Marsh AC club match.

 I'm off to Rockells Farm today for what is probably the most eagerly anticipated club match of the year. Last year Martin Hucker set a new club match record at 383lbs 4ozs  and a new club record total of 2911lbs 14ozs was put on the scales by the 19 anglers that fished the match. A lot can depend on the draw, but an awsome weight is on the cards if the draw bag is kind to you . 

As usual when visiting this venue in the depths of Essex I'd arranged to meet Dave at his place just after 6·30am and follow him and Colin down to the fishery . The weather looked good and a smooth run down saw us pulling up at the lake at around 8am to find Keith and his guest Troy along with Jean and Kev, Martin and John already in attendance. A quick look confirmed that the lake looked in good nick although the water level was a little down.

 Keith, Terry and I set off to peg out while the others arrived and I have to say that every peg looked like it was good for a few fish . Keith expressed a preference for a late peg in the high teens and the general consensus was that either the first 3 or the last 3 would be decent draws . So at 8·30am Dave called the draw, people seemed a little reluctant so I dived in early and found peg 19 to be my home for the day . Keith drew peg 3 and with Clive drawing peg 2 with Terry for company on peg 1 they would definitely be contesting the honours , I had Graham for company on 18 while peg 17 was Dave's for the day and was the one I felt we all had to beat. I had the peg last year and the willow that had been cut back then had re-grown and now offered some cover and would be tailor made for Dave's floater approach today .

So off to the pegs, and I have to say that I couldn't have any complaints with my own peg, with the boards to fish to on my left and some cover to my right, both of which had a depth of no more than 18 inches.

 My approach is pretty single minded in that I tend to ignore any long lines when I fish Rockells as shipping back and forth wastes to much time and look to catch on a top 2 from the off if at all possible. Rigs are Middy in-line paste floats made up on 0·20 power match with a size 12 owner barbless relying on the bait to cock the float. Bait is simply GOT Atomic paste with 4mm pellets (and plenty of them) for feed.

So with such a simple set up I had a bit of time before the All-in and had a stroll down to see Dave who was looking as happy as Larry despite not feeling quite 100%......

Dave had never recorded 300lbs in a match, but today he was definitely sitting on a peg that was more than capable of doing it if he could get off to a good start in the first 3 hour session . We fish two three hour sessions here with a mid point weigh-in as with the prospect of big weights it means that fish aren't retained in nets for to long and it gives the anglers a chance to have a breather as well .

So 10am and Dave blew the whistle for the All-in, a handful of pellet down both margins and in with my first piece of paste next to the boards, a couple of dinks and the float slid away resulting in a perfect little Common of around 8 ozs to get me off the mark and from then on in the bites kept coming regularly , unfortunately not all were connected with, I'd get 4 or 5 on the trot then miss a few or foul hook a couple, but I had 20 fish in the first hour. Peg 19 is pretty tucked away in a corner and you cant really see anyone else to judge how you're doing against them, though I could hear plenty of splashing coming from Graham and Dave's pegs so it was just a question off concentrating on my own peg. By the end of the second hour I had 39 fish, but they were mostly small. In the 3rd hour I upped the size of paste that I was fishing and although the bites slowed a bit I started to pick up a better stamp of fish. Judy popped round to see how I was doing, but it coincided with one of those frustrating periods of lots of missed bites and by the time that Dave blew the whistle to signal the end of the morning session I had 55 fish on the clicker and was hoping for somewhere around the ton.

The weigh-in started from my peg and I recorded exactly 100lbs . Graham had 84½lbs while Dave had a much better stamp of fish for 150½lbs and top weigh of the morning . Martin on peg 13 had also fished floaters for 101½lbs. Colin had also had a good morning on peg 8, making the most of the cover afforded from the overhanging willow on his peg and again fishing floaters for a fine 144¼lbs . The point pegs hadn't really produced as expected, lots of small fish, but not enough of the better stamp, with Keith's 89¾lbs being the best weight of the group . I'd fished Keith's peg 2 years ago though and expected it to fish much better in the second session. However 1095½lbs had been weighed in by the 18 anglers including four 'Tons', an average of just over 60lbs per angler so not too shabby .

By the time we all returned to our pegs and sorted ourselves out it was 2·15pm before Dave signalled the All-in for the second session. I'd fed a couple of pints of pellet into both of the margins prior to the end of the first session and was hopeful that it was enough to hold the fish during the break, and it seemed that it had been a success as I had a fish first put in .

Well the second session pretty much followed the pattern of the first, though I did manage to pick up a few more better fish, but nothing over 4lbs. Dave however was definitely getting a better stamp of fish and was looking good I felt for an overall win . Anyway after a further 3 hours Dave called the All-out for the second and final time today. I had 78 fish on the clicker this time and hoped they would be enough to take me to around 200lbs for the session if I had enough better sized fish, but I would have to wait and see as the weigh in would run in the opposite direction this time, starting from peg 1.

So with the gear back at the car park it was time to start the weigh in. Terry and Clive had both improved on their morning sessions with 128¼lbs and 123¼lbs respectively . Keith had had a standout session though, his 2 nets finally registering 219¼lbs for an overall weight of 309lbs which would prove to be good enough for 3rd on the day .

 John on peg five managed 101½lbs in the afternoon . Colin however had gone from strength to strength with 225lbs and a total of 369¼lbs to take the win on the day . Martin had another busy session putting 158¼lbs onto the scales . Dave had 3 nets in which gave him 193¾lbs, comfortably taking him past his own 300lb target for a total weight of 344¼lbs , a new PB match weigh giving him 2nd on the day . My own weight of 169¼ proved as I feared that I had to many small fish, but the total of 269¼lbs still gave me 4th on the day .

So back to the car park for the results. A total of 2878¾lbs had been weighed in on the day, just short of our record, still an incredible average of 159lbs per angler !!!!!!! with 3 'Triple Tons', 2 'Double Tons' and a further  6 'Tons' overall a phenomenal days fishing by any standards . Roll on next years match, looks like I may have to brush up on my floater fishing .

Marsh AC club match.

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

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

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

 It's probably 13mtrs to the island, and the targets today are Carp, Mirrors and Commons + a decent head of recently stocked F1's along with silvers which include Barbel. Now I said it was shallow but even I was surprised when an initial plumb up revealed a maximum of 15 inches down the track at around 5mtrs and just 12 inches in the margins . Now given that there are some decent carp present and they tend to take off like bullets in such shallow water I set up a couple of modified Rolf's rigs, and these were Malman Adam 4x10's on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hooks adjusted to suit + a Malman MTD2 on 0·20 Power Match with a size 16 QM1 hook for shallow. I also set up a 4X12 Middy Paste Float, it's a really strong line through design made up on ·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a Drennan size 12 Carp Method hook to fish paste in both margins. Bait was just 6 and 8mm hard pellet, 6mm GOT Baits Expanders and GOT Baits Atomic Paste .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maggotdrowning.com

Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2010.

