Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. August 8th-9th, 2009.

Maggotdrowning.com

 

Rolf’s Pairs Tournament 2009.

So 7am and the sun is shining through the bivvy door as I raised myself from my slumber. First things first and on with the kettle for that first cup of coffee to jump start my brain. Terry greets me with several expletives as it seems my snoring woke him around 6am, I reckon it was just John mowing the grass. I was going to catch a lift with the lads down to Tesco’s for a bit of brekkie, but missed the lads, so Paul, Terry and I decided to pop up to the services for breakfast. Let’s just say that it filled a hole and leave it at that.

Back to the Lake and today there’s going to be 30 members of the Maggotdrowning forum assembled from all over the country fishing the 2009 Maggotdrowning.com Pairs Tournament, a 2 legged affair that gets fished over both the Saturday & Sunday. It’s very much a social occasion apart from the matches, and as such is always oversubscribed and has become an annual fixture in the forum calendar. This is the 4th year running that the competition has taken place. I was fortunate enough to win it with Tony(spamwham)Roberts in 2007, and would love to be the 1st person to win it twice, as I’m sure any of the other previous winners would.

Soon the car park was full, and as people sorted themselves out for the weekend ahead the banter was flowing. I had a chat with Simon and Budgie who had decided to stay on even though he wasn’t fishing, The excitement was too much for Gemma however who snatched 40 winks (probably dreaming of Minxings to come) ……

At 11 o’clock the draw for the Pairs was made by Gemma who had risen from her slumbers. Not Experts and Novices this year as the majority fishing now have various degrees of experience at Rolf’s. Some interesting pairings came out and I found myself paired with my fellow MD’s moderator Dirk. With the draw for todays match not being till 12·30pm I took a stroll round the lake with Terry, and as is usual at Rolf’s there were plenty of Carp sunning themselves in all the swims ………

Where did I want to draw? well anywhere between peg 1 and 8 would do me, in fact anywhere but 13. Getting back to the car park for the draw I noticed that some wag (Vince) had written ‘Peg 13′ by my name on the draw board, It couldn’t happen could it?

 So at 12·30pm the draw started with Webbo drawing 1st and ending up with peg 11, the same one he’d struggled on yesterday. I then stepped confidently forward stating “Let’s get peg 13 out of the way then” and promptly drew it !!!!!!!!! Gutted, though the assembled crowd found it hilarious. The rest is a bit of a blur as various lads offered their sympathy …………. NOT.

Well I walked my gear round to you know where, with the match being fished from 2-7 there was plenty of time to set up and it really wasn’t going to take me long as I still had my top kits set up with the rigs from the previous days match, so no need to go over the details of them here. I’m sure you’re all fed up with looking at the photo from behind the peg, so I had a stroll along the bank to get a different angle on things………

I stopped and had a chat with Webbo, and he didn’t seem to be to enthused about his chances and then stopped for a chat with Clive who was looking a bit happier with his prospects for the match ahead……

Looking at the draw I had to fancy Paul East (peg 9) and (peg8) Dave Moore’s chances in the Pairs today, while a Golden Nugget looked to be in danger as Vince had drawn peg 6. Looking across from my peg as I waited for the off I could see Dirk on peg 29, Malc on peg 30, Tony on 31 and Tim on 32………

So 2pm and John rang the fishery bell for the All-In, feed as per yesterday and out with a banded pellet at 6mtrs. Not a lot happened though, a few bubbles were rising from the swim, but there were no bites to be had. I plugged away but from what I could see sport in general appeared to be slow, though Paul on peg 9 was getting a couple ……

Half an hour in and I had a bite !!!!! I was so shocked that I missed it but latched onto a foul hooker. Lots of elastic poured out of the top kit as I was obviously attached to a Carp via its tail. Despite loads of encouragement I managed to get it to the net, a weigher to get me off the mark.

Paul Thompson had a bit of a mare as he was connected to a Carp when the sound of smashing carbon was heard leaving him to play the fish on the remains of a shattered top 2……

A few more foul hookers followed for me, none of which I landed, so feeling that I was getting nowhere fast, I decided to feed and have a short stroll with the camera. Dave Moore on peg 8 had got off to a good start and was picking up a few fishing paste down the track and was into another fish as I watched.

…… Unfortunately a bit of a disaster was to befall Dave a few moments after this though, as his keepnet fell in and by the time he retrieved it 3 carp had escaped.
Simon, over on peg 34 had hooked a big Carp which ploughed into the lillies on his right hand side, he tried to free it but only succeeded in breaking his No 4 section. Lucky Mitch was on hand and soon stripped down to his boxers and recovered his top kit.

