The JINX Series 2008

Match 1.

Well Today saw the 1st match of this years Jinx Series run by Malc (The Jinx) Doyle at Rolf's Lake. The entire series this year is being fished at Rolf's Lake.
There's 24 lunatics anglers booked in for this years series, all hopeful that some decent weights will be recorded.

One of the nice things about fishing the series is that the matches start around lunchtime and todays plan was for a 10·30am draw and to fish from noon to 5pm. I arrived at the fishery at about 10am to find plenty already in attendance and eager for the start. I have to say at this point that it was great to see that all the effort that John Bennett and his wife Pauline and their team of helpers have put into the venue since he took over from Rolf are beginning to bear fruit, with all the new platforms and a lot of pruning haven taken place since I last visited. I'm sure Rolf will have approved.

The 1st shock was Malc arriving early , but needless to say the draw still didn't take place on time, and with the delay it meant that we would be fishing from 12·30pm to 5·30pm. As usual I had my customary £1 side bet with Gemma (The Minx) and another with Dirk, as Midge Milnes had asked me to get his pound back that Dirk had taken from him on a previous match.

The weather looked half decent, plenty of Carp were showing on top, and there had been some decent weights recorded the day before, so could we be in for a decent day? Well into the draw bag and I found that peg 40 was to be my home for the day.

Now coincidently Clive had fished this peg on the Open the previous Sunday and I had read the details of the day on Clive's Blog so I had at least an idea of how to tackle it . On the Little Lake I had Colin on peg34 (a peg that's really suited to his style of fishing) Ant was on 38 while to my left I had Dai on peg2 for company with Nick Williams over on 4, while the last angler I could see was Dave Collier on peg7. All the rest were pegged on the Big Lake, but hopefully the recent warmer weather meant that the fish would be spreading out from their winter quarters and we would all be in for a few fish today .

I just set up the 2 pole rigs. The 1st a ·4g MW Diamond to fish dead depth (about 5ft) straight out at 11mtrs, though I could come in to 5mtrs with it as the depth was pretty constant and the 2nd a 4X12 KC Carpa Shelf for the margin that I could utilise as an up in the water rig if need be. These were both made up straight through with 0·16 Antares Silk Shock with size 16 Drennan Carp Match hooks. I also had my pellet waggler rod set up as a back up. Feed was about 12 pints of the fishery 4 & 6mm feed pellets with GOT Baits Liver and Catmeat 6 & 11mm soft hookers and their 6mm expanders for hook baits.

12·30pm and at the All-in I cupped 2 big pot-fulls of pellet in on the 11mtr line and a pot down the right hand margin at about 7mtrs. By the time I had baited my rig and shipped out to 11mtrs there was already a fizz of bubbles coming up, After a minute the float vanished and a sharp lift saw me attached to what was obviously a decent Carp . Looking up as I played it I could see both Colin and Ant already netting their first fish of the day. Something just didn't feel right about my fish though and after a couple of minutes everything went slack and the hook came back with a large scale attached to it.

That set the tone for the first couple of hours, with just 3 Carp to show for my efforts and quite a collection of scales on the sidetray, despite swapping depths, baits and varying the amount of feed I was plagued with foul hookers, none of which I managed to land. A couple of looks in the margin proved it to be "Silvers" city and a session with the pellet waggler had resulted in just a solitary foul hooker which of course came off.

Nick had gone onto the feeder and was catching regularly if not particularly quickly. Ant had started to have a look down his margin swim and was starting to bag up. I got up to stretch my legs and decided to heavily feed at 5mtrs to see if I could make them have it. Dai had had a miserable start but was finally getting some action .

I strolled up to see Dave but although he'd had a few including a decent Chub by chucking the feeder across to the far bank, he'd reverted to the pole as he was more comfortable. Rumours were circulating that the Big Lake was fishing well, but rather than investigate I made my way back determined to avoid too bad a battering .

Back out at 5mtrs and there were fish there, but Skimmers and Roach were ragging the bait before the Carp could get a look in . In an attempt to avoid this I decided to fish the 6mm feed pellet banded onto the hook, and this finally seemed to make the difference . In the final 2 hours I got into a decent run of fish, finishing with 17 Carp though only 3 of them were weigher's.