DAY 1

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

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

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

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

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

 The rigs were simple, a Malman Adam 4x12 on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hook for the 10mtr line on the deck. A Malman Adam 4x10 on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hook for the 5mtr line. I also set up a MW Trev on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 Drennan Carp Match for down the margin. Bait for the session would be my usual mix of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DAY 2

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

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

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

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

Rig wise I just set up a couple of Malman Adam 4x12's on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1's to cover the 5 and 10mtr lines which were of similar depth and a Malman 4x12 Snake IV on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1 to fish the bottom of the marginal shelf under the bush to my left. I also got the feeder rod out of it's ready sleeve just in case things got desperate Bait for the session would be my usual mix of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Geoff Palmer & Tony Roberts  

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

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

Pairs Result

Dave the Fish's

Invitation Match.

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

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

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

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

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

 John had mentioned that today looked ideal for the feeder and that seemed as good a starting point as any especially as I had it already set up in its rod sleeve. Pole wise I just set up a couple of Malman Adam 4x12's on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1's for fishing to the bushes on either side and a Malman 4x12 Snake IV on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1 for a line at 5mtrs. Bait for the session would be a variety of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jinx Match 3

Well it's Saturday once again and that means it's time for the 3rd Jinx Match. It looked like a lovely summers day in prospect when I pulled back the curtains today and the sun streamed through the window . However I soon revised those thoughts as I loaded the car and a distinctly chill wind lowered the temperature somewhat. Definitely an excuse for a Full English  en route to the lake. Anyway, good time was made and I pulled into the car park at Rolf's around 10·15am.
A good few of the lads were already in attendance, and with a fresh mug of coffee the prospects for the day ahead were soon under discussion as we waited for the draw .....

Now of course Paul D was going to be the owner of THE PINK HAT today. Unfortunately his wife had phoned Malc the previous evening to say that he was ill and wouldn't be there!!!!! Well Gem decided to put the names of those previously Minxed on the first 2 matches into THE PINK HAT to find a substitute owner for the day........................... and the lucky winner was Steve Wilson ..............

On to the draw and I'm in Section B today, the home of my nemisis...... PEG13 .
In to the bag I plunged my hand, and thankfully found peg10 was to be mine for the day, Simon being the lucky occupant of PEG13   for today.........

Now I've never fished peg 10 before so a quick chat with John soon gave me some idea of what to expect as he'd fished it on the Wednesday Open .
So round to the peg with my gear and I find that I've got Clive for company on peg 11, but surprisingly neither peg 8 or 9 have been drawn today, unfortunately though the right hand bush stops you being able to fish into 9, but it meant that Jon opposite on peg 32 would have a rake of water to go at unopposed. All the while it was growing noticeably cloudier and cooler while the wind put a good ripple on the water and I was glad I'd brought a hoodie with me .

John had recommended targeting the skimmers at 6mtrs on corn at the start, so rig 1 was a 4X12 Malman Adam on 0·20 power match straight through to a size 16 QM1. Rig 2 was a MW 0·4g XT for the 10mtr line on the deck on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1, while rig 3 was a MW Trev on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 Drennan Carp Match for pellet and paste down the margin. Setting up my cupping kit the thread snapped off , so no cup kit today. Never mind, I could feed the 6 mtr line and margins by hand and a catapult would suffice for the 10 mtr line. Bait for the day would be various pellets, corn and paste, with the feed being the usual mix of fishery pellets.

So 1pm and Malc called the All-In. A good handfull of pellet with a few bits of corn followed by a couple of bits of corn on the hook out to the 6mtr line ......

Within a minute the float buried and lifting into it I felt a decent sized Carp power off towards peg 9 . It was also obvious that it was foul hooked in the tail and I was going to have trouble doing anything with it! Well after around 5 minutes it was obvious that the hook wasn't about to lose it's hold, so I decided to show it who was boss.  WRONG DECISION!!!!!!! as I lifted the top kit there was a loud BANG next to my right ear , leaving me as the proud owner of a 6 piece top 2 ......

........ but still attached to the fish. Recovering from the shock I had no option other than to hand-line the fish, and thankfully I managed to land it without further drama, a chunky Mirror that weighed 13lbs.

As I returned the fish I could see Jon doing battle, he also had a foul hooker, but thankfully for him he got it in safely with no damage to his kit, a 12lb'er being the culprit in his case .......

Taking a few minutes to compose myself, a look around the lake revealed that things had got off to a generally slow start for most, though Clive had managed a couple of decent skimmers to get himself off the mark, however it wasn't long before both he and Simon decided to take a look down their margins which resulted in them both fishing into peg 12 ......

My swim had been trashed though by the foul hooked charging around it, and for the next hour or so all I could manage were a few small roach and skimmers, regardless of which line I tried. Budgie over on peg 28 appeared to have made the best start to the match having had 2 or 3 carp, though he'd also lost a couple ......

Gem had been heard to let out her customary scream and asked me to witness the fish as she weighed it at 8½lbs, was it an omen of Minxings to come? Hopefully not to many today, as Gem and Malc would be taking a couple of hours out from the match today to visit Malc's mum who is in hospital.
For the majority though, it was proving hard. The Jinx Effect obviously being back with a vengeance for this years series. With around 2 hours gone I decided to re feed and take a stroll with the camera. Clive had that look of studied concentration that only a veteran of countless visits to Rolfs can carry off .......

While Simon's smile was probably trying to hide a fear of a second Minxing in 7 days having been beaten by The Minx along with 21 others on the Wyrley & Essington Canal the previous Sunday ......

Tucked away on peg 14, young Mitch was quietly getting on with it despite wearing some rather dubious headgear of his own ......

Next door on peg 15 was Keith (guesting today) on his first ever visit to Rolfs  . He'd suffered an early demonstration of the power of Rolfs fish when one had given him the run around for 15 minutes on the pellet waggler, and had obviously decided that the pole would be easier on his arms......

Ant was on peg 17 today, Now there's always a bit of friendly rivalry between him and Simps, but he was hoping to at least pull back a result today ........

Fred (milo) was up on peg 18, it's proved to be one of those infuriating pegs this year, a good weight one match and very little the next, but Fred was sticking at it determined to get a few out of it......

Terry on peg 19 was having a mare with just a few small perch to show for his efforts so he had a bit to do to avoid a third straight Minxing this series   .......

Next door on rarely fished peg 20 was Ade (slim shady). Now Ade is probably Gem's number one target for a Minxing this year having avoided having his name added to The Minx List for the best part of 3 years despite a couple of close shaves, but even he was looking worried today, though he did hook into his first carp of the day as we chatted ......

Geoff on peg 22, who'd once more travelled down from Scotland was contenting himself fishing for anything with fins. Meanwhile Nick(monkey) was sitting it out on peg 25 and hoping things would pick up as the match progressed ......

On peg 26 was Paul, who once again had drawn a car park peg on a day that he had his good lady Jayne to accompany him......

Tim was struggling pegged between Budgie and Steve on peg 31, and although Steve was getting a few bites they weren't all from carp but skimmers......

