Easter Festival Day 1.

3rd April 2010

Well it's the first day of the Easter festival down at Rolfs lake in Oxfordshire today

I've not had much luck down at Rolfs so far this year so hopefully today will be a bit better . Although looking at the recent results the lake hasn't been fishing too well

I arrived in plenty of time to pay my festival money and stock up on some pellets and corn and once everyone had arrived the draw got under way

The draw today is a random draw and then for the next 2 days the festival reverts to the winter league style of drawing i.e. section rotation so everyone fishes 1 match in each section

As 1 person pulled out at the last moment it has messed the sections up so there will be 2 sections of 8 and 1 of 7 but all the pegs will still be in which will no doubt cause problems at some point

One problem it caused right from the off was we wouldn't be able to use the weigh stations as both ends of the lake have 2 pegs each and a weigh station and if 1 of these pegs were not drawn then the other person would have no one to witness the fish so to save problems John has allowed all fish to be put in the nets

Not good for the bigger fish but what can you do  

Don't you just love people that drop out of matches

Still at the draw I pulled peg 24 out in C section bit of a result not often I draw in the 20's at this time of year John Bennett won yesterdays practice match from peg 24 with 71lb so hopefully I should have a few fish today although word has it that he caught a few on the tip which is a bit silly as the festival is pole only

As he went past John told me that he had caught a few on the pole at 13m but he also said that most of the fish were over in the bay around peg 15 today so it looks like I have drawn the wrong side of the lake

As the others went round to their pegs I got a better idea of who was in my section and by the look of it I had drawn in a section with quite a few good anglers in it and looking a cross at peg 15 I could see Matt Smith setting up that'll be 1st in section sorted then

My plan of attack today is quite simple I'm setting up just 2 lines 1 out in front at 13m and the other out in front at 6m

I put another section on and found the depth was about the same at 14.5m so if I need to I can go out to 14.5 with the same rig

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

Dave on peg 23

Gary on peg 26 and also the new steps on peg 25

Derek up on my favourite peg 19

On the all in I shipped a pot of pellets out to 13m and another out to 6m as I looked round Mark Malin on peg 27 was just netting a fish closely followed by Matt Smith on peg 15 looks like it might fish well today then

In fact after about 30 mins everyone in my section had landed a fish well everyone except me that is I was having a bit of a mare every time my float went down it had a foul hooked fish on it which pinged off as soon as I lifted into it

I tried my shallow rig but couldn't get a bite on that and moving out to 14.5m made no difference either

I tried soft pellet, banded pellet, meat and corn but couldn't get a proper bite from any of them Dave on peg 23 was loosing a few foul hookers too but was also landing a few Matt Smith over on peg 15 was getting a fish almost every put in but by the looks of it a lot of them were foul hookers to

After about 2hrs I gave up trying to get a bite fishing long and moved onto the 6m line

It started to rain quite hard so I put the brolly up and decided to just sit it out on the 6m line and wait for the fish to arrive if nothing else I should stay dry

As I sat under my brolly wishing a painful death to all those around me that were catching fish I was shocked back to reality "where's me float gone!!" a quick lift and the pleasing feel of a bit of weight followed by some elastic coming out the end of the top kit bit weird though not much of a fight and not much elastic either

All was soon explained as a skimmer of about 2lb flopped onto the surface and slipped into my net not what I was hoping for but it was a fish and I was at last off the list of potential DNW's

Back out to 6m and dropped the rig back in with again a 6mm cube of meat on a size 16 B911 hook tied direct to 0.18mm Silstar line under a 0.4g Jon Walker Diamond float set to fish 3 inches over depth and joy of joys the float slid away again sadly not a Carp but I soon had another skimmer of similar size in the net next 2 put ins had the same result but the fish were both smaller probably around the 12oz mark

Next put in and nothing the float sat motionless either it was game over or the Carp had moved in

5 mins later I had the answer as the end of my pole disappeared under the surface attached via an ever expanding piece of elastic attached to a very angry Carp not game over but game on!