5·30 and the All-out was called with me still playing a fish which proved to be my largest of the day, a 13½lbs Common .
Packing up it was soon obvious that it had fished well (You can always tell by how long it takes for the scales o come round ). Ant was soon leading with an excellent 228¾lbs, 180lbs+ of which was made up of weigher's . My fish came to 142¾lbs, my best weight from Rolf's and pretty satisfying given my frustrating start to the match . Dirk dipped out, just missing a 'Ton' with 94lbs after his fish dried up towards the end of the match, and had to hand over £1 to me .

The 'Tons' kept coming and Paul Roberts could be found wandering around beating himself up, convinced that he had blown yet another chance to get his first ever Rolf's Ton , but the scales put him out of his misery when they revealed a weight of 118½lbs. I'm sure we were all pleased for him and he was soon walking around like a Cheshire Cat .

Gemma also got her Ton with 149lbs adding yet more members of The Minx Club in the process and relieving me of my £1.

Hard luck story of the day has to be Steve Wilson who found a great big hole in one of his keepnets meaning he only weighed 57lbs. Of course we were all full of sympathy.
Star of the day however was Ade Williams aka Slim Shady, who on his first ever Jinx match weighed a mighty 266¾lbs from peg 24 to set a new Jinx Record.

So there it is, Two Double Tons, Nine Tons and a total of 2316lbs of fish put on the scales between 21 anglers which is an incredible average of 110lbs+ per angler.
Have we peaked to early? We'll find out when we're back for Match 2 on June 7th .

The JINX Series 2007

Match 5.

Well it's the final match of this years Jinx Series today at Rolf's Lake and for a change there's no driving for me as a fellow Maggotdrowner Paul East aka NoMoreLongWalks had said that he would pick me up as he had managed to secure a guest spot on the match . A sunny morning held the promise of a good day and with Paul arriving in good time we had time to stop of in Battersea on the way for a hearty breakfast, and a smooth trouble free trip down saw us pulling into the car park at Rolf's around 11am allowing us plenty of time before the supposed 12 noon draw. The one worry was that as we had driven down the sunshine had disappeared to be replaced with a heavily overcast grey sky.
A stroll round the lake soon revealed that the lake was almost back at it's normal level with most of the platforms finally being above water and that John Bennett had been busy gardening, with a lot of work having been done on the swims.

At the draw there was plenty of discussion, Could Ant hang onto the lead in the series or could a permutation of results today see the long time leader lose out to either Royst, Mark, Brian or Nick and could Dave(yorkie)Moore and Eric maintain their narrow 6 point lead in The Pairs over Mark C and Paul Roberts. The actual draw was a little late (as usual ) which meant that we would be fishing from 2pm till 7pm.
Into the draw bag and I draw peg34 on the little lake, a peg widely regarded as a flyer. I've only fished it once before on the Saturday of the MD's Pairs weekend, when the lake was still a fair way above it's normal level and had managed 73¼lbs from the peg . With plenty of time before the start I set up a feeder and a new Shakespeare Mach3 11ft pellet waggler rod that I've just brought as well as a couple of top kits for the pole. I was hoping to nick a couple of early fish on the feeder or waggler before concentrating later on the right hand margin.

Looking across I could see Clive who must have run to peg8 as he had drawn it on Bank Holiday Monday and had 202lb 4oz , while the previous Saturday John Walker had 530lbs from the peg, so no pressure there. For company on peg7 Clive had Nick Jones (Polepot) and on 6 Dirk(The Dangler)Williams, with Royst further down on peg 4 and Steve Wilson on 2. While to my left I had Colin on peg36 and Nick(Neo1)Williams on 38 while Mark C was on 40.

So 2pm and the All-in, a big handfull of pellet into the bush to my right and another couple in front of it then out to the lily pads with hair rigged meat on the feeder. Looking up I could see that Clive was already in to his 1st Carp, swiftly followed by a Skimmer.

My tip didn't as much as flicker, normally you would expect lots of little twitches as silvers attacked the bait or even a couple of liners if Carp were present somewhere in the swim, but nothing moved it at all.
Polepot appeared to have snared one on the feeder.........

while Mark C had had one and Steve Wilson had had a couple of fish...........

but looking down, the bank to my left resembled a still life as both Colin and Nick were in the same predicament as me..........