Round on peg 34 Dai was starting to get a few bites, but was having trouble with fish shedding the hook for no apparent reason ......

Dave Moore was on peg 36 and was once more being given a good going over by the Rolfs residents, as they were happily showing themselves in his swim, but refusing to co-operate by taking any of his offerings regardless of how he presented them .....

Malc and Gem had left for the hospital by now, and Al was down on peg 40 with his son (Little Al) for company today, but he only had 3 small carp to show for his efforts. Tony had managed 3 decent carp from peg 2, but shortly after I took this photo.......

...... he was comprehensively seen off by a proper lump leaving him with a busted top kit . As I arrived at peg 4 Kevin was re-elasticating a top kit having been unfortunate enough to tread on a top kit as he went to weigh a decent carp   .........

...... unfortunately that wasn't the end of it for Kev , as later on another carp pulled the freshly elasticated top kit off his pole and consigned it to the depths of the lake as he was playing it . Meanwhile round on peg 7 on his own, Mat was quietly enjoying himself catching a few decent fish, one of which was caught on camera by Simon .......

So back to my peg once more, and I wish I could say that things improved, but alas they didn't, just another few small roach snaffling the bait. Simon had finally got something with a bit of weight, though not what he was expecting in the shape of a cracking Golden Orfe  .....

Jon was still taking the odd fish, as was Budgie, but the man that started to motor towards the finish of the match was Clive who managed to tempt a decent run of fish from under the bushes to his right ......

Most of which I witnessed as he brought them to me to verify their weight ........

Malc and Gem had returned by now, Malc having a couple of quick fish as soon as he returned to his peg, and Gem also managed to add another couple to her tally and crank up the pressure to avoid a Minxing.

With half an hour to go my swim at 10 mtrs suddenly burst into life, giving me 3 carp in 3 put ins and with about 5 minutes to go I had a 4th which dived under my platform as I tried to net it. Fortunately I managed to extract it from there, much to Simon's amazement , but as I shipped out to try for another Malc called the All-Out.

Now you may remember that I mentioned that Al had his son Little Al with him today, well with the match over Little Al had a go with dad's gear for 10 minutes. Well he's obviously a natural as within a matter of moments he'd caught a carp for himself...................................... an absolute cracker of a Common that weighed 14lbs .......

As we packed up our kit I noticed that Gem had taken all her nets out, so 27lbs would be the target to avoid a Minxing and I was pretty confident I'd avoided that thanks to the final half hour. With the kit back at the car there were a few worrying about their fate as the Weigh-In started.

Dai got off to a good start with 78¾lbs on the scales which would prove to be good enough to win the section , indeed it wasn't even challenged with Tony's 59¼lbs and Matt's 60¾ lbs coming closest. My fish made 40½lbs, but was firmly beaten by Clive's 87¾lbs not only taking the section, but the overall match as well . Poor Simon's meagre 7¾lbs ensured consecutive Minxings for him. The next interest focused on peg 20 and Slim's weight, which came in at 24½lbs meaning that The Minx had got him at last .
Nick recorded 58¼lbs to just pinch C section from Keith's 57lbs 2ozs (a decent result on Keith's first ever visit  ) Finally Budgie's level 79lbs prove good enough for 2nd in B section from Jon's 72½lbs.

So finally with the results out of the way, all that remained was the ritual humiliation where those that had been Minxed were lined up for The Minx to chose the recipient of THE PINK HAT to be worn at the next Match ........

Well in all honesty there was only going to be one person that got it...... The proud owner of THE PINK HAT for Match 4...............

Ade (Slim Shady) Williams

NB: Don't worry Paul D hasn't escaped THE PINK HAT and a suitable forfeit will be in place in time for the next match .

OVERALL RESULT

Names in PINK are those that were MINXED

SECTION RESULTS

Jinx Match 2

Well, another Saturday and another Jinx Match. I awoke to the sun streaming through the curtains and the forcast was for a warm one, so after a quick shower it was time to feed the cats and make a coffee, and get the car loaded before setting off via Battersea for my usual stop at The Jimmy Griddle where Sausages, Bacon, Eggs and a Fried Slice  washed down with a mug of tea took care of breakfast. An uneventful run down saw me pulling into the car park at Rolf's around 10·30am to find the place rapidly filling up. With Pauline providing a mug of coffee the banter commenced as we waited for the others to arrive. The car park soon filled up and just prior to the draw Gem handed over that PINK HAT!!!!!!!!!! ......

So on to the draw, I'm in A section which is the Little Lake today, and hoping that a half decent draw would allow me to have a better day today. So into the draw bag and I find that peg 36 is to be my home for the match......

If I'm honest it's the last peg in the section that I wanted to be on, however someone had a decent result the previous Sunday fishing the feeder from there so that was going to be plan A for me today.
The rod was a Mach 3 11ft feeder paired with a Daiwa 3012 Whisker spooled with 6lb Maxima. Just a simple running ledger rig with a Drennan cage feeder attached via a link swivel, finished off with a size 14 QM1 with a hair to take 3 pieces of sweetcorn. Groundbait was simply a bag of 4mm fishery pellets wetted down with a generous dusting of GOT Green Grub groundbait to bind them together. I also set up a Shakespeare Mach3 XT 11ft Pellet Waggler coupled with the new 035 MACH 3 XT Front Drag Reel spooled up with 4lb Maxima along with a 3AAA waggler to fish a banded pellet as I was planning to catapult pellets over where I was fishing the feeder and if it brought the fish up I may be able to nick a few. I also set up a couple of shallow pole rigs, but wasn't really planning on using them.

So at 1pm Malc called the All-In. Out with the feeder rod and within a couple of minutes a firm wrap on the tip signalled fish on. A spirited fight ensued but the first fish of the day was soon residing in the landing net, a weigher that went 10lbs and a most satisfactory way to kick of the day . Unfortunately a second fish was in no hurry to take the bait leaving me looking at a stationary tip for quite a while.

Dave and Clive over on pegs 7 & 8 appeared to be going along quite steadily though. Indeed Dave had managed a proper lump on his feeder rod, weighing in at 18½lbs, comfortably the largest fish that Dave had caught on a rod and reel ......

Steve to my right on peg 34 was fishing up to the buoys and had got off to a decent start and already looked like he would take all the catching......

In general though things appeared to be slow for most, With the temperature around 27°C the sky had clouded over leaving it feeling oppressively sticky and both the anglers and the fish lethargic.

Over on peg 4 I could see Simon, at first it appeared that he was having a good day with quite a few fish, but the reality was that he was being plagued with foul hookers, which having stretch his elastic to improbable lengths were shedding the hook before he could net them  .......

"Budgie" on peg 40 appeared to be suffering another grueller, and hoping for a better outcome than he'd suffered on the 1st Jinx Match when he'd finished last  ......

Paul on peg 2 had managed a couple, but it looked as if the fish in his peg were on steroids, as they were giving him a right old run around before he could finally get them in the net......

Around half way through the match Malc's dulcet tones were heard, which is always a worry as disaster for others seems to follow him as a constant companion. This time it was Steve's turn to suffer the force of The Jinx with his No 4 section breaking as Malc raised his camera......

