Friday 6th August 2010

I'm back down to Rolfs lake in Oxfordshire today to fish the Dave Collier invitational match
Dave has booked the lake for the Friday before the Maggotdrowners pairs weekend again
So I will be fishing the match today then staying over night ready for the start of the pairs weekend tomorrow along with most of the others fishing today
By the time I arrived at the lake most of the others had arrived and made a start on setting up camp for the weekend
My set up is pretty simple just pull the car into a prime spot, empty my gear out , set up my table , chair and cooker and I'm sorted 5mins tops
Dave got the draw under away around 12.30ish and we are due to fish from 2pm to 7pm
My start to the weekends fishing at Rolfs was going ok right up until that treacherous drawing hand got involved and once again for the 2nd match running left me sitting on peg 32
As I said last week peg 32 is not a bad peg in fact it has won quite a few matches this year but it's a peg that I don't enjoy fishing and never seem to have much luck on
Still there's always a chance at Rolfs on any peg so I soon had my gear set up on the peg
As for my plan of attack today well it's exactly the same as last week again I'm going to fish 3 swims

The first out in front at 8m in line with the blue hose

(Peg pictures from last weeks match)

The next just in front of the bush to my left

And the last over the back of the bush towards peg 33

At 2pm Dave "The Fish" strangled a duck to signal the all in

I shipped a pot of pellets into all the swims then started off on the 8m swim out in front with a 6mm cat meat soft hooker on the hook and to be honest not a lot happened the float sat their looking dejected and with a very dry tip

Last week I had fish there straight away even though they were foul hookers at least I had signs of fish but today there was nothing at all

As even a swap to the bush to my left produced no bites or indications

This certainly wasn't the start to the Rolfs pairs weekend that I was looking for

I put another pot of pellets into all the swims to try and draw a few fish in

Looking around the lake not a lot of fish were being caught Gem over on peg 9 had a couple Geoff on peg 10 had got off to a good start but the top end of the big lake seemed to be fishing a bit better and Webbo who was fishing his new feederless feeder set up on peg 24 seemed to be bagging up with a fish every cast

Peter who was having a bit of a mare on peg 28 stopped by for a chat on his way round the lake to take a few photo's

Seems he had 1 Carp in the net and had just pulled out of another and had the pole float fly back and go through his finger he managed to get the float out and stop the flow of blood with a plaster looks like I'm not the only 1 having a bad day then

I should really have followed Peters example and gone for a walk too as it always seems to work for him and come to that Malc and Simple go for a walk after a couple of hours as well and on returning to their pegs bag up for the last couple of hours perhaps that's some thing I should look into

Any way I was now fishing over the back of the bush and it was sh!t or bust time I threw 5 or 6 large handfuls of pellet in and was sitting it out for the large Carp that John Bennett assured me would turn up

All of a sudden my float buried and I was attached to a Carp It wasn't the monster I was hoping for but it was a welcome addition to my net and over the next couple of hours I had another 9 fish from behind the bush but unfortunately they were all of a similar size which I reckoned to be around the 5lb mark looks like the pole busting monsters aren't playing today

Eventually Dave strangled another duck to signal the end of the match and I have to say although the duck didn't sound too happy about it I was mighty relieved the match was over

I soon had my gear packed away and set off round to help with the weigh in

The little lake didn't fish too well and Malc won the section with a fine 73lb from peg 38  at peg 9 Gemma put 52lb on the scales to set the Minxed level and sank a lot of hearts mine included but if I'm honest after having sat opposite her all day I already knew she had beaten me

The top of the lake faired a bit better with both Ant on peg 18 and Steve on peg 22 putting just over the ton on the scales 

Then we arrived at the peg of an angling visionary  none other than the inventor of the feederless feeder Dave "Webbo" Webster who had put his new method to good use today to take 136lb of Rolfs finest Carp

Which unfortunately was only good enough for 2nd place today as Simple on peg 26 pipped him with a match winning weight of 144lb from peg 26

Mugger lived up to his name and after having a mare of a match on peg 28 managed to mug 5 or 6 Carp in the last 30 mins to take the section win and avoid a Minxing to boot with a fine 62lb

I was last to weigh in and as expected came up short of the Minxing bar with 46lb

Still things could have been worse and there's still 2 days fishing ahead

Once all the results were sorted it was back to the cars and tents to fire up the cookers and barbies and then time to sit back with a beer and as darkness fell over Oxfordshire enjoy the banter around another Maggotdrowners camp site