I'd been religiously feeding my margin swim, but it it was far to early to take a look and as I had seen a couple of fish topping I decided to take a look with the pellet waggler after 40 minutes of inactivity on the feeder. A couple of pouch fulls of pellet and first cast out the rod is nearly ripped from my hand!!!
The fish put up a spirited fight but the rod dealt with it all, despite the fish at one stage tangling itself in the line giving the appearance to some of it being foulhooked and was soon safely in the net. An obvious weigher, it tipped the scales at 14½lbs, a lovely way to get off the mark and christen a new rod at the same time . In the next 30 mins I managed another couple of 6lb'ers and then it died on me.

All the time it had been getting cooler, so much so that I went back to the car for my bib & brace and a fleece. Having a chat with a few of the lads on the car park bank on the way back revealed that it was hard graft for everyone with only the odd fish being caught.

As the afternoon drew on Colin had finally got a Carp of about 5lbs while Neo1 had got one as well along with a couple of Skimmers. Poor Steve had had a bit of a disaster however, while playing a decent Carp his no4 section of his pole had snapped clean in two and he could only watch helplessly as the top 3½ sections of his pole slid below the surface of the lake like Excaliber..........

things had picked up however for Dirk and Royst with them both appearing to be walking away with the match and matching each other fish for fish, although Dirk appeared to have the edge with more of his fish being weighers and including a clonking Golden Orfe that tipped the scales at 6lbs 4ozs.

 

With just an hour to go I noticed that Clive had started to finally find a few fish, to little to late, but at least he was catching which was more than the majority of us were doing.........

Finally 7pm rolled round putting most of us out of our misery. While my 3 Carp only weighed 26½lbs, amazingly it was enough to give me a section win!!!!!!  Due to the low weights the weigh-in didn't take as long as usual and it was soon confirmed that Dirk had won the day with his 1st ever Jinx Ton  and Royst just missing out due to losing a number of fish, costing him not only the match but the overall win in the Jinx Series  as well

Ant despite the horror of a DNW on the day hung on to win the Jinx Series  with Royst taking 2nd overall, while the Pairs was won by Dave Moore and Eric Robathan in a close finish with Mark Causer and Paul Roberts.

So another Jinx Series survived.

A big THANK YOU to Malc for organising what still remains the friendliest series of matches that I've ever had the pleasure to fish in, and the reason for that is the anglers that compete in the Series. Thank you all for making it the event it is.

Highlight for me was seeing the look on Nick Jones's face when he picked up his 1st ever Jinx section at Holly Farm and then repeated it again at Stockton. Well Done Nick, couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.
Can't wait to do it all again next year . Nurse, Time for my medication.

Overall  Series Result.

The JINX Series 2007

Match 4.

Well, off to Stockton today for the 4th round of the Jinx Series. A nice trouble free drive up saw me arrive in plenty of time enabling me to take a leisurely stroll round what I consider to be one of BW's most scenic waters and to have a look at the pegs we would be fishing today.

 In previous Jinx matches I've fished on the venue we have fished "The Boards" pegs, but for this match we were on those to the right as you enter from the car park including those known as The Animal pegs due to them being surrounded by masses of rushes which can make extracting any of the resident Carp something of a challenge. They are also home to plenty of bird life too.....................

Most of us arrived in good time allowing for a pre match drink in The Blue Lias Inn and the chance of a chin-wag and a chance to catch up.
As usual Malc had forgotten a number of things including the weigh sling and draw sheets so the draw was a little delayed, meaning that we would be fishing from 1·30 - 6·30pm.

The draw bag had dealt me peg 41, right on the end of the Animal Pegs so that I had relatively open water with just the end of the reeds reachable with a short cast on the feeder. To my left I had Paul Roberts accompanied by his good lady Jayne (Though rumour has it that she's really his community care worker ) on peg 42. While to my rightt on peg 40 was young Ant Haywood, current leader of this years Jinx Series, and only needing another section win to tie up the series with one match to go.

My plan of attack was going to be simple, just setting up a feeder rod  for the chuck to the edge of the reeds alternating baits between meat, catmeat, corn, pellet or worm until I could find what they wanted. Initially I didn't set up my pole intent on sticking with the feeder.

