The Jinx Series 2009

Match 1

It's time for the Jinx again and like last year all 5 rounds of the series are being run at Rolfs lake in Oxfordshire

Well I've been waiting ages for this series to start  and with the sun cracking the paving slabs I headed off to Rolfs for the 12 noon draw

I arrived about 11.00am as Malc was due to have his ponytail cut off

Peter of course was more than willing to oblige him

And he was also having his head shaved to raise some money for the Maggotdrowners site  

I reckon it's a ploy to get a free hair cut myself  

And what's the betting he manages to sneak in a free bath before the days out too

With all the excitement over and everyone assembled and all the nets washed dipped and put out to dry

The draw got under way

The little lake is the place to draw today and my drawing hand had strict instructions to pull peg 4 out for me

Unfortunately as I approached the bag I saw peg 4 sitting on the table having already been drawn

I came away from the bag with peg 19 a peg I've fished the odd once or 20 times before so I wasn't too unhappy (looks like my drawing hand won't be getting accidentally shut in the door this time)

Peter my pairs partner for this year pulled peg 13 out usually a good draw but I fear today it's gong to be little lake or nothing

Dave Webster founder owner and head honcho of Maggotdrowners had driven down for the day with Steve Steak to fish as guests and were both rewarded with decent pegs in the little lake Dave drew peg 7 and Steve pulled peg 2 out of the bag so the long drive will have been worth while as they should get a few fish

The other guest fishing today is Simon E and he is standing in for Fred Parker who can't make it today and judging by Simons recent draws at Rolfs he seems to have a golden hand as he pulled peg 6 out  and should be sat on a shed load today

Peg 19 looked nice and fishy as usual

At least the fish aren't in the margins spawning yet so we might be in for a decent days fishing

I had a lot of time to set up as the match wasn't due to kick off until 2pm (not always a good idea to have too much time as I tend to change my mind and formulate silly plans etc )

But my eventual plan for the day turned out to be along the line of my usual line for peg 19 with a line out in front at 7m

Another tight to the end of the bush over to my right

And a line on the bush to my left

I also set up a shallow rig in case the fish came shallow

And as all the Jinx matches this year are pole only  that was me set up and ready for the off

2pm arrived and Malc called the all in

I shipped a pot of pellets out to the 7m swim and was just shipping back in when I heard the thud of 25 hearts stopping as the Minx made it known she had netted her first fish of the day

I tipped a pot of pellets into the other 2 swims then went out over the 7m line with a 6mm dampened fishery pellet on a B911 size 16 hook tied direct to 0.20mm Silstar line under a Jon Walker 0.3g Diamond float set to fish at dead depth

I threw a hand full of pellets over the top of the float and lifted and dropped it a couple of times and as the float settled after the 2nd drop it sailed away and I was into my first fish of the day  and after a spirited battle I slid the net under a fine 8lb common

I then spent 10 bite less min's watching a motionless float

A swap to a grain of corn on the hook brought an instant response and I was into a decent fish and soon had my first weigher of the day on the board a nice common of 14lb 04oz but again the swim died so I tried a cube of meat on the hook and once again had an instant response and soon had a mirror of about 9lb in the net

I re-fed the swim and gave the bush swim a try to my right over by the boat

The rig for this swim is a B911 size 12 hook tied direct to 0.20mm Silstar line under a Jon Walker 0.3g Diamond float set to fish at dead depth

I lowered the rig in tight to the bush with an 8mm hard pellet banded onto the hook and fired a pouch full of pellets out with the catty

3 or 4 mins passed then the float shot under the bush ripping my hydro out  after a lot of tooing and froing and a fair bit of standing on tippy toes I had another common of around 9lb in the net