 Maggotdrowning Pairs  

      Match 2010

Saturday 7th August 2010

The first out in front at 8m in line with the blue hose

(Peg pictures from last weeks match)

With 2 hours to set up I was kicking my heals a bit as I still had the rigs from yesterday so I was set up in no time and was then sat on my box pondering how I could end up on the same peg 3 matches running and with another match tomorrow I was starting to get that gloomy feeling that this might not be my year



On the all in I shipped a pot of pellets into all the swims and like yesterday started off on the 8m line with a 6mm cat meat soft hooker on the hook and just like yesterday the float tip stayed dry
I kept the feed going in behind the bush as I caught all the fish yesterday from that swim and I'm hoping to draw some of the better fish into the swim today
Budgie next door on peg 31 was getting a few fish out in front
But was also loosing a lot of them



Mugger over on peg 13 seemed to be having a bit of a better time on his Nemesis today and was getting a few fish



After his success with the "feederless feeder" on peg 24 yesterday Webbo was brought down to earth today and appeared to be fishing the "fishless hook" on peg 11 today
Looking along the line it seemed that the lake was fishing better today as just about everyone on the car park bank had a fish on at the same time



Dave Collier over on peg 14 for the second day running was having a bit of a gruller



At last my float buried and I was off the mark with a 9lb 04oz weigher
My 8m swim was starting to produce fish although no more weighers I was starting to put a few fish in the net and it was starting to look a bit more promising
Mick the chippy was here again this year and had drawn peg 9 and was starting to get a few lumps on the board
Webbo had given up on the "fishless hook" and had swapped to the pole which brought a bit of success



After a couple of hours my 8m line had all but died so I swapped to the line at the back of the bush first put in with an 8mm banded pellet on the hook and the float buried and I soon had another weigher on the board in the form of a 12lb common
There were plenty of fish behind the bush but getting them out was turning into a very frustrating game I was getting a lot of foul hookers and hook pulls as I tried to get the fish round the bush and out into the open water but it was looking like the big fish weren't playing again today as all the fish I did manage to get round the bush were net fish
John Bennett had a couple of visitors who were fishing the lake in a few weeks time and had come down for a visit to see what the place was like and he had just told them that it was unusual for a pole to get broken and no sooner had he said it their was an almighty CRACK from peg 34 as Mitch's pole exploded Just then my float buried and as I was trying to drag the fish out from the bush CRACK my number 5 section exploded
It took a while for it to sink in that my pole had snapped as I stood rooted to the spot watching the top 4 and half sections of my pole get towed off towards the little lake 
Fortunately John Bennett was a bit quicker and leapt into action casting a line across it and managed to snare the rig
I ran down to peg 33 and managed to grab the pole as John pulled it into the bank
I then discovered that the fish was still attached so had to play it from peg 33 and it took ages to land this was some sort of mental Carp it just wouldn't give up
Eventually I got it in the net and to my amazement it was only about 5lb and hooked in the mouth too



As I'd landed it outside my peg with the help of John and his rod too I released the fish as it wouldn't have counted but I did give it a slap (when John wasn't watching)  for breaking my pole
No sooner had I got my sections back and Alex over on peg 8 had his number 3 snap CRACK John raced back with his rod but Alex's top kit was long gone as John walked back up to the hut there was an almighty CRACK from peg 25 where Malc's top kit had just exploded
By now the 2 visitors were slowly backing away from the lake with worried looks on their faces with John doing his best to convince them that this wasn't normal
So back on peg 32
I'd just about given up the will to fish now  John had managed to trim my section and telescope it so that I could carry on  but if I'm honest my heart wasn't in the match any more
Peter came round for a chat as his peg had died so he was having a walk and taking a few photos we did have a discussion as to how many lorry loads of cement it would take to fill in pegs 32 and 13 but in the end decided that the bleepers on the lorry's would be heard and we'd get caught