Meanwhile Jon to my left on peg 38 was working through plans A-Z but all he could tempt were a few small roach and perch from down by his keepnets.......

Things had picked up for me however with a couple of quick fish falling to the feeder, but when I looked round while playing the second and found The Jinx himself pointing his camera in my direction I have to admit to a few anxious moments before it was safely in the net......

Time marched on and I managed another couple of fish, 1 to the feeder and 1 to the waggler, but reports from round the lake indicated that the fishing was proving to be very hard for most. Dave and Clive appeared to be still ticking along nicely, especially Clive who appeared to be making hay on the feeder......

...... however it transpired that he was losing the majority of them. Steve was still catching on peg 34, even getting a decent Perch on a white boilie!!!!!!

Dave over on peg 6 had managed a couple from his 6mtr line and was no doubt hoping for a strong finish to the match ......

I'd had another quiet spell when Dave strolled round for a chat. He must have brought me a bit of luck, because I managed another couple of carp as we chatted . He soon departed no doubt inspired to redouble his efforts and Kev's partner Jean appeared with a welcome cup of coffee for me .

I managed a final couple of fish as the match drew to an end, one of which was foul hooked in the dorsal fin and gave me a right run around before I managed to bundle it into the net. Malc finally called the All-Out at 6pm, which in typical Jinx fashion was the cue for a short sharp rain shower just to cool us down prior to packing away.

So with the kit packed up and back to the car it was time for the Weigh-In. Steve was first to weigh and his 92½lbs set a mark that wasn't going to be beaten . I thought I had about 50lbs so was pleasantly surprised to find 61½lbs as my final weight . Jon had over 40 fish to record 4lbs 10ozs, Mostly small stuff. Budgie had finally snared a carp to record 15½lbs. Paul's 41¼lbs was edged out by Simon's 45½lbs.
Dave put a level 35lbs on the scales. I was a bit surprised at Dave and Clive's weights as I'd expected them both to be pushing Steve, but Clive's 55¾lbs edged out Dave's weight of 52lbs 2ozs. Rolf's Lake regular Pete Archer had been guesting on peg 13 but had suffered with untold foul hookers  and recorded 48¾lbs. Another team had weighed in the other half of the lake, the highlight of which were 44½lbs from peg 19 for Al, Malc with 47¾lbs from peg 25, while peg 30 produced a fine 76lbs for Ade. Gem had only managed 1¾lbs, but had still handed Minxings to 3 of the lads so at least I would be waving goodbye to THE PINK HAT .

Back for the results and Pete Archer kindly provided some prizes from his sponsor Vespe. So with the results all done and dusted, all that remained was to find out who Gem would choose to be the lucky recipient that gets to wear that PINK HAT for the next match? Well readers, allow me to present Mr Paul Dolby  ................

OVERALL RESULT

Names in PINK are those that were MINXED

SECTION RESULTS

Jinx Match 1

Well here we go again . Today sees that happy band of idiots fools maniacs nutters that comprise The Jinx Squad back on the banks to do it all again for yet another year with all 6 of this years matches at Rolfs Lake .

Peter, Malc, Gem, Tony R, Terry, Steve, Ade.
Simon, Paul D, Paul R, Nick W-P, Nick W, Mitch.
Fred, Matt, Kevin, Jon, Geoff, Dave C, Dave M.
Dai, Clive, Marcus, Ant, Al, Steve, Dave W.

There's loads of questions to be answered over the course of the coming weeks........... 

Can I avoid PEG 13 ?
How many will suffer a Minxing and who'll end up wearing the THE PINK HAT ? 
Will Paul ever draw a sunny peg when he brings Jayne with him?
Will Simps and Gem get hitched?
Will Clive finish somewhere other than 2nd overall?
Will Jon actually land a fish if someone points a camera at him?

 The answers to these questions and many more will all be revealed in the reports that will appear here in the weeks ahead.

So on to the day, the luxury of fishing these matches is the start time, meaning that I don't have to get up at silly O'clock . I could have a lay in till 7·30am, feed the cats and make a coffee, a quick scan of the forums before loading the car and setting off via Battersea for my usual stop at The Jimmy Griddle where one of their 'Full English Breakfasts' made for a good start to the day . A smooth run down saw me pulling into the car park at Rolf's around 10·30am along with Clive and Tony. Geoff along with Paul D and his guest Mick were already in situ, and once Pauline had provided a mug of coffee the banter commenced as we waited for the others to arrive. The car park soon filled up, Gem arrived, you couldn't miss her in her new shirt, along with that PINK HAT!!!!!!!!!!......

...... which was soon passed on to Steve (Steak) for the day as he'd 'won' it at the MD's Lindholme match .

Well it was supposed to be an 11·30 draw, but of course it was late, a nesting Moorhen on peg 34 being blamed this time  ......

 Anyway with the draw underway I found myself with peg 21 (so no peg 13 for me today.) It's one of those pegs that doesn't get fished as often as some, so doesn't get as much bait going in, but can throw up a good weight on its day.

For company I had Marcus(Budgie)Burgess, Gem's Pairs partner on peg 19, while Paul Roberts was to my left on peg 23. There was a bit of scum on the water, but with the wind blowing into the peg I was hopeful of a few. Fish could be seen topping out towards the middle, ideal for the pellet waggler, but for this match I was on one of the pegs where rods aren't allowed.
So I set up a 4 pole rigs. One for straight out at around 8mtrs was a MW 0·6g Diamond for the 8mtr line on the deck on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 Drennan Carp Match and a MW Trev with similar line and hook for up in the water. and a further couple of MW 0·4g Power Diamonds on 0·20 Power Match with size 16 series 2 hooks to fish to the end of the bush on my right and down the side of the bush on my left. Bait for the day was to be a mix of soft and hard pellets in various sizes with some corn as a back up, while feed was 4 & 6mm fishery pellets.

One worrying aspect of the day however was the fact that John and Pauline were having a day out and were leaving Eddie TG in charge. Now Eddie knows the lake like the back of his hand and has a habit of giving Gem a bit of coaching when he's in attendance, which is a bit of a worry when you're looking to avoid a Minxing .

So at 1·30pm Malc called the All-In, a good handfull of pellet into all 3 swims and out to the 8mtr line with an 8mm banded pellet on the deck rig.. A couple of lift and drops and the float buried . A gentle lift met with a solid resistance, but the fish didn't bolt off just following the pole back, however just as I got back to the top 2 something spooked it and it dived at the keepnet, neatly transferring the hook in the process. Simon appeared to be suffering similarly as his first fish dived under his platform before snapping him off.

Not the best of starts, and in all honesty it went downhill from there . I had to wait nearly an hour for the next bite, which turned out to be one of the smaller Commons weighing around 5lb, but at least it was a fish in the net. The next bite came around 3pm. Malc was having a stroll, camera in hand, so of course I missed it only to foul hook a fish as I lifted the rig, well that led me a bit of a dance before the rig shot back with a scale on the end, much to Malc's amusement  ......