All in and most started on the feeder but Ant fed heavily at both 16mtrs and 8mtrs before spending a short time on the pole. Paul soon discovered that with Colin to his left and myself to his right he was surrounded by "Cockneys" and it would be fair to say that it set the tone for a sustained 5hrs of light hearted banter and mickey taking.

Sport was so slow that it was almost none existent, even this fella didn't seem to be having any luck..............

..................though Ant managed to foul hook a Carp and played it patiently to the net with plenty of encouragement from yours truly and a short while later this was followed by another similar fish.............

............ Me? I couldn't buy a bite and after 2½hrs out came the pole.

Dave Collier came up for a chat and almost right on cue the float dipped up up popped a foul hooked Perch, straight into the net and at least a DNW had been avoided, this was soon followed by a Rudd that swallowed a worm twice it's size, I was positively baggin..........NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul was getting a few bites on the paste by now but was having trouble keeping them out of the reeds, but at least he was getting some fish into the net. I sat the final hour out on the paste over pellet and was briefly attached to a couple of Carp before they vanished into the distance, but the reality was that the final whistle was a blessing, as I had the feeling that I could have sat there for another 5 hours and progressed no further.

So yet another £1 coin handed over to young Gemma due to her MINXING me as I weighed in an incredibly generous 4ozs from the scales-man.(The cheque's in the post Malc.)
Paul edged out Ant for the section, but he's still in pole position for the series. Matt Nutt won on the day with 6 Carp all caught on the pellet for 48lbs.

I still love the venue but it can be incredibly frustrating and it beat me today but I will return as it's one of those venues that I really enjoy.
Next weekend I'm out with the members of Marsh AC at Hartleylands Farm where we're fishing the Reservoir, hopefully I'll manage a few more fish than today, but who knows? I'll let you know the outcome. 

The JINX Series 2007

Match 3.

Well after 6 weeks with no fishing due to work commitments it was just good to be getting out for a days fishing, especially as it was with the group of anglers who fish the Jinx Series.

Holly Farm at Ashby Magna in Leicestershire was todays venue, a complex with 3 lakes, Moby, Trotters & Gils, with us fishing on Gils today.

As usual I arrived with plenty of time to spare after a trip of around 100 miles and had a stroll round the venue, bumping into Nick W-P (another early bird) before retiring to the Cafe for a chat and a coffee with the others as they arrived.

Malc (The Jinx) had suffered yet more car trouble during the week (Total brake failure this time) so he and Gem (The Minx) travelled up with Nick & Brian, meaning that we at least started almost on time for once.

So into the draw bag to be rewarded with peg 7, at least one of the shorter walks from the car park. Now such was the weather today that the 1st 10 pegs had the wind howling from left to right while the rest were sheltered enough to be flat calm.

The peg looked decent enough with the reed fringed far bank being around 13mtrs away and a bit of cover on both sides. For company I had Nick W-P to my left on 8 and Geoff to my right on 6.

I sorted out 2 main lines of attack, 1 right over against the reeds and the other at 7mtrs down the track while I would also feed both margins during the course of the match, with a view to catching there later on.
Baitwise I had the options of meat, paste, corn and pellet with a bag of the fishery pellet to supplement the feed.

1·15pm and at the all-in I fed 2 pots with a mix of pellet, corn and meat at both 13 & 7 mtrs and with the wind gusting strongly opted to start at 7mts with a single grain of corn on the deck.
30 minutes in and without so much as a knock the float suddenly dipped and within 30secs a small Carp of around 12ozs was safely in the net . This was to be a bit of a false dawn however as another 1½hrs went by without another bite.

I decided to refeed heavily at 7mtrs and have a stroll to see how the rest were doing, before going to get a burger (which was looking as if it may be the best bite of the day )

Geoff was sorting out a feeder as despite sticking it out at 13mtrs on the pole he had only lost the 3 Carp he'd hooked  , while Nick could only report a couple of half hearted knocks on his float that hadn't developed further.

Strolling round Brian was owning up to 7 small Carp while Clive was another with nothing to show for his efforts ..................... 

although Ant on the next peg was owning up to having around 20 fish in his net .......................