By the end of the match I had managed another 5 Carp giving me a total of 6 Carp and 4 skimmers

Matt over on Peg 15 had walked the section and had well over 200lb Derek up on peg 19 had caught a fair few as had Dave next door on peg 23 but I reckoned I had just about caught the rest up

Although I did loose a lot of fish in fact 1 complete monster bottomed my elastic out some where down by peg 9 by the feel of it I though I had it at 1 point as it plodded about in front of me for about 10 mins and I was just starting to get it up in the water when it turned shook its head and plodded off towards peg 9 eventually the hook straightened

In total I lost about 12 fish most were foul hooked 1 straightened the hook and 1 hook pulled due to my trying to bully it

but if there not in the net they don't count and everyone lost a lot of fish today just 1 of those days I guess

When the scales arrived at my peg my fish moved them round to 65lb not too bad considering the start I had to the match 65lb put me mid section with 4 points

And looking at the weights from the little lake where I am tomorrow looks like the draw to avoid is either peg 35 or 37 who both struggled with 1 Carp a piece today

Note to left hand if I see either of them pegs tomorrow your going to be spending a lot of time on the naughty step !!

Results.

Easter Festival Day 2.

4th April 2010

Back down to the lake for day 2 of the Easter festival and the weather is looking quite good for today so hopefully the fishing will be better
I'm in A section today which is the little lake and like everyone else I'm hoping for peg 7 or 8

As I walked back to the car to collect my gear after my brief visit to the draw bag I was torn between sending my drawing hand to spend some prime time on the naughty step and slamming the dozy t*@$ in  the car door

So peg 35

Yep peg 35

 

On the upside my new trolley had bit of a longer run today and it even looks quite cool in the lake side settings



Still the days not a total write off as I seem to have brought some joy to my kind hearted fellow competitors as they push their gear round to their pegs and a few even stopped to commiserate with me and tell me how peg 35 was the 1 peg they would have hated to have drawn before walking off with beaming smiles
I in turn wished them good luck and hoped that a plague of killer ants infested their underpants

Did I mention my new set of wheels and rod bag ?

Ah well peg 35



So there I was sat on peg 35 and a fishing match broke out
thank god I wasn't involved



Oh well back to the festival



Matt Smith pulled another flyer out of the bag and was soon setting up on peg 8

 

and Colin was on peg 34 next door to me so if nothing else I can watch those 2 catching all day

My 1 plan for today is to fish long towards peg 6 and hope to snag a Carp



After the 1st hour had passed I had counted all the pellets in my bait box and had just started to line all the grains of corn up
Colin was catching well next door fishing to the rope and Matt over on peg 8 was catching well too so it looked like it would be between them 2 for the section win in fact everyone in the section had caught Carp so far with the exception of 1 person



by the time we got into the 3rd hour I was so bored I was trying to strike up a conversation with 1 of my maggots
At this point I gave up on the Carp and decided to fish for a few silvers just to get something in the net to save the dreaded DNW
I caught a few Roach and Perch at 6m all on red maggot and although I was catching a few fish at last everyone else was still catching Carp so I was wasting my time with the silvers so I plumped to sit it out for a Carp for the remainder of the match and I doubt if anyone else was as happy as me to hear the whistle today
At the weigh in I ended up with 3lb 5oz of silvers for last in section Matt won the section with 89lb and Colin was second with 86lb
C section fished it's nuts off with some good weights and everyone catching the fish up in the water
Still there's always tomorrow

Results.

A SECTION

B SECTION

C SECTION

Easter Festival Day 3.

