Rolfs Lake

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    The Jinx Series 2012
    Match 4

    Rolfs Lake

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

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

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

    PaulR.jpg Paul with The Hat

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

    Jinx4pegPlan.jpg Peg Plan

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

    Jinx4001.jpg Peg 24

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

    Jinx4002.jpg Paul Roberts

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

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

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

    Jinx4005.jpg Michael Corsini

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

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

    Jinx4007.jpg Tony Roberts

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

    Jinx4008.jpg Malc

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

    Jinx4006.jpg Clive

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

    Jinx4009.jpg Gem

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

    Jinx4010.jpg Fred

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

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

    Jinx4003.jpg Neil

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

    Jinx4004.jpg Budgie

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

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

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

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

    Overall Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 8 Simon Mound   225lbs 02ozs
     2nd Peg 13 Paul JayGuest  126lbs 03ozs
     3rd Peg 6 Kevin Loveland   103lbs 07ozs
     4th Peg 32 Tony Roberts    99lbs 04ozs
     5th Peg 18 Paul Roberts    95lbs 04ozs
     6th Peg 16 Neil Riddy    91lbs 03ozs
     7th Peg 40 Mat Edwards    90lbs 11ozs
     8th Peg 2 Terry Goff    83lbs 05ozs
     9th Peg 24 Peter Morton    81lbs 08ozs
     10th Peg 28 Nick Williams    68lbs 10ozs
     11th Peg 7 Steve Wilson    66lbs 09ozs
     12th Peg 14 Marcus Burgess    61lbs 10ozs
     13th Peg 34 Fred Parker    45lbs 05ozs
     14th Peg 26 Michael CorsiniGuest   43lbs 04ozs
     15th Peg 36 Dai Thomas    38lbs 11ozs
     16th Peg 30 Dave Collier    34lbs 15ozs
     17th Peg 10 Clive Pritchard    27lbs 01ozs
     18th Peg 22 Nick Watkins-Price     25lbs 09ozs
     19th Peg 38 Gem (The Minx) Doyle    23lbs 11ozs
     20th Peg 9 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle    22lbs 10ozs

    Names in Pink are those that were "MINXED"

    A Section

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 6 Kevin Loveland  103lbs 07ozs

    1

    2nd Peg 40 Mat Edwards   90lbs 11ozs

    2

    3rd Peg 2 Terry Goff   83lbs 05ozs

    3

    4th Peg 34 Fred Parker   45lbs 05ozs

    4

    5th Peg 36 Dai Thomas   38lbs 11ozs

    5

    6th Peg 38 Gem (The Minx) Doyle   23lbs 11ozs

    6

    B Section

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

    1st Peg 8 Simon Mound  225lbs 02ozs

    1

    2nd Peg 13 Paul Jay  126lbs 03ozs

    Guest

    3rd Peg 32 Tony Roberts   99lbs 04ozs

    2

    4th Peg 7 Steve Wilson   66lbs 09ozs

    3

    5th Peg 30 Dave Collier   34lbs 15ozs

    4

    6th Peg 10 Clive Pritchard   27lbs 01ozs

    5

    7th Peg 9 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle   22lbs 10ozs

    6

    C Section

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

    1st Peg 18 Paul Roberts   95lbs 04ozs

    1

    2nd= Peg 16 Neil Riddy   91lbs 03ozs

    2

    2nd= Peg 24 Peter Morton   81lbs 08ozs

    3

    4th Peg 28 Nick Williams   68lbs 10ozs

    4

    5th Peg 14 Marcus Burgess   61lbs 10ozs

    5

    6th Peg 26 Michael Corsini   43lbs 04ozs

    Guest

    7th Peg 22 Nick Watkins-Price    25lbs 09ozs

    6

     

  • Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Maggotdrowning.com

    magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2012.

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

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

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

    StevesTent.jpg Steve's tent

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

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

    JayneandHector.jpg Jayne with Hector.

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

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

    Saturdaymorning.jpg Saturday Morning

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

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

    Saturdaypegs.jpg Saturday Pegs

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

    Peterpeg102.jpg Peg 10 for Peter on Saturday

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

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

    FeederlessFeederdemo.jpg Feederless Feeder Demo

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

    GemSaturday.jpg Gem getting ready on peg 18

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

    Waiting.jpg Waiting

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

    LiamandMalcpeg39.jpg Can't believe that Malc had this much pole out !

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

    Terryonpeg32-1.jpg Terry on peg 32

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

    CarpforGem.jpg Safely in the net, Minxings on the way for some

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

    Simpsplaying.jpg Simon plays a carp

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

    YamYam.jpg Dave Wall

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

    SimonWatkins.jpg Simon Watkins plays a carp

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

    Scottonpeg31.jpg Scott on peg 31

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

    keithsaturday.jpg Keith Powell on peg 38

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

    Peterpeg10.jpg Peter on peg 10

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

    BudgiesPB.jpg Happiness is a PB carp.

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

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

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

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

    Weigh-in.jpg Saturday Weigh-In

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

    SaturdayWeigh-in.jpg Saturday Weigh-In

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

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

    Day1result.jpg Saturday Results

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

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

    Liam2.jpg Liam's Carp.

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

    Day 2. Sunday 29th July.

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

    Steve and the troublesome keys.

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

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

    Sundaypegs.jpg Sunday Pegs

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

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

    PeteandDave.jpg Pete and Dave Wall chat before the start of the match.

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

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

    Terryonpeg9.jpg Terry on peg 9.

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

    SimonWatkinsonpeg10.jpg Simon Watkins on peg 10.

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

    Gempeg3sunday.jpg Gem (The Minx) on peg 3.

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

    Antonpeg7.jpg Ant on peg 7

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

    Malconpeg38.jpg Malc on peg 38.

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

    SimonandClive.jpg Simon on peg 34 and Clive on peg 35.

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

    Webbononpeg18.jpg Webbo on peg 18.

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

    Lookingupthecarparkbank.jpg Looking up the car park bank from peg 32.

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

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

    Keithonpeg8.jpg Fish on for Keith.

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

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

    SundayWeigh-in.jpg Sunday Weigh In

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

    SundayWeigh-in2.jpg Sunday Weigh-In

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

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

    Waitingfortheresults.jpg Waiting for the results

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

    Tony Roberts & Simon Mound
     
    WinnersTonyandSimps.jpg Champions 2012 and Webbo

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

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

    Pairs Result

    Position

    Pairs

    Saturday 

    Sunday

    Points

    Weight

     1st Tony (spamwham) Roberts & Simon (Simple) Mound

    8+2=10

    3+7=10

    20

       469lbs 08ozs
     2nd Jon (hatchye) Hatch & Peter (Mugger) Morton

    7+4=11

    9+1=10

    21

       439lbs 04ozs
     3rd Terry (Wily Coyote) Goff & Clive (black hydro) Pritchard

    9+10=19

    6+8=14

    33

       300lbs 11ozs
     4th Steve (smiler) Wilson & Keith (keith74) Powell

    5+6=11

    20+5=25

    36

       306lbs 13ozs
     5th Al (al) Loader & Simon (sidev77) Watkins

    13+17=30

    10+11=21

    51

       222lbs 15ozs
     6th Dave (dave the fish) Collier & Marcus (Budgie65) Burgess

    19+11=30

    18+4=22

    52

       226lbs 13ozs
     7th Nick (Neo1) Williams & Ant (antwood) Haywood

    28+1=29

    23+2=25

    54

       371lbs 15ozs
     8th Steve (steak) Akal & Geoff (Geoff P) Palmer

    14+16=30

    25+12=37

    67

       188lbs 06ozs
     9th Dai (dai-fish) Thomas & Malc (The Jinx) Doyle

    15+12=27

    16+28=44

    71

       161lbs 09ozs
     10th Kevin (Kev the catch) Loveland & Dave (Webbo) Webster

    24+3=27

    24+21=45

    72

       215lbs 04ozs
     11th Dave (drynet) Wall & Terry (Auto) Pearce

    21+19=40

    19+14=33

    73

       154lbs 06ozs
     12th

     Paul (The Turk) Roberts & Gem (The Minx) Doyle

    22+26=48

    15+13=28

    76

       132lbs 13ozs
     13th Barry (Bazza C) Cullen & Dave (Paste King) Moore

    23+18=41

    26+17=43

    84

       115lbs 02ozs
     14th Scott (methodgob) Weston & Paul (NMLW's) East

    25+27=52

    27+22=49

    101

        65lbs 01ozs

    Saturday Individual Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 6 Ant (antwood) Haywood   202lbs 13ozs
     2nd Peg 16 Simon (Simple) Mound   189lbs 12ozs
     3rd Peg 7 Dave (Webbo) Webster   135lbs 06ozs
     4th Peg 10 Peter (Mugger) Morton   125lbs 07ozs
     5th Peg 23 Steve (smiler) Wilson    94lbs 04ozs
     6th Peg 38 Keith (keith74) Powell    89lbs 07ozs
     7th Peg 35 Jon (hatchye) Hatch    88lbs 07ozs
     8th Peg 14 Tony (spamwham) Roberts    87lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg 32 Terry (Wily Coyote) Goff    84lbs 03ozs
     10th Peg 28 Clive (black hydro) Pritchard    72lbs 12ozs
     11th Peg 11 Marcus (Budgie65) Burgess    66lbs 13ozs
     12th Peg 39 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle    66lbs 09ozs
     13th Peg 19 Al (al) Loader    65lbs 13ozs
     14th Peg 8 Steve (steak) Akal    62lbs 15ozs
     15th Peg 3 Dai (dai-fish) Thomas    52lbs 08ozs
     16th Peg 4 Geoff (Geoff P) Palmer    47lbs 09ozs
     17th Peg 29 Simon (sidev77) Watkins    47lbs 00ozs
     18th Peg 26 Dave (Paste King) Moore    41lbs 09ozs
     19th= Peg 20 Dave (dave the fish) Collier    36lbs 15ozs
     19th= Peg 9 Terry (Auto) Pearce    36lbs 15ozs
     21st  Peg 25 Dave (drynet) Wall    34lbs 08ozs
     22nd Peg 1 Paul (The Turk) Roberts    27lbs 02ozs
     23rd Peg 34 Barry (Bazza C) Cullen    23lbs 05ozs
     24th Peg 13 Kevin (Kev the catch) Loveland    18lbs 04ozs
     25th Peg 31 Scott (methodgob) Weston    17lbs 00ozs
     26th Peg 18 Gem (The Minx) Doyle     9lbs 10ozs
     27th Peg 22 Paul (NMLW's) East     9lbs 08ozs
     28th Peg 37 Nick (Neo1) Williams

    DNW

    Sunday Individual Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 32 Peter (Mugger) Morton   166lbs 00ozs
     2nd Peg 7 Ant (antwood) Haywood   139lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 25 Tony (spamwham) Roberts   114lbs 02ozs
     4th Peg 16 Marcus (Budgie65) Burgess    91lbs 11ozs
     5th Peg 8 Keith (keith74) Powell    88lbs 11ozs
     6th Peg 9 Terry (Wily Coyote) Goff    83lbs 01ozs
     7th Peg 34 Simon (Simple) Mound    78lbs 10ozs
     8th Peg 35 Clive (black hydro) Pritchard    60lbs 11ozs
     9th Peg 13 Jon (hatchye) Hatch    59lbs 06ozs
     10th Peg 26 Al (al) Loader    57lbs 10ozs
     11th Peg 10 Simon (sidev77) Watkins    57lbs 08ozs
     12th Peg 19 Geoff (Geoff P) Palmer    56lbs 00ozs
     13th Peg 3 Gem (The Minx) Doyle    52lbs 01ozs
     14th Peg 4 Terry (Auto) Pearce    45lbs 15ozs
     15th Peg 28 Paul (The Turk) Roberts    44lbs 00ozs
     16th Peg 11 Dai (dai-fish) Thomas    42lbs 08ozs
     17th Peg 29 Dave (Paste King) Moore    37lbs 12ozs
     18th Peg 14 Dave (dave the fish) Collier    37lbs 06ozs
     19th Peg 23 Dave (drynet) Wall    37lbs 00ozs
     20th Peg 39 Steve (smiler) Wilson    34lbs 07ozs
     21st Peg 18 Dave (Webbo) Webster    34lbs 06ozs
     22nd Peg 22 Paul (NMLW's) East    30lbs 04ozs
     23rd Peg 1 Nick (Neo1) Williams    29lbs 10ozs
     24th Peg 31 Kevin (Kev the catch) Loveland    27lbs 04ozs
     25th Peg 37 Steve (steak) Akal    21lbs 14ozs
     26th Peg 20 Barry (Bazza C) Cullen    12lbs 08ozs
     27th Peg 6 Scott (methodgob) Weston     8lbs 05ozs
     28th Peg 38 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle

    DNW

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    The Jinx Series 2012
    Match 3

    Rolfs Lake

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

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

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

    Jinx3pegplan.jpg Jinx Match 3 Peg Plan

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

    SMFROLFS027.jpg Dai on peg 4

    and Neil on peg 2...... 

