Sunday 31 July 2011

Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. July 30th-31st, 2011.


Maggotdrowning.com
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Rolf’s Pairs Tournament 2011.

DAY 1

Well having stayed over at Rolfs after Dave Collier’s match, I awoke around 7am to a lovely sunny morning, and a cup of coffee courtesy of Dave soon had the desired effect. A dozen of us had decided that The Harvester was the best option for breakfast and we were there for 8am when it opened its doors. Breakfast was soon ordered. However it has to be said that the service wasn’t quite what we expected, the chef obviously wasn’t ready for a dozen hungry anglers to descend first thing in the morning, and some of the orders went a little wrong, however eventually everyone was fed, though maybe not with what they ordered, but after a bit of negotiation by Dave Moore the bill for 12 breakfasts came to just £40.

Back to the lake, and the other anglers that were fishing were arriving, making a total of 28 members of the Maggotdrowning forum (20 of them being members of this years Jinx Squad) assembled from all over the country to fish the Maggotdrowning.com Rolfs Pairs Tournament 2011. It’s a 2 legged affair fished over Saturday & Sunday and this is the 6th year running that the competition has taken place.
Everyone waits for the draw on Saturday
There was plenty of banter flowing, with speculation about who would be drawn with who, and where the favoured draws would be. At 11·30am the fishery bell rang signalling the draw for the Pairs which was done by Paul and I and produced the following Pairs…………

        Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff & Kev(The Catch)Loveland
        Clive(black hydro)Pritchard & Tony(spamwham)Roberts
        Dave(The Fish)Collier & Paul(NMLW’s)East
        Peter(mugger)Morton & Richard(tricky)East
        Barry(Bazza C)Cullen & Alex(bagger j)Clark
        Malc(The Jinx)Doyle & Al(al)Loader
        Ant(antwood)Haywood & Gem(The Minx)Doyle
        Keith(keith74)Powell & Mitch(mitchfish)Auger
        Marcus(budgie)Burgess & Jon(hatchye)Hatch
        Steve(steak)Akal & Dave(webbo)Webster
        Dai(daifish)Thomas & Steve(smiler)Wilson
        Pete(crayfishtraps)Tapp & Scott(methodgob)Weston
        Simon(simple)Mound & Terry(auto)Pearce
        Nick(Neo-1)Williams & Dave Moore

With that out of the way it was time for the draw for todays pegs, and with the wind still blowing up into the Big Lake, that by general consent was where everyone wanted to be, so you can imagine my delight to find Peg 2 in my hand when I pulled it from the draw bag. Kev had fished it yesterday and struggled, but to be fair most of us had yesterday with only Dai sorting it out on the Little Lake.
Saturday pegging plan

Back to my bivvie where I collected my gear for the short walk round to peg 2. It was going to be a warm one with the sun blazing down, but I could at least see a few more fish showing than yesterday so hopefully sport might improve today. Webbo was grinning like the Cheshire Cat having drawn Peg 34 which is tailor made for his favourite ‘Feederless Feeder’ approach, Alex was next up on Peg 35 while Simps had drawn Peg 37 and Terry Peg 38. Paul had drawn Peg 40, Dai’s peg yesterday. Further round from me Ant was on Peg 4 and Gem (The Minx) was on Peg 5.
Peg 2 was my home for the match
Settling into the peg the 3 rigs I’d used yesterday covered my needs today although I re-tied the 0·2g NG XT Power Pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG for straight out at 5mtrs as I had around 4 feet of water, a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1 would be used to fish by the bush/grass to my right, and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1 would be used on top of the ledge tight to the bush on my left. With hindsight a mistake was to leave the feeder rod in its ready sleeve as I could have thrown a feeder to the trees on the left of the empty Peg 3 but I didn’t. Bait was 6,8 and 11mm fishery pellets and a selection of various GOT Baits soft hookers, along with sweetcorn and some paste.