All along it appeared that there were pockets of fish and if you were lucky enough to have them in front of you you would catch while others around you would struggle.

Matt managed 3 fish in the short time I watched while Malc could hardly buy a bite, and this seemed to be the story as you went down the pegs.

Returning from my walk I sat at my peg and finished my burger and pondered how to approach the final 2 hours. Geoff had managed a couple of Carp on the feeder in my absence, but Nick was still fishless as was Keith's lad David, who was sweating on a £1 sidebet that he'd had with The Minx who was admitting to a small Roach & Perch in her net.

The deciding factor was that the wind appeared to have died down a bit, and I still had plenty of finely cubed meat, so over to 13 mtrs with a shallow rig and out with the catty to see if I could tempt anything up in the water. 5-6 bits of meat every 30 second, surely this would bring something?
40 minutes later and not a swirl, knock or bite.
Back over with a full depth rig, if nothing had intercepted my free offerings perhaps they might be attracted to them laying on the deck?
10 minutes in and the float slid away, but the white hydro couldn't stop it from reaching the reeds in time!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back out with a Black Hydro'd kit and 10 minutes later the mearest dip of the float results in Carp number 2 in the net . In the final hour I managed another 4, nothing of any real size, but positively bagging compared with the rest of my match.  David managed to save his £1 from The Minx's clutches when he had a little Carp on a pellet and his top2 in the last 5 minutes of the match as he started to pack his kit away, not that he rubbed The Minx's nose in it...........MUCH!!!!!

The weigh-in reflected just how patchy the venue had been on the day
with Nick (Neo) Williams taking the win with 52lb 5ozs. Ant managed a 3rd section win on the trot putting himself into pole for the overall series honours. Also it was great to see Nick (Polepot) finally pick up some coin for 2nd in his section, his 1st payout despite fishing the Jinx Series from it's start 6 years ago.

My six Carp weighed a meager 6lbs 6ozs which amazingly enough was enough for 2nd in my section, bringing me a bit of coin to go with my pound that The Minx had to return to me on the day.

So a 200+mile round trip for not a lot of fish, but it was just good to be out on the bank again and end enjoying the crack.
The next Jinx match is at Stockton, but before that it is the Maggotdrowning.com Pairs Weekend at Rolf's Lake which should be a blast if it's anything like last year.

The JINX Series 2007

Match 1.

So here we were, back again for yet another Jinx Series.The banter was soon flowing as usual as most of the usual suspects were back again having been released back into the community along with a few new unsuspecting fools that had been attracted in the false hope of not being affected by The Jinx.

The weather in the week leading upto the match had not been kind with heavy rain almost leading the lake to overflowing into the surrounding fields. Thankfully a spot of swift action by John Bennett and a couple of the local lads had saved the day meaning that no fish had been lost. However with every peg was under water and with pegs 16-18 lost to the recent bankside collapse and 19-21 out of bounds as they had been fenced off to keep the fish in, a bit of repegging was nessessary to accomodate the 29 anglers present on the day.
Oh, and just to add to the problems the Carp had decided that today was the day for Lurvvvvvvve!!!!!  thrashing the margins to foam wherever you looked.

Well of course the planned 11·30am draw was never going to happen, This is The Jinx Series after all, as Malc's car decided to self destruct yet again on the trip up from Wales, so it was more like 12·30pm once the draw was done with the fishing to be done from 1·30pm - 6·30pm.
I had drawn 15, which in reality was somewhere around peg 38 if you had been able to see it, to my right for company I had Monkey (Nick W-P) and Dai for company while Malc had ended up literaly in peg34 (stewards inquiry needed there i think )

How to approach it was going to be the question as the conditions were like nothing I had ever encountered before at Rolf's. I settled for a margin approach just past a bush to my left which is normally on dry land surrounded by grass and also set up a feeder rod as i had plenty of space down into the corner on my left to throw to.