    SMFROLFS025.jpg Neil on peg 2

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

    SMFROLFS023.jpg Nick on peg 40

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

    SMFROLFS058.jpg Geoff peg 36

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

    SMFROLFS021.jpg Terry on peg 34

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

    SMFROLFS062.jpg Peg 38

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

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

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

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

    SMFROLFS022.jpg Peter on peg 38

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

    SMFROLFS026.jpg Geoff with a weigher

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

    SMFROLFS028.jpg Adie on peg 6

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

    SMFROLFS029.jpg Dave Moore

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

    SMFROLFS033.jpg Safely in the net

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

    SMFROLFS031.jpg Paul on peg 8

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

    SMFROLFS034.jpg Steve on peg 9

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

    SMFROLFS036.jpg Malc on peg 10

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

    SMFROLFS038.jpg Nick W-P

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

    SMFROLFS040.jpg Tony Roberts

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

    SMFROLFS039.jpg Gem (The Minx)

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

    SMFROLFS042.jpg Fish on for Kev

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

    SMFROLFS044.jpg Looking up the car park bank

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

    SMFROLFS049.jpg A Mirror for Mat

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

    SMFROLFS050.jpg Simps and Clive

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

    SMFROLFS055.jpg Safely in the net

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

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

    SMFROLFS059.jpg Pole 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Overall Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 30 Simon Mound   108lbs 00ozs
     2nd Peg 32 Clive Pritchard   100lbs 00ozs
     3rd Peg 4 Dai Thomas    97lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 22 Kev Loveland    95lbs 08ozs
     5th Peg 38 Peter Morton    89lbs 00ozs
     6th Peg 2 Neil Riddy    88lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 40 Nick Williams    87lbs 12ozs
     8th= Peg 28 Mat Edwards    79lbs 04ozs
     8th= Peg 24 Dave Collier    79lbs 04ozs
     10th Peg 7 Dave Moore    72lbs 00ozs
     11th Peg 9 Steve Wilson    71lbs 04ozs
     12th Peg 6 Ade Williams    65lbs 00ozs
     13th Peg 14 Fred Parker    64lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 16 Tony Roberts    60lbs 08ozs
     15th Peg 36 Geoff Palmer    52lbs 08ozs
     16th Peg 18 Gem (The Minx) Doyle    44lbs 12ozs
     17th Peg 13 Nick Watkins-Price    42lbs 00ozs
     18th Peg 8 Paul Roberts    31lbs 08ozs
     19th Peg 26 Marcus Burgess    28lbs 00ozs
     20th Peg 34 Terry Goff    25lbs 00ozs
     21st Peg 10 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle    21lbs 14ozs

    Names in Pink are those that were "MINXED"

    A Section

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 4 Dai Thomas    97lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 38 Peter Morton    89lbs 00ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 2 Neil Riddy    88lbs 00ozs

    3

     4th Peg 40 Nick Williams    87lbs 12ozs

    4

     5th Peg 6 Ade Williams    65lbs 00ozs

    5

     6th Peg 36 Geoff Palmer    52lbs 08ozs

    6

     7th Peg 34 Terry Goff    25lbs 00ozs

    7

    B Section

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 30 Simon Mound   108lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 32 Clive Pritchard   100lbs 00ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 7 Dave Moore    72lbs 00ozs

    3

     4th Peg 9 Steve Wilson    71lbs 04ozs

    4

     5th Peg 13 Nick Watkins-Price    42lbs 00ozs

    5

     6th Peg 8 Paul Roberts    31lbs 08ozs

    6

     7th Peg 10 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle    21lbs 14ozs

    7

    C Section

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 22 Kev Loveland    95lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd= Peg 28 Mat Edwards    79lbs 04ozs

    2

     2nd= Peg 24 Dave Collier    79lbs 04ozs

    2

     4th Peg 14 Fred Parker    64lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 16 Tony Roberts    60lbs 08ozs

    5

     6th Peg 18 Gem (The Minx) Doyle    44lbs 12ozs

    6

     7th Peg 26 Marcus Burgess    28lbs 00ozs

    7

     

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Simple Match Fishing
    2 Day Summer Challenge
    2012

    SimpsRolfs.jpg Rolfs SMF

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

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

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

    Thursday.jpg Thursday morning 1

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

    Thursday.jpg Thursday morning 1

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

    SMFThursdayPegPlan.jpg SMF Thursday Peg Plan

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

    Settingup.jpg getting ready

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

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

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

    Settingup.jpg getting ready

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

    Settingup.jpg getting ready

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

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

    Settingup.jpg getting ready

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

    Settingup.jpg getting ready

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

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

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

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

    Thursday Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 34 Ant Haywood  134lbs 08ozs
     2nd Peg 4 Terry Goff  128lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 7 Mat Edwards  111lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 38 Dai Thomas  109lbs 00ozs
     5th Peg 13 Michael Corsini  106lbs 04ozs
     6th Peg 32 Marcus Burgess   95lbs 04ozs
     7th Peg 14 Clive Pritchard   89lbs 00ozs
     8th Peg 6 Geoff Palmer   84lbs 04ozs
     9th Peg 29 Peter Morton   78lbs 08ozs
     10th Peg 16 Simon Mound   75lbs 12ozs
     11th Peg 40 Dave Wall   68lbs 04ozs
     12th Peg 31 Gavin Lee   56lbs 04ozs
     13th Peg 28 Neil Riddy   52lbs 08ozs
     14th Peg 2 Pete Tapp   52lbs 04ozs
     15th Peg 8 Dave Collier   44lbs 04ozs
     16th Peg 10 Simon Watkins   43lbs 12ozs
     17th Peg 22 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle   34lbs 12ozs
     18th Peg 9 Nick Williams   26lbs 00ozs
     19th Peg 18 Kevin Loveland   25lbs 00ozs
     20th Peg 26 Paul Corsini   19lbs 00ozs
     21st Peg 23 Dave Moore   12lbs 08ozs
     22nd Peg 25 Gem (The Minx) Doyle    3lbs 04ozs

    Section A

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 34 Ant Haywood  134lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 4 Terry Goff  128lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 7 Mat Edwards  111lbs 00ozs

    3

     4th Peg 38 Dai Thomas  109lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 6 Geoff Palmer   84lbs 04ozs

    5

     6th Peg 40 Dave Wall   68lbs 04ozs

    6

     7th Peg 2 Pete Tapp   52lbs 04ozs

    7

    Section B

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 13 Michael Corsini  106lbs 04ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 32 Marcus Burgess   95lbs 04ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 29 Peter Morton   78lbs 08ozs

    3

     4th Peg 31 Gavin Lee   56lbs 04ozs

    4

     5th Peg 28 Neil Riddy   52lbs 08ozs

    5

     6th Peg 8 Dave Collier   44lbs 04ozs

    6

     7th Peg 10 Simon Watkins   43lbs 12ozs

    7

     8th Peg 9 Nick Williams   26lbs 00ozs

    8

    Section C

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 14 Clive Pritchard   89lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 16 Simon Mound   75lbs 12ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 22 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle   34lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th Peg 18 Kevin Loveland   25lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 26 Paul Corsini   19lbs 00ozs

    5

     6th Peg 23 Dave Moore   12lbs 08ozs

    6

     7th Peg 25 Gem (The Minx) Doyle    3lbs 04ozs

    7

     

    Day 2

    6am on Friday morning and I woke to a blackbird singing away on the bonnet of the car and realised that it had stopped raining . First things first and the stove was fired up and a coffee brewed before strolling over to the lake and taking in the atmosphere. It's a great time of the day to be down by the lake watching the ducks and moorhens going about their business with their fledglings .

    Slowly but surely people stirred from their slumbers, bracing themselves for the day ahead. Some started to prepare their kit and their bait for the day ahead while others took a stroll trying to decide which peg they would like to draw. I took the opportunity to pop down to Asda's with Geoff and his lad and get a bit of shopping and by the time we returned everyone seemed to be up and about. Gem had decided not to fish today and spend some time with her sister Crystal who'd come down with Malc but Dave C's son in law Nick was coming down and would fish in her place .

    Dave and Gavin decided to go double or quits in an effort to recover their Nuggets from yesterday and Neil had accepted double or quits as well, so 8 Golden Nuggets hung in the balance . Although it was cloudy there were enough breaks in it to allow some sun through and if it stayed like that it could be a decent day and offer the chance to dry the kit out a bit. There was definitely a good buzz today with everyone eager to get going and Simon called the draw before 12 o'clock so everyone had time to get sorted. I still fancied Section A and when I drew peg 6 I was more than happy as up till that point I had never fished it on all my trips down to Rolfs .

    SMFFridayPegPlan.jpg SMF Friday Peg Plan

    Having collected my kit I set off round the lake. Geoff who'd fished peg 6 yesterday was on peg 34 today, so I stopped for a chat to find out how he'd fished it. Neil was down on peg 38 so I would be able to keep an eye on him while Ant was on peg 40. Pete Tapp had drawn peg 2 for the second day running (Clive had also drawn peg 14 again ) and Dave the Fish was on peg 4, while Terry was on peg 7 to my left to complete the section.

    Setting up was relatively simple, just a question of shortening up yesterdays rigs as it's shallower in the Little Lake and once again I was going to concentrate on a couple of 5mtr lines and the margin to my right toward peg 5 with the same baits as well.

    2pm and the all in saw me feeding a cup of pellets with a few grains of corn at 5mtrs and a handful of wetted pellets into the right hand margin before shipping a banded 6mm out to 5mtrs. and after about 5 minutes the float slid away and I connected with my first carp of the day, not a big fish at around 7lbs but a nice way to get off the mark . This was followed by a couple of bream, one of which launched itself like a Polaris missile when it felt the hook. Another carp soon followed, a weigher this time at around 10½lbs prompting a comment from Terry to slow down and give others a chance .

    I then suffered a period that's all to easy to happen at Rolfs, 3 foul hooked carp in a row that charged around the swim before the hook came back with just a scale attached and a couple of bream that rolled off the hook before they were in netting range . Meanwhile over on peg 34 Geoff had started to put a few in the net ......

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    I stuck with the 5mtr line however as I didn't want to disturb the margin line to early as I wanted any fish to settle there for later. I could see that Neil over on peg 38 was having a quiet time. It's one of those pegs where the fish can suddenly turn up often late in a match as they'd done for Dai the previous day ......

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    I could see that Dave the Fish was getting a few down on peg 4 and that Pete T was also starting to find a few on peg 2 for the second day running. Ant on peg 40 was fishing long down the edge toward the platform on peg 39 and seemed to be getting some action as well ......

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    In fact the only person who seemed to be struggling in our section was Terry on peg 7 and to make matters worse for him Mat on peg 8 was starting to catch as well. Another couple of weighers put my match back on track though the bites were proving a little harder to come by and another couple of bream helped to keep things ticking over. I took a quick look down the margin at around 4·30pm and took a couple of quick fish, the second being a weigher of 11½lbs but went back to the 5mtr line to let it settle, increasing the feed at the same time.

    The fish had settled at 5mtrs again and I started to put a run of weighers together, all around the 10-11½lbs mark and at the same time I noticed that the fish had started to show up for Neil over on peg 38 ......

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    As I went up to the scales with another fish there was an almighty BANG from peg 9 A carp had taken Kev's rig straight through the bush and his topkit and number 4 had collapsed under the strain, reducing the top kit to 8 pieces which may well be a new record at Rolfs ......

    At the same time Simon was on his way to the scales with a decent Mirror that weighed 15½lbs so I took a quick picture for him ........

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    Elsewhere along the Bank Simon W had taken a nice Common of 17½lbs and luckily Malc was on hand to do the honours with a photo ......

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    With just over an hour to go the bites had started to fade on the 5mtr line so it was time to target the margin. An 8mm pellet was banded and dropped in resulting in an instant take and yet another weigher. Terry popped round to see what I was doing as he was still struggling for bites on 8mm pellets. I suggested he tried 6mm's instead and It seemed to do the trick for him as it finally produced a few fish ........

