Barford Lakes. Norfolk. July 30th, 2005.

The Eastern Intersite Match.

Here’s the Maggotdrowning.com Team on the day

Paul(tommyturtle001), Andy, Dai, Gaz, Alex, Tony(gingert76), Dan.
Nick(Neo-1), Martin, Peter(Mugger).

Yet another 200 mile round trip for me today to yet another venue that I had never seen, but all in a good cause to support and represent Maggotdrowning.com in the Intersite series. It turned into a bit of a grueller for the team but a good day was had by all, and a BIG THANK YOU must go to Bob Bradford (swimfeeder) who stepped in to organise the day.

Nice to see that we kept our record on the day, as I believe that MD‘s is the only team that has had a full team of site members at every round. (What No Ringers!!!!)
In truth the venue favoured the locals and our result wasn’t helped by not being able to practice prior to the match and the bewildering number of bans that the fishery operates!!!!!


Here’s our results on the day……………

Dai Thomas (DaiFish)	31lb 10oz
Andy Marshall	21lb 01oz
Tony Luetchford (gingert)	17lb 12oz
Paul Thompson (TommyTurtle)	17lb 03oz
Alex Malham	13lb 13oz
Peter Morton (Mugger)	13lb 08oz
Nick Williams (Neo1)	12lb 01oz
Gaz Malham	9lb 02oz
Martin Scott	8lb 12oz
Dan Thomas	2lb 04oz

BW Makins Phase 3. Outer Avon. July 23rd, 2005.

The JINX Series 2005

Match 4.

Well Saturday saw me arrive at Makins for the 4th match in The Jinx summer series. Another new venue for me, so yet another step into the unknown.

Unfortunately owing to a double booking by British Waterways we had been moved from Phase 1 Lake 2 where we were expecting to fish and  had been relocated onto Outer Avon on Phase 3, however recent reports and results from Phase 3 didn’t bode well for the day ahead.

As a venue it looked fine, but the water had a strange stillness to it which gave me a bad feeling that I just couldn’t put my finger on.

I drew peg 23 and Geoff E on peg 22 soon informed me that we would struggle as he was a regular at Makins and knew that it hadn't been fishing well recently. 

Plenty of grass growing through the platforms on most pegs rather gave the game away that it hadn’t received a lot of fishing pressure and I have to say Geoff was dead right.

After 5 hours 5 fish (all carp) from 6 bites gave me 10lbs 8ozs for 11th on the day.

At least I managed to win my section by default, giving me a brown envelope to cover my costs, my 3rd pick up of the 4 matches so far. 

Next comes Clattercote Reservoir in 2 weeks time.

Individual Results.

1st	Matt Nutt	36lb 12oz
2nd	Keith(Gandhi)Ashby	33lb 00oz
3rd	Neil McCurran	30lb 04oz
4th	Mark Causer	19lb 04oz
5th=	Roy Ravenhill	19lb 02oz
5th=	Steve Wilson	19lb 02oz
7th	Malc(The Jinx)Doyle	16lb 00oz
8th	Eric Robothan	14lb 06oz
9th	Paul Roberts	13lb 02oz
10th	Dai Thomas	10lb 14oz
11th	Peter(Mugger)Morton	10lb 08oz
12th	David Ashby	8lb 02oz
13th	Geoff Eggison	6lb 02oz
14th	Derek Robothan	6lb 00oz
15th	Nick Williams	4lb 12oz
16th	Dirk W	4lb 06oz
17th	Dan T	3lb 06oz

Stockton Reservoir. Warwickshire. July 9th, 2005.

The JINX Series 2005

Match 3.

Well I arrived at Stockton with plenty of time to spare having left early to try and miss any traffic that was heading to the Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The weather was glorious, a nice contrast to the dull grey of the previous 7 days in London, and as I strolled round taking my first look at the reservoir, I couldn’t help thinking that the stories I’d heard of the place being a heartbreaker in matches just had to be exaggerated.

Looking across at the boards I was shocked to see a fisherman already on the pegs reserved for the match…………

However although he was more successful than Scott, he wasn’t doing a lot of harm. 

Back at the car park Nick(monkey) had arrived, and with plenty of time we decided a pre-match pint was in order, so off to The Blue Lias for a drink in the garden, where we were joined by Keith and his son David. 

After a couple of pints it was time for a leisurely stroll back to the reservoir for the draw, where amid groans and laughs I found myself fishing peg 17. A quick chat with Malc recommended 7mtrs for proper fish or 4 mtrs for silvers, so off I set to see what Stockton had to offer.

I found myself between Nick(polepot) on 18 who was quick to inform me of his love of Stockton…………NOT.

and Dai on 16 so a few laughs would be had at least. 

The all-in was delayed by 15mins so at 2·15PM we were off.
Out went a method feeder to see if I could find a quick mug fish, but after 10 mins without so much as a knock that was filed away and it was pole time having seen Keith and young Dan nick an early Carp each on their poles.

Now paste fishing is not something I do a lot of, but having read plenty of Malc’s reports of his exploits with paste at Stockton, I’d come prepared with 3 balls of it already made up (nothing special, just green swimstim with some tuna Felix added) which I was going to fish over loose fed swimstim micro’s.

