Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. May 30th, 2009.

The JINX Series 2009

Match 1.

Well today saw 26 nutters lunatics fools anglers assembled at Rolf’s for the start of this years JINX Series. This has become a “Must Fish” series of matches for me since I started fishing it back in 2005, and with 5 rounds to the Series this year, and there’s bound to be more than a few tales to tell over the course of the matches.

I’d been looking forward to today with a fair deal of anticipation as the matches are more like great days out with a bunch of mates rather than a match, so I was up bright and early and soon had the car loaded and was off to Battersea for my customary breakfast stop. Suitably fortified by a Full English and with the sun beaming down from a gloriously blue sky it was back into the car for a smooth drive down, with a further stop at the Services for Coffee before pulling into Rolf’s car park around 10am, to be greeted by John and a few of the Welsh contingent who were already there, having stayed down for the whole week.
1st things 1st, so the nets were dipped and laid out to dry, before John filled me in with how the place had been fishing and what he’d been up to since my last visit. The most notable addition being the aerators that he’s purchased and is in the process of installing. Soon the car park started to fill up, including Simon Enticott along with Dave(Webbo) and Steve(Steak) who’d travelled down from Yorkshire to fish as guests .

 Even Malc (With Liam and Crystal in tow) was early, which was hard to get used to, especially as in a moment of madness he’d volunteered to loose his ponytail to raise money for MD’s. I’d brought my clippers with me, so at 11·30am Mugger’s Barber Shop was open for business.
Fair play to him, he didn’t cry much as his beloved ponytail escaped to freedom………

swiftly followed by the rest of his locks …………

With suitable moral support from the assembled crowd…………

Click this link to see Simon’s video of Malc losing his hair.

So with the hairdressing done for the day it was time for the draw. Into the bag and I found Peg 13 was my home for the match. I’d never fished it before, but John confirmed that it could be good, a comfy 8 mtrs out in front and down the edge to the right once the fish move in being the plan. Settling in there was plenty of time to prepare as the All-In wasn’t till 2pm. With this years JINX Series being ‘Pole Only’ setting up was reasonably easy.

A MW 0·4g XT for the 8mtr line on the deck (it’s a line through the body design that’s nice and strong)on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 Drennan Carp Match and a MW Trev with similar line and hook for up in the water that could double up down the side, while a third rig consisting of a Malman SC paste to 0·22 Power Match with a size 12 Drennan Carp Feeder hook for paste down the Side. Bait for the day was a mix of various pellets, paste, corn and meat, with feed taken care of by 4 and 6mm fishery pellets.

It was turning into scorcher but a bit of a breeze kept things comfortable. I must admit that I would have preferred to have drawn on the Little Lake today as I’d seen plenty of fish there earlier, but with any peg capable of throwing up a decent weight I wasn’t to despondent.

So 2pm and Malc called the All-In and in a matter of seconds a scream arose from the Little Lake as Gemma netted her 1st fish of the day (and had a load of us worrying about being on the wrong end of a Minxing) Shipping out to 8mtrs with a 6mm expander on the hook followed by a handful of pellet the float settled and after about 30 seconds buried!!!!!! Fish on and a good un by the feel of it, then the rig flew back with a scale on the hook. Another handful of pellet out to 8mtrs and another down the edge before I shipped the rig out to 8mtrs once more. Again after about a minute the float buried with exactly the same outcome.


Now I’ve experienced this before at Rolf’s and it can be very hard to overcome. I altered the rig to lay a couple of inches of line on the deck and baited with double corn. Keep topping up the pellet in both swims and ship out. Nothing !!! keep lifting and dropping the rig and after around 5 minutes the float slid gently away. Lifting into it there was solid resistance but it didn’t power off like a lunatic and gentle pressure saw me soon net the fish, a scale perfect Common and a definite weigher, it went 12lbs 4ozs on the scales, a lovely way to get off the mark.

Unfortunately another 5 minutes went by without a bite. I’d seen that Tony over on peg 31 had a couple of weighers as had Paul on peg 32……

Sprucey over on peg 23 was really struggling and from what I could see hadn’t had a bite yet alone a fish……

and Ant on peg 10 to my right appeared to be in a similar boat and doing a blinding impression of a Garden Gnome ………

My reverie was broken however by the float sliding away to the depths once more, and after a spirited fight another weigher slid into the landing net, this time a Mirror of 9½lbs. Young Ryan Hughes on peg 28 (fishing his 1st Jinx match) was starting to put a few together…………

In fact most of the anglers that I could see on the car park bank seemed to be getting the odd one or two with the exception of Pete Thatcher on peg 29. Indeed, not long after he packed up and left!!!
I was still struggling with just another couple of foul hookers and a few bumped roach to show for my efforts as Malc did his customary lap of the fishery offering words of encouragement (Yeah, Right) with Liam and Crystal in tow.