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    I had a really strong end to the match with another 7 weighers, the biggest being 13½lbs before the All-Out was called at 7pm. Dave the Fish added up the fish on the board to find I had 166lbs and with 5 net fish and a few Bream I was hopeful that I may have my second Rolfs 'Double Ton . Packing the kit away was a leisurely affair as I would be fishing A section in The Jinx Match tomorrow so was going to leave my kit behind the peg tonight.

    The weigh-In was soon under way in Section A, Geoff kicked things off with 119lbs a new PB match weight for him . Neil put 124¾lbs on the scales but was pipped by Ant with 128¾lbs. Pete T had trebled his Day 1 weight from peg 2 with 159½lbs and Dave C was just short of a 'Ton' with 99½lbs. My weight proved to be a very pleasing 204½lbs and Terry managed 73¾lbs. The first half of Section B saw Mat put 170¾lbs on the scales followed by Kev with 22½lbs and Simon with a level 124lbs. Malc had 44¼lbs from peg 13 and then it was onto Section C where Clive on peg 14 for the second day recorded 121½lbs . Paul C had 40½lbs and Simon W 78lbs. Round to the car park bank where Dave Wall put 63½lbs on the scales followed by Michael C with 66¾lbs, Gavin was chuffed to have his first Rolfs Ton with 100½lbs and Nick W 46lbs. The final part of section B was finished of by Budgie with 89lbs, Dave M with 102¾lbs. Dai had 61lbs and Nick B finished up with 67½lbs.

    Back to the hut and while Simon collated the results from the two days the banter flowed as usual ......

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    Soon the results were in which Simon announced in reverse order and in third place was Mat Edwards with 4 points and a total weight of 281¾lbs ........

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    In second place with 4 points and a total weight of 283lbs was your truly 'Mugger' (got to love those Bream ) ......

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    And in first place with a perfect score of 2 points from 2 section wins and a weight of 223½lbs was Clive ........

    SMFROLFS007.jpg Geoff on peg 34

    So a BIG THANK YOU to Simon, I think it's fair to say that for a first attempt at organising a match it was a first class effort and I'm sure that I speak for every one in voting it a huge success and it looks like the SMF 2 Day Summer Challenge will become a permanent fixture in years to come. Another bunch of Golden Nuggets had come my way thanks to Dave W, Gavin and Neil and while a few were heading home and farewells were bid the majority were staying over for The Jinx Match tomorrow.

    Once again some of us went to The Harvester for a meal and a pint while we chatted over the events of the last two days. and this continued into the night when we returned and ended up chatting to the rest till about 1am, when once again I climbed into the sleeping bag for a kip .........

    Friday Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 6 Peter Morton  204lbs 08ozs
     2nd Peg 8 Mat Edwards  170lbs 12ozs
     3rd Peg 2 Pete Tapp  159lbs 08ozs
     4th Peg 40 Ant Haywood  128lbs 12ozs
     5th Peg 38 Neil Riddy  124lbs 12ozs
     6th Peg 10 Simon Mound  124lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 14 Clive Pritchard  121lbs 08ozs
     8th Peg 34 Geoff Palmer  119lbs 08ozs
     9th Peg 29 Dave Moore  102lbs 12ozs
     10th Peg 25 Gavin Lee  100lbs 08ozs
     11th Peg 4 Dave Collier   99lbs 08ozs
     12th Peg 28 Marcus Burgess   89lbs 00ozs
     13th Peg 18 Simon Watkins   78lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 7 Terry Goff   73lbs 12ozs
     15th Peg32 Nick Bondeu   67lbs 08ozs
     16th Peg 23 Michael Corsini   66lbs 12ozs
     17th Peg 22 Dave Wall   63lbs 08ozs
     18th Peg 31 Dai Thomas   61lbs 00ozs
     19th Peg 26 Nick Williams   46lbs 00ozs
     20th Peg13 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle   44lbs 04ozs
     21st Peg 16 Paul Corsini   40lbs 08ozs
     22nd Peg 9 Kevin Loveland   22lbs 08ozs

    Section A

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 6 Peter Morton  204lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 2 Pete Tapp  159lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 40 Ant Haywood  128lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th Peg 38 Neil Riddy  124lbs 12ozs

    4

     5th Peg 34 Geoff Palmer  119lbs 08ozs

    5

     6th Peg 4 Dave Collier   99lbs 08ozs

    6

     7th Peg 7 Terry Goff   73lbs 12ozs

    7

    Section B

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 8 Mat Edwards  170lbs 12ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 10 Simon Mound  124lbs 00ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 29 Dave Moore  102lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th Peg 28 Marcus Burgess   89lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg32 Nick Bondeu   67lbs 08ozs

    5

     6th Peg 31 Dai Thomas   61lbs 00ozs

    6

     7th Peg13 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle   44lbs 04ozs

    7

     8th Peg 9 Kevin Loveland   22lbs 08ozs

    8

    Section C

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 14 Clive Pritchard  121lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 25 Gavin Lee  100lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 18 Simon Watkins   78lbs 00ozs

    3

     4th Peg 23 Michael Corsini   66lbs 12ozs

    4

     5th Peg 22 Dave Wall   63lbs 08ozs

    5

     6th Peg 26 Nick Williams   46lbs 00ozs

    6

     7th Peg 16 Paul Corsini   40lbs 08ozs

    7

    Overall Result

    Position

    Angler

    Points

    Weight

     1st Clive Pritchard

    2

      223lbs 08ozs
     2nd Peter Morton

    4

      283lbs 00ozs
     3rd Mat Edwards

    4

      281lbs 12ozs
     4th Ant Haywood

    4

      263lbs 04ozs
     5th Simon Mound

    4

      199lbs 12ozs
     6th Michael Corsini

    5

      173lbs 00ozs
     7th Marcus Burgess

    6

      184lbs 04ozs
     8th Gavin Lee 

    6

      156lbs 12ozs
     9th Pete Tapp

    9

      211lbs 12ozs
     10th Terry Goff

    9

      202lbs 04ozs
     11th Neil Riddy

    9

      177lbs 04ozs
     12th Dave Moore

    9

      115lbs 04ozs
     13th Geoff Palmer

    10

      203lbs 12ozs
     14th Dai Thomas

    10

      170lbs 00ozs
     15th Simon Watkins

    10

      121lbs 12ozs
     16th Malc (The Jinx) Doyle

    10

       79lbs 00ozs
     17th Dave Wall

    11

      131lbs 12ozs
     18th Dave Collier

    12

      143lbs 12ozs
     19th Paul Corsini

    12

       59lbs 08ozs
     20th Kevin Loveland

    12

       47lbs 04ozs
     21st Nick Williams

    14

       72lbs 00ozs
     22nd Nick Bondeu

    14

       67lbs 08ozs
     23rd Gem (The Minx) Doyle

    16

         3lbs 04ozs

     

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    The Jinx Series 2012
    Match 2

    Rolfs Lake

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

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

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

    Pete tries on The Hat

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

    Fred gets The Hat from The Minx

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

    Peg Plan for Match 2

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

    Peg 26 for Peter today

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

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

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

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

    Neil Riddy plays a double figure carp on Peg 24

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

    Mat was catching steadily on Peg 8

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

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

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

    The Minx was not having a good day today

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

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

    Dai was catching down his right hand margin

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Overall Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 6 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle  167lbs 08ozs
     2nd Peg 8 Mat Edwards  122lbs 00ozs
     3rd Peg 26 Peter Morton  121lbs 04ozs
     4th Peg 24 Neil Riddy  117lbs 08ozs
     5th Peg 22 Dave Wall(Guest)  107lbs 08ozs
     6th Peg 28 Ade Williams  105lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 4 Clive Pritchard   94lbs 00ozs
     8th Peg 14 Dai Thomas   89lbs 12ozs
     9th Peg 34 Simon Mound   87lbs 00ozs
     10th Peg 36 Steve Wilson   76lbs 12ozs
     11th Peg 13 Fred Parker   71lbs 04ozs
     12th Peg 7 Marcus Burgess   69lbs 04ozs
     13th Peg 32 Dave Collier   69lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 2 Nick Watkins-Price   66lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 16 Terry Goff   61lbs 00ozs
     16th Peg 18 Nick Williams   53lbs 00ozs
     17th Peg 10 Kevin Loveland   52lbs 04ozs
     18th Peg 40 Dave Moore   51lbs 04ozs
     19th Peg 9 Tony Roberts   44lbs 04ozs
     20th Peg 38 Paul Roberts   43lbs 08ozs
     21st Peg 30 Gem (The Minx) Doyle   28lbs 08ozs

      No names in Pink as nobody was "MINXED"  

    A Section

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 6 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle  167lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 4 Clive Pritchard   94lbs 00ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 34 Simon Mound   87lbs 00ozs

    3

     4th Peg 36 Steve Wilson   76lbs 12ozs

    4

     5th Peg 2 Nick Watkins-Price   66lbs 00ozs

    5

     6th Peg 40 Dave Moore   51lbs 04ozs

    6

     7th Peg 38 Paul Roberts   43lbs 08ozs

    7

    B Section

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 8 Mat Edwards  122lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 13 Fred Parker   71lbs 04ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 7 Marcus Burgess   69lbs 04ozs

    3

     4th Peg 32 Dave Collier   69lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 10 Kevin Loveland   52lbs 04ozs

    5

     6th Peg 9 Tony Roberts   44lbs 04ozs

    6

     7th Peg 30 Gem (The Minx) Doyle   28lbs 08ozs

    7

    C Section

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 26 Peter Morton  121lbs 04ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 24 Neil Riddy  117lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 22 Dave Wall  107lbs 08ozs

    Guest

     4th Peg 28 Ade Williams  105lbs 00ozs

    3

     5th Peg 14 Dai Thomas   89lbs 12ozs

    4

     6th Peg 16 Terry Goff   61lbs 00ozs

    5

     7th Peg 18 Nick Williams   53lbs 00ozs

    6

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    The Jinx Series 2012
    Match 1

    Rolfs Lake

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

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

    Peg Plan for Match1

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

    Peter had drawn peg 8 for todays match

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

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

    The Minx was looking to gather some names today for The Minx List

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

    Fiancée Simon really didn't want a Minxing today

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

    Peter plays to the camera as Neil looks on

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

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

    Dai got off to a good start on peg 7

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

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

    Fred brings a carp to the waiting net on peg 34

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

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

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

    Ade was starting to put a few together on peg 32

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

    Clive playing a carp on peg 26

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

    On peg 36 Kevin plays a carp taken on the feeder

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

     A Rolfs Bream for Peter

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

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

    A final carp fell to paste for Dai

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

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

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

    Overall Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 4 Paul Jay                 (Guest)  127lbs 04ozs
     2nd Peg 16 Steve Wilson  127lbs 00ozs
     3rd Peg 18 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle   79lbs 04ozs
     4th Peg 32 Ade Williams   72lbs 00ozs
     5th Peg 26 Clive Pritchard   65lbs 00ozs
     6th Peg 2 Gem (The Minx) Doyle   58lbs 08ozs
     7th Peg 9 Neil Riddy   56lbs 12ozs
     8th Peg 40 Tony Roberts   50lbs 08ozs
     9th Peg 7 Dai Thomas   49lbs 12ozs
     10th Peg 14 Simon Mound   49lbs 00ozs
     11th Peg 30 Geoff Palmer   48lbs 04ozs
     12th Peg 22 Dave Moore   40lbs 08ozs
     13th Peg 8 Peter Morton   40lbs 04ozs
     14th Peg 24 Nick Watkins-Price   40lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 34 Fred Parker   33lbs 08ozs
     16th Peg 36 Kevin Loveland   24lbs 04ozs
     17th Peg 13 Nick Williams   24lbs 00ozs
     18th Peg 28 Paul Roberts    15lbs 10ozs
     19th Peg 10 Terry Goff    13lbs 12ozs
     20th Peg 38 Mat Edwards    13lbs 08ozs

    Names in Pink are those that were "MINXED"

               A Section
         
    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 4 Paul Jay  127lbs 04ozs

    Guest

     2nd Peg 2 Gem (The Minx) Doyle   58lbs 08ozs

    1

     3rd Peg 40 Tony Roberts   50lbs 08ozs

    2

     4th Peg 34 Fred Parker   33lbs 08ozs

    3

     5th Peg 36 Kevin Loveland   24lbs 04ozs

    4

     6th Peg 38 Mat Edwards    13lbs 08ozs

    5

      Peg 6   
         
               B Section
         
    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 32 Ade Williams   72lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 9 Neil Riddy   56lbs 12ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 7 Dai Thomas   49lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th Peg 30 Geoff Palmer   48lbs 04ozs

    4

     5th Peg 8 Peter Morton   40lbs 04ozs

    5

     6th Peg 13 Nick Williams   24lbs 00ozs

    6

     7th Peg 10 Terry Goff    13lbs 12ozs

    7

         

    C Section

         
    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 16 Steve Wilson  127lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 18 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle   79lbs 04ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 26 Clive Pritchard   65lbs 00ozs

    3

     4th Peg 14 Simon Mound   49lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 22 Dave Moore   40lbs 08ozs

    5

     6th Peg 24 Nick Watkins-Price   40lbs 00ozs

    6

     7th Peg 28 Paul Roberts    15lbs 10ozs

    7

     

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    The Jinx Series 2012
    Special 2 Day Festival.