A quick chat with Paul about our prospects and at 2pm John rang the fishery bell to signal the All-In. A pot of pellet onto the 5mtr line and a handful into the 2 margin swims was the opening gambit, followed by a 6mm pellet shipped out to the 5mtr line. A couple of dinks and the float slid away, not with the hoped for Carp, but a small scale perfect Roach, but at least I was off the mark. Looking across to 34 Webbo was already into what was obviously a Carp.

Paul soon reported that he’d been seen off by a Carp, so at least there were a few about and after half an hour it was my turn to latch into one and a few nervous moments followed before I slid it over the net, it looked like a weigher and Liam appeared and followed me over to the scales. 10¾lbs was the weight on the dial which Liam wrote on the sheet while I returned the fish.

By now Ant had started to target his right hand margin, tucking his float in tight under the overhanging bushes and was starting to pick up one or two fish……
Satimage044.jpg Ant fishing down the right hand margin on Peg 4
This ensured that there was plenty of banter back and forth across the lake between him and Simon. The two of them have had a bit of friendly rivalry going for a fair while and Simon currently holds the advantage, so it was a given that he’d try everything to stop that being whittled away.
With that in mind Simon was fishing long and shallow (one of his favourite methods at Rolfs) and was starting to put a few together himself ……
Simon fishing long on Peg 37
I managed to add another couple of carp myself before Jean arrived with a welcome cup of coffee.  Geoff Palmer appeared for a flying visit, having driven up from Wales along with Mags who’s still recovering from a broken femur, the lure of Rolfs proving just to much to miss out on completely, having had to pull out of this event to help Mags with her convalescence.
 
Paul was still struggling with just a couple of skimmers to show for his efforts, but it looked as if Terry was off and running as he carefully guided a Carp toward his waiting landing net……
Terry brings a fish to the net on Peg 38
The next fish caught me a little off guard as after lifting into a bite a decent Bream leaped clear of the water 3 times like a Dolphin before shedding the hook. The next one wasn’t so lucky though and after a couple of prodigious leaps it was soon safely in the net.

Time marched on and I realised I hadn’t heard the customary scream from Gem yet, However I heard Malc arrive to see how she was doing and he was more than a bit disparaging about the rig she was using and he let the whole lake know his opinion of it.

Looking over to Webbo, he was still putting a few together, but it appeared that he’d slowed down a bit, but he was still comfortably ahead of the rest of us in the Little Lake ……
Webbo on Peg 34
Indeed Alex next door to him on Peg 35 appeared to have gone over to the feeder in an attempt to tempt a few for himself……
Alex on Peg 35
With around an hour to go I’d looked up and noticed an awful lot of orange elastic coming out from Gem’s peg, sure enough she got the fish in and a shout of YYYEEESSS echoed round the bank side, leaving a few souls worried about a MINXING. The thing is Peg 5 has a habit of throwing up big fish late on if they move into the margins, and when she slid the net under another big weigher a few bums were definitely twitching.

Paul had finally managed a Carp down on Peg 40, but I’d lost a couple of foul hookers, one of which had me fearing for my pole as it bottomed out the elastic and just kept going before the rig came flying back with a huge scale on it, but I did manage another small Carp and a couple more acrobatic Bream before John rang the fishery bell at 7pm for the All-Out.

The gear was soon packed away and taken back to my bivvie before the Weigh-In got under way.