Plenty of knocks followed as Rudd attacked the paste, but after 30 mins the float just vanished down the plughole. Loads of what Malc refers to as ‘Knicker-elastic’ poured out of the end, and there was me thinking that I’d set it too tight! I finally got it down to my top 3 and then the fun began, these Carp don’t like coming off the bottom, but finally after about 5mins there was a nice mirror in the net of about 6lbs.

Sport for me was never fast and furious, but at regular intervals the float would vanish and another lunatic Carp would put in an appearance. 9 in all while another couple decided they wanted to reach the other side of the Reservoir resulting in hook pulls before I went water skiing.

Towards the end we were treated to Malc giving a Chub a flying lesson from under the boards, while Matt was seen standing on his Rive trying to get a carp in the net.

good job he had those new trays fitted. He’s now searching the Rive catalogue for the accessory step ladder. 

Finally Nick (neo-1) having gone out on a light rig to snatch a few Rudd to avoid the horror of a DNW latched onto one of the Carp that had avoided him all match and as the all-out sounded we were treated to the sight of him playing it on what appeared to be a top 8, and having manfully battled it close to his platform (with plenty of sympathetic support from his fellow anglers) it proceeded to smash his top kit and shed the hook! Never mind Nick, it’s what they call character building.

Come the weigh-in and the scales worked their way down from peg 24 where Eric’s dad Derek had managed a creditable 12lbs 8ozs (The same peg that Scott had managed 6ozs from on the previous weeks Intersite.) with Eric (ejayar) putting an excellent 30lbs+ of Rudd on the scales for a total of 37lbs 2ozs.

I managed 9 carp for 58lbs 10ozs to put me on pole as Geoff could only manage 54lbs 13ozs and Matt on peg 3 53lbs 6ozs. So finally to Dirk on peg 2 who put 9carp and a Tench onto the scales for 59lbs 2ozs and the win. I’m sure that Tench had been force fed ½lb of Lard though.

Back to the car park for the raffle and a bit more banter and that was it until a fortnights time at Makins. Can’t wait.
 

Individual Results.

1st	Dirk Williams	59lb 02oz
2nd	Peter(Mugger)Morton	58lb 10oz
3rd	Geoff Eggison	54lb 13oz
4th	Matt Nutt	53lb 06oz
5th	Roy Ravenhill	44lb 03oz
6th	Eric Robothan	37lb 02oz
7th	Keith(Gandhi)Ashby	33lb 00oz
8th	Dan Thomas	31lb 05oz
9th	Dai Thomas	26lb 13oz
10th	Mark Causer	18lb 06oz
11th	Steve Wilson	13lb 08oz
12th	Nick Jones	12lb 10oz
13th	Derek Robothan	12lb 08oz
14th	Dave Ashby	10lb 01oz
15th	Malc(The Jinx)Doyle	7lb 05oz
16th	Nick Watkins-Price	1lb 04oz
17th	Nick Williams	DNW

Willow Park Fishery. July 2nd, 2005.

Southern Intersite Match.

What can you say?
Team MD’s approached the match in their usual professional manner.

Preparation….. Absolutely None!!
Team Selection….. Last Minute Panic ….. But all members of the team were forum members.
Tactics….. Just catch a bleedin fish.
Objectives….. Enjoy the day.

The scene was set at 8·30am with a phone call from THE JINX informing me that he had taken a slight detour from Reading and was just turning round at Jct1 of the M3.

8·55am and My phone goes again, Yes you guessed it, it’s THE JINX again.
“I’m here at GOLD VALLEY but where is everyone else?”
My reply wasn’t really suitable to post here but was along the lines of ?*!!!$***   so I passed the phone to Dave the Fish to guide him in while I went in to draw for the team.

The match itself is probably best glossed over, as for most it was a bit of a struggle though special mention must go to young Ashley who along with his dad John stepped into the breach at the last minute and managed a creditable 25lbs 15ozs for 2nd in his section from the Middle Lake.

A vote of thanks also to Jason (NoFinFish) who popped down during the day to support the team, and Beebs who also put in an appearance and invited us back to his house for a pint after. Much appreciated mate.

Here’s how the team performed on the day……

Peter (Mugger) Morton	33lbs 14ozs	4 Points
Malc (THE JINX) Doyle	27lbs 12ozs	2 Points
Ashley (Stalker123) Griffiths	25lbs 15ozs	3 Points
Keith (Gandhi) Ashby	18lbs 14ozs	3 Points
John (Carper783) Griffiths	12lbs 12ozs	1 Point
Matt (Dark Horse) Nutt	12lbs 07ozs	2 Points
Daniel (DanFish) Thomas	5lbs 10ozs	1 Point
David (DaiFish) Thomas	4lbs 08ozs	1 Point
Nick (Neo-1) Williams	3lbs 00ozs	1 Point
Dave (TheFish) Collier	2lbs 08ozs	1 Point

My Thanks to all that fished, everyone tried their best and you can't ask for more than that.
And here's a few pics from the day.....

Ashley with Keith "Fishermans Blues" Arthur.

Dai struggling manfully trying to fish his "washing machine" swim...

Dan with a specimen Perch...

And a Bream for me...

and finally Malc & Gemma watch the Weigh-In...