    Rolfs Lake

    Well this weekend it's something a little bit different to kick off this years Jinx Series, with this 2 Dayer being organised by Malc (The Jinx) to get everyone into the swing of things, and although the results of these matches won't count toward the series results it's being treated as a Mini Festival with section points over the two days deciding the winner .

    The Jinx Squad 2012

    The Jinx Squad 2012

    Clive, Tony, Malc(The Jinx), Steve, Dai, Dave C.
    Simps, Terry, Budgie, Dave M, Peter, Neil.
    Paul, Nick W, Gem(The Minx), Geoff, Mat, Nick W-P.
    Fred, Ady, Kev.

    Day 1
    Friday, April 27th, 2012.

    Unfortunately due to a new job The Jinx himself would be missing Friday but was hoping to get down and fish on Saturday, but in his absence it looked like he'd managed to sort the weather for us with plenty of Rain and more Rain predicted over the 2 days . A quick glance out of the bedroom window confirmed the forecast was right on Friday morning, but after dropping Maria off at work I soon had the car loaded up and was on my way. As usual no trip to Rolfs is complete without a stop off in Battersea to set myself up for the day ahead with a 'Full English' and with that polished off it was next stop Rolfs.

    Pulling into the car park it was obvious we were going to have a good turn out with the vast majority of The Jinx Squad regulars along with a couple of victims guests ready to do their best to get to grips with the lake, of course this included The Minx but unfortunately her New Hat hadn't arrived in time so that won't come into play until the start of the series proper in June. As usual the banter, wind ups and general pee taking was soon in full swing and it was around 11·30am that Simon called for the draw to start and with rain threatening and a strong breeze blowing down from the Big Lake into the Little Lake everyone was keen to get started and set up before the impending deluge arrived. Into the draw bag and I came away with peg 3, one that's not normally included in matches, but one I've been wanting to fish for ages as it's tucked away in the corner of the Little Lake with some decent cover, not to mention the fact that there were reports of fish showing there earlier in the day .

    The rain had already started to fall as I reached the peg so it was a question of getting settled in and set up as soon as possible. Looking around I could see Neil Riddy settling into peg 34, a good angler on a decent peg who regularly fishes Rolfs and has a good record there, meaning I would have my work cut out to win the section today. Marcus (Budgie) was on peg 39 another peg that's rarely included and he was keen to give it a go, while round on peg 6 was Dave Moore with Simon Watkins on peg 7 and Geoff on peg 8 completing A section.

    The peg plan for the Friday match.

    I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so just set up 3 pole rigs that were pretty much identical, just varying in length to cover various parts of the peg. These were all Nick Gilbert's handmade NG Power Pencil's, two 0·4 gm and a 0·5 gm, all made up on on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X's covering depths from 2½-4 ft. I really should have got the feeder rod out as well, but as I couldn't get the brolly set effectively with the wind in my face it was used to shelter the rest of my kit behind me in an attempt to avoid it getting soaked and the feeder rod was left in the holdall . Bait was simply a couple of bags of 6mm fishery pellets with some 8mm hard pellet, corn and various soft hookers for change baits. With a little time to go I just checked my elastics when I noticed some deterioration in it in one of my top kits. All three kits had been elasticated at the same time and although the other two looked OK I didn't want to risk them. The only elastic I had available was some Vespe Bi-Core so this was hastily rigged into the 3 kits meaning I missed the All-In as I finished the third kit .

    Peg 3 in A section for Peter on Friday

    I only missed the first five minutes however and soon shipped a small cup of pellet out to 8mtrs followed by another small pot spread along the edge of the bushes to my left, plus a pinch into both margins before shipping a banded 8mm out to 8mtrs. Unfortunately the next 20 minutes was pretty futile as despite working a selection of various baits not a single bite was forthcoming , in fact the only thing coming my way was rain and increasing amounts of it, (At this point I'll apologise that this report doesn't contain more photos from the day, but the weather meant that the camera stayed safely in it's case.) Time for a look over by the bushes and it was a banded 6mm that produced the required response, the float gliding under, it was only a small roach but at least I'd avoided the dreaded DNW. Next put in and away the float slid again, a carp this time that dived for the cover of the bushes, but steady pressure soon saw me in control and the fish, a stocky mirror of around 8lbs in the net. As I lifted the net the mesh started to give way though resulting in the fish nearly sliding through an increasingly large hole !!!!! Luckily I was quick enough to save the situation, but I had to go and find another landing net before continuing.

    I had to go up to the next net bin so stopped off for a chat with Dave Moore who was also having a struggle and having to watch Neil opposite steadily walking away with the section. Back at my peg I then suffered a brief spell where I had a couple of foul hookers, obviously big commons judging by the scales that came back on the hook, I thought I'd got away with it till "Nobody likes to see that" carried on the wind from peg 34 as Neil looked on .

    Still the rain poured down but I managed 4 carp, but they were spooky which I felt was due to the fact that there wasn't enough leaves on the bushes yet to offer the cover they needed to settle. I settled down feeding around 20 pellets at a time and waiting for a bite before re-feeding. About half way through Keith Powell came walking round, his face a picture of abject misery , sat on peg 10 his waterproofs had proved not to be and he was off to his car to try and warm up, have a fag and try to dry out a bit.

    The rain just didn't relent and Gem had given it best having only had a single roach from peg 26 and retreated to the dry and warmth of the caravan she and Simps were using for the weekend so at least people would be saved from a Minxing. The rest of us battled on through the incessant rain (in fact the water level rose 1½ inches during the match, showing just how much water was falling) I managed another 4 carp during the course of the match, but I was mightily relieved to hear the All-Out come 6pm .

    Of course once we started packing up the rain eased off and as we started the Weigh-In it had virtually stopped and the wind died down too adding insult to injury. Neil was the first to weigh and pretty much as I had expected he put a very creditable 125½lbs on the scales , Budgie had 56lbs 2ozs and my fish came to 69lbs 2ozs . Sport had picked up for Dave toward the end leaving him with 64¼lbs while Simon Watkins had just 16¼lbs and Geoff a level 63lbs to complete the section, so 2 points for me today to keep my chances alive .

    Simon with 49¼lbs, Keith 27½lbs and Clive with 77lbs from peg 13 made up the first half of B section before we got to C section where Nick W-P's one decent roach was weighed at 1lb. Dave Wall on his first ever visit to the lake put 79½lbs on the scales which would prove enough to take the section today . Nick Williams with a level 75lbs and Fred with 56½lbs followed only to be pipped by Paul's 60½lbs. Dave C had suffered a bit of a grueller with just 13¾lbs while Gem had just 8ozs for her one roach to complete C section. Kevin managed 25½lbs and Dai 37¼lbs while Mat completed B section with 22½lbs.

    Back to the hut for the results and Neil had taken the Lake win today and along with Clive and Dave Wall was in the pound seats with a section win and 1 point to take into Day 2 tomorrow.

    Day 1 Results

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st

    34

     Neil Riddy  125lbs 08ozs
     2nd

    16

     Dave Wall   79lbs 08ozs
     3rd

    13

     Clive Pritchard   77lbs 00ozs
     4th

    19

     Nick Williams   75lbs 00ozs
     5th

    3

     Peter Morton   69lbs 02ozs
     6th

    6

     Dave Moore   65lbs 04ozs
     7th

    8

     Geoff Palmer   63lbs 00ozs
     8th

    23

     Paul Roberts   60lbs 08ozs
     9th

    21

     Fred Parker   56lbs 08ozs
     10th

    39

     Marcus Burgess   56lbs 02ozs
     11th

    9

     Simon Mound   49lbs 04ozs
     12th

    30

     Dai Thomas   37lbs 04ozs
     13th

    10

     Keith Powell   27lbs 08ozs
     14th

    28

     Kevin Loveland   25lbs 08ozs
     15th

    32

     Mat Edwards   22lbs 08ozs
     16th

    7

     Simon Watkins    16lbs 04ozs
     17th

    25

     Dave Collier    13lbs 12ozs
     18th

    14

     Nick Watkins-Price     1lbs 00ozs
     19th

    26

     Gem Doyle            08ozs

    Section Results

    A Section

         
    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st

    34

     Neil Riddy  125lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd

    3

     Peter Morton   69lbs 02ozs

    2

     3rd

    6

     Dave Moore   65lbs 04ozs

    3

     4th

    8

     Geoff Palmer   63lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th

    39

     Marcus Burgess   56lbs 02ozs

    5

     6th

    7

     Simon Watkins   16lbs 04ozs

    6

    B Section

         
    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st

    13

     Clive Pritchard   77lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd

    9

     Simon Mound   49lbs 04ozs

    2

     3rd

    30

     Dai Thomas   37lbs 04ozs

    3

     4th

    10

     Keith Powell   27lbs 08ozs

    4

     5th

    28

     Kevin Loveland   25lbs 08ozs

    5

     6th

    32

     Mat Edwards   22lbs 08ozs

    6

    C Section

         
    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st

    16

     Dave Wall   79lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd

    19

     Nick Williams   75lbs 00ozs

    2

     3rd

    23

     Paul Roberts   60lbs 08ozs

    3

     4th

    21

     Fred Parker   56lbs 08ozs

    4

     5th

    25

     Dave Collier     13lbs 12ozs

    5

     6th

    14

     Nick Watkins-Price     1lbs 00ozs

    6

     7th

    26

     Gem Doyle            08ozs

    7

    With the action over for the day all that remained was to get into some dry cloths and while some were eating in their caravans and bivvies some of us went off to the local Harvester for a couple of pints and a meal which went down really well. On our return there was time for a quick chat with a few that were assembled round the hut, but I felt knackered and soon set off to settle down in my green VW Passat bivvie for the night, and almost as soon as I climbed into my sleeping bag and my head hit the pillows I was asleep .

    Day 2
    Saturday, April 28th, 2012.


    I awoke around 7am to the sound of rain on the windscreen, only a few drops, nowhere near like yesterdays but as I climbed out for a stretch it was noticeably colder than the day before . This was due to a change in wind direction, it had turned through 180° overnight and was now a north easterly blowing straight into pegs 19-21 in the Big Lake. I soon had the stove out and the kettle on for a coffee and also decided to have a pot noodle as I was a bit peckish . Pauline appeared taking Ollie for his morning constitutional and Dave Wall surfaced from his Renault bivvie. By 9am most were up and about and a few of us returned to the Harvester for breakfast .

    Fortified by that we returned to the lake and started to sort out our gear for the day ahead. Early reports indicated that the fish would follow the wind meaning the Big Lake would be the place to draw today. Dave Collier confirmed that he wouldn't be fishing today if he didn't get a favourable draw as the weather had played havoc with his arthritis, and Kevin was also leaning that way as Jean wasn't feeling to good either. Around 10·30am the blaring of a car horn signalled the arrival of that force of nature that is The Jinx, yes Malc was at the lake. I have to say that it was good to see him as without him the series wouldn't exist and definitely wouldn't be the same (Is that a good thing? answers on a postcard to......................... )

    So 11am and draw time once more. Into the bag and it's peg 19 for me, another of those pegs that is rarely used as 18 is considered the better peg, but with no peg 18 in the draw and the wind blowing into it should be good for a few today . For company I had Dave Wall on peg 21 and Clive had draw one of his favorites....................NOT in the shape of peg 23. Neil had drawn peg 9, another decent peg today so I would be able to keep an eye on all three section winners from yesterday .

    The peg plan for the Saturday match

    Settling into the peg It was immediately obvious just how cold the wind was , but I was hopeful it would at least keep the rain at bay. I set up 3 rigs, an 0·4gm NG XT Gimp on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for straight out at around 10mtrs as Nick W reckoned most of his fish had come from there yesterday while the two 0·4gm NG Power Pencil rigs from yesterday would be used hard up against the boat and to the end of the bushes to my right. I also set up the feeder rod today just in case I felt the need for it. Bait was identical to yesterday, a couple of bags of 6mm fishery pellets with some 8mm hard pellet, corn and various soft hookers for change baits with some 6mm's soaked for use in the feeder should they be needed .

