The Jinx Series 2009

Match 2

Well the sun is shining there's no wind and it's lovely and warm and I'm on my way to Rolfs in Oxfordshire for round 2 of the 2009 Jinx series Happy Days

After the gruller last week just being here with the sun on your back is a bonus but I have to say the lake is looking in top form but word round the lake suggests it fished very hard on the Wednesday match so it could go either way today

All the Jinxers started to arrive for the 12 noon draw which looks like going ahead on time yet again (Jon Hatch must be getting worried by now )

Webbo and Steak are back down to fish as guests again this round (Webbo must have found a wallet or something  as I can't believe he is paying for all that petrol himself )

Waiting for the draw we were chatting as usual about which pegs we fancied for today as usual I had instructed my drawing hand to grab peg 4 for me but as long as I was in the little lake I'd be happy the one place I mentioned that I didn't want to draw was peg 23

So you can imagine the surprise as I opened the traitor attached to my left wrist to find peg 23 peeking back at me

As I unloaded the car Peter my pairs partner offered to slam my drawing hand in car door for me to teach it a lesson but I declined his kind offer as I have a rather dirty drain at home that needs unblocking and after this latest atrocity I know who is going down to unblock it

Peter had drawn peg 13 again and after struggling on it in the first round wasn't looking forward to it again today  looks like we won't be bothering the top spot for the title this year the way we are drawing at the moment

Any way I got all my gear along the bank to peg 23

It actually looks like a nice peg and when the fish are having it fishes it's nuts off

And with a bush either side I shall be spoilt for margin swims especially as there is no one on peg 24  Christ it almost sounds like I am happy to be at peg 23

For company on peg 22 I had Tony who like me would rather be any where rather than the 20's

And the other side on peg 25 was Fred who surprise surprise wasn't too impressed with his draw either

But this is Rolfs and any thing can happen  that's why we keep on coming back!

My plan today is to fish 2 lines out in front at 7m 1 for paste and the other for pellet/corn on the deck

Another tight to the bush on my left

One on the bush to my right

And I have also set up a shallow rig as it looks like a lot of the fish are up in the water

So that's me all sorted and time to take a pics

Looking across the lake on peg 14 I can see Gemma lets hope I'm not in for a Minxing today

But with the Jinx himself 2 pegs away on peg 20 who knows what bad luck will spread round to me

On the whistle I shipped a pot of pellets into each swim then went out over the 7m line with a 6mm soft hooker pellet on a size 16 B911 hook tied direct to 0.20mm Silstar line under a 0.3g Jon Walker Diamond float set to fish at dead depth I threw a handful of pellets over the top and lifted the float and let it settle I was just about to lift it again when it shot under and I was into a fish  30 secs gone and I've got a fish on perhaps this is going to be a good day after all  the fish didn't feel too big and I soon got it to the surface and saw it was only about 5lb so I gave it a bit of stick to try and get it in the net a bit quicker and lo and behold the hook pulled  what a plonker!! I've been all through this before with bullying fish and loosing them at the net looks like the lesson is still not learnt

Ah well on with another pellet and back out hopefully there will be more fish waiting

We then had a bit of excitement as Tony on peg 22 dropped his glasses into the lake  and not needing an invite Malc was round in a flash and into the water to try and find them for him

2 bite less hours later

Peter came round for a walk as he was having another mare on peg 13 with only 1 fish to his name and and a couple of lost foul hookers and took a still life memento of me suffering on peg 23

By now I had tried every bait I had with me I'd been up in the water on the deck in the margins and not had the slightest indication from anywhere so now I was pinning my hopes on the margin swims

1 bite less hour later

Back out in front with a soft hooker on the hook yet again

From what I could see I was about the only 1 in the section that hadn't caught a fish yet and even worse Gemma was landing fish at will  well sort of she had at least 2 in the net and a 15lber on the board and a Minxing was looking on the cards

Jon over on peg 17 was catching well as was Steve Wilson on peg 15 as word from the walkers has it the little lake is fishing hard too so either Jon or Steve could be heading for top spot today