As usual it started from Peg 34 and Webbo kicked things off with a fine 138¾lbs and 2nd overall on the day while Alex had 37lbs. Simon had a creditable 73¼lbs while Terry suffered with just 20½lbs. Paul had just 26½lbs and my fish came to 57¾lbs, while Ant’s 89¾lbs gave him the verdict over Simon today.
Weigh-In
Gem’s 2 weigher’s came to 29¾lbs. Dai managed 78¼lbs and Terry 33¾lbs from Peg 8. Dave the Fish weighed a fine 82¾lbs from Peg 9 while Malc had just 3 weigher’s for 48¼lbs, and Tony on Peg 11 recorded 56lbs. Peg 13 came up trumps for Steve(steak) with 114lbs for 3rd on the day and put him and Webbo into a strong position in the Pairs. Clive followed that up with 111lbs, but Steve W took the honours on the day with 161½lbs from Peg 15 leaving him and Dai well in contention. Kev managed just 29lbs from 17 and Nick had 64¼lbs from 18. Round on 19 Al was a picture of misery with just 28½lbs and a MINXING as well, but Scott just avoided one with 32¼lbs. Mitch’s 63lbs just edged Jon’s 62½lbs. Pete, Marcus and Richard all had weights in the 40′s, Bazza had 37¼lbs and Keith 73¼lbs, Dave Moore being last to weigh with his 82¾lbs equalling Dave Colliers weight.

So back to the hut for the results and the scores from day one, and once they were all sorted Webbo and Steak were leading on 5 points from Dai and Steve W on 9 points, While Nick and Dave Moore on 18 points and Clive and Tony with 19 points were well within striking distance.

With that people drifted away to sort out their gear or some food for the evening. Malc though took Julie round to his peg for a go with his gear, and she was soon demonstrating that here was yet another Doyle capable of putting a few fish in the net......
 Jon got in on the act as well with young Sam getting a go of Dad’s gear before he packed it away for the day …
So although there hadn’t been huge quantities of fish caught today, it had proved to be a good day that almost everyone seemed to have enjoyed one way or another, though it had to be said that little Ollie finally found it all to much and flaked out having found a comfy spot ……

The chat and drink flowed long into the night, and was still going strong for some when I retreated to my bivvie around 11·30pm and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
_______________________________________________________________________
DAY 2


7am on Sunday morning and I’m woken from my slumber by Jean tapping on my bivvie to tell me there was a cup of coffee waiting for me. There are a few sorry looking sights to be seen, as it seemed the drinking went on well into the night and words were had at some point over a radio being played, however apologies had been offered and accepted and no real harm was done. Anyway first things first and it’s off to The Harvester again for Breakfast. It all runs smoothly today as we ordered in advance before we left yesterday, so with the inner angler satisfied it’s back to the Lake.

We are fishing from 12-5pm today, but the first job is to pack all the bivvies and tents away. Once again I manage to amaze myself by managing to pack the bivvie away into its unfeasibly small storage bag and get it and all the rest of the kit stowed away in the car.

Looking at the lake today it’s noticeable that the wind is blowing from the Big Lake straight down into the Little Lake today for the first time this weekend, so what’s the betting I’ll draw the Big Lake today. I didn’t have a long wait to find out as just after 10am the draw took place and I found Peg 10 was my home for the day.
Sunday pegging plan
Steak struggled for a single fish from there on Friday and Malc only had three from it yesterday, so I can’t say that I was full of confidence as I made my way round to it…
Peg 10 for me today
I had Steak to my right on Peg 9, but he was hidden by the bush, however to my left on Peg 11 was Dave Moore……
Dave Moore to my left on Peg 11
……. and Clive back on Peg 13 for the 2nd time in 3 days, and I have to say that the mustachioed one didn’t look to be to excited about it ……
The moustachio'd one didn't look best pleased with Peg 13
However with the 3 of us in a line and in plain view of each other there was bound to be a bit of banter during the match.

Malc had told me where he’d fed yesterday so the rigs were set up for those spots. Two 5mtrs lines at 10 and 2 o’clock to the platform taken care of by a Sackup CX 4×12 pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG. A 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1 would be used on top of the ledge tight to the bank on my left, while a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1 would be used to fish by the bush to my right. The usual suspects were on the bait table, 6,8 and 11mm fishery pellets and a selection of various soft hookers, along with sweetcorn and paste.

