linda called the All-In at 10·30am. A couple of pots of mixed pellet maggot and corn at 5mtrs and a similar handful fed to the end of the bush but before I can get a bait in the water Clive is playing his first fish of the day .......

I soon had a banded 6mm on the hook and dropped at the end of the bush. The float simply buried and produced a..............rudd , not the hoped for carp, there's loads of them in Ash Lake and it's normally just a case of working through them and keeping the feed going until the carp move in and push them out. After about 5 rudd the next bite produced firm resistance as a carp powered off. Now these carp aren't huge, indeed the average size is probably around 3lbs, but being that the water is shallow they just power off when you hook them and fight well above their weight . In that respect it's probably handy that I'm used to fishing Rolfs where the carp are of a far larger average size. It's just a question of getting their heads up so they take a gulp of air and sliding them over the net .

I felt that Clive had got off to a better start in the first hour as I was only picking up odd fish, but as we moved into the second hour I was starting to catch him up as he had longer gaps between his fish. In fact looking around it was obvious that this was going to be one of those days where you had to work for your fish as nobody seemed to be really bagging up , but I was reasonably confident that if I could keep the fish coming at the same rate a 'Ton' was definitely on the cards . My back up line at 5mtrs however was only producing the odd fish so that was written off pretty early on .

Looking on I could see Clive hanging on as increasing amounts of red hydro appeared from the end of his top kit, obviously a decent fish it appeared hell bent on reaching the island, steady pressure finally told though and it was a very relieved Clive that finally netted another fighting fit carp .........

Chris was having a bit of a mare however as the rudd stubbornly refused to make way for carp close in, forcing him to fish long to find any carp, but even then a few to many were slipping the hook as he played them ......

About 2pm Trevor Price had a stroll round taking a few pictures and seeing that I thought I'd better have a quick session with my camera so I had a few pictures for this report . I strolled down to Rod (isis) to find him cursing the rudd, they seemed to have settled into his peg and were doing a great impression of Piranhas devouring anything he cared to put on the hook . Nick (pastie) on peg 8 was starting to get among a few however and looked to be getting one over on his Dad, Steve (rookery54) who was across on peg 16 .......

While over on peg 20 I could see Trev (grannyspodder) who seemed to be waiting far to long between bites today .......

Meanwhile on peg 22 it looked to me like Gary (shooter560) had decided to try paste in an effort to up his catch rate .......

On peg 27 Andrew (lemon1) had at least covered up his rather dubious taste in football tops, while Keith was wishing for an upturn in sport like he'd had on his previous visit here when he'd set a new match best for himself .......

and tucked away on peg 30 was Dave the fish, I'd noticed that he'd been catching as well as anyone on that bank, and with this sort of fishing suiting his style felt he was bound to be in with a shout at the end ......

Back on peg 3 Fred (Milo) was smiling but it hid the frustration of not getting the best from his peg as he was suffering with to many foul hookers and lost fish ........

While a look across to Lee (red baron) saw him with a smile on his face as he slid another carp over the waiting landing net ......

Steve (big Stump) seemed lost in concentration on peg 38, probably hoping to avoid being beaten by the next peg .......

Which happened to be occupied by the Match Organiser herself, Linda (Mermaid) who was obviously targeting fish in the margins ......

As was Simon (sidev77) who obviously had the same aim as Steve .......

Back at my peg I'd just netted my first fish on my return when what sounded like a rifle shot came from the left , Nick had destroyed a Tri-Cast top kit when a carp had buried itself in the margin reeds. Moving into the last hour I was still taking fish on a steady basis from the edge of the bush in between being heckled by Clive and Chris to the effect that I was bagging and it must be solid with fish in the peg................... hurtful that neither of them felt that it may be down to my superior piscatorial ability . Anyway despite this harassment I soldiered heroically on till the All-Out was called at 3·30pm. Looking down at my clicker I had 49 carp recorded on it and I felt that I had a comfortable Ton+ in the nets, which I felt was a decent effort given how hard the lake had fished today .

As we packed away our kit and waited for the scales the chat turned to how the day had gone. Rod now understood why Gary Thorpe refers to rudd as 'Vermin' having suffered a peg full of them all day and Nick showed off his new multi piece top kit. Clive felt he may have 50-60lbs though I was convinced he had more. The scales were moving around the lake pretty fast so it was obvious that it hadn't fished as it can today and when they got to Keith (Gandhi), my travelling partner Dave the fish was leading with 117lbs the only 'Ton' so far......