So 12·30am and all-in sees me put a bit of meat onto the feeder rig and a plug of over wetted feed pellet into the cage feeder and lob it down towards the corner + 3 good handfulls of feed pellet are deposited in front of the bush. A couple of minutes later and the tip wraps round and I'm into a Carp. It actually felt strange to be using a rod at Rolf's, and despite some encouragement from Malc...."You won't land it"..... it was soon in the net. Well you can imagine my amazement on lifting the net to find not 1 but 2 Carp safely nestling in the bottom of it!!!!!!!!
Apart from the weigher at 9½lbs with my hook in it's mouth there was another of around 8lbs keeping it company!!!!! However I did the decent thing and put the 8lb'er straight back, a good start none the less.

Straight back out and another couple of minutes pass and the tip wraps round again but this time it's just a solitary 7lb'er that's in the bottom of the net. So 10 minutes in and 18lbs+ already, could this be a red letter day?
Unfortunately the next 40 minutes saw not so much as a flicker from the tip, so reluctantly it was out with the pole rig...................

................... Dropping it in to what is normally a shallow margin saw me being plagued by silvers that just whittled away the bait whether it was pellet, paste or meat with the occaisional one managing to hang itself just long enough to find itself on the hook.

Conditions were having an effect on most, I could see Eric on 39 fishing his "Margin" and giving what appeared to be some Prestons 19h or was it Purple Hydro? lacky a good work out

................who despite having spent countless hours over the last few months getting to know the venue by fishing in the various leagues was just having one of those days where it just wasn't happening for him .

Dirk wandered along with his son who had come down to help him out with a tale of woe involving a 12lb'er and a landing net that split depositing said fish straight back in the water , while monkey having struggled for a bite finally hooked one only to have it strip his rig complete with his newly brought hydro straight out of his top kit!!!!!

Dai finally managed one but it did lead him a merry dance on what appeared to be black hydro, seeming to be ever so reluctant to get it's head up..........

...............While Malc having finally reverted to the pole was starting to put a number of weighers on the scales.

I finally managed to get amongst a few fish by fishing tight up against the bush in about 12 inches of water over what is grass with a big lump of paste, a tactic which saw me put another 9 fish on the bank though only the last was a weigher, though I probably lost a similar number that just bolted straight through the bush.

Weigh-in time saw me end with 64lbs 8ozs for 3rd in my section and 12th on the day, not the best or worst result on a day that has frustrated many.

Taking the honours on the day was Dave "Yorkie" Moore with a new PB match weight of 150lbs..........

...........a very popular winner as Dave is one of the few originals left that has fished  The Jinx Series since the very 1st series of matches.

Unfortunately Rolf wasn't present for the match today as a result of having had an operation the previous day,
However all our thoughts were with him for a full and speedy recovery and we look forward to seeing him fit and fully recovered on our next visit.    

So that's it for this 1st match, hopefully The Minx will be in attendance on the next match at Tunnel Barn Farm so that a few of us can reclaim some £1 coins that we have merely lent her.
We'll see when we do it all again on Saturday 30th June.

Polepot's Rolf's Rumble.

TalkAngling.co.uk Forum Match.

Well today was the day of Neil McMurran aka polepot's TalkAngling match at Rolf's Lake and by 9·30am the car-park had filled up as the 30 anglers booked in for the day arrived for the draw. With the sun beating out of a clear blue sky it promised to be a warm one and it was good to see Rolf himself in attendance as he had recently been into hospital .

As always these internet matches provide the opportunity to put faces to names normally only seen on computer screens, and invariably the banter flows and little side bets are made.

Malc's daughter Gemma has recently got back into fishing and already beaten a few good anglers leading to her being christened "The Minx" and a Minxed list has been published on a couple of websites detailing those anglers she's beaten. We had a £1 sidebet on the day, but I must admit to having an ominous feeling that this could be the day I was added to the list after all the banter that had been flowing in the past couple of weeks .

Into the drawbag and peg37 stuck to my hand, not a bad draw normally on the little lake and as i made my way down there I saw that Mark C had 34, a noted flyer in the corner. 35 was vacant, on 36 I had polebreaker for company and on 38 matt6900 while further round on 40 was andy222 who had the misfortune to have Malc(The Jinx)Doyle for company on peg 1.

Setting up I was a little disapointed to have anglers on pegs either side as the pegs are reasonably tight leaving me without an option of a margin peg as such as there is little or no cover on the bankside there. I set up for just 2 lines, 1 at 12mtrs and 1 at 7mtrs, both hard on the deck with a spare rig for up in the water should it be needed.