A quick stroll prior to the off found Terry(auto) back on Peg 8 for the second day in the row, Golden Hand or what !!!!!!!!!!! but it was what was on the back of his box that made me laugh a subtle dig in Webbo’s direction perhaps ……
Sunimage062.jpg It made me laugh
Midday and John rang the fishery bell for the All-In, a pot of pellet onto both 5mtr lines and a handful to the 2 others then I shipped a banded 8mm out to the right hand 5mtr line. The float settled and then buried and the resultant lift brought a pleasing resistance before a Bream of around 3lbs surfaced and slid over the waiting landing net. Disaster then followed after unhooking it as it flipped out of the net, hit the keepnet in front, landed on the platform, flipped again onto the frame of my silvers net and back into the lake !!!! Looking round I could see Dave’s shoulders shaking and I’m sure that Clive was grinning, It looked like it was going to be one of those day again.

Next up came a hand sized skimmer, no real compensation, but at least I actually had something in the net, but as I looked round Dave was carefully playing what was obviously a Carp that he’d hooked on the feeder. Of course I wished him well in his efforts to land it, meaning of course that the hook instantly gave way Did I laugh?…………..you bet I did.

Then a pattern started to form for me, I’d take a couple of silvers and then a Carp would be foul hooked and charge off at a rate of knots, before the rig would come flying back with a scale attached to the hook.

Clive was looking down his margin line, hoping some fish would turn up for him like they had on Friday, but it didn’t seem to be happening for him today ……
Clive hoped something would fancy his bait
Dave was the next to join me with a foul hooker, and this fish was ripping lots of elastic from his pole ……
Foul hooker took plenty of elastic
…… however the gods appeared to be smiling down on him as after a prolonged tug of war a double figure fish slid into his landing net ……
Safely in the net
As the match wore on things never really picked up for me, it was just a case of rotating between my swims and hoping that something decent would turn up among the silvers ……
I didn't have a lot of joy on Peg 10
Of the leaders going into the second day, Steak was having trouble keeping fish out of the bushes, and although he got a few decent ones out he lost an awful lot more and smashed a top kit. I couldn’t see his partner Webbo as he was tucked away on 14. Dai was opposite on Peg 31 and while he wasn’t catching a lot, those that were coming to the net appeared to be decent sized fish and his partner Steve W seemed to be taking fish on a regular basis ……
Steve Wilson was picking up fish on a regular basis
Dave Moore started to pick up weigher’s as the day wore on, and he walked past me with every one of them, this one proving to be the best of the bunch at around 15lbs…
A cracker for Dave
I could see my partner Tricky up on peg 19 along with John on Peg 20, but it looked as if we were on our way to finishing nowhere in the scheme of thing, just like last year in fact ……
 Tricky (peg19) and Jon (peg20)
Clive finally found a few fish, and was lead a merry dance by one of them as it dived under his keepnets, undaunted Clive managed to extract it and finally had it safely in the net……
Safely in the net for Clive
As the match wound down it was Carp 8 Peter 0 and the scales on my sidetray weren’t enough to complete the jigsaw of a whole Carp. I did manage 3 more decent Bream before the end, but if I’m honest I was quite relieved when John rang the fishery bell for the All-Out at 5pm. I soon had my kit packed away and back to the car park before I set off to catch up with the Weigh-In.

It had started from Peg 34 as usual where Dave the Fish had put 48½lbs on the scales, Simps had 39½lbs while Pete(crayfishtraps) on 37 recorded 20½lbs and Nick 36lbs from 38. Malc had made the most of the Wind blowing into Peg 40 with a fine 121lbs that would take the honours today. A shock was that Gem had only a single fish of 4½lbs from peg 2 saving us all from a MINXING. Bazza followed with 40¼lbs and Kev had 57lbs from Peg 5. Alex only managed 35lbs on Peg 7 but Terry had 71lbs from Peg 8. Steak was ruing lost fish with 40lbs and my silvers registered just 13lbs. Dave Moore ended with 59¼lbs and Clive just 21lbs. Webbo’s fish weighed 62½lbs and Budgie just 5½lbs from Peg 15. Tony had enjoyed his day on Peg 18 with 94¼lbs giving him 2nd today. My partner Tricky had 27¼lbs with Jon just behind with 26½lbs. Al had a better day today with 56¾lbs, but Paul could only muster 11lbs. On 25 Scott managed 44lbs but Steve W’s 71¾lbs gave him 3rd overall. Keith had a level 48lbs and Terry 55¾lbs. Dai finished with 56½lbs and finally Ant had 66¾lbs to get another result over Simps.