    Peg 19 in C section for Peter on Saturday

    With a bit of time before the All-In I could see a good few were chatting over the prospects for the day ahead over by the hut ......

    Waiting for the All-In on Saturday

    Rather than join them though Dave and I had a chat, he was fortunate in missing out on another chance to be Minxed as Gem had also decided not to fish today so the pressure was off there, but just for a bit of added interest we had a Golden Nugget on todays head to head ......

    Dave Wall

    Anyway 1pm and time for the All-In, half a small pot of 6mm's out to the 10mtr line and a few to the bush and against the boat. A banded 6mm out to the 10mtr line resulted in an almost instant bite and the first fish of the day, a common of around 6lbs was soon safely in the net, this was soon followed by a similar sized mirror, a nice start to the match for me . Looking across I could see Malc on peg 25 and it looked as if he was fishing paste to the end of the bush on his left hand side. He was soon into what looked to be a good sized fish that was taking him a while to get under control .......

     Malc (The Jinx) was on peg 25

    It proved to be a very decent fish indeed, a Common weighing in at 21lbs 6ozs which Simps managed to get a photo of before Malc returned it ......

    Malc (The Jinx) with a Common weighing 21lbs 06ozs

    The wind was getting up a bit more however making it awkward to fish at 10mtrs so I took an early look over toward the bush again with a banded 6mm, similar to yesterday feeding 20 pellets at a time and working the bait constantly to attract a bite. Soon the float buried and a lift brought solid resistance but gentle pressure lead the fish away from the bush and almost straight into the landing net. A definite weigher that went 15lbs, just what was needed and the start of a steady run of fish pretty much all the way through the match for me . Dave wasn't so fortunate and was working hard just to attract a bite ......

    Dave Wall on Peg 21 was struggling to make something happen

    Over on 23 Clive was already on the feeder and didn't appear to be enjoying things to much .....

    Clive on Peg 23, not a happy bunny

    While down on peg 32 Paul appeared to have had a couple of decent fish on the pole ...... 

    Paul had started on the pole on peg 32

    Around half way through the damp and cold wind had got to me and I had to take a break for a walk and today I took the trusty camera with me . Clive by now had swapped to the pole but steadfastly refused to smile for the camera (I told you he hates peg 23 ) .......

    Clive refused to smile for the camera

    Down on peg 30 Simon Watkins had started to put a few good fish together despite having it pointed out to him that he's set up the top kits on his new pole wrong, telescoping them instead of assembling them as put overs, but soon fell victim to the curse of the camera as about a second after I took this picture the hook pulled ......

    Simon......... just before the hook pulled

    Keith was looking a little lonely on peg 34 and was fishing the pole as opposed to the feeder .......

    Keith struggled on Peg 34

    Mat appeared to be fishing a pleasure session tucked away on his own on peg 3, while Budgie appeared to be busy trying to get to grips with his peg ......

    Budgie on peg 7

    Geoff was plugging away down the track on peg 8 which he was fishing for the second day running, so at least he knew where the feed had gone in on the previous day ......

    Geoff was on peg 8 for the second day running

    Paul was less than delighted to see me appear with the camera , especially as Simps and Malc were also present to offer support, but he managed to avoid the curse and land the carp he was playing ......

    Paul playing a carp

    Neil surprisingly was having a bit of a grueller on peg 9 and Nick W-P was looking less than enamoured with peg 10 .......

    Nick W-P (monkey) on Peg 10

    By the time I got back Dave was targeting the end of the bush on his right hand side and this was the swim he would stick with for pretty much the rest of the match ......

    Dave getting to grips with Peg 19

    Back to the bush for me and straight away I was into another fish another scrappy mirror of around 7lbs. I don't know what it is about these fish as they seem to fight a lot harder than the commons. They remind me of the fish we used to catch at Stockton in that they seem to swim with their head down and fight well above their weight. Still they all count and are decent weight builders. A couple of better commons then put in an appearance adding more weight to my total on the board .

    I'd also noticed that as the match wore on plenty of people were picking up one or two better fish. Fred had plenty of elastic out on several occasions .......

    Fred trying hard to net one

    ...... and had started to make regular trips to the scales.

    With around 80 minutes to go Neil's swim woke up for him and he had a decent run of 9 fish that was sure to push him up the leader board ......

    Neil was tucked away on Peg 9

    I had a lull with around 45 minutes to go and finally took a look with the feeder just past the end of the bush. Within a minute the tip whipped round and after a spirited fight another decent common slid over the net and at 15lbs was a welcome sight . Unfortunately during the fight the rig had tangled in some old line and was badly tangled and rather than re rig it I went back to the pole and managed another 3 fish, two of them weighers before the All-Out was called at 6pm.

    I have to admit that I wasn't to sad to pack the kit away, I'd had a decent day with around 80lbs of weighers on the board and hopefully another 50lbs in the nets but the constant cold wind and drizzle in my face had left me feeling knackered, though satisfied with my day . I soon had my kit back to the car and loaded away and by the time I caught up with the Weigh-In Keith had recorded 59lbs 6ozs and Mat had put an excellent 130lbs 4ozs on the scales to take the small C section of 4 with Dave C and Kevin not fishing. Budgie managed 62¼lbs and Geoff 89¼lbs. Neil's late run netted him 116¾lbs . Nick W-P had a better second day with 40½lbs while Dave Moore finished the first half of B section with 73½lbs. Nick Williams managed 27lbs while Fred's trips up to the scales yielded 109½lbs and my fish rolled the scales over to 140½lbs . Dave Wall could only muster a level 30lbs meaning he was waving farewell to a Golden Nugget . Clive with 63½lbs just edged out Dai's 63¼lbs but Malc had the beating of them both with 87½lbs to round off A section . That left the rest of B section, Simps suffering a grueller with just 28lbs, Simon Watkins recording his first Jinx Ton with 121¾lbs and Paul finishing things off with a fine 119¾lbs .

    So a lake win for me today and the bonus of becoming Peg King for peg 19, so as we made our way back to the hut for the results I was happy with that . It got better though as it transpired my 3 points from a section 1st and 2nd was enough for the overall Win . Neil finished one fish short today meaning that a section 1st and 3rd gave him Second place overall while Paul's 5 point score just edged out Clive's on a weight countback for Third place .

    Day 2 Results

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st

    19

     Peter Morton  140lbs 08ozs
     2nd

    3

     Mat Edwards  130lbs 04ozs
     3rd

    30

     Simon Watkins  121lbs 12ozs
     4th

    32

     Paul Roberts  119lbs 12ozs
     5th

    9

     Neil Riddy  116lbs 12ozs
     6th

    16

     Fred Parker  109lbs 08ozs
     7th

    8

     Geoff Palmer   89lbs 04ozs
     8th

    25

     Malc Doyle   87lbs 12ozs
     9th

    13

     Dave Moore   73lbs 08ozs
     10th

    23

     Clive Pritchard   63lbs 08ozs
     11th

    26

     Dai Thomas   63lbs 04ozs
     12th

    7

     Marcus Burgess   62lbs 12ozs
     13th

    34

     Keith Powell   59lbs 06ozs
     14th

    10

     Nick Watkins-Price   40lbs 08ozs
     15th

    21

     Dave Wall   30lbs 00ozs
     16th

    28

     Simon Mound   28lbs 00ozs
     17th

    14

     Nick Williams   27lbs 00ozs
     

    6

     Dave Collier

    DNF

     

    39

     Kevin Loveland

    DNF

    Section Results

    A Section

         
    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st

    3

     Mat Edwards  130lbs 04ozs

    1

     2nd

    8

     Geoff Palmer   89lbs 04ozs

    2

     3rd

    7

     Marcus Burgess   62lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th

    34

     Keith Powell   59lbs 06ozs

    4

    6

     Dave Collier

    DNF

    7

    39

     Kevin Loveland

    DNF

    7

    B Section

         
    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st

    30

     Simon Watkins  121lbs 12ozs

    1

     2nd

    32

     Paul Roberts  119lbs 12ozs

    2

     3rd

    9

     Neil Riddy  116lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th

    13

     Dave Moore   73lbs 08ozs

    4

     5th

    10

     Nick Watkins-Price   40lbs 08ozs

    5

     6th

    28

     Simon Mound   28lbs 00ozs

    6

    C section

         
    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st

    19

     Peter Morton  140lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd

    16

     Fred Parker  109lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd

    25

     Malc Doyle   87lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th

    23

     Clive Pritchard   63lbs 08ozs

    4

     5th

    26

     Dai Thomas   63lbs 04ozs

    5

     6th

    21

     Dave Wall   30lbs 00ozs

    6

     7th

    14

     Nick Williams   27lbs 00ozs

    7

    Final Positions and Points

    (Countback on Weight  to decide ties)

    Position

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peter Morton  209lbs 10ozs

    3

     2nd Neil Riddy  224lbs 04ozs

    4

     3rd

     Paul Roberts  180lbs 04ozs

    5

     4th Clive Pritchard  140lbs 08ozs

    5

     5th Fred Parker  166lbs 00ozs

    6

     6th Geoff Palmer  152lbs 04ozs

    6

     7th Mat Edwards  152lbs 12ozs

    7

     8th Dave Moore  138lbs 12ozs

    7

     9th Simon Watkins  138lbs 00ozs

    7

     10th Dave Wall  109lbs 08ozs

    7

     11th Marcus Burgess  118lbs  14ozs

    8

     12th Dai Thomas  100lbs 08ozs

    8

     13th Keith Powell    86lbs 14ozs

    8

     14th Simon Mound   77lbs 04ozs

    8

     15th Nick Williams  102lbs 00ozs

    9

     16th Malc Doyle    87lbs 12ozs

    10

     17th Nick Watkins-Price    41lbs 08ozs

    11

     18th Kevin Loveland    25lbs 08ozs

    12

     19th

     Dave Collier     13lbs 12ozs

    12

     20th Gem Doyle             08ozs

    14

    So that's it, The Jinx Series is up and running for another year. Well done to all that fished the 2 days, with what the weather threw at us everyone deserves a medal for endurance at the very least. Hopefully things will improve by the time the first match of the Series comes round on 2nd June, but hey this is The Jinx Series, anything could happen and probably will .

     

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Jinx Match 6

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

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

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

    Peg Plan for todays match

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

    Peg 14 for me today

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

    Clive was hoping for a better day today

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

    Terry had The Pink Elephant for company today

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

    Geoff was ready for the All-In

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

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

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

    Dave was into a decent fish as Chris looked on

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

    A carp for Gem would mean a Minxing for some.

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

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

    A 25lb Common for Terry

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

    A 20¼lb Common for Dave. A new PB.