11·30am and the all in saw me feed a large pot of Rolf's feed pellets on both lines and ithen went out at 12mtrs with a GOT 11mm soft hooker. The float just sailed away and I was obviously attached to one of the resident carp. However Malc and Rolf walked past and after a bit of encouragement for Malc the rig came sailing back with just a scale attached .

There then followed 3hrs of absolute frustration as I was plagued by hordes of silvers. It didn't matter what I put on the hook, Corn, Meat, Paste or Pellet in either 6 or 11mm, I couldn't buy a bite from a Carp .

Looking to my right I could see Mark C steadily putting a decent bag together from 34 alternating between the pole and feeder and even polebreaker was nicking a few.........

Andy over on 40 was plugging on and sneaking the odd one or two out and looking forward to a better day than he'd had on a previous visit when is was unprepared for the strength and fighting power of the Rolf's Carp..........

 Malc was having yet more trouble getting to grips with Red Hydro and was having to do his best "Matt Nutt" impression in order to land some of the Carp, but at least he was catching which was more than I was managing  ..........

While over towards pegs 8 and 9 Fred and Griffo could be seen having a right old ding dong, both obviously heading towards what would prove to be decent bags ..........

Next door on 38 matt6900 had managed to get a reasonable Tench from his margin peg to his left and finally managed to get amongst a few lumps during the final couple of hours despite loosing one landing net head and breaking another ..............

While tucked away over in the opposite corner on peg3 Halfounce was making hay and quietly slipping more than a few fish into the net...............

For my part, I finally managed an 11lb weigher and 3 smaller Carp, but it just didn't happen, despite lashing the bait in I just couldn't feed off the silvers and I finished the match with just 34lbs to show for my efforts .

Tony(Rive T)Walsh took the honours on the day with a fine Double Ton weighing 203lbs 11ozs, a bit of a change from his usual catches from canals .

 Halfounce ended up in 2nd place with 192lbs 09ozs while Fred came out just ahead in his peg to peg battle with Griffo with 187lbs 12ozs to 185lbs 09ozs.

Gemma managed 68lbs 06ozs to double my weight and take my £1 as well as add my scalp along with 9 others to "The Minxed List" .

So finally a big THANK YOU to Neil for organising a most enjoyable day in good company. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again in the not to distant future.

I'm back at Rolf's next Saturday on the 1st round of Malc's Jinx Series, hopefully I'll be able to avoid those silvers and find a few more carp then.

Here's the results from the day

The JINX Series 2006

Match 6.

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

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

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

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

Overall Individual Series Result.

The JINX Series 2006

Match 5.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The JINX Series 2006

Match 4.

What a great day out.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The JINX Series 2006

Match 3.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next up it's Stockton on July 29th.

The JINX Series 2006

Match 2.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

is alive and well and making us all suffer.

The JINX Series 2006

Match 1.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Individual Results on the day were as follows

You can find Rolf's own report HERE.

The JINX Series 2005

Match 6.

Well all to soon the final match of The Jinx Series had come around with the Venue being The Boundary Pool at Manor Farm Leisure.

A bit of a change for me was that during the preceding week Dave the Fish had expressed a desire to come and see if all the things that he had read and heard about the series were true (as if you could make them up!!!!) so he volunteered to pick me up and drive me on the day.

As has been my custom for the series we left early, so that I could arrive in good time to get a look at the fishery and try to get a feel for it. A stop off on route in Battersea saw us fortified with Sausage, Egg, Bacon and Bubble + a mug of tea.

A trouble free trip saw us arrive in plenty of time, while an initial look around The Boundary Pool revealed a lake that was at least 2 feet down from what appeared to be it's normal level with a stiff breeze blowing into the opposite bank to the one we were going to fish, very few fish moving, though a pleasure angler was catching a few small carp to feeder tactics.

Back to the café for a tea and a sausage sandwich and the lads were starting to arrive.
Soon we were all assembled, even Matt who had flown in from holiday at 9am.
12·45 and with the draw due at 1PM and no Malc to be seen, I thought I'd better give him a ring!!! Well he was driving down a dirt track somewhere in the surrounding countryside,
LOST AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!, Sorry Gem but I think he needs a Sat Nav system before he fits a stereo into the car.