Most of us in that corner seemed to be struggling, though none of us more than Budgie, who halfway through the match had just a solitary Roach to show for his efforts  ......

Needing a break I re fed heavily, then grabbed the camera for a stroll. Clive was fishing long for once and as I looked over it appeared to be paying dividends as he was in the process of landing one .......

Simps was one of the few who appeared to be catching steadily, so Jon had reverted to the pellet waggler in an attempt to get in on the act......

Most however were feeling the full force of The Jinx Effect, but Dave Moore has a bit of a grin on his face  denoting that he was obviously getting a bit of action despite being on peg13 ......

Al was on peg 12, but was feeling a little rough, so much so that he and Dave would pack up early to get him home......

Malc was on peg 9 with Liam in tow, but apart from the one weigher was in the same boat as a lot of us just waiting for things to happen .......

Round on peg 8 was Nick(monkey) no doubt hoping that this would be the peg to finally provide him with that magic first 'Ton', alas it was not to be, in fact it was proving to be a real grueller for him  ......

...... and it didn't make him feel any better to see that Ant on peg 7 was catching regularly without appearing to even have to feed .......

Ade(Slim) was tucked away on peg 2, but as I made my way round he was into a fish having been fishing long down into empty peg 3 to his left......

Over on peg 38 I could see Paul D who was returning to the Jinx Series after a few years break carefully playing what transpired to be his first carp of the day  ......

Geoff was having a decent day on 36 and putting a few together, as was his old sparring partner Dai who was on peg 32 ......

Steak was having an absolute mare, was it down to that PINK HAT, or the fact that he had The Minx for company on the next peg?......

Jon by now was playing a carp on the waggler, and appeared to have broken the hoodoo of the camera as despite a number of shutters clicking he landed it safely  ........

Back to my peg, and I wish I could say it got better, but the truth is it didn't , the final 2 hours yielding just another 2 carp of around 6lbs and a solitary skimmer, and I have to say that it was a bit of a relief when Malc called the All-Out at 6·30pm.

Once I got my kit put away I caught up with the Weigh-In. Geoff had started things off with with 87lbs, but was soon overtaken by Slim's 100¾lbs, however Ant ended up winning A section with a fine 126½lbs from peg 7 . Dave Moore managed the best weight from the motorway bank with 65¼lbs , my 3carp and a skimmer rolling the scales round to just 20lbs. Clive took the win in C section with just 55lbs, while Simps was the man to beat in B section with a level 156lbs to take the win on the day . Gem put 33¼lbs on the scales meaning a dozen of us had been Minxed , while Dai managed 99¼lbs from peg 32 .

So to the results and after that all that remained was for Gem to chose the recipient of  THE PINK HAT for the next match .
Well it was no surprise to find it coming my way, much to everyones obvious delight , so it will be a PINK HAT day for me in 3 weeks time  ......

OVERALL RESULT

Names in PINK are those that were MINXED

SECTION RESULTS

Marsh AC club match.

Todays venue for the Marsh AC club match is Rockells Farm. It's the venue where I set a new club match record last year of 293½lbs and the club recorded their all time best aggregate weight of 1991lbs weighed in between 18 anglers .
As usual I got round to Dave's at 6·45am to follow him and Colin down to the venue, It's not the easiest of venues to find without a Sat Nav, being somewhat off the beaten track, but we made good time despite quite a bit of fog on the trip up and pulled into the car park just after 8am.
There were 19 booked in for todays match, 15 club members and 4 guests, Clive and Al who are in danger of becoming permanent fixtures and Keith Ashby and Vic Nugent (both GOT Baits sponsored anglers) who enjoy the occasional trip out with the club due to the relaxed atmosphere and the banter and laughs that are had during the day .

With no permanent numbers allocated to the pegs at Rockells, Keith and I set off into the lifting fog to peg out while Dave sorted the monies out. Every peg appeared to have fish moving in front of it and in the margins promising a good days sport ahead. Pegs 1-3 went into the very end, and could all be regarded as flyers, while pegs 4-11 went in down the right hand side and 12-19 up the left (The high numbers being where you wanted to be ). With draw time approaching, 3 members hadn't arrived (Martin, Zack & Graham) but the draw went ahead anyway.

Keith & Vic drew pegs 1 & 2, and with them both being very positive anglers would take all the stopping on those pegs . My home for the day would be peg 17 , with Al for company on peg 18. At the end of the draw there were 3 pegs left which I drew for the missing anglers peg 3 for Martin and peg 19 for Graham (Both flyers ) and peg 14 for Zack.

Settling into peg 17 I have to say that I was happy with my draw . I'm pretty single minded in how I approach Rockells, always fishing paste as close in as I can and peg 17 looked tailor made for it, with nettles and reeds overhanging the left hand margin and boards in the right hand margin .........

The rigs were simplicity itself, 3 top 2's holding rigs that were made up of 4X12 Middy Paste Floats that are a really strong line through design made up on ·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a Drennan size 12 Carp Method hook to fish paste in both margins where I had around 2 feet of water on both sides. I had 6 pints of it made up, which was GOT Baits Atomic with some GOT Baits Pineapple Atomic Cloud added. Feed would be a mix of soaked 4 and 6 mm pellet. I had 2 extra sections of pole set up, but hopefully wouldn't be using them unless I hooked a real beast as I really wanted to be able to fish just the top 2's for speed and comfort.

Just along on peg 18 Al's swim looked well capable of pushing me all the way, especially as Al has been putting some good results together recently ...............

Martin, Zack and Graham had arrived meanwhile, and I fancied that Martin might be in with a chance on peg 3, as although he would only class himself as a pleasure angler, he'd had a good result here last year weighing in a total of 232¾lbs, so the venue obviously suits his approach .
Looking across I could see Keith, apparently lost in his thoughts, sitting on his flyer, so no pressure there then ..........

The fog had burnt off by now, but there was still a fair bit of cloud, so although it was warming up hopefully it wouldn't turn into the total scorcher that had been predicted . With the venues potential to produce big weights todays match was being split into two 3 hour sessions with a 1 hour break mid way through for a mid-match weigh-in taken at the fishery owners insistence, so with everyone set the All-In was called at 10am for the morning session .

A handfull of pellet into both margins, and with fish already showing on my left side that's where the 1st bit of paste was lowered into. A couple of knocks and the float slid away and the first Carp of the day, a small Mirror of around 12ozs was soon safely in the net, number 1 on the clicker . To be honest it was pretty much steady away for me from then on. Al however seemed to be having a few problems , it looked as if he was fishing pellet that was being intercepted by Roach and the smaller Carp, on top of which he seemed to be bumping a few better fish. I was getting a few to many small Carp for my liking, but I found last year that you just had to wade through them and keep the bait going in to draw the better fish, and I started to put a few better 2-3lb fish together . They were all coming from the left hand margin though as every time I looked down the right I was waiting to long for a bite before landing yet another 8oz Carp.