I managed another 3 or 4 fish before the final whistle which I was mighty glad to hear
I packed my gear away and walked it up to the car then headed off round to help with the weigh in I must say that once again it was the same people that got stuck in with weighing and returning the fish which is a bit annoying as it ends up with 3 or 4 people doing all the work while the others just wander round talking waiting for some one else to weigh their fish the whole idea is everyone helps with pulling the nets out of the water and dipping and returning the fish it makes it faster and a lot easier and there's nothing more annoying than seeing a young chap half your age swanning about while your sweating trying to lift nets onto the scales and as for the excuse that you can't help because you haven't got your waterproofs on ? it's not rocket science don't get changed until the weigh in is finished (Rant over)
The bottom end of the little lake fished quite well with Jon Hatch on peg 39 just sneaking over the 100lb    mark Gem had a bit of a mare on peg 1 with only 45lb to show for her efforts then Tony put a fine 197lb on the scales from peg 3 for 2nd place he also managed to snap his Beastmaster number 5 section which is a bit spooky but Tony being Tony he also did for a top kit too
Simon on peg 17 weighed in 155lb for 3rd on the day and Malc took top honours today with a cracking 211lb from peg 25 
I was last to weigh again and did slightly better than yesterday with 74lb
So that was day 1 over Gem and I had a terrible start to the weekend and were well out of the frame Tony and Geoff are in first place going into tomorrow
With the weigh in done it was time to fire the cookers and barbies up
Then sit back and relax with a beer and absorb the liberal doses of banter up late into the night

I'm still unsure and starting to loose confidence in the pole but I have put yesterdays broken number 5 down to me trying to drag the fish out from the bush with the tip of the pole under the water which put too much stress on the number 5 section sounds good but who knows

As draw time approached I made note of Muggers location and made sure I was well away from him

I eventually arrived at the front of the line surely I couldn't draw peg 32 out for the 4th time in a row I dipped into the bag grasped a peg and nervously peaked in expecting to see 32 but was pleasantly surprised to see 14

I was getting liners straight away but had to wait for about 30mins for my first bite which resulted in a Carp of about 7lb

The whistle came too soon today as I was enjoying the day far better than my last few matches down at Rolfs

Word had it that Gemma had done well from peg 8 and the Minxing bar could be set quite high today

Chris had the best weight from the little lake and the only weight over a ton today with a match winning weight of 111lbs from peg 7

Gemma had indeed done well today with 50lb from peg 8 which gave her 6th place today and a lot more scalps to add to her Minxed list

On peg 14 I managed to weigh 60lb which gave me 3rd place in the match today and Tony on peg 26 took 2nd place with 90lb

Sundays Results

Final Pairs Results

 Big thanks to Dave Webster for running the match and also to John and Pauline Bennett for allowing us to stay at the lake and fish both days

A Jinx weekend

Jinx Match 4

I'm back down at Rolfs lake in Oxfordshire today for the 4th match in the Jinx series

As there was a night match fished down at the lake last night hopefully there would have been a lot of bait gone in and the fish will be really up for it today

So all my drawing hand has to do today is draw a peg that was fished last night and to make it easier for the fool I have given it instructions to pull peg 9 from the bag

What could be easier ?

Once everyone had arrived and no we weren't waiting for Malc as for some weird reason he was at the lake early today the draw got under way

This week it is a free draw to mix all the sections up for the second half of the series so everyone has the whole lake to draw from (except for me of course as I'm destined for peg 9 )

Any way to save you having to read through a tirade of abuse directed at the bumbling fool lets just say I was soon on my way round the lake to peg 4

Peg 4 is not so bad as I have fished it quite a few times so hopefully I will get a few fish today and seeing as Gemma has drawn peg 9 it's looking like I will need to get quite a few to avoid a Minxing

Just to add to my fast sinking day the Jinx rolled up to tell me we were drawn in same section for the rest of the series and even better he was on the next peg to me today

My plan for today is a very simple 1 as I have had some good weights from peg 4 in the past fishing out in front at 7m and in the right hand margin under the tree

So that's my plan for today the first swim out in front at 7m

And I have set up 2 rigs for that swim both identical on Jon Walker 0.3g Diamonds on 0.20mm Silstar line 1 rig with a size 16 B911 tied direct and 1 with a B911 size 12 tied direct both set to fish at dead depth

For the margin swim I also set up 2 rigs the first was a Jon Walker 0.3g short Margin on 0.20mm Silstar line with a B911 12 hook tied direct and the second was a Malman medium paste float again on 0.20mm Silstar line with a B911 size 12 hook tied direct

On the whistle I shipped a pot of pellets into each swim then went out over the 7m line with a 6mm catmeat soft hooker on the size 16 hook The float settled then bobbed up and down the buried and I was into a fish straight away

After a bit of a battle I slid the net under a nice 15lb common

I have to say that both Malc and I thought it was getting on for a 20lber as it was quite a lump and it had quite a belly on it too but the scales only went to 15lb

I went back out to the 7m line with another 6mm catmeat pellet on the hook and after a couple of mins the float buried again and I was soon up at the scales weighing a mirror of 11lb 04ozs back out to 7m with another soft hooker on the hook and after a short wait my float buried again and I was on my way up to the weigh station again this time with a mirror of 11lb 08ozs things were starting to look good 15mins gone and I have 37lb on the board