Draw finally done, the start of the match was put back to 2·30 pm. With only 15 of us present for the last match we were well spread out with just Matt, Dan and myself in "bantering" distance on pegs 1,3 and 4 at our end. The fishing? Not quite what we had been led to expect, finicky and frustrating bites or were they liners being the pattern of the day for me at least. I'd been told that to have any chance of winning the series that I needed Matt to be 3rd and for me to win the section (Steve W, who was also in with a shout being the wild-card as he was in another section) but with a couple of hours gone, young Dan was showing us both a clean pair of heels.

With a couple of hours to go and us all scratching it was time for a bit of refreshment, with tea being served in a most civilised way by "Butler" Dave.

Events show that a good last hour with a couple of better fish gave Matt the section and the series, while a bonus carp hooked up the bum (Mugged???) allowed me to sneak past Dan at the death.

Congratulations must go to Dai, who managed his 1st ever match win on the day with 29lbs 12ozs of feeder caught carp, a great result for a good mate.

Just the raffle remained, which finished in the dark and the final results of The Series to be announced!
But alas no Series Final Results!
Malc had managed to post the result sheet to one of his poor customers somewhere in England, but they've been posted on the site now.

A word of thanks from me to Dave the Fish for acting as my Chauffeur & Butler on the day, Hope you enjoyed your insight into what makes The Jinx Series the matches to be on.

THE RESULTS ON THE DAY

Finally i'd like to say a big THANK YOU to the inimitable Malc for running the most pleasurable match series that I've ever taken part in. Captain Chaos might be a better name, but without his efforts it just wouldn't be the same!!!!

THANK YOU to Trevor Price and all at G.O.T.Baits & Merlin Baits for the series sponsorship and the very generous raffle prizes that have hopefully raised a few bob for DEBRA.

Next an equally big THANK YOU to all of the lads that have fished in the series.
As with all matches, it's the anglers taking part that make or break the events and as a newcomer to the series I couldn't have wished to have fished with a better bunch of lads who made me feel at home straight away.

Finally, Congratulations to Matt, 4 section wins and a new record weight for the series says it all, A very worthy Winner.

I'll definitely be back for next years series.

This is Malc's run down on the series result

SPONSORED BY
G.O.T BAITS
&
MERLIN BAITS

HELPING TO RAISE FUNDS
FOR THE CHARITY
DEBRA

THE FINAL RESULTS

Well thats another Years "JINX" SERIES over and what a series it's been

Plenty of new faces and a new Series match record put on the scales by Matt in round 1 with a cracking weight of 211lb 4oz

We've also seen many personal records being broken including Marks best match weight of 116lb 2oz which was also his first match ton

Young Dan setting his best match weight at 95lb 8oz which also included a new personal best Carp of 15½lb

Dai not to be out done by Dan put in a new best match weight of 69lb 6oz and also recorded his first match win

There has been a total of 5 100lb plus nets and a 200lb plus net and only a total of 12 blanks recorded during the series which is also a new record as normally there are a lot more of those

We've had loads of entertainment from Neo in the way of snapped pole sections, swimming pole sections and general misfortune but he's taken all the stick in the way it's been intended.

Matt has also given everyone a few laughs with his high rise landing tactics.

We've suffered the normal mishaps from yours truley in the form of being late, getting lost, leaving stuff at home, getting dumped on by fisheries and generaly running a series like a total pillock, but thats all part of the fun.

The banter has flowed during every match especially if drawn near Dirk or Paul.

And a nicer bunch of lads could not be found to fish with...

This years winner for the second year running is MATT NUTT with 6 points and a total weight of 404lb 8oz Well done Matt a fine effort.

Second place this year goes to new boy Peter Morton with 8 points and a total weight of 213lb 9oz not a bad result when you think Peter had not seen 5 out of the six venues before.

Third place with 9 points is THE JINX himself by way of a greater weight as Keith Ashby, Steve Wilson & Malc Doyle all scored the same 9 points but Malc comes out on top with a total weight of 299lb 5oz

Worst result is in RED and final total is minus worst result (total weight also included)