With that it was back to the hut, and after a brief wait while Dave worked out the results we were finally ready for the results to be read out, pools to be paid out and the trophies awarded by Mr Maggotdrowning himself , Dave(Webbo)Webster to the winning team of………..
Dai and Steve, MD's Rolfs Pairs Champs 2011
 Dai Thomas & Steve Wilson  
Congratulations to them both, coming from 4 points behind on day 1 to take victory from Steak & Webbo by 5 points.

Finally a few words of Thanks are due to the following people……JohnPauline & Ollie  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 those Maggotdrowners that took part, the weekend wouldn’t be the success it is without you.
Pairs Result
Position
Pairs
Saturday
Sunday
Total
Weight
 1st Dai(daifish)Thomas & Steve(smiler)Wilson8/1=910/3=13
22
 368lbs 00ozs
 2nd Steve(steak)Akal & Dave(webbo)Webster3/2=516/6=22
27
 355lbs 04ozs
 3rd Nick(Neo-1)Williams & Dave Moore11/6=1718/7=25
42
 242lbs 04ozs
 4th Clive(black hydro)Pritchard & Tony(spamwham)Roberts4/15=1922/2=24
43
 282lbs 04ozs
 5th Malc(The Jinx)Doyle & Al(al)Loader16/26=421/9=10
52
 254lbs 08ozs
 6th Simon(simple)Mound & Terry(auto)Pearce10/22=3217/4=21
55
 217lbs 08ozs
 7th Keith(keith74)Powell & Mitch(mitchfish)Auger9/12=2113/26=39
60
 192lbs 00ozs
 8th Ant(antwood)Haywood & Gem(The Minx)Doyle5/24=295/28=33
62
 190lbs 12ozs
 9th Dave(The Fish)Collier & Paul(NMLW’s)East6/27=3312/25=37
70
 168lbs 12ozs
 10th Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff & Kev(The Catch)Loveland28/25=5311///8=19
72
 162lbs 04ozs
 11th Barry(Bazza C)Cullen & Alex(bagger j)Clark20/21=4115/19=34
75
 149lbs 08ozs
 12th Peter(mugger)Morton & Richard(tricky)East14/17=3124/20=44
75
 143lbs 08ozs
 13th Marcus(budgie)Burgess & John(hatchye)Hatch18/13=3127/21=48
79
 139lbs 08ozs
 14th Pete(crayfishtraps)Tapp & Scott(methodgob)Weston19/23=4223/14=37
79
 137lbs 00ozs