2 hours in with 44 fish on the clicker another look down the right hand margin resulted in an instant bite and a much better fish powered off and after an anxious couple of minutes a nice Leather Carp of around 12lbs was safe in the net . With a few tail patterns now showing by the boards I concentrated on that line for the last hour. With 5 minutes to go I fed 4 pints of pellet into the right hand margin and another couple down the left in an attempt to hold the fish during the hours break for the weigh-in, while a final put in produced a 5lb Common Carp as the All-Out was called at 1pm.

The weigh-in started from my side and my weight of 120lbs made up of 62 fish was comfortably leading till it came to the 1st 3 pegs. Keith on peg 1 put 148lbs on the scales (and he reckoned he was getting roached out, lying ****** ) while Vic on peg 2 ran him close with 133¼lbs, however it was Martin who put us all in our place when he put a staggering 180¾lbs on the scales for the half way lead . So with over 1100lbs of fish weighed it looked like all the club records set last year would be going, as it normally fishes better in the afternoon. In fact it had taken the whole hour to weigh-in meant that we delayed the start of the afternoon session to allow everyone to get back to their pegs.
As I strolled back I noticed that Clive was looking a bit numb as he'd struggled on peg 10 for a mere 22lbs and already needed snookers .............

............. it looks like his drawing hand has decided to get its own back on him big time, for all the punishment he's given it for mis-behaving recently .

Returning to my peg I could see that despite the disturbance of the weigh-in the fish had settled on the pellets by the boards as evidenced by the tail patterns I could see . So 2·15pm and the All-In was called for the afternoon session. 1st put in and away goes the float attached to a 3lb Common and that's the way it continued . Al seeing how successful paste had been for me gave it a go, and while it was an improvement he was having yet another nightmare as he suffered from hook pulls and foul hookers .

Elsewhere round the lake sport wasn't quite so fast and furious I'm afraid, in fact rumour had it that Clive had put a pair of ear plugs in, so that he didn't have to keep hearing the splashing of fish coming to others nets ........

 I suffered with a few foul hookers as well during the afternoon session, despite cutting down on the feed, there were just so many fish down by the boards, even hooked fish charging through them didn't spook them. I basically fished the right hand margin for the whole 3 hours as the bites kept coming and they were from a better stamp of fish than those from the left hand margin.

In fact, by the time the All-Out was called at 5·15pm I was quite relieved as my right shoulder was starting to ache, and a quick glance showed me that I had another 61 fish on the clicker .

I was soon packed away and dropped my kit back to the car, before making my way round to the weigh-in which was starting with Keith as the scales had been left there at the end of the morning session.
Well, What can I say , Keith put an amazing 234lbs on the scales for a total of 382lbs , Vic added 173¼lbs for a combined weight of 306½lbs , while Martin weighed 202½lbs to edge out Keith by 1¼lbs with a total weight of 383¼lbs . So that was over 1000lbs of fish weighed in from the first 3 pegs !!!
Dave had had a decent afternoon on peg 6 putting 167½lbs on the scales for a total of 254¼lbs . Tony on peg 8 recorded a total of 142½lbs and most had improved on their morning totals by the time we got round to Colin on peg 15 who added a net of 127½lbs for a total of 211lbs while Terry on peg 16 recorded a total of 140¾lbs .
When it came to my peg the scales recorded a weight of 210lbs giving me a total of 330lbs and 3rd place on the day . Alan put a hard earned 101½lbs on the scales for a total of 171¾lbs while Graham rounded off things with a total weight of 114lbs for the 2 sessions .

So there you have it, Martin is now the proud holder of the club match record at 383lbs 4ozs . The top 10 anglers recorded 4 'Triple Tons', 2 'Double Tons' and 4 'Tons' between them . A club record total of 2911lbs 14ozs was weighed in between 19 anglers, an average of over 153lbs per angler . I broke my 3 hour PB match weight as well as my PB overall match weight as did quite a few others. Hopefully we'll get a chance to try and better that next year, or is that being greedy?

Marsh AC club match.

Well, it's out with the members of Marsh AC today for a club match on The Reservoir at Harleylands Farm, Cranbrook, Kent.
A quick look out of the window reveals a dull grey day with the rain falling, so after a spot of breakfast it's time to load the car up, not forgetting the waterproofs as it looks like being a wet old day. Harleylands is about 40 miles away from home and a relaxed run down takes about an hour meaning that I arrived just after 8am as it stopped raining, in plenty of time for the 8·30am draw.

Holidays, weather and a number of other factors mean that there are only 12 of us present for this match, meaning that there is plenty of room for us as we have the whole of the Reservoir booked. Into the hat and I find that I've drawn peg 25, not a draw that particularly excites me, but as with most pegs on the water it should be good for a few fish.

Today is really going to be a day for me to try a few things out. I've become more and more disenchanted with the Hydrolastic that I've been using over the past 18 months/2years. I really don't feel that it gives me the control especially when it comes to decent sized carp. With this in mind I've stripped the red hydro out of the power kits of my main pole and my margin pole. I've replace these with solid yellow Vespe (22+) in 2 of the kits for my main pole and solid orange Vespe (25+) in the margin pole kits, all set as soft as possible.
I also had a bucket of unbranded feed pellets that my local tackle dealer had asked me to try out and give him my thoughts on. They're green 4mm with a strong fishmeal smell, lighter than swimstim ones though and when they're dampened the colour doesn't leach out of them. Bait was to be paste made up with bait-tech Special G Green groundbait, though I did have some Dedra's with me as a back up.

Setting up didn't take long with just 3 top kits, a margin rig, another for 4mtrs in front and another for 7mtrs.
Looking across I could see Colin and Terry discussing their prospects for the day ahead.......


.............. and Dave making sure he had everything with him as he settled into peg 17, which had set a new fishery record of 288lbs the month before................


Tony, my partner on the recent MD's pairs weekend was just up from me on peg 21, while Paul, my guest on the day settled into peg 29 close to the car park.

10am and the all in and I fed 3 large handfulls of pellets into both margins along with a handfull at 4 and 7 mtrs. Straight out to 7mtrs with a large knob of paste and after a minute the float buries and after a short but spirited scrap the 1st fish of the day is in the net, a scale perfect Common of around 4lbs. Straight back out with the paste and a few pellets over the top and a minute later I'm in again resulting in a similar sized Mirror resting safely in the net. Back out and within a minute the elastic streams out and a 5lb Mirror slides over the net, Happy Days!!!!!

At this point the day takes a turn for the worst, the bites just stopped!!!! Despite rotating through all the lines nothing!!!!
I can see that others are still managing the occasional fish. Just after 11·30 I get a bite down my left hand margin and after a spirited fight manage to put the net under a nice mirror around the 8lb mark, but then things go quiet for me again. Just after 12noon Vince puts in an appearance, he had hoped to be fishing today but family commitments scuppered that , however he found the time to pop down for a brief chat just as Dave came round with a hot steak slice from the farm shop, always very civilised affairs the matches Dave runs.