Gemma’s customary scream was heard from peg 22 meaning a few more hearts dropped, and with good reason as she was receiving a bit of coaching from visiting Rolf’s regular Eddie Turner-Green on the finer points of paste fishing, something that Eddie excels at.

Bill was up on peg 20 and had endured a fishless 2 hours before he’d had his 1st fish, a decent weigher at 14¾lbs to get him off the mark at last.

Now a bit of light relief is always nice to raise the spirits when things are tough, and today it was provided by Terry on peg 15. It turned out that his landing net had parted company with his handle as he tried to land a Carp, and having lost the fish he was faced with having to take a dip to retrieve it. Well it would have been rude to have ignored the photo opportunity wouldn’t it.

Things really didn’t improve a lot for me, I was simply plagued with foul hookers though I did manage another couple of smaller fish that had actually taken the bait……

Opposite me my pairs partner Dirk was suffering too, while Malc had sat doing his best garden gnome impression for over 3hrs before taking his 1st fish ……

In fact Malc was about to provide one of the funniest moments of the day …… Now Malc likes to sit with his pole between his legs, and after lifting into a bite and missing it a Carp must have grabbed the bait and powered off, the force of which pulled the pole down and the butt right up into his family jewels !!!! You could hear the scream across the lake, the fish got off leaving Malc to wipe the tears from his eyes while receiving sympathy from all those around him ……… NOT.

Clive was sliding a few into the net on the quiet, but was having a bit of a problem with his keepnets that were floating around in front of him, and in the end would cost him 3 lost Carp ……

Tony was another enduring a frustrating day as he tried to get to grips with fishing paste on peg 31, even picking John Bennett’s brains, but they weren’t really having it despite Tony striking like Zorro on numerous occasions, though he did finally manage to connect with a couple……

I managed just one more before John rang the fishery bell for the All-Out at 7pm, and I have to say that I was glad to hear it after enduring what had been a very frustrating 5 hours for me. All that remained was to pack the kit away before the weigh-in, and I was seriously debating whether to just leave it there. It was just a question of if I’d suffered a Minxing and whether Vince had taken a Golden Nugget off me as well. All would be revealed by the weigh in.

So the Weigh-In started with Simon on peg 34 who put 41¾lbs on the scales to kick things off. This was swiftly overtaken however, firstly by Alex Malman (peg 37) who weighed 83lbs+ and then his brother Gaz who recorded 113¾lbs from peg 38. Vince had managed 56¾lbs from peg 6 and I knew that my 18 month run had come to an end and a Golden Nugget would be going his way at last. Dave Moore’s 116¾lbs from peg 8 proved to be the winning weight on the day despite his earlier disaster with his keepnet. Clive’s 110¼lbs from peg 10 gave him 3rd place on the day and Webbo’s 52¾lbs from peg 11 meant another Nugget disappearing to Yorkshire as my 39½lbs came up short. Indeed with nobody else threatening the frame, It was just a question of whether I could avoid a Minxing ? I avoided that by the skin of my teeth as Gemma’s fish came to exactly the same weight as mine at 39½lbs. Malc’s weight of 80½lbs was the best from the final pegs.
So with the Weigh-In over the inquests started, and Eddie was good enough to capture the moment when I had to part with a Golden Nugget and hand it to Vince……

 Dave Moore & Paul East were leading with 13 points while Dirk and I were stone cold last with 44 points. Paul, Vince and I popped down to the pub for a couple of drinks with Dirk and his son, before raiding Asda’s for something to pop on the barbie for dinner and the evening wound down with a chin wag and a few beers round the barbie before I hit the sack around 1·30am. What would tomorrow bring? We’d soon find out.

 

Sunday, August 09, 2009

I stuck my head out of my sleeping bag around 7am and it was obvious that plenty of people were already up and about. This was probably down to the fact that people had to get their bivvies and all the other paraphernalia packed away prior to the match so after a couple of cups of coffee and a bite to eat it was time to dismantle my bivvy and get it packed away into it’s improbably small bag. Considering that I only use it once a year it always amazes me that I manage to do it, but once more it went away OK.

Now we were going to draw at 11·30am and fish from 1pm-6pm in order to allow everyone to get off homeward at a reasonable hour. Having got all my gear packed away I came across our hosts for the weekend John & Pauline tucking into a spot of breakfast themselves.