I had a few fish cruising around in pairs in front of me, but despite switching to the shallow rig couldn’t interest them.
Meanwhile Terry over on peg 27 (Who was fishing his 1st Jinx Match) was getting the odd one that stretched his elastic right out ………

Malc returned with news that the Little Lake looked like the place to be today with pegs 4,6,7 and 8 all producing fish.
I had a look down the edge with the paste rig, more in hope than expectation as I hadn’t seen a single sign of a fish there, and after 30 minutes gave it up as a bad job. However there were a few shouts of encouragement from the car park bank directed towards Malc’s swim, so I decided to investigate only to find him up to his armpits in the water. A fish had snagged him in a sunken branch, and as he could feel that it was still tethered he’d gone in to free it. Well that was his excuse, I reckon he fancied a bath to go with his new haircut ………

Up on peg 19 I could see Clive (my Pairs Partner for the Series) plugging away, not the best peg on the day, but if anyone could find a few from it, Clive should be capable as he’s fished that peg more than a few times………

With nothing down the edge or up in the water I decided to concentrate at 8mtrs on the deck for the remainder of the match.
Back out with a single grain of corn on the hook, and after about 10 minutes fish no3 arrived in the form of a 6lb Common, quickly followed by another couple of foul hookers that vanished at a rate of knots towards the Little Lake.
By now Simon E was really getting into the swing of things over on peg 6 and steadily pulling away…………

Dave was making the most of having drawn noted peg 7 and was well on the way to recording his best ever match weight ………

With around an hour to go I managed 2 fish in 2 put in’s, a couple of Commons, both around the 7lb mark. However it didn’t herald the start of a great last hour as I only managed 1 more fish and that was foul hooked in the tail and fought like something twice it’s size.

Malc called the All-Out at 7pm to end what had been a frustrating match for me. As I walked my gear back to the car park it was obvious that the Big Lake hadn’t really produced the goods today, and this was born out as we made our way round with the weigh-in.

Keith Fellows on peg 34 kicked things off with the discovery that one of his nets had a large hole in it, so missing out on a certain ‘Ton’ weighing just 85lbs. Simon leapt into the lead on peg 4 with 161lbs 6ozs, though it would only prove to be good enough for 3rd as next up Simon E on peg 6 put a match winning 222¼lbs on the scales. Next up Dave(Webbo) put a new PB match weight of 138lbs on the scales from peg 7 that would only give him 4th place as it was beaten of the next peg by Al’s 162¼lbs, giving him 2nd on the day.
Nick on peg 9 managed 79¾lbs, a new PB match weight (That first ‘Jinx Ton’ can’t be far away now) while my fish came in at 46¾lbs, which if nothing else saved me a Minxing and got me a £1 off Gemma. Steve won his section with 91¼lbs from peg 16 and young Ryan won his with 96¾lbs from peg 28.

So that was it for the 1st match of the Series. Not quite the result that some of us were looking for, but I’m sure the fish are ready to spawn any day now, so hopefully when we’re back there in 2 weeks time they’ll have spawned and be ready for a proper munch. Well that’s the theory anyway, we’ll see for sure on the 13th.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 6	Simon Enticott          (Guest)	222lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 8	Alan Loader	162lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 4	Simon Mound	161lbs 06ozs
4th	Peg 7	Dave Webster           (Guest)	138lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 28	Ryan Hughes	96lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 16	Steve Wilson	91lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 34	Keith Fellows	85lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 9	Nick Watkins-Price	79lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 19	Clive Pritchard	75lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 32	Paul Roberts	66lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 31	Tony Roberts	64lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 14	Malc Doyle	56lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 27	Terry Goff	56lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 2	Steve Akal                (Guest)	54lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 38	Nick Williams	53lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 13	Peter Morton	46lbs 12ozs
17th	Peg 17	Dai Thomas	45lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 40	Mitch Auger	41lbs 08ozs
19th	Peg 25	Ade Williams	40lbs 12ozs
20th	Peg 21	Ieuan Davies	32lbs 08ozs
21st	Peg 18	Jon Hatch	30lbs 04ozs
22nd	Peg 36	Gemma Doyle	20lbs 08ozs
23rd	Peg 24	Dave Moore	7lbs 12ozs
24th=	Peg 23	Andy Spruce	6lbs 08ozs
24th=	Peg 10	Ant Haywood	6lbs 08ozs
26th	Peg 29	Peter Thatcher	D.N.W.