A change to double Dedra's on the hook resulted in a couple of bites to which I was only briefly connected, hard to imagine that the worms had covered the hook point to prevent a proper hook up, so maybe they were foul hookers? However I did manage to land a couple of smaller Carp before Vince left, but felt I was dropping behind in the match as I could see Tony further up still sneaking a few out from the margins though a couple of better fish had managed to get the better of him as revealed by his comments.

Young Zack, the club Junior was nicking the odd fish on the feeder.......

and Chris on the opposite side to me was starting to put together a run of decent fish.

With an hour to go I decided to concentrate on the 4mtr line but all it produced was a couple of Skimmers while Tony appeared to be getting a fish a chuck now. Finally with 10 minutes to go I got another Carp, another decent Mirror around the 8lb mark swiftly followed by another of a similar stamp just before the all out.

Weigh in time and all was revealed, Colin, Terry, Dave and Chris had all been amongst the fish with Chris's good late run earning him 2nd on the day with 88lbs 8ozs. Graham Manning on peg 15 managed 81lbs 8ozs for 3rd on the day, but everyone was eclipsed by Tony's level 116lbs for a fine win on the day.

1st	Tony Roberts	116lbs 00ozs
2nd	Chris Withall	88lbs 08ozs
3rd	Graham Manning	81lbs 08ozs
4th	Terry Goff	69lbs 12ozs
5th	Dave Collier	69lbs 08ozs
6th	Colin Sharrard	54lbs 08ozs
7th	Peter Morton	43lbs 00ozs
8th	Jim Boase	33lbs 12ozs
9th	Zack Johnson	28lbs 08ozs
10th	Paul East	28lbs 00ozs
11th	Kevin Loveland	24lbs 04ozs
12th	Martin Hucker	17lbs 00ozs

So to sum up, a decent days fishing in good company as it always is with the gang from Marsh AC. Maybe not the best of days for me personally, but far from the worst. Nice to get out and catch a few fish after my nightmare at Stockton the previous week, and it didn't rain at all until I got into the car to start the drive home.

Where to next? Well it's back to Rolf's in 2 weeks time for the last round of the Jinx Series, unless of course I manage to get out over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

 

Well having got back into the swing of things with last weeks Match at Holly Farm, I was keen to get back out onto the bank again to make up for some of the fishing I had missed out on in the preceding weeks.
A couple of jobs to do 1st thing in the morning meant that I didn't arrive at the fishery till 10am, and with a match on Peartree and the Reservoir a comfy peg on Nick's Lake would do nicely.

Unloading the car I could see there was an angler on peg 29 in the corner, so i took a short 20 yard stroll up to peg 32 that had plenty of cover in the margins which would be suitable as I was planning to try out a couple of paste baits and some solid 22 rated Vespe elastic that I had rigged up in my margin pole.

A couple of hand fulls of mixed pellet into both margins while i set my gear up was all the prep needed, and although it was cloudy, hopefully the wind would keep any rain at bay, after the torrential downpours we had experienced in London the day before.

Plumbing up revealed a comfy 3 ft in the margins allowing me to fis a simple dibber rig cocked with a single BB shot at just under half depth on 0·21 MAP Carptek straight through to an eyed size 10 barbless Raptor. The real object of the day was to see how soft a paste I could get away with using, so all the paste would be shipped out with the aid of a small paste pot made up to Teepee's design.
I had made up plenty of paste (six pints) in 2 different varieties, as I would be relying on just the paste coming of the hook to feed the swims.

1st put in at 6mtrs down the left hand margin and the float just slid away after 30 seconds and a nice little Common Carp of about 2½ lbs was soon in the net to get me off the mark.
Bites continued to be almost instant, but a lot of them were from the hordes of small palm sized Skimmers that seemed to have invaded the swim, though doubling the size of the paste bait meant that the bait lasted long enough for yet more Carp to find it before the Skimmers polished it off.

By about 12·30 the sky had darkened ominously and the angler on peg 29 had packed up and left, and I made the decision to move down there despite the fact that I had landed 25 Carp by then.

Yet again a couple of hand fulls of mixed pellet into both margins as I sorted the gear out and went back to the car to get my umbrella. Plumbing up revealed another 6 inches on the depth of the previous swim so I tied up another rig to suit the extra depth.
Soon the threatened rain arrived and much as I hate fishing under an umbrella I was glad I had it with me, even though the shower only lasted for about ½ hour. Just as the rain eased off I glanced round to see the familiar face of Vince (vg1037) who had popped down to check on my progress. Whether it was his presence standing there behind me in a cream sweatshirt (Sky-lining me? ) or a change brought on by the rain, sport slowed as yet again the Skimmers put in an appearance, however with the return of the sun the Carp started to return as Vince left to take his other half shopping.

Soon I was into a nice rhythm taking 2 or 3 Carp from each margin before resting it and swapping to the other.
One of the nice features of Nick's is the variety of Carp in there. Mostly Commons and Mirrors, there are also some Ghosties present along with some really dark Mirrors that are almost black. Another nice feature are the Tench. Normally I've found that Tench don't fare well in waters where they have to compete with a large head of Carp, but through the session I caught a dozen Tench, and while not large they were all fit as fiddles and pleasantly plump.

Here's a few photo's showing the condition of the Carp present in the lake.....................

As the afternoon wore on a better stamp of Carp moved into both margin swims, taking both varieties of paste confidently, the best of them weighing maybe 9lbs. By 5pm they had noshed their way through 6 pints of paste and I called it a day having landed 93 Carp, 12 Tench and a few Skimmers. At a conservative estimate I would think I had 200lbs+ of fish making for a cracking days fishing.

Next weekend it's the Maggotdrowning Pairs Event at Rolf's Lake and if I can manage a similar sort of performance I'll be well pleased.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The JINX Series 2006

Match 5.

Climbing into the car to set off on the 120+ mile trip, it was lashing down, Proper Jinx Series weather for a change. I stopped off in Battersea for breakfast as usual, and by the time I reached the M40 the rain had stopped.
I arrived at Manor Farm around 11am to find Me(simon) already in attendance having had a stroll round Windmill Lake.
Time for a cuppa and a cheeseburger .
Keith arrived with David and the obligatory photo's of his new granddaughter                 Yes that's right, just in case you didn't know Keith is now a Granddad.

As the rest arrived we took a stroll round ourselves. Windmill is the most established of the lakes on the complex with a couple of islands and features to fish to in most pegs and a good spread of depths from 5-12 feet. However it was very obvious that there was a fair bit of water missing with all the pegs short of the water!!! the level must be about 3 feet down on normal.

The draw as ever on Jinx matches was late as Malc rolled in past noon and went to peg out as with only 20 of us fishing we could leave out a few tight pegs. At least you can park behind or close to the majority of pegs so it's not to much of a struggle.

I ended up with peg 8 with Royst on peg7 to my left for company and Eric (ejayar) next down on peg 6. To my right on peg 9??? None other than THE JINX himself .