There was a bit of speculation as to whether I could possibly draw Peg 13 for a third day in a row (How much suffering did people want to see me go through?) and it had been agreed that I would draw first to put myself out of my misery. So at the appointed time I dipped my hand into the fateful draw bag, and pulled out …………………………………….. Peg 20. (Not the best of pegs, and 13 would probably fish it’s head of today) It was a shortish walk anyway and Bill had briefed me on how he’d fished it yesterday. For company I had Dave(Rockyroads)West on peg 19 and Tony on peg 22, while Webbo was next up on peg 23.

Setting up was a simple job as I still had the top kits set up from yesterday and with just 8 inches less depth I merely adjusted the depth of the rigs that were already in place. So plenty of time till the off, meaning a stroll with the camera was in order. Down on peg 34 Paul was settling in and with his partner Dave having drawn peg 9 it looked as if they would take all the catching, though it wasn’t impossible…

Tony(teepee) was settling in next to Paul on peg 35, and it was good to see him fishing again after he had to miss out last year when he was taken ill ……

My partner Dirk had drawn peg 38 and appeared to be warming up with a bit of Tai Chi, and a repeat of Gaz’s performance off that peg the previous day would be the minimum we needed (No pressure there then)……

I couldn’t help noticing Gemma on peg 8, she’s good enough to Minx a lot of us, without her drawing a flyer like peg 8, but I’m sure it was a cunning plan to distract us further by fishing in those shorts ……

As I made my way back I had a brief chat with Vince who’d drawn peg 32, and I feared he’d be taking another Golden Nugget home with that peg today. I also saw that Bill was settling into peg 11 which hadn’t really produced all weekend.

Back at my peg it was just a question of waiting for the All-In and Rocky did the honours with my camera (more like a condemned man waiting for the gallows)

Anyway at 1pm the All-In sounded and we were off, I fed a line at 7mtrs out in front and another to the bush to my left. Starting with hard pellet and alternating between those, expanders, paste and corn produced not a touch, though Tony was off the mark pretty quickly with a decent fish. The Big Lake was pretty slow however, and word had it that the Little Lake was the place to be today. Rocky had managed a nice common and had then lost another. In fact most people had taken the odd fish, mostly on the pellet waggler and Webbo had taken a couple on a floating rocket feeder. For me it was just a question of keeping faith and hoping that something would turn up. I did get the pellet waggler out briefly after Simon had threaded the line through the rings for me (I was struggling without my glasses), but was pretty restricted in where I could cast so soon gave it up as a bad job and went back to trying the bush to my left……

One person who did seem to be doing OK though was Mitch who was on peg 13, fishing up in the water at 13mtrs, I’d seen him going to the scales with weighers on several occasions. Simon had managed to extract a couple of fish from peg 15, and had resorted to fishing at 14½mtrs to try and nick a couple more……

Gemma had been noticeably quiet on peg 8, despite Simon reckoning that she’d caught, but when she let out a scream halfway through I thought I was in trouble. Webbo had nicked a couple more and I’d seen Vince picking John’s brains about peg 32 and could see him into a fish, so that wasn’t looking good either in the Golden Nugget department……

I finally managed to tempt a Carp from the bush, nothing big at around 7lbs, but a fish none the less. Al seemed like he was in pretty much the same boat as me, and just sticking it out in the hope that they would turn up……

With about an hour to go I managed to get another Carp from the bush, again around the 7lb mark, and next put in hooked another that I played with kid gloves. However Webbo just couldn’t resist saying “make sure you get that in the net” , which of course was the cue for the hook to come free leaving me muttering under my breath.

With half an hour to go I had a final bite, but rather than a surging run from a Carp there was just momentary resistance before a skimmer of about 2½lbs slid over the net. Not quite what I was after, but welcome none the less. Finally at 6pm the All-Out was sounded, and I have to say that I felt glad it was over, and was quite happy to pack my kit away and get it back to the car.

Paul East was first to weigh and his 69¼lbs from peg 34 would net him 6th place on the day bringing him good points. However Gaz on peg 37 blew everyone away with 165lbs and the win on the day. Meanwhile his brother Alex on peg 40 weighed 79lbs for 5th overall. Malc weighed 93½lbs from peg 4 for 3rd, while daughter Gemma only managed 16¼lbs off of peg 8. Dave Moore had a mare on peg 9 managing just 18lbs throwing the whole match wide open. Mitch weighed a very creditable 89¼lbs from peg 13 for 4th overall. Round to my peg where incredibly my 2 carp and a skimmer weighed 16¼lbs meaning I’d tied with the Minx and escaped again for the second day in a row.
However I lost another Golden Nugget to both Webbo and Vince, while Scott recorded the best weight off the car park bank with a fine 94¼lbs on the day for 2nd overall.