Saturday Result
Position
Peg
Angler
Weight
Points
 1st Peg 15  Steve(smiler)Wilson   161lbs 08ozs
1
 2nd Peg 34 Dave(webbo)Webster   138lbs 12ozs
2
 3rd Peg 13 Steve(steak)Akal   114lbs 00ozs
3
 4th Peg 14 Clive(black hydro)Pritchard   111lbs 00ozs
4
 5th Peg 4 Ant(antwood)Haywood    89lbs 12ozs
5
 6th= Peg 32 Dave Moore    82lbs 12ozs
6
 6th= Peg 9 Dave(The Fish)Collier    82lbs 12ozs
6
 8th Peg 7 Dai(daifish)Thomas    78lbs 04ozs
8
 9th Peg 31 Keith(keith74)Powell    74lbs 00ozs
9
 10th Peg 37 Simon(simple)Mound    73lbs 04ozs
10
 11th Peg 18 Nick(neo-1)Williams    64lbs 04ozs
11
 12th Peg 22 Mitch(mitchfish)Auger    63lbs 00ozs
12
 13th Peg 23 Jon(Hatchye)Hatch    62lbs 08ozs
13
 14th Peg 2 Peter(mugger)Morton    57lbs 12ozs
14
 15th Peg 11 Tony(spamwham)Roberts    56lbs 00ozs
15
 16th Peg 10 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle    48lbs 04ozs
16
 17th Peg 28 Richard(tricky)East    45lbs 08ozs
17
 18th Peg 26 Marcus(budgie)Burgess    45lbs 00ozs
18
 19th Peg 25 Pete(crayfishtraps)Tapp    40lbs 04ozs
19
 20th Peg 29 Barry(Bazza C)Cullen    37lbs 04ozs
20
 21st Peg 35 Alex(bagger j)Clark    37lbs 00ozs
21
 22nd Peg 8 Terry(auto)Pearce    33lbs 12ozs
22
 23rd Peg 20 Scott(methodgob)Weston    32lbs 04ozs
23
 24th Peg 5 Gem(The Minx)Doyle    29lbs 12ozs
24
 25th Peg 17 Kevin(The Catch)Loveland    29lbs 00ozs
25
 26th Peg 19 Al(al)Loader    28lbs 08ozs
26
 27th Peg 40 Paul(NMLW’s)East    26lbs 08ozs
27
 28th Peg 38 Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff    20lbs 08ozs
28


Sunday Result
Position
Peg
Angler
Weight
Points
 1st Peg 40 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle   121lbs 00ozs
1
 2nd Peg 18 Tony(spamwham)Roberts    94lbs 04ozs
2
 3rd Peg 26 Steve(smiler)Wilson    71lbs 12ozs
3
 4th Peg 8 Terry(auto)Pearce    71lbs 00ozs
4
 5th Peg 32 Ant(antwood)Haywood    66lbs 12ozs
5
 6th Peg 14 Dave(webbo)Webster    62lbs 08ozs
6
 7th Peg 11 Dave Moore    59lbs 04ozs
7
 8th Peg 5 Kev(The Catch)Loveland    57lbs 00ozs
8
 9th Peg 22 Al(al)Loader    56lbs 12ozs
9
 10th Peg 31 Dai(daifish)Thomas    56lbs 08ozs
10
 11th Peg 29 Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff    55lbs 12ozs
11
 12th Peg 34 Dave(The Fish)Collier    48lbs 08ozs
12
 13th Peg 28 Keith(keith74)Powell    48lbs 00ozs
13
 14th Peg 25 Scott(methodgob)Weston    44lbs 00ozs
14
 15th Peg 4 Barry(Bazza C)Cullen    40lbs 04ozs
15
 16th Peg 9 Steve(steak)Akal    40lbs 00ozs
16
 17th Peg 35 Simon(simple)Mound    39lbs 08ozs
17
 18th Peg 38 Nick(Neo-1)Williams    36lbs 00ozs
18
 19th Peg 7 Alex(bagger j)Clark    35lbs 00ozs
19
 20th Peg 19 Richard(tricky)East    27lbs 04ozs
20
 21st Peg 20 Jon(hatchye)Hatch    26lbs 08ozs
21
 22nd Peg 13 Clive(black hydro)Pritchard    21lbs 00ozs
22
 23rd Peg 37 Pete(crayfishtraps)Tapp    20lbs 08ozs
23
 24th Peg 10 Peter(mugger)Morton    13lbs 00ozs
24
 25th Peg 23 Paul(NMLW’s)East    11lbs 00ozs
25
 26th Peg 17 Mitch(mitchfish)Auger     7lbs 00ozs
26
 27th Peg 15 Marcus(budgie)Burgess     5lbs 08ozs
27
 28th Peg 2 Gem(TheMinx)Doyle     4lbs 08ozs
28