The all in came at 1·30 pm and I was nowhere near ready having made a complete mess of trying to set up a pellet waggler, putting the line through the legs on one eye and then having corrected that finding a wind-knot in the line . Other rigs were just a top2 and a top3 as there was plenty of water straight in front. Grey skies held a promise of rain while a blustery wind threatened to make presentation difficult for those of us on the more exposed pegs. At least we could set up close to the water on our side, while opposite they had to set up on their platforms as can be seen by this photo....

Really the fishing was reasonably simple feeding 4mm pellet and fishing paste soon started producing pasty sized carp, much to Malc's disgust as he doesn't count these as real fish .

Royst was to be heard beating himself up on the next peg as he struggled to get to grips with trying to fish paste, struggling to hit the bites and then loosing some of those that he managed to hook.

A couple of hours in and I was sure I heard a "crack" and sure enough here was a top3 and part of a No4 belonging to Eric going down like the Titanic with a Carp attached.This forced Eric into fishing a top3 for the rest of the match as he didn't have a spare No4 (well he did, but didn't remember till the end of the match )

Needless to say there was a bit of banter between Malc and myself during the match, one of the main topics being Hydrolastic. "Just point it at the fish and watch it come back to you" what a load of BO***CKS "Pump it and lift to lock it" That's why Malc had to stand on his box to net a 2lb'er I suppose.

I kept catching sporadically all through the day, i even had a look at the pellet waggler, getting a Carp and a Chub, but the wind made presentation to awkward, so I stayed on a top2 for the rest of the match.

2½hrs in and a stomach churning stench wafted to my nostrils Malc had got his cat meat out!!!!!!!!
Now this hadn't been kept in a tin but had been fermenting in a plastic bag in his car for gawd knows how long!!!! He even reckoned there were things moving in it I wasn't about to go and look.

With about an hour to go David A popped up for a chat, having resigned himself to forking out another £1 to Gem (The Minx) who was fishing her 1st JINX match. Royst was still muttering about never fishing paste again and a look further up the bank revealed Matt catching at a far steadier rate than anyone else, while Bevan Boy(Brian) had been steadily catching most of the day as had been Dirk on the peg to Brian's right.

6·30pm and weigh in time and the scales reveal 69lbs 4ozs and a pleasing section win for me .
Further round Matt puts an unbeatable 107lbs onto the scales for the win on the day, having fished paste and slop up in the water.

Moving round The Minx had done more than enough to part David from another £1 . Dirk managed a very creditable 92lbs (just missing out on a Jinx Ton again) for 2nd to pip Brian's 83lbs 3rd place weight, in the process winning the section, thus ensuring that the series was kept alive to the last Match at Rolf's.

Marsh AC club match.

Well what a day!!!!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today I had the pleasure of fishing as a guest with Dave (The Fish) Collier and his clubmates from Marsh AC at Newlands Hall just outside Chelmsford in Essex.

I had heard some good reports about the sport on offer from Dave in the past, and having guested with the club before knew that they are a good bunch to enjoy a days fishing with.

The draw saw me picking peg 20 which proved to be in the opposite corner from the car park.

I have to say that the lake appeared to be a little down on it's normal level, but my peg looked decent enough.

Setting up provided a bit of a shock however, as plumbing up revealed no more than 14 inches of water anywhere, not even at 13 mtrs!!!!! Indeed there was a whole extra inch in the left hand margin, but that was it.

Mud clouds everywhere betraying a silty bottom and fish moving on the top showed that there were obviously plenty of fish stocked, but with the promise of changeable weather, just how it would fish looked as if it would be in the lap of the gods.

10am and all in, and after 45 mins just a single fish to pellet wasn't the start i was looking for, John opposite me was catching fairly regularly as was Dave on Peg 30 in the corner by the carpark. A change to paste tempted another couple for me just as it started to rain. It let up at around noon and with a few fish showing on top I managed to sneak a few out on dapped dog biscuit.

1pm and a half time weigh in took place, Dave putting 70lbs+ plus on the scales, John opposite 50lbs+ and myself around 30lbs while others had struggled.
2pm and we were off for part 2, and a breeze from right to left was preventing me taking full advantage of fish coming to the surface as someone to my right was feeding floaters that kept dragging the fish away. Periodicaly they would come back as they chased the surplus, and when they did I could pick a few off. John opposite was still catching regularly, while Dave appeared to be either playing or netting a fish every time i glanced over there.

Weigh in time and John opposite was soon leading with 150lbs+ while I had managed about another 60lbs to leave me just short of The Ton overall. Dave had had a cracking afternoon with his total for the day coming just short of a Double Ton at 197lbs.

So an enjoyable day in good company finished with 3rd for me at another new venue (I seem to be fishing a lot of them this year) and after we all decamped to the pub for a well earned pint.
Thanks to Dave and the lads of Marsh AC for the day, it was a pleasure to fish with you all.

Popped down to Harleylands today for a session with Dave the Fish & Wily Coyote.

I arrived about 8am and was just going to have a walk round when Dave arrived. We could see Wily already set up in peg 8 so strolled over to find he'd already had 4 carp on his feeder set up. So out with the gear with peg 5 for me and 6 for Dave.

1st off for me was the Bagging Waggler, a method I hadn't used till I fished at Drayton and Clattercote in The Jinx series, and I wanted to see if it would work on the Reservoir as I had never seen it used there.

Dave set up a top 4 to fish tares over hemp to try for some of the roach before the carp moved in, while Wily managed another couple of carp on the feeder.

Out with the Bagging Wag and busy, busy , busy with a fresh cast every minute to get some groundbait in, 20 minutes in and the line tightened as the 1st carp of my day found the bait, a nice fit mirror .

Throughout the morning I managed 10 on the bagging wag in total, the best of them being a couple at around 10lbs each.

With the sun beating down it was hard work though and about noon a break was called with Dave returning from the farm shop with pasties and drinks. We were all agreed that since last season the carp here have beefed up, packing on plenty of muscle and giving a really good account of themselves.

For the afternoon session I changed over to my margin pole fishing paste, while Wily had gone to a dibber in the margins to try for some of the lumps that were showing in his swim. Dave stuck to his guns but did try paste as well.
Plenty of pellets soon had the swim full of silt clouds as the carp got their heads down, resulting in plenty of bites and regular fish throughout the afternoon.
Wily did the honours weighing my 2 best fish, a nice 13lb mirror......

and a fully scaled mirror that Wily gave me 14lbs for..........

Dave was having a bit of trouble getting to grips with paste, but stuck to it and got a few before swapping to pellet for some more later in the session.

Wily was having some trouble getting seen off by a few larger lumps, but with a bit of encouragement from Me & Dave connected with a goody.............

Dave got into position to act as ghillie as Wily guided it to the net...........

A nice mirror that took the scales round to 12lbs being his reward.

5pm and time for Me & Dave to go. I managed 25 carp on the paste, making 35 fish for the day, while Dave had a few less. I left Wily the last of my paste as he was fishing on until about seven by which time he caught over thirty fish including a 14lb, a 13lb and four others around 12lb.

So in conclusion, a very pleasant days fishing in good company with a few laughs shared.
Couldn't ask for much more really.