5th April 2010

Back down to the lake today for the final day in the Easter festival and I'm hoping for a better day today
At the draw bag I came away with peg 27 result at last



I was hoping for 27 or 14 so peg 27 will do me



plan today is to fish out in front at 14.5m and the general feeling was that the fish would be on the deck today rather than up in the water like yesterday as it's a lot colder today and a much stronger wind blowing down the lake
So I set up 1 rig to fish at 14.5m another to fish a 13m and a shallow rig just in case they did come up in the water and I also plumbed up a line at 6m just in case the wind really got up



No point messing with silvers today as I've totally blown out of the festival with yesterdays result so it Carp or nothing today for me
Matt Smith has 2 section wins so far and he has drawn peg 9 today another good peg and is looking odds on to win the festival although his travelling partner Mark Malin has had another good draw he had peg 27 day 1 peg 15 day 2 and today has peg 7 that's some drawing hand

On the all in I shipped a pot of pellets out to 14.5m then dropped in over the top with a 6mm banded pellet with in minutes of the whistle Matt Smith on peg 9 had a fish on as did his mate Mark down on peg 7
Mark Bedford was next door to me on peg 26 in fact I got battered off the next peg by him last year when he won the festival with 3 section wins he was also fishing long and seemed to be foul hooking and loosing a lot of fish



In my section a fair few fish were being caught Matt was catching on peg 9 as was Derek on peg 10 Dave on peg 30 was catching and also the guy on peg 14 was catching I like on previous days was not catching
After about 2hrs I gave up on the 14.5m and came in and tried the 6m line but that was totally dead
So I went out to 13m and after trying all the different baits I had the float shot under with a 6mm GOT baits catmeat soft hooker pellet on the hook I missed the bite but hey at least it was a bite
On with another pellet and back out this time the float slid under and I lifted into a fish as soon as I hooked it I could tell it was another skimmer and after gently shipping it in slid the net under a skimmer of around 2lb another DNW avoided
Back out to 13m with another pellet on and after a bit of lifting and dropping and feeding a couple of pouches of pellets the float shot under elastic shot out and it was Carp on!
after a battle that the Beastmaster was more than up to I slid the net under a lovely common of around 10lb
Back out with another pellet and just as I was about to ping some pellets out with the catty the end of the pole started turning and out came the elastic again fish on I soon had a common of about 8lb in the net too
in the next 30 mins I had another 2 Carp both around the 6lb mark
Then the swim died almost as if the Carp dropped down from the top of the lake then turned and went back up
For the last hour I sat it out and waited and with about 2 mins to the whistle my float buried and I was in again and soon slid the net under my last fish of the festival again a common of about 8lb
And that was that I had 5 Carp and 1 skimmer
Both Matt and Derek had 7 Carp a piece so it would be close between them for 1st place and both Dave on peg 30 and I had 5 Carp each the pegs either side of me struggled and I think ended up on 1 Carp each



1 downer on the day was the guy on peg 14 got disqualified for cheating apparently he was warned before about using a puller bung and he used it again today so fair play to John rulz is rulz

When the scales arrived at my peg I managed to weigh 41lb which put me in 4th place in the section and no where in the festival
Matt won the section with 64lb which gave him 3 section wins and a perfect score of 3 points for the festival win

Thanks to the guy that dropped out of the festival peg 34 wasn't drawn today which ment that peg 35 fished it's nuts off
always in the wrong place at the wrong time


Results

A SECTION

B SECTION

C SECTION

Festival final POINTS

Position	Name	PTS
1	Matt Smith	3
2	Mark Malin	6
3	Mark Bowerman	7
4	Derek Hammond	7
5	John Bennett	8
6	Tim Guise	9
7	Lee Giles	11
8	John Hague	12
9	Andy Chandler	12
10	Dave Whiteman	12
11	Jason Astle	12
12	Phil Powell	13
13	Chris Telling	14
14	Colin Wedgebrow	15
15	Mick Lane	16
16	Mick Hughes	16
17	Mark Bedford	16
18	Clive Pritchard	16
19	Gary Haisman	17
20	Chris Walters	17
21	Andy Johnstone	18
22	Paul Glenfield	21
23	Paul Newbury	22

Still all in all I enjoyed the festival the weather wasn't too bad and as always the company was good and I had my elastic pulled a few times
So I'll be back next year

Big thanks to John and Pauline for all the effort they put into running the festival and for the food Pauline laid on after the match on day 3