Rod followed with 15½lbs and Chris put 40¼lbs on the scales ......

My 3 nets weighed a total of 132lbs 07ozs to take the lead with 4 still to weigh ......

Clive did indeed have a bit more than his estimate with 89lbs to show for his efforts ......

and while Lee was last but one to weigh with 102lbs 06ozs ......

and Jonny was last to weigh in with a fine 123lbs 06ozs .

Back to the Pumphouse for the results where we found that the staff had kindly laid on hot drinks for us, a really nice touch . Linda then called us all to order and paid out the sections.......

Section A:
1st: Peter (Mugger) Morton £20
2nd: Jonathan (jonny_b1989) Broadbent £15

Section B:
1st: Nick (pastie) Allen £20
2nd: Keith (Gandhi) Ashby £15

Section C:
1st: Dave (dave the fish) Collier £20
2nd: Tony (Tony_grig) Grigorjevs £15

Section D:
1st: Simon (sidev77) Watkins £20
2nd: Linda (Mermaid) Billington £15

Third overall on the day went to Dave the fish , Second to Jonny and the winner was Me and I have to say that I was both surprised and delighted when Linda presented me with an engraved tankard as a trophy, a lovely end to the day ......

In conclusion I have to say a Big Thank You to Linda and Chris on behalf of all who attended, spot on organisation, right down to badges so that everyone knew who was who . I think you may have created an annual fixture for the MD's calender in the future .

Another Big Thank You to Trev, Gary and all the staff at Alders Farm, Top Breakfast, great fishing, even on a hard day, fully deserving of the Stillwater of the Year Award that the fishery won in the National Angling Awards last year .

Finally,Thanks to all the forum members that attended, plenty of good banter along with more than a few laughs as expected on a Drowner's match and good to meet up and put some faces to names from the forum .

The Jinx Series 2012
Match 2

I'm back to Rolfs Lake today for match 2 of this year's Jinx Series, just 2 weeks after the first match and having suffered a mare 2 weeks ago when I changed my pre match routine I wasn't about to let it happen again, so after loading the car this morning and setting off my first stop was my customary one in Battersea for breakfast at the Jimmy's Griddle café  and a 'Full English' soon had me set up for the day ahead and feeling that all was right with the world before I climbed back into the car and headed for Rolfs. There was a bit of a hold up on the M40 due to a crash just after Junction 4, but the hold up wasn't to costly and it was just after 10am when I pulled into the car park.

There were quite a few already in attendance as they had fished a night match the previous evening and after collecting a cup of coffee I was soon catching up with the events of the previous night , including a first hand account from Terry of how he'd been for a moonlit swim on peg 4, luckily he'd survived to see the funny side of it despite not being able to swim .

One of the big questions today was who would be the first wearer of the new Pink Hat, unfortunately Geoff couldn't be there today, but with 13 victims of the previous match attending Gem would be spoilt for choice, in fact a couple of us tried it for size, Lisa W-P catching me on camera ......

..... but others strangely melted away at the very site of it, it didn't do Fred any good though as The Minx selected him to be this season's first wearer ......

With Geoff unable to make it today Dave Wall had seized the chance and stepped stepped into fish for him, so of course it was only polite on my part to offer the chance to reclaim the Golden Nugget he'd handed to me on the previous match . Gem and I had our usual side-bet of a Nugget and I also had one with Neil . For once Malc actually called the draw early at 11·50am with a full house of 21 assembled for the draw, everyone moving along one section today from the previous match.

C section for me today and with the wind blowing down toward the Little Lake not the most favourable of sections I felt although it had produced 1st and 2nd in the previous night's match. Into the bag and it's peg 26 on the car park bank for me today with Ade on peg 28 to my left for company and Neil to my right on peg 24 along with Dave Wall on peg 22. The Minx had drawn peg 30 so it should be easy to keep an eye on the possible destination of the Nuggets today. It didn't fill me with confidence though as Simon had won the night match from peg 28 with 175½lbs and with Ade being his partner in the 'Pairs' he'd fully briefed him on how he'd fished the peg. Mat had fished Dave Wall's peg and come second with 121lbs while Malc had fished Neil's peg and weighed 74¼lbs. Mine had been fished by Nick Williams who'd only managed 17lbs for last place, so it looked like I might have it all to do .