So back to the fishery hut and while Dave sorted through the points the banter flowed. It transpired that 1st day leaders Dave Moore & Paul East had been pipped by a single point in the final reckoning, which meant that the winners of the Rolf’s Pairs 2009 were………….
Alex Malman & Dave Collier Congratulations to both of them.  

Finally a few words of thanks are due to
John & Pauline Bennett for allowing us the use of their superb fishery during the weekend.
Dave Webster, for bringing us all Maggotdrowning.com and organising the whole weekend.
Finally, all the anglers that took part, It’s you that make the weekend the success it is.

 Overall Pairs Result.

Position	Pairs	Points
1st	Alex Malman & Dave Collier	42 pts
2nd	Dave Moore & Paul East	43 pts
3rd	Gaz Malman & Alan Loader	45 pts
4th	Mitch Auger & Scott Weston	48 pts
5th	Chris Kendall & Adrian Wood	52 pts
6th	Bill Bibbins & Tony Roberts	53 pts
7th	Malc Doyle & Mick Pearson	56 pts
8th	Clive Pritchard & Ant Haywood	57 pts
9th	Tom Little & Chris Ellis	61 pts
10th	Dave Webster & Gemma Doyle	67 pts
11th	Dirk Williams & Peter Morton	79 pts
12th	Simon Mound & Colin Sharrard	80 pts
13th	Terry Goff & Tony Prentice	80 pts
14th	Vince Gould & Tim Westmoreland	82 pts
15th	Paul Thompson & Dave West	82 pts

Saturday Individual Result.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 8	Dave Moore	116lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 38	Gaz Malman	113lbs 12ozs
3rd	Peg 10	Clive Pritchard	110lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 37	Alex Malman	83lbs 05ozs
5th	Peg 30	Malc Doyle	80lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 18	Chris Kendall	72lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 17	Chris Ellis	69lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 25	Paul Thompson	60lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 6	Vince Gould	56lbs 12ozs
10th	Peg 20	Bill Gibbins	55lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 11	Dave Webster	52lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 9	Paul East	49lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 34	Simon Mound	41lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 31	Tony Roberts	41lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 2	Tony Prentice	40lbs 06ozs
16th=	Peg 13	Peter Morton	39lbs 08ozs
16th=	Peg 22	Gemma Doyle	39lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 19	Scott Weston	38lbs 08ozs
19th	Peg 7	Mick Pearson	36lbs 08ozs
20th	Peg 14	Terry Goff	30lbs 04ozs
21st	Peg 16	Dave Collier	28lbs 04ozs
22nd	Peg 15	Alan Loader	26lbs 08ozs
23rd	Peg 40	Colin Sharrard	20lbs 12ozs
24th	Peg 35	Mitch Auger	15lbs 00ozs
25th	Peg 32	Tim Westmoreland	12lbs 08ozs
26th	Peg 23	Adrian Wood	10lbs 00ozs
27th	Peg 4	Tom Little	9lbs 06ozs
28th	Peg 29	Dirk Williams	7lbs 00ozs
29th	Peg 26	Ant Haywood	3lbs 08ozs
30th	Peg 28	Dave West	DNW

Sunday Individual Result.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 37	Gaz Malman	165lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 26	Scott Weston	94lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 4	Malc Doyle	93lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 13	Mitch Auger	89lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 40	Alex Malman	79lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 34	Paul East	69lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 6	Chris Kendall	66lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 31	Clive Pritchard	53lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 2	Chris Ellis	49lbs 12ozs
10th=	Peg 11	Bill Gibbins	39lbs 04ozs
10th=	Peg 38	Dirk Williams	39lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 30	Dave Collier	37lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 29	Adrian Wood	36lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 15	Simon Mound	31lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 23	Dave Webster	30lbs 04ozs
16th	Peg 16	Paul Thompson	28lbs 12ozs
17th	Peg 7	Ant Haywood	23lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 25	Tom Little	22lbs 04ozs
19th	Peg 22	Tony Roberts	22lbs 00ozs
20th	Peg 17	Alan Loader	19lbs 12ozs
21st	Peg 32	Vince Gould	19lbs 04ozs
22nd	Peg 28	Terry Goff	18lbs 12ozs
23rd	Peg 35	Tony Prentice	18lbs 08ozs
24th	Peg 9	Dave Moore	18lbs 00ozs
25th=	Peg 8	Gemma Doyle	16lbs 04ozs
25th=	Peg 20	Peter Morton	16lbs 04ozs
27th	Peg 10	Tim Westmoreland	15lbs 12ozs
28th	Peg 19	Dave West	9lbs 08ozs
29th	Peg 18	Mick Pearson	7lbs 08ozs
30th	Peg 14	Colin Sharrard	DNW