While I was pondering this my float shot under and for the second time today I was attached to 1 of Rolfs finest this fish felt a decent 1 so I gingerly played it until it was ready for the net and after what seemed like a life time I eventually slid the net under a nice common that went 15lb on the scales  so at long last I was off the mark

I went for a walk along the bank to give the swim a chance to settle and also to get a photo of Peter on peg 13 for his blog

I also caught Dave (The fish) expressing the way most of us felt today

With only an hour left I decided to see if there was any action in the margins as the 7m line had dried up after my 1 and only fish so I went into the left hand margin with a cube of meat on a size 12 B911 hook tied direct to 0.20mm Silstar under a 4x14 Malman Thicko set to fish on the deck I moved the bait about 2 foot away from the bush lifting and dropping  and after 10 min's of working the bait the float suddenly shot under and I was in again this was a smaller fish of around 6lb and I soon had it in the net without to much drama

Half an hour left now and I can't buy a bite again Jon and Steve are both still catching and from the sound of it Malc is catching now too but Tony ,Fred and my self are staring down the barrel of a Minxing  and to make it worse the Minx had just landed another fish

Just as Malc called the all out my float buried and hydro shot out "FISH ON" I played it for about 5 min's again it was only a smallish fish of about 6lb and for some reason I decided to give it a bit of stick to get it in a bit quick (sound familiar ?) yep what a plonker  some people never learn and yet again the hook pulled  

And as I stood there speechless at my own stupidity I heard Tony say in the background "That about sums your day up" and so it did  started the day off fishing like a plonker and ended it fishing like 1 too

Ah well I packed my gear away and set off round to help with the weigh in

Al had a decent day off the peg I struggled on last week with 74lb off peg 38 Webbo drew another decent peg this week and made his long drive down worth while with 94lb off peg 6 but on the whole the weights were down all round with the only 2 weights over a ton coming from Jon on peg 17 who had a fine 104lb for 1st place overall  and Steve on peg 15 with 101lb for 2nd place  I only managed 21lb from peg 23 which left me well and truly Minxed along with 12 other poor souls Well done Gemma  I told you today was going to be a good day for you

Position	Name	Peg	Weight	Section points
1st	Jon Hatch	17	104lbs 12ozs	1
2nd	Steve Wilson	15	101lbs 00ozs	2
3rd	Dave Webster	6	94lbs 12ozs	Guest
4th	Simon Enticott	29	93lbs 00ozs	1
5th	Keith Fellows	7	77lbs 04ozs	1
6th	Al Loader	38	74lbs 12ozs	2
7th	Mitch Auger	32	60lbs 00ozs	2
8th	Terry Goff	4	56lbs 12ozs	3
9th	Steve Akal	40	56lbs 04ozs	Guest
10th	Ade Williams	37	55lbs 00ozs	4
10th	Dave Collier	28	55lbs 00ozs	3
12th	Ant Haywood	34	43lbs 08ozs	5
13th	Ryan Hughes	2	40lbs 12ozs	6
14th	Andy Spruce	9	36lbs 00ozs	3
15th	Gemma Doyle	14	33lbs 02ozs	4
16th	Nick Williams	8	33lbs 00ozs	7
17th	Dave Moore	10	32lbs 08ozs	5
18th	Malc Doyle	20	31lbs 12ozs	4
19th	Pete Morton	13	24lbs 08ozs	6
19th	Fred Parker	25	24lbs 08ozs	5
21st	Clive Pritchard	23	21lbs 04ozs	6
22nd	Paul Roberts	31	19lbs 08ozs	7
23rd	Tony Roberts	22	18lbs 00ozs	8
24th	Nick W-P	19	14lbs 08ozs	7
25th	Dai Thomas	11	7lbs 08ozs	8
26th	Tim Westmoorland	26	2lbs 00ozs	9
27th	Ieuan Davies	18	DNW	9
28th	Simon Mound	35	DNW	9
	= minxed

Well thats round 2 over even with the poor fishing it was still a good day out in good company at a fantastic venue

Roll on round 3 - my luck has to change soon

Next week I'm off to fish the Maggotdrowners Championships at Maver Larford