Webbo over on peg 34 seemed to catching a few on the feeder but no one else in the small lake was catching

After the 1st hour I had 3 weighers on the board and 3 fish in my net but the 7m swim had died off a bit suddenly my float buried again but this time it felt very different as the fish just headed off up the lake towards Malc on peg 5 and had no intention of stopping I managed to ship the pole back and get the top kit off but by then the elastic had bottomed out and I was deathened by the loud expensive explosion that all anglers dread as my top kit exploded

From the look of it the bung had been pulled up too far into the section and it just blew apart I still had hold of the bung that was now protruding out of the no2 section and was just about to ship it back to get hold of the no1 when the line snapped on the crows foot knot

So that's a broken top kit and 1 of my favourite Jon Walker Diamonds gone

From then on things just got worse I was unable to get any bites at all on the 7m line

So I swapped to the margin swim

I couldn't get a touch on corn or banded pellet but eventually an 8mm cube of meat brought a bite which resulted in a net fish of about 5lb from then on I suffered with a string of foul hooked fish and annoyingly a lot of them waited until I was just about to net them before the hook pulled which left my rig stuck up in the branches of the trees around the peg which resulted in 3 trashed rigs

By now people were starting to walk round the lake and word had it that everyone was suffering from foul hooked fish all round the lake

But worse news of all it appeared that Gemma was bagging up on peg 9

As Malc came round for a walk I had just hooked into another fish and he stayed to spread the full force of the Jinx effect

I got it round from the margin and shipped back in ok

Top kit off and give it a lift ready for netting

Opps! it's realized that it's hooked

The fish heads off round the bush towards Malc's peg

And once again the hook pulls

Nick across on peg 38 was catching well now and most of his fish seemed to be weighers and I could hear a lot of splashing from Malc's peg so he must be catching a few now and I'm sure he was paying Liam to come round and tell me how many fish his dad was catching

For the rest of the match I stuck it out in the margin

Hoping that the big fish would turn up and get their heads down but it never happened in the end I managed 10 net fish from the margin and 1 more weigher which I think was 9lb 08ozs as I was up at the weigh station I noticed that both Malc and Gemma had over 100lbs on the board looks like I may be Minxed today by Gem and thrashed off the next peg by Malc

In the last 10mins I lost 3 foul hooked fish which just about summed up my day  at 6.30pm Malc called the all out and that was match 4 over

I packed my gear away and pushed it round to the car then set off to help with the weigh in on the way round the lake the main topic of conversation was the prospect of being Minxed and also the speculation the Nick W-P had at long last after 6 years of trying done the ton at Rolfs

At peg 4 my fish weighed 97lb

Malc put a fine 176lb on the scales to take the section and the overall win  and with Nick on peg 38 doing 123lb that left me in 3rd place in the section

The Minx silenced the crowd that were following the scales with a fine 126lb from peg 9 and all thoughts started to turn to Pink Hats

Fred ran Malc close with 173lb from peg 15 for 2nd place on the day  and the only other person to escape a Minxing was Mugger on peg 18 who was lucky enough to save a few silvers to weigh in which just eased him past the Minx point

Round on peg 26 Nick W-P achived his PB match weight and first Rolfs ton with a fine 109lb although he still got Minxed

With the weigh in done and all the results sorted the only thing left to do was for the Minx to select the victim to wear the Pink Hat on the next match from those that she beat today and she sure had a lot to choose from

Well what can I say

At least I won something today

Position	Peg	Name	Weight
1st	5	Malc Doyle	176lbs 04ozs
2nd	15	Fred Parker	173lbs 00ozs
3rd	18	Peter Morton	133lbs 12ozs
4th	9	Gemma Doyle	126lbs 12ozs
5th	38	Nick Williams	123lbs 00ozs
6th	26	Nick W-P	109lbs 12ozs
7th	4	Clive Pritchard	97lbs 12ozs
8th	13	Marcus Burgess	92lbs 08ozs
9th	14	Simon Mound	90lbs 08ozs
10th	17	Steve Wilson	88lbs 08ozs
11th	34	Dave Webster	81lbs 00ozs
12th	32	Mitch Auger	79lbs 00ozs
13th	2	Paul Dolby	68lbs 04ozs
14th =	31	Terry Goff	66lbs 04ozs
14th =	25	Ant Haywood	66lbs 04ozs
16th	10	Al Loader	57lbs 12ozs
17th	23	Dave Moore	57lbs 00ozs
18th =	22	Tony Roberts	47lbs 12ozs
18th =	8	Geoff Palmer	47lbs 12ozs
20th	11	Jon Hatch	36lbs 00ozs
21st	20	Matt Edwards	35lbs 04ozs
22nd	7	Dave Collier	30lbs 00ozs
23rd	19	Steve Akal	27lbs 13ozs
24th	28	Paul Roberts	24lbs 00ozs
25th	36	Dai Thomas	15lbs 08ozs
26th	40	Kevin Loveland	3lbs 12ozs