A nice short walk meant that it didn't take long to settle my gear into the peg despite there being about an inch of water covering the platform. I don't seem to draw the car park bank that often but decided to keep it relatively simple with just 3 pole lines all on a top 2 + 2, a comfy 5mtrs. One straight out in front where I had around 7 feet of water, one at the base of the slope in front of the bush to my right with around 6 feet of depth and the final one on my left in line with peg 9 in around 4½ ft of water. All the rigs were freshly tied and made up with NG XT Mugger HD's in sizes 0·3gm, 0·4gm and 0·6gm on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X's. Bait for today was a mix of 4 and 6mm fishery pellet for feed along with some 6, 8 and 11mm pellets for banding along with some corn and soft hookers .

The All-In came at 2pm and I fed two small pots of mixed pellet and corn straight out and one on the other 2 lines. Nothing straight away but Neil had started on the feeder cast to the aerator and snared a bream straight away which was soon followed by a carp. It's times like this that you start questioning your own approach. Should I have set up a feeder? No point worrying about it now though, Neil is a regular at the lake and has had his fair share of results there, so time to file that away for future reference and get on with fishing my own match .

I made the mistake of leaving the first couple of indications to let them develop.......... they didn't, so at the next dip a lift brought some resistance and a decent skimmer was soon in the net to get me off and running . I just kept feeding a pinch or two of mixed 4 and 6mm's every minute or so and soon had my first carp in the net as well, nothing big at around 7lbs but it really scrapped well, staying deep and reluctant to come to the surface and it set the pattern for my match. I seem to get my fair share of draws next to Neil and it always makes for a good day as he likes a bit of banter and there's always a few laughs to be had along the way .

Neil had definitely got off to the better start but I had the feeling that I was staying in touch over the first couple of hours with 4 more carp and another skimmer. John Bennett had strolled up to retrieve Ollie who was trying to cadge some luncheon meat from Neil while he was playing what looked like a decent fish that took him a bit of time to get to the net...............

A cracking Mirror that looked a good 15lbs but rather disappointingly only showed as 12½lbs on the scales , obviously spawned out. Ade had picked up a few as well and in fact looking around the Big Lake everyone seemed to be getting a few at one time or another and one of those was Mat on peg 8 who seemed to be catching pretty regularly ......

I soon spotted Dave Moore, to be fair he's a big lad and hard to miss, even more so in his fluorescent orange bib and brace and a quick chat soon revealed that he was suffering down on peg 40 getting blasted by the wind in his face without as much as a bite to show for his efforts so far.

I opted for a look at my left hand line with a banded 8mm on the hook and first put in the float just kept on going, the fish set off for the middle and put up dogged resistance before succumbing to the pressure, a nice common of 13½lbs , but I couldn't tempt another bite from that line so opted to take a look down the slope by the bush. That produced a decent skimmer straight away followed by a common that made a bee-line for safety under my platform but I was lucky and managed to grab the line and pull it out from under there before it broke me and soon added it to my net .

Meanwhile Neil had broken his landing net handle returning a weigher, but luckily had a brand new spare in his holdall. The Minx however was struggling on peg 30, it hadn't been fished on Friday night and it looked like the lack of feed previously was handicapping her as she still had nothing to show for her efforts today ......

With nothing more to show from the edge of the bush it was back to straight out in front for me and things started to pick up from there on in as I started to put together a steady run of fish, mostly net fish but still decent weight builders. Meanwhile Neil had lost a big common right at the net that he'd played for ages after foul hooking it in the tail on his feeder rod, and then just to add further insult to injury had the thread fall off his new landing net handle Luckily he managed to borrow another from Paul Jay who was at the lake.

YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS rang round the lake as Gem finally had a carp to show for her efforts and this was swiftly followed by another, was she going to have a good end to her match? Opposite me on peg 14 Dai was starting to pick up some big weighers fishing tight down his right hand margin ......

...... but had a disaster when a big double that he was unhooking rolled in the landing net and with a big splash was back in the lake before he could weigh it .