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

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

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

    Olly helps Paul out with his burger

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

    Beau waits his turn for a bit of burger

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

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

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

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

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

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

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

    DNW

    Names in Pink are those that were "MINXED"

    Section A

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 7 Terry Goff      95lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 4 Simon Mound      88lbs 12ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 5 Dave Moore      69lbs 08ozs

    3

     4th Peg 34 Simon WatkinsGuest     53lbs 04ozs

    0

     5th  Peg 2 Chris LovelockGuest     46lbs 12ozs

    0

     6th  Peg 40 Jon Hatch      26lbs 00ozs

    4

     7th  Peg 38 Dai Thomas      23lbs 00ozs

    5

    Section B

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 32 Paul JayGuest   167lbs 00ozs

    0

     2nd Peg 26 Dave Collier      86lbs 00ozs

    1

     3rd Peg 9 Marcus Burgess      50lbs 00ozs

    2

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

    3

     5th  Peg 29 Pete TappGuest     40lbs 00ozs

    0

     6th  Peg 28 Nick Williams      38lbs 08ozs

    4

     7th  Peg 10 Geoff Palmer      30lbs 12ozs

    5

     8th  Peg 11 Clive Pritchard      29lbs 04ozs

    6

     9th  Peg 13 Paul Roberts 

    DNW

    9

    Section C

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 14 Peter Morton      76lbs 04ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 18 Tony Roberts      64lbs 08ozs

    2

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

    3

     4th  Peg 23 Steve Wilson      41lbs 08ozs

    4

     5st  Peg 22 Neil Riddy      41lbs 04ozs

    5

     6th  Peg 16 Dave Webster      36lbs 12ozs

    6

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

    7

     

    Overall Individual Series Result

    Position

    Angler

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Weight

    Points
     1st Clive Pritchard

    2

    1

    2

    1

    1

    6

       608lbs 12ozs

    7

     2nd Tony Roberts

    2

    5

    2

    2

    2

    2

       514lbs 12ozs

    10

     3rd Malc Doyle

    8

    1

    1

    4

    3

    3

       575lbs 12ozs

    12

     4th Steve Wilson

    2

    2

    1

    7

    5

    4

       453lbs 04ozs

    14

     5th Dai Thomas

    1

    3

    6

    1

    9

    5

       374lbs 00ozs

    16

     6th Dave Collier

    3

    3

    10

    6

    3

    1

       304lbs 04ozs

    16

     7th Simon Mound

    4

    2

    3

    10

    6

    2

       355lbs 04ozs

    17

     8th Terry Goff

    5

    6

    8

    2

    3

    1

       285lbs 00ozs

    17

     9th Marcus Burgess

    4

    6

    2

    7

    5

    2

       292lbs 08ozs

    19

     10th Dave Moore

    6

    5

    3

    4

    4

    3

       265lbs 08ozs

    19

     11th Jon Hatch

    4

    4

    4

    3

    7

    4

       254lbs 00ozs

    19

     12th Dave Webster

    5

    1

    7

    1

    10

    6

       391lbs 10ozs

    20

     13th Peter Morton

    7

    8

    3

    5

    4

    1

       374lbs 08ozs

    20

     14th Neil Riddy

    6

    4

    10

    6

    1

    5

       334lbs 02ozs

    22

     15th Paul Roberts

    1

    7

    6

    4

    4

    9

       297lbs 08ozs

    22

     16th Nick Williams

    6

    5

    4

    3

    7

    4

       281lbs 04ozs

    22

     17th Gem Doyle

    3

    9

    5

    10

    5

    3

       234lbs 04ozs

    25

     18th Geoff Palmer

    8

    10

    7

    5

    2

    5

       211lbs 02ozs

    27

     19th Mat Edwards

    3

    10

    1

    6

    8

    10

       251lbs 08ozs

    28

     20th Nick Watkins-Price

    6

    7

    4

    8

    6

    7

       167lbs 10ozs

    30

     21st Mitch Auger

    1

    7

    10

    10

    2

    10

       152lbs 04ozs

    30

     22nd Fred Parker

    10

    10

    4

    5

    1

    10

       146lbs 12ozs

    30

     23rd Ant Haywood

    10

    2

    10

    2

    10

    10

       183lbs 12ozs

    34

     24th Al Loader

    9

    3

    10

    3

    10

    10

       226lbs 12ozs

    35

     25th Ady Williams

    7

    8

    5

    10

    5

    10

       112lbs 12ozs

    35

     26th Kevin Loveland

    8

    4

    8

    8

    8

    10

       110lbs 00ozs

    36

     27th Alex Clark

    5

    6

    6

    10

    10

    10

       111lbs 10ozs

    37

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

    Overall Pairs Result

    Position

    Pairs

          

    Weight

    Points
     1st Simon Mound and Dave Webster

    25

    5

    26

    12

    27

    20

       934lbs 02ozs

    88

     2nd Steve Wilson and Dai Thomas

    5

    16

    19

    21

    40

    34

       827lbs 04ozs

    95

     3rd Malc Doyle and Gem Doyle

    31

    26

    18

    34

    17

    20

       809lbs 12ozs

    112

     4th Kevin Loveland and Clive Pritchard

    23

    16

    27

    29

    27

    20

       745lbs 04ozs

    113

     5th  Ady Williams and Tony Roberts

    25

    34

    23

    11

    25

    37

       724lbs 00ozs

    118

     6th Al Loader and Mat Edwards

    30

    24

    10

    24

    30

    41

       723lbs 12ozs

    118

     7th Peter Morton and Fred Parker

    29

    49

    25

    25

    25

    14

       633lbs 00ozs

    118

     8th Dave Collier and Terry Goff

    29

    27

    46

    34

    26

    6

       616lbs 00ozs

    122

     9th Nick Williams and Neil Riddy

    35

    23

    43

    25

    16

    30

       615lbs 06ozs

    129

     10th Ant Haywood and Marcus Burgess

    32

    21

    36

    31

    40

    25

       540lbs 04ozs

    145

     11th Paul Roberts and Ant Haywood

    25

    23

    47

    25

    39

    38

       545lbs 04ozs

    150

     12th Dave Moore and Geoff Palmer

    51

    39

    28

    38

    22

    24

       517lbs 02ozs

    151

     13th Nick Watkins-Price and Jon Hatch 

    38

    40

    22

    29

    43

    42

       421lbs 10ozs

    171

     14th Mitch Auger and Alex Clark

    20

    41

    44

    60

    33

    60

       338lbs 00ozs

    198

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

     

  • Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    A RiveTee Piscatorial Promotion

    ROLFSLAKETalkAngling-1.jpg TA2

    I'm off down to Rolf's Lake today for A RiveTee Piscatorial Promotion along with the lads from  TalkAngling  . It's a match that I fish every year, and it's always a good day out.  However with it being a weekday and with the kids back at school I knew the trip would take a fair bit longer than my usual jaunt up to the lake at the weekends. With this in mind I asked Maria to get me up early and I'd drop her off at work. So having dropped her off it was back to load the car. Despite the extra traffic, the first port of call was still my customary stop in Battersea for breakfast at the Jimmy's Griddle Café where a 'Full English' was soon dispatched to set me up for the day ahead before heading for Rolfs.

    Despite the extra traffic I rolled into the car park at around 9·10am to find John along with Simon and Justin in attendance along with a couple of the other lads. Justin had stayed over as he'd fished the open yesterday, winning it from Peg 4 with 223¼lbs, his first 'Double Ton' from the lake . The plan was for a 9·30am draw, but a hold up on the M40 caused delays for a lot of the lads, meaning it was going to run late......

    Waiting for the draw

    Rive T (Tony) and Larry Teepot (Pete) have been running this match for a few years now, and once they'd arrived, things got underway and the chat among the assembled anglers was that with 2 'Double Ton's' and 7 'Tons' yesterday hopes were high for a good day ahead . Soon Larry had all the peg fees collected and we were called to order and the draw got under way......

     Pete (Larry Teepot)

    Justin was looking happy having drawn peg 8, but Simon wasn't looking to enthusiastic having drawn Peg 26 . By the time I got to the bag there were 3 pegs left and I was more than happy to find Peg 9 in my hand as it's one of the most consistent pegs on the lake .

    Pegging plan for the match

    As I made my way round with my gear I found Larry on Peg 16, he's been trying for a 'Ton' since Moses was a boy and has never quite managed it, so it would be nice if he could do it today, and he certainly had a peg that was capable of it . For company I had Alan, a friend of Rive T on Peg 10. Not a match angler, he'd been lured along today with the chance of picking up a big Perch that the lake can throw up.

    Settling into the peg it was time to decide how to approach it. On recent matches there I'd seen Steve Akal and Neil Riddy both suffer with numerous foul hookers costing them both top kits and rigs . However Neil sorted it out and won the last Jinx Match off it by fishing a short line straight out in front in the last hour to take a number of weighers, and that was the approach I was going to go with today ......

    Peg 9 for me today

     
    I picked a line at 5mtrs where a square of white water would make feeding easy and this would be tackled with a 0·3 NG Springer Open Water XT on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with a size 16 Guru MWG. A second similar rig was set up to fish about 2 feet off of the bush to my right, while a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG would take care of the margin swim to the bush on my left. Bait and feed today would be a combination of 6 and 8mm fishery pellets and a tin of corn.

    Peter setting up on on Peg 9

     
    With a little bit of time before the off I strolled down to see Tony on Peg 6. He was talking to Colin B who mentioned that he'd never had a 'Twenty' on the pole and I told him that this was the place to do it if anywhere was.

    Anyway John sounded the All-In at 11·45am and I fed a small pot of mixed pellet and corn on all 3 lines before shipping a banded 8mm pellet out to my 5mtr line. The float barely had time to settle before it buried and a gentle lift soon told me that I had connected with a substantial Carp. Thankfully it didn't go steaming off, gentle pressure told and a large Common suddenly popped up in front of my nets, into the landing net and as I went to lift it I realised that it was a bit larger than I first thought . Onto the scales and it went 19lbs which I got Justin to witness, a dream start for me .

    With the fish returned it was back out with another 8mm, and after a couple of lift and drops the float buried once more. A spirited fight followed, not such a big fish this one but still a weigher, another Common which weighed 11½lbs. They say 'Three's a charm' and that was the case today as the third put in saw the float bury again. Another good fish which had designs on reaching the bush in the left hand margin, however I managed to show it the error of it's ways and introduce it to the landing net. A Mirror this time and at 14lbs another weigher .

    Of course sometimes things go just to well and my next bite proved to be a foul hooker which tore around the peg like a lunatic before the rig came back with just a scale on the hook . After that I re-fed the 5mtr line with a small pot of pellet and corn and had a look over to the right hand bush. Twenty minutes over there proved fruitless as did a quick look down the left hand margin, so having allowed the 5mtr line to settle I had a look back there. Sure enough the float didn't take to long to vanish, but this time instead of the expected Carp the culprit was one of the lakes Bream, but at around 3lbs it was still welcome . I decided to try corn on the hook, but it just produced lots of knocks and a Roach of around 4ozs, not what I was really after so it was back to the pellet.

    Looking around at the other pegs I could see Froggy opposite on Peg 32, unfortunately he seemed to have had his fair share of problems with foul hookers today and had now decided to tackle the bush on his left hand side ......

     Froggy takes a look down the margin

     
    Next up on Peg 30 was Tony Williams and despite the fish giving what looked like his purple hydro a good stretching he seemed to be putting a steady run of fish together, leading me to think that it would be pretty close between the two of us if we both kept catching ......

    That's an awful lot of elastic coming out of that pole!!!!

     
    I was soon into another fish, a Common of around 8lbs and my first net fish. This proved to be the start of a run of fish, 3 more Commons and a solitary Mirror, all much of a muchness at around 8lbs each, but very welcome and good weight builders . Then there was a 20 minute gap before I made contact with another foul hooker and the way it charged round in circles made me feel it was hooked in a fin. Well the hook held and as it came to the net it was hooked on the pectoral fin, no wonder it had be so hard to control, but at 12½lbs a nice bonus .

    It was just a case of re feeding again and waiting for things to settle down, so I had a look back over to the right hand bush. I missed two quick bites but connected with the third, another Mirror and a good double. Justin however was having a bit of a mare after his win yesterday suffering with foul hookers and also smashing a top kit. Still he was seeing a fair few fish witnessing my weighers .

    With just over 2 hours to go I suffered another lull in sport. I already had a 'Ton' on my clicker but felt that this could be the day to finally get my 'Double Ton' after a long time trying. I added a section on to see if they'd backed off the feed but nothing. Took a section off to see if they'd come closer inside, still nothing. Extra section on and out to the bush still nothing. Leaving the extra section on I took a look to the left on my 5mtr line and fed some pellet round the float. A minute later it buried and I was back in business with a good Common of around 14lbs . Fishing this line meant that I was looking toward Simon on Peg 26 and could see he was also into fish......

    Easy does it for Simon as he plays a Carp

     
    I'd also heard him encouraging Larry who was opposite him on Peg 16 and from the sound of things today would be the day he finally got his 'Ton' . Word also filtered down that Colin B on Peg 18 had at last got his 'Twenty' with a Common of 22lbs+ , and as the afternoon wore on J Mac on Peg 28 was also getting a bit of action......

    J Mac plays a Carp

     
    With around 90 minutes to go it was just a question of alternating between my two 5mtr lines and I managed a further 7 weighers and another Bream before John sounded the All-Out at 4·45pm. A tally up of my weighers on the board came to 158½lbs after Justin had double checked it and the number on my clicker was 205, so had I got the weight of the fish in my net right?

    With my gear packed away and back at the car park there was time for a quick chat before the Weigh-In, Larry had indeed got his 'Ton' as he had over 100lbs on the board .
    Colin was well chuffed with his 'Twenty' but Simon wasn't sure if he had a 'Ton' and felt he'd struggled on the day.

    So to the Weigh-In and a lot of the lads just had board weights and it wasn't till we got to peg 4 there were fish to weigh, where Cov Blaze just missed the ton with 99½lbs.
    Tony having sruggled at the start had fish turn up to late in the day and recorded 57¾lbs, and Justin had 123lbs. My 5 carp came up agonisingly short of what was needed for 200lbs but those 2 Bream and a Roach did me proud to take the total to 206lbs . Alan on Peg 10 had 45lbs while Cox62 had 53lbs and M Jones on 14 weighed 55½lbs. Larry had indeed battered the 'Ton' with 158½lbs and it may take a while to get the grin off his face ......