Ade was  missing today so our points took a bit of a hit in the pairs but we are still in 2nd place and only 3 points adrift with 2 matches still to go and as for the individual I am in 4th place and only 2 points behind so it's still all to play for
It was certainly a frustrating day today fishing wise but as ever the banter from the Jinx crew more than made up for it
Roll on next weekend as I have the Jinx night match on Friday and Jinx match 5 on Saturday

Fish to Win

Rolfs night match

I installed my new elastic in all my top kits this week and was a bit keen to give them a try out
A quick check on Eddies website and I found that there was a night match on Friday  down at Rolfs lake in Oxfordshire
A quick phone call to John Bennett and I was booked onto the match

With the draw starting at 6.30pm I could finish work at my normal time and get across to the lake in time for the draw but it would mean getting up early to load the car so I could take all my gear to work with me
As soon as work finished I was in the car and off to Rolfs like a shot
As the anglers started to arrive ready for the draw it was becoming clear that to make it into the top 10 tonight with the likes of Mick Lane , Jon Walker and Chris Telling to mention but a few in the field was going to be no mean feat  and as everyone gathered it was becoming like a who's who of Rolfs venue experts 
At the draw bag I pulled peg 17 out



Not a good draw as pegs 9 and 32 are winning every thing at the moment
But I'm only really here to test this new Vespe elastic and get it set up ready for the next Jinx match so as long as I have a few fish I will be happy
As I arrived round at peg 17  I noticed that we were going to be a bit crowed tonight with pegs 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ,17 and 18 all in



Plan tonight is simple
First line out in front at 8m



Next on the bush in the margin to my left



And 1 on the bush in the margin to my right



I had a set of lights right behind me so when it gets dark and John throws the switch I should have no problem seeing my float



Setting up next door on peg 16 was Budgie who was down at the lake trying to sneak a practice in before the next Jinx match too and the other side on peg 18 was Chris Telling (looks like I could be in for a whipping off the next peg )
On the all in I shipped a pot of pellets into all the swims
All my rigs are my usual Rolfs rigs with Jon Walker floats on 0.20mm Silstar line with B911 hooks in either size 16 or 12 tied direct
I started off out at 8m with a 6mm catmeat soft hooker on the hook and after about 5mins my float buried and I had my first fish on
The orange Hollow Vespe felt nice and powerful and had more of the feel of red hydro than the red bungee that I have been using this year as I shipped the pole back it became apparent that the Vespe was much better as with the Bungee the fish would have been straight under the bushes either side or round my nets but the orange Hollow brought it straight to the net and I soon had a mirror of about 7lb in the net
For the first couple of hours the fishing was a bit difficult as I had the sun full on in my face and as the sun went down the reflection off the water was terrible
I was catching a few fish but nothing exciting John Hague on peg 32 was back and forth to the scales like a demon weighing fish and word had it that John Bennett on peg 9 was bagging too
But down our end of the lake it was a different story Chris on peg 18 was struggling to find any fish I was catching the odd fish the only person that was getting a few was Eddie over on peg 23
Eventually it got dark enough for the lights to go on and we were soon fishing under flood lights
I swapped over and fished the margins for the rest of the match and added a few more fish to the net and a few weighers on the board the best of which went 16lb 04ozs
When the whistle went I knew that I had no chance of making the frame as most of B section had all caught well 
A lot of the others round the lake had struggled with a few packing up early and heading off home but I thought I had around the same as Chris on peg 18 but we had no chance of the section money as Eddie on 23  had beat both of us
I ended up with 80lb and Chris just pipped me by 6lb with 86lb which left us 7th and 8th overall and Eddie beat us both with 100lb
John Hague took the match win with the best weight from the lake this year of 397lb from peg 32

All in all I enjoyed the match caught a few fish and got my elastic set up ready for the 4th Jinx match
After the match Pauline had the BBQ fired up with plenty of food for everyone  but due to my early start this morning I headed off home to bed