Looking around the lake I could see Dave (Webbo) on peg 7 catching well and a few others along the car park bank catching the odd fish but no one seemed to be bagging I was just sat pondering how badly this end of the lake was fishing as there had been a match on the lake every day last week with the exception of Friday so a lot of bait had gone in and we were expecting it to fish it's nuts off today but I suspect that pegs 19 and 21 were left out as there weren't that many people fishing the matches in the week then all of a sudden my pole shot under the bush and woke me up  I shipped it back and eventually got the fish under control and after a bit more tippy toe action I got my second weigher of the day on the board another common of 15lb 12oz

So with 2 hours gone I had 2 weighers on the board and 3 fish in the net but looking round my section I wasn't doing too bad so might be there or there abouts but this is Rolfs and anything can happen it's possible to get 150lb in the last hour if not more if the fish suddenly turn up

So I was a bit surprised to see Pete Thatcher packing up and going home after 2 hours because he wasn't catching  because as I said it's possible to win the match in the last hour even if you have been blanking for the first 4 hours but hey ho

Malc came round for a walk and stopped for a chat seems my partner Peter had a senior moment and recorded his first weigher on the board under Malcs peg instead of his own must be his age  bless him

For the next 3 hours not a lot happened I tried all the baits I had and gave all 3 swims a shot but the fish just weren't having it I had 3 or 4 foul hookers that I lost and I managed to land 2 more fish both about 9lb 1 caught from the bush to my right on meat and the other out in front at 7m on banded pellet

At one point I noticed Malc slipping in for a wash under the pretence of freeing a snagged fish from the bush

And that was about it 7pm Malc blew the whistle and round 1 of the Jinx was over all I had to hope now was that Gemma hadn't had another red letter day and Minxed the lot of us

I got the gear packed away and back in the car and headed off round to help weigh in

Simon E won the match with a fine 222lbs  and got into the Jinx 100lb+ club on his first attempt Also joining him in the club are Al, Simon and Dave

At the other end of the table a few more made in onto the Minxed list  (you know who you are)

Position	Name	Peg	Weight	Section points
1st	Simon Enticott	6	222lbs 04ozs	Guest
2nd	Al Loader	8	162lbs 04ozs	1
3rd	Simon Mound	4	161lbs 06ozs	2
4th	Dave Webster	7	138lbs 00ozs	Guest
5th	Ryan Hughes	28	96lbs 12ozs	1
6th	Steve Wilson	16	91lbs 04ozs	1
7th	Keith Fellows	34	85lbs 00ozs	3
8th	Nick W-P	9	79lbs 12ozs	2
9th	Clive Pritchard	19	75lbs 00ozs	3
10th	Paul Roberts	32	66lbs 12ozs	2
11th	Tony Roberts	31	64lbs 08ozs	3
12th	Malc Doyle	14	56lbs 08ozs	4
13th	Terry Goff	27	56lbs 04ozs	4
14th	Steve Steak	2	54lbs 04ozs	Guest
15th	Nick Williams	38	53lbs 08ozs	4
16th	Pete Morton	13	46lbs 12ozs	5
17th	Dai Thomas	17	45lbs 04ozs	6
18th	Mitch Auger	40	41lbs 08ozs	5
19th	Ade Williams	25	40lbs 12ozs	5
20th	Ieuan Davies	21	32lbs 08ozs	7
21st	Jon Hatch	18	30lbs 04ozs	8
22nd	Gemma Doyle	36	20lbs 08ozs	6
23rd	Dave Moore	24	7lbs 12ozs	6
24th	Andy Spruce	23	6lbs 08ozs	7
24th	Ant Haywood	10	6lbs 08ozs	9
26th	Pete Thatcher	29	dnw	9
	Tim Westmoorland		Did not fish	9
	Dave Collier		Did not fish	9
	Fred Parker		Did not fish	9
	= minxed

As for the pairs Peter and I are in 7th place after match 1

All in all it was another great day out with a great bunch of guys and gals  and 7 fish for 75lb ain't a bad result from any fishery

Next round is back at Rolfs on 13th June 2009