    Larry Teapot was more than happy at the Weigh-In

     
    Colin B's twenty had boosted his weight to 154¼lbs. Simon got his 'Ton' with 108¾lbs while J Mac had 45½lbs. Tony Williams had a fantastic weight of 197¼lbs and a new PB Match Weight for him , while Froggy was left ruing those foul hookers with 93¼lbs to finish things off.

    Back to the hut for Larry to sort out the results and monies and the Winner on the day was..............................................................ME

    Peter (mugger) Morton, winner on the day

     
    Second was Tony Williams and Third on the day was Larry . Sections went to Justin, Colin B and Froggy . A bonus for me was that I finally got my hands on a tee shirt I've been after for a while ......

    Rolfs Lake 200+ club Tee Shirt logo

     
    So ended yet another RiveTee Piscatorial Promotion, a great success as always, and fished in the right atmosphere. Thanks to Larry and Tony for organising it, and the  TalkAngling  members that fished it . I'm looking forward to next years one already .
     
     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 9 Peter Morton   206lbs 00ozs
     2nd Peg 30 Tony Williams   197lbs 04ozs
     3rd Peg 16 Larry Teepot   158lbs 08ozs
     4th Peg 18 Colin B   154lbs 04ozs
     5th Peg 8 Justin Watkins   123lbs 00ozs
     6th Peg 26 Simon Mound   108lbs 12ozs
     7th Peg 4 Cov Blaze    99lbs 08ozs
     8th Peg 32 Froggy    93lbs 12ozs
     9th Peg 6 Tony (Rive T)    57lbs 12ozs
     10th Peg 14 M Jones    55lbs 08ozs
     11th Peg 13 Cox62    53lbs 00ozs
     12th Peg 28 J Mac    45lbs 08ozs
     13th Peg 10 Alan    45lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 34 R Evans    35lbs 14ozs
     15th Peg 38 Nuddy    18lbs 08ozs
     16th= Peg 7 Alan

    DNW

     16th= Peg 24 Cockney Pete

    DNW

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

     

    Morefax AC club match.

    Well I was awoken from my slumbers this morning when a car pulled up next to mine in the car park. Getting out of the car I found Kev strolling across the car park to enquire if I fancied a cup of coffee? Silly question really, and I soon had a steaming cuppa firing up the grey matter thanks to Jean . A few weeks ago Dave C had been asked by the Morefax club whether he could rustle up 10 members of Marsh AC to make up the numbers in their club match today, so a few members of The Jinx Squad were granted temporary membership to make up the numbers so they could fish today .

    The Morefax lads had planned an early draw (8·30am) but with a few being delayed a 9·30am draw and fishing from 11am - 4pm was settled on. Soon those of us that had stopped over had packed away our overnight gear, bivvies etc and the discussions had started about where would be a favourable draw. The only thing most agreed on however was nobody wanted Pegs 19 or 20 . These however would be in the draw as there were 24 of us fishing today. No Minx or Jinx Jnr today though as they were off to Reading to visit their Gran .

    Anyway Draw time soon rolled round and Peg 22 on the car park bank was mine for the day, a shortish walk and a bit to close to those unwanted pegs and Ady had struggled for 30lbs from there yesterday. Dai and Terry had drawn the short straws of Pegs 19 and 20 respectively , while down to my left I had Malc on 24 and Mat on 26.

    Peg 22, my home for the day

    I was just looking for a nice relaxing day today so decided that the rigs from yesterday would be used once more today as I hadn't stripped them off my top kits yesterday .
    The 0·3 NG XT Power Pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG allowed me to cover an area at around 5mtrs straight out in front, while the 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru MWG allowed me to fish the edge of the bush to my left and the NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru MWG was fine for the right hand margin. No change to the bait today either, just my usual 6, 8 and 11mm fishery pellets and a selection of various soft hookers, along with sweetcorn and paste.

    At 11am John sounded the All-In and a pot of mixed pellet and corn was deposited on the 5mtr line along with a handful of pellets by the bush and down the margin. A banded 8mm pellet was shipped out to the 5mtr line. The float soon slid away but it turned out to be what is rapidly becoming my customary foul hooker , and of course as soon as Malc saw it it shed the hook .

    However it wasn't to long before the float buried once more and this time the outcome was more satisfying as after a brief tussle a nice scale perfect common of around 8lbs slid over the net . Malc was romping away however with 4 carp in as many put ins, though of course just as he felt he had it sorted he suffered a run of foul hookers leaving him with little more than a collection of scales on his side tray and a rig in the trees behind him .

    Jean had brought me a cup of coffee and the news that Kevin was struggling down on Peg 30. A couple of better Bream were next along for me in quick succession, and while I could see a few fish coming out around the Big Lake it didn't seem as if anyone was bagging up. Indeed nowhere was that truer than Pegs 19 and 20 where Dai and Terry were definitely suffering for their sport ......

    Dai and Terry with the 2 pegs nobody wanted.

     
    However Dai did pull the rabbit out of the hat, finally connecting with a decent Carp, which despite giving him a bit of a run around finally found itself safely wrapped in Dai's landing net .

    Malc was still getting the odd fish though and from the banter I could hear between him and Simps on Peg 28 so was Simps .

    Around 2pm Dave C strolled round with news that Nick B on Peg 5 had landed a PB Carp of 19½lbs , and shortly after Kevin appeared with with a freshly cooked Sausage and Bacon roll. With that taken care of it was back to the fishing, but my next two bites proved to be foul hookers that left me with nothing apart from scales on the hook. Next put in the float buried once more, I connected with what was obviously a decent fish which just plodded off as if it didn't realise it was hooked. At first I feared it was another foul hooked fish, but soon realised it wasn't. It was just a big fish that didn't want to get it's head up, every time I felt I was getting somewhere with it, it would just head off in another direction. After 6-7 minutes I had it in close but still hadn't seen it when it headed of toward the bush to my left. I piled on as much pressure as I dared to stop it and it suddenly popped up right by my nets, a big Common. Luckily I managed to net it first time, but it wasn't till I lifted it clear that I realised what a good fish it was.
    On the scales it registered 19¼lbs, a pole caught PB for me , and fortunately Malc was on hand to do the honours with the camera ......

    Peter with his 19lbs 4oz Common Carp

     
    As I returned it Terry asked what it had weighed, and when I told him he said that he'd be happy with the ¼ at that point. Of course that was his cue for his float to dip and for him to find that the culprit was a small foul hooked Roach .

    As the match wound down I managed another 4 carp and one more Bream before the All-Out was called at 4pm. I thought I had somewhere around 50lbs but wasn't unduly bothered as the big Common had made my day , and I soon had my kit packed up and back in the car before the start of the Weigh-In.

    Three of the Morefax guys kicked off the weigh in with a best of 60½lbs from Peg 34. Nick W put 75lbs on the scales at Peg 40 to take an early lead . Next came Simon W with 30¼lbs and Dave C with 58½lbs. Nick B had a good day with 116lbs to take the lead and start a row of Morefax weights, the best of which were Tony Moore on peg 13 with 49lbs and Gary Smithers on Peg 14 with 72¾lbs . Dai managed 22¾lbs, but poor Terry could only muster 2 Roach for 4ozs . My weight was 51¾lbs, but Malc put 91lbs on the scales. Mat had 36¼ but Simps cracked a 'Ton' with 100½lbs . Kev managed a tie with Terry on 4ozs and Dave M was last to weigh with 68½lbs.

    Back to the hut and Dave C sorted the results. Winner on the day was Nick Bondeau, taking his first ever match win with his first ever 'Ton' and a PB Carp . Second on the day was Simps with the days only other 'Ton' while Malc finished the day with 3rd place . Thanks to the lads of Morefax AC for the invite today, so an enjoyable couple of days at Rolfs came to an end, not the best of weekends in terms of weights caught, but if it was easy it wouldn't be such a challenge, still great fun all the same and a credit as always to John and Pauline .
     

     Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 5 Nick Bondeau Morefax AC   116lbs 00ozs
     2nd Peg 28 Simon Mound Marsh AC   100lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 24 Malc Doyle Marsh AC     91lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 40 Nick Williams Marsh AC     75lbs 00ozs
     5th Peg 14 Gary Smithers Morefax AC     72lbs 12ozs
     6th Peg 32 Dave Moore Marsh AC     68lbs 08ozs
     7th Peg 34 Hugh McCulloch Morefax AC     60lbs 08ozs
     8th Peg 4 Dave Collier Marsh AC     58lbs 08ozs
     9th Peg 22 Peter Morton Marsh AC     51lbs 12ozs
     10th Peg 13 Tony Moore Morefax AC     49lbs 00ozs
     11th Peg 9 Brian Richardson Morefax AC     38lbs 08ozs
     12th Peg 26 Mat Edwards Marsh AC     36lbs 04ozs
     13th Peg 10 Ken Sherrington Morefax AC     31lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 2 Simon Watkins Marsh AC     30lbs 04ozs
     15th Peg 7 Geoff Powell Morefax AC     28lbs 04ozs 
     16th Peg 36 Scott Smith Morefax AC     26lbs 00ozs
     17th Peg 19 Dai Thomas Marsh AC     22lbs 12ozs
     18th Peg 18 Steve Jenkins Morefax AC     21lbs 04ozs
     19th= Peg 17 Andy Power Morefax AC     10lbs 08ozs
     19th= Peg 38 Gary Bird Morefax AC     10lbs 08ozs
     21st Peg 15 Ray Wager Morefax AC       1lbs 00ozs
     22nd Peg 8 Sean Moore Morefax AC              12ozs
     23rd= Peg 20 Terry Goff Marsh AC                4ozs
     23rd= Peg 30 Kevin Loveland Marsh AC                4ozs

     

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

     

    Jinx Match 5

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

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

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

    Jinx Match 5 peg plan

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

    Peg 10 for Peter today

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

    Fred was the proud wearer of that hat today

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

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

    Gem, The Minx

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

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

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

    Liam with his PB 20lbs Common Carp

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

    Steve Wilson on Peg 13.

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

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

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

    Heading off to Peg 33 at a rate of knots

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

    Malc on his knees to land a fish

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

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

    Paul watches on as Liam plays a Carp

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

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

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

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

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

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

    Names in Pink are those that were "MINXED"

    Section A

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 34 Clive Pritchard     110lbs 12ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 7 Geoff Palmer    102lbs 10ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 38 Dave Collier     78lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th Peg 5 Paul Roberts     70lbs 04ozs

    4

     5th=  Peg 4 Marcus Burgess     65lbs 00ozs

    5

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

    5

     7th  Peg 2 Nick Williams     51lbs 04ozs

    7

     8th  Peg 8 Kevin Loveland     20lbs 04ozs

    8

    Section B

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 9 Neil Riddy    113lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 11 Tony Roberts    102lbs 04ozs

    2

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

    0

     4th  Peg 28 Pete Tapp  Guest   95lbs 00ozs

    0

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

    3

     6th  Peg 10 Peter Morton     57lbs 12ozs

    4

     7th  Peg 13 Steve Wilson     51lbs 08ozs

    5

     8th  Peg 26 Simon Watkins  Guest   48lbs 00ozs

    0

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

    6

    Section C

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 17 Fred Parker     62lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 18 Mitch Auger     44lbs 12ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 15 Terry Goff     38lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th  Peg 20 Dave Moore     32lbs 04ozs 

    4

     5st  Peg 22 Ady Williams     30lbs 00ozs 

    5

     6th  Peg 14 Simon Mound     24lbs 00ozs 

    6

     7th Peg 19 Jon Hatch     21lbs 08ozs

    7

     8th  Peg 23 Mat Edwards     21lbs 04ozs

    8

     9th  Peg 25 Dai Thomas       7lbs 04ozs

    9

     

     

  • Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Maggotdrowning.com

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2011.