The last hour saw my bites become very iffy and I bumped a few on the strike despite changing the hook although it didn't seem to have lost it's point. I did manage to put another 5 in the net though, and Neil reported the same, losing six fish on the trot before the All-Out sounded a 7pm. Neil felt I may have edged it, but I felt that he may have the advantage with more weighers on the board, Whichever way I felt it would be close as I reckoned on having around 120lbs . Dave Wall would be there or there abouts as well as he'd had a good second half tucked away on peg 22 and had a few weighers on the board. Ade would be in contention as well although he felt he'd had to many skimmers among his carp.

With the kit packed away and back in the car I said farewell to Neil , he had to leave early as he had somewhere to go, then it was time for the Weigh-In, all would be revealed.

Simon in A Section was first to weigh with 87lbs followed by Steve who'd finally caught late for 76¼lbs. Paul's 43½lbs was followed by Dave M's 51¼lbs so he'd got a few in the end . Nick W-P had 66lbs and Clive 94lbs but it was The Jinx who'd walked the section when his peg came to life late on giving him a weight of 167½lbs . Into the first part of B Section and Budgie's 69¼lbs was soon eclipsed by Mat with 122lbs while Tony had suffered a day of total frustration for his 44¼lbs . Kevin had 52¼lbs while Fred had managed 71¼lbs from peg 13. Onto C Section and Dai recorded 89¼lbs missing out on a 'Ton' due to that big double escaping . Terry had 61lbs followed by Nick with 53lbs. Round to peg 22 and Dave Wall recorded his first Rolf's 'Ton' with 107½lbs . Neil's weight was 117½lbs and my weight showed how close it was with my 121¼lbs proving good enough to take the section . The final part of B Section saw Ade put another 'Ton' on the board with 105lbs, The Minx however was a little despondent with just 3 carp for 28½lbs leaving a lot of people very relieved . Last to weigh was Dave C who's 69lbs brought matters to an end.

Back to the hut and the winner on the day was The Jinx himself , Mat taking second while I'd taken third overall which meant that the section money was ours as well along with 3 Golden Nuggets for me .

Who's got The Pink Hat for the next match? Well with no victims today it looks like The Minx will be wearing her own hat next time, but before anyone gets to cocky beware ............ I'm sure she'll be looking for revenge next time out .

Overall Result

  No names in Pink as nobody was "MINXED"  

A Section

B Section

C Section

The Jinx Series 2012
Match 1

Well it's game on as The Jinx Series 2012 gets underway with the first of six matches in this years series down at Rolf's Lake . The weather didn't hold any great promise after a lovely week previously and with various road closures promised for the forthcoming Diamond Jubilee celebrations I decided to break with my usual routine on the morning of a Jinx Match and forgo my usual breakfast stop in Battersea and head straight to the lake. In the event the trip was pretty trouble free and I pulled into the car park at around 10·30am. A few of the lads were already there having travelled up before as they were planning on stopping over for the whole of the Bank Holiday .

The car park soon filled up, a good turn out for the first match with only 2 members of The Jinx Squad missing, Dave C who was suffering with a savage bout of Man Flu and Budgie who was raving it up in Ibiza . Paul Jay was guesting though so there were 20 of us lined up by the time Malc called the draw just after midday.

Into the bag and I had to be happy with my draw , Peg 8 though John Bennett did mention that it had been patchy recently and that he'd had a DNW from it the previous Saturday . So with my gear collected I made my way round to the peg to find that I had Dai (who almost counts as a resident ) for company today on peg 7. Settling into the peg it was hard to believe that it was June with a cool wind blowing across from the Big Lake to the Little Lake.

Just a couple of pole lines for me today, 6mtrs down the track and around 4mtrs to the edge of the bush to my left. These would be taken care of by 3 rigs, two of Nick Gilbert's handmade NG Power Pencil's, both 0·4 gm made up on on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X's covering depths from 2½-4 ft and a 0·4gm NG XT Gimp on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X that would cover the track line if the wind or tow picked up making presentation awkward. I also set up my feeder rod to fish tight to the far bank. Bait for today was just a couple of bags of 6mm fishery pellets with some 8mm and 11mm hard pellet, corn and various soft hookers for change baits with some 6mm's soaked for use in the feeder.

With a bit of time before the All-In I had a stroll round to collect a coffee from Jean . Gem was down on peg 2 and the peg looked spot on for a few fish today and there were bound to be a few worried anglers listening out for her customary shout during the day .......