    DAY 1



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

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

    Everyone waits for the draw on Saturday

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

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

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

    Saturday pegging plan

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

    Peg 2 was my home for the match

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

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

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

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

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

    Simon fishing long on Peg 37

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

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

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

    Terry brings a fish to the net on Peg 38

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

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

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

    Webbo on Peg 34

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

    Alex on Peg 35

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

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

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

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

    Weigh-In

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

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

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

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

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


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

    _______________________________________________________________________

    DAY 2



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

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

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

    Sunday pegging plan

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

    Peg 10 for me today

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

    Dave Moore to my left on Peg 11

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

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

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

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

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

    Sunimage062.jpg It made me laugh

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

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

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

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

    Clive hoped something would fancy his bait

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

    Foul hooker took plenty of elastic

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

    Safely in the net

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

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

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

    Steve Wilson was picking up fish on a regular basis

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

    A cracker for Dave

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

     Tricky (peg19) and Jon (peg20)

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

    Safely in the net for Clive

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

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

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

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

    Dai and Steve, MD's Rolfs Pairs Champs 2011

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

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

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

    Pairs Result

    Position

    Pairs

    Saturday

    Sunday

    Total

    Weight

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

    22

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

    27

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

    42

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

    43

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

    52

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

    55

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

    60

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

    62

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

    70

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

    72

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

    75

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

    75

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

    79

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

    79

     137lbs 00ozs

    Saturday Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

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

    1

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

    2

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

    3

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

    4

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

    5

     6th= Peg 32 Dave Moore    82lbs 12ozs

    6

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

    6

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

    8

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

    9

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

    10

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

    11

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

    12

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

    13

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

    14

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

    15

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

    16

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

    17

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

    18

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

    19

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

    20

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

    21

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

    22

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

    23

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

    24

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

    25

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

    26

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

    27

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

    28

    Sunday Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

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

    1

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

    2

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

    3

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

    4

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

    5

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

    6

     7th Peg 11 Dave Moore    59lbs 04ozs

    7

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

    8

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

    9

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

    10

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

    11

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

    12

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

    13

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

    14

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

    15

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

    16

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

    17

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

    18

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

    19

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

    20

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

    21

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

    22

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

    23

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

    24

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

    25

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

    26

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

    27

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

    28

     

  • Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Dave the Fish's

    Invitation Match.

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

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

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

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

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

    DTFMatchpegging.jpg Fr1day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st

     Peg 14

     Malc Doyle

       103lbs 08ozs

     2nd

     Peg 22

     Paul East

       100lbs 04ozs

     3rd

     Peg 18

     Dave Collier

         95lbs 04ozs

     4th

     Peg 13

     Clive Pritchard

         83lbs 08ozs

     5th

     Peg 32

     Terry Goff

         81lbs 04ozs

     6th

     Peg 26

     Dave Webster

         74lbs 00ozs

     7th

     Peg 40

     Dai Thomas

         70lbs 12ozs

     8th

     Peg 29

     Nick Williams

         67lbs 00ozs

     9th

     Peg 24

     Al Loader

         65lbs 08ozs

     10th

     Peg 7

     Alex Clark

         61lbs 12ozs

     11th

     Peg 9

     Richard East

         54lbs 00ozs

     12th

     Peg 34

     Mitch Auger

         49lbs 00ozs

     13th

     Peg 16

     Dave Moore

         36lbs 00ozs

     14th

     Peg 5

     Scott Weston

         26lbs 00ozs

     15th

     Peg 8

     Simon Watkins

         25lbs 04ozs

     16th

     Peg 38

     Peter Morton

         16lbs 00ozs

     17th

     Peg 4

     Jon Hatch

         13lbs 02ozs

     18th

     Peg 10

     Steve Akal

           7lbs 08ozs

     19th

     Peg 2

     Kevin Loveland

           5lbs 08ozs

     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Jinx Match 4

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

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

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

    JinxMatch4pegging.jpg Match 4 pegging

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st

     Peg 34

     Dave Webster

       147lbs 08ozs

     2nd

     Peg 2

     Tony Roberts

       138lbs 08ozs

     3rd

     Peg 8

     Al Loader

       138lbs 04ozs

     4th

     Peg 7

     Malc (The Jinx) Doyle

       131lbs 00ozs

     5th

     Peg 15

     Clive Pritchard

       124lbs 00ozs

     6th

     Peg 5

     Peter Morton

       117lbs 04ozs

     7th

     Peg 10

     Dai Thomas

       113lbs 00ozs

     8th

     Peg 14

     Ant Haywood

       108lbs 00ozs

     9th

     Peg 32

     Pete Tapp           Guest

        96lbs 04ozs

     10th

     Peg 40

     Neil Riddy

        78lbs 04ozs

     11th

     Peg 31

     Paul Jay             Guest

        77lbs 04ozs

     12th

     Peg 9

     Terry Goff

        58lbs 12ozs

     13th

     Peg 28

     Jon Hatch

        57lbs 12ozs

     14th

     Peg 4

     Steve Wilson

        57lbs 04ozs

     15th

     Peg 23

     Nick Williams

        56lbs 12ozs

     16th

     Peg 38

     Nick Watkins-Price

        49lbs 08ozs

     17th

     Peg 22

     Paul Roberts

        40lbs 00ozs

     18th

     Peg 29

     Dave Moore

        37lbs 00ozs

     19th

     Peg 13

     Fred Parker

        36lbs 12ozs

     20th

     Peg 19

     Geoff Palmer

        34lbs 12ozs

     21st

     Peg 26

     Mat Edwards

        22lbs 14ozs

     22nd

     Peg 17

     Dave Collier

        19lbs 04ozs

     23rd

     Peg 25

     Marcus Burgess

         7lbs 00ozs

     24th

     Peg 18

     Kevin Loveland

         5lbs 08ozs

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

    Section A

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 34 Dave Webster   147lbs 08ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 2 Tony Roberts   138lbs 08ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 8 Al Loader   138lbs 04ozs

    3

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

    4

     5th Peg 5 Peter Morton   117lbs 04ozs

    5

     6th Peg 40 Neil Riddy    78lbs 04ozs

    6

     7th Peg 4 Steve Wilson    57lbs 04ozs

    7

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

    8

     

    Section B

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 10 Dai Thomas   113lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 32 Pete Tapp           Guest    96lbs 04ozs

    0

     3rd Peg 31 Paul Jay             Guest    77lbs 04ozs

    0

     4th Peg 9 Terry Goff    58lbs 12ozs

    2

     5th Peg 28 Jon Hatch    57lbs 12ozs

    3

     6th Peg 29 Dave Moore    37lbs 00ozs

    4

     7th Peg 13 Fred Parker    36lbs 12ozs

    5

     8th Peg 26 Mat Edwards    22lbs 14ozs

    6

    Section C

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

    Points

     1st Peg 15 Clive Pritchard   124lbs 00ozs

    1

     2nd Peg 14 Ant Haywood   108lbs 00ozs

    2

     3rd Peg 23 Nick Williams    56lbs 12ozs

    3

     4th Peg 22 Paul Roberts    40lbs 00ozs

    4

     5th Peg 19 Geoff Palmer    34lbs 12ozs

    5

     6th Peg 17 Dave Collier    19lbs 04ozs

    6

     7th Peg 25 Marcus Burgess     7lbs 00ozs

    7

     8th Peg 18 Kevin Loveland     5lbs 08ozs

    8


     

  • Rolfs Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Lionel's day out.

    Right, I'm off down to Rolfs Lake today. One of the mechanics (James) where I work has wanted to treat his father-in-law (Lionel) to a days fishing there, as a bit of a Thank You and Birthday present and I've managed to arrange it for them today, and as a bonus it might give me an idea of what to expect on Saturday when I'm back there for the 4th match of The Jinx Series.

    I'd arranged to meet up with the lads at Rolfs around 9·30am, which even allowing for the heavier weekday traffic gave me the chance to stop off in Battersea for a 'Full English' before continuing on to the lake . Indeed when I pulled into the car park at Rolfs the lads were already there unloading their kit and apparently champing at the bit. Stocking up on pellets and a quick coffee we checked with John to see which pegs were available as there was an Open on later in the day and we were ready for the off. Well James was, Lionel was giving his new Maver seat box it's first outing and had found after loading it up that the tyres were flat !!!! Luckily I carry a plug-in compressor in the car and we soon had tyres inflated and made our way down to the pegs . There were a couple of anglers already on pegs 34 & 35 with another on peg 2. James had already settled into peg 38, so I opted for peg 39 while Lionel settled into peg 40.

    James is very much a carp angler and was using conventional carp gear, with a running rig rather than his usual bolt rig. Lionel opted for a pole approach and had wanted to go with Black Hydro, but I managed to persuade him to go with Red Hydro . As it was a pleasure day I simply set up a couple of rigs that I had made up to try out some new 0·2g NG XT Power Pencil's that Nick has just started selling. These were made up on 0·20 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 14 Guru QM1's while bait was the usual fishery 6mm hard pellet for feed with some 8mm and 11mm donkey chokers that would be banded onto the hook along with a selection of GOT Baits soft hookers.

    With the wind coming over my shoulder I could feed the 6mm's by hand out to 7mtrs so that was my chosen line, with another line fed to the edge of the lilies to my right. With the wind blowing up into peg 34 and the Big Lake coupled with the change in the weather I wasn't expecting sport to be to prolific today on our pegs. Out with a banded 8mm to 7mtrs and a few dinks suggested Roach might be responsible, but after about 5 minutes the float slid away a gentle lift connected and it was obvious that it wasn't a Carp but one of the Bream that have been showing this year. It soon slid over the net and at around 3lbs it was a welcome start to the day .

    Lionel had started at around 10mtrs and soon had fish fizzing in his peg, but was struggling to connect with the bites that were forthcoming , but got of the mark with a Bream. Another couple of Bream followed for me before the first Carp of the day put in an appearance. A Common of around 5lbs that gave a good account of itself before it slid over the net .

    Looking across Lionel was into a Carp and it was giving a good account of itself, but Lionel appeared to be gaining the upper hand ......

    ...... however the fish had other ideas, and with Lionel down to his top kit it dived for the platform and snapped him up round the platform legs .

    James was having a real struggle and just had a solitary skimmer to show for his efforts and in an effort to change his fortunes had set a waggler up on one of his carp rods to target the bush to his left, but he wasn't having any joy with it at all. I plugged on, another couple of Bream coming my way before a better Carp put in an appearance to liven up proceedings, a nice chunky Common that James took a photo of for me ......

    Sport couldn't be described as either fast or furious for either James or Lionel and it was probably even more frustrating to see the lads on 34 & 35 starting to catch regularly , and to rub it in a bit more Lionel had parted company from his second carp of the day . By now the anglers had started the Open Match and Phil Powell who was on peg 4 seemed to be having a bit of a struggle at the start, so it wasn't just us ......

    Around about 2pm I decided to stretch my legs and take a look to see how the anglers on the open were doing, but before setting off I fed 5 big pots of pellets onto the 7mtr line to see if I could make anything happen. I found Neil Riddy halfway down the car park bank and he reckoned it was all a bit slow but was hoping things would pick up later ......

     I could see that John was over on peg 18 and it looked as if he was on the paste down the side of the bush ......

     ...... and it seemed that it was doing the trick for him as by the time I'd walked round to him he was slipping the net under a 15lb'er ......

     next up on peg 17 was John's fellow Rolf's Cartel member Mick Lane who also appeared to be having a slow start to the match ......

    Mick

    Down on peg 9 venue regular Paul Jay was hoping for a decent match as the pump had been running all morning before the match and he was hoping that it had drawn the fish to the area ......

     Back to my peg and Lionel was reporting loosing a third Carp and was still trying to fathom out how to connect with the bites that were beginning to frustrate him . Back at my peg and first put in I connected with another decent Bream " Now you're starting to take the micky Pete "  was Lionel's reply to this feat of piscatorial endeavour as I held it up for him to admire . Unfortunately the next two put ins resulted in a couple of trashed rigs as foul hooked Carp set off for the Big Lake at a rate of knots, however they didn't spook everything and I soon had another couple of Bream and another Carp once I sorted myself out . I could see the lads on 34 & 35 packing up so told James to get himself up there once they left as it just wasn't happening for him on 38. Lionel had another couple of Bream and Roach, while I added a few more Bream and Carp before I decided to call it a day around 4·30pm.

    James had indeed settled into peg 34 and placed a bait out as close as he could to the lilies in the corner ......

     ...... and as I packed away my gear I looked up to see that he was finally landing a Carp which was swiftly followed by another and as I strolled round to Lionel he was ringing the changes once more in an effort to convert those bites into fish. Bidding him Good Luck I set off with my kit to the car park, stopping to say goodbye to James on the way. Well as I looked back there was Lionel with a fair bit of elastic streaming from his pole ......

     ....... it had to be a Carp but would he land this one? I popped back to see, and to say that he played it gently would be an understatement, but finally he had it in the net, his first Rolfs Carp, a nice chunky Mirror and his smile just told you that it had all been worthwhile .

    So Mission accomplished, both of the lads had caught their first Rolfs Carp and I left them to carry on for a while. Had I learnt anything to help me on Saturday? Probably not as the way Rolfs fishes seems to change by the day, but it would only be 3 days till I found out .