One of those was bound to be fiancée Simon tucked away on peg 14, he's a regular at the lake and gets his fair share of results there, but is fully aware of just how fickle it can be just as you think you've sorted things out......

Back at my peg Neil popped round from peg 9 for a chat about the prospects for the day ahead, while Simon had now taken a stroll with his camera gathering some pictures for the Rolfs Lake Blog .......

2pm and the All-In was called, a small pot of pellet was deposited onto the 6mtr line along with a small handful by the edge of the bush. A banded 8mm pellet was then shipped out to the 6mtr line. Lots of dips and dinks on the float were had but there was nothing to show for it apart from a couple of tiny roach that were bumped off on the strike.

Dai however was soon off the mark, obviously a carp Dai soon had it safely in the net, a weigher giving him a good start to the match ......

A look with the feeder to the far bank was next up for me and after a couple of minutes the tip pulled round, the strike met with resistance and I soon had a common of around 7lbs safely in the net to get me off the mark, but subsequent casts produced no indications at all.

Fred was over on peg 34, one of those pegs that is always good for a few fish even on a hard day. he was fishing the pole down his right hand margin toward the pads and was starting to pick up the odd fish .......

Dai had added another carp as well, but in general the lake had its grim face on today and sport was hard to come by for most. The next incident of any note was the sound of The Minx's shout of YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS, a chilling sound especially when you're struggling and Gem's sitting on a decent peg with the wind blowing into it and a lot of worried faces turned to look in her direction at the sound of it .

The whole match became somewhat of a struggle for most, just 3 more carp coming to the feeder for me in the next 3 hours and the word in general was that most were struggling to put any sort of weight together today , the exception being venue regular Paul Jay who having drawn peg 4 was making the most of his extensive knowledge of the lake to put together a decent bag and Steve Wilson who was getting a few up on peg 16 despite having The Jinx for company on peg 18 .

The only people that I could actually see catching with any frequency though were Ade Williams on peg 32 who was starting to put a few together as the match wore on ......

and Clive further down the car park bank on peg 26 who was also  starting to pick up the odd fish ......

Kev was having a real struggle on peg 36, not a peg that most would choose given the choice, but finally managed to pick up a carp on the feeder .......

With around an hour to the track line finally produced a fish for me, not the hoped for carp but one of the better bream which now show up regularly in matches......

When this was swiftly followed by a carp my hopes were raised that a final decent hour may be on the cards, but it was not to be and apart from another couple of small roach that was to be my lot today.

It all got to much for Mat on peg 38 and he packed away with 30 minutes to go, with just 1 carp to show for his efforts today after having had to watch Paul opposite catching regularly all day. Dai's paste line finally produced for him, another couple of decent carp being added to his weight before the All-Out was called at 7pm ......

Packing the gear away I have to say that I was glad it was over, a frustrating match where what I felt was a decent draw had failed to produce the hoped for result for me today with just an estimated 35-40lbs to show for my efforts. So with my gear packed away and back in the car it was time for the Weigh-In.

Fred had managed just 33½lbs, Kev 24¼lbs and Mat 13½lbs. Tony managed 50½lbs. Next up was The Minx and her 58½lbs took the A section win and set The Minx Mark producing a lot of very worried faces . Paul put 127¼lbs on the scales, a good weight on a hard day. Dai's 49¾lbs beat my 40¼lbs as did Neil's 56¾. Terry had just 13¾lbs and Nick Williams 24lbs from peg 13. Onto the start of C section and Gem's fiancée Simon joined the growing band of The Minxed with 49lbs. Steve had a level 127lbs which would be good enough for the section win and The Jinx managed 79¼lbs. Round to the car park bank and Dave Moore put 40½lbs on the scales, Nick W-P a level 40lbs and Clive 65lbs with Paul managing just 15lbs 10ozs. To finish off B section Geoff had 48¼lbs and Ade took the section win with 72lbs.

So back to the hut and the results, Paul Jay taking the win on the day by just 4ozs with Steve 2nd and The Jinx 3rd on the day . The all important section wins going to Gem, Ade and Steve and 14 victims for The Minx. Who'll get The Pink Hat for the next match? One thing's for sure she'll be spoilt for choice but we'll soon find out when we are back for round 2 on June 16th .

Overall Result