Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. July 16th, 2011.

Jinx Match 4

 Well today’s the day for the fourth Jinx Match in this years series of six, and a quick peek through the curtains this morning confirmed that we were in for a wet start to the day as all that could be seen was a heavy grey sky and a stiff breeze, and by the time I loaded up the car the first spots of rain were already falling. As usual the first stop was Battersea to fuel up for the day ahead with a ‘Full English’ and with that polished off it was next stop Rolfs.

Unfortunately the closer I got to Rolfs the worse the rain came down, and with about 5 miles to go it was so torrential that the wipers couldn’t clear the screen, even on high speed. It had eased a bit as I pulled into the car park. Some of the Jinx Squad had fished the Open Night Match the evening before and had stayed over and were huddled under a brolly and the gazebo by the hut. Malc appeared looking as if he’d been for a swim in the lake, but was just walking proof that his MAP waterproofs weren’t anymore. Gem had decided that she wouldn’t be fishing today as it was raining, so Simon decided that as they’ve just moved into a flat together he wouldn’t fish either, and instead they would visit IKEA to get some stuff for their flat. Amazing what love can do isn’t it !! IKEA on a Saturday !!!! instead of fishing !!!!! He’ll learn, but at least it meant that nobody would get Minxed today.

Well the rain continued to fall, and with this being the 4th match todays draw was all in as we redraw sections for the final 3 matches. 11·30am and it’s draw time, into the bag and it’s peg 5 for me, a peg I’ve not fished before so I’m quite happy to give it a go. John Bennett had fished it last night and had around 90lbs, so I picked his brains as to how he’d approached it so I would have some idea of the areas to target.

Taking my gear round to my peg I passed Dave on peg 34 which was going to be tailor made for his feeder-less feeder (pellet cone) approach. Nick was on peg 38, with Neil on peg 40 and Tony on peg 2. Steve Wilson was on peg 4, while Malc was on peg 7 with Al for company on peg 8 to complete A section……

John had advised me to target 3 areas today, the first at around 5mtrs toward peg 34 where he’d fed heavily, the second to the edge of the bush to my right and thirdly tight to the grass in the left hand margin toward the empty peg 6. The rig for the 5mtr line was an 0·2g NG XT Power Pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 14 Guru QM1, while the 2 margin rigs were NG 0·3 XT Sampson margins on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 12 Guru QM1′s. Bait was my usual combination of fishery 6mm hard pellet for feed with 8mm and 11mm pellets for the hook along with some corn and a selection of GOT Baits soft hookers.

Thankfully the rain started to ease up as we were setting up, but the stiff breeze was blowing straight down toward Neil and Tony. The Fishery bell rang at 1pm to signal the all in. Two pots of pellet onto the 5mtr line were followed by a couple of handfuls into both margin swims. Looking up as I shipped a banded 8mm out Dave was already into his first fish. Laying the rig in the float dipped and buried, Carp on, and after a brief but spirited fight a 5lb Common was safely in the net. My next put in provided a similar outcome and another carp, a Mirror this time joined it’s friend in the net.

Dave was streaking away setting the early pace as his first five casts had produced five Carp. There was a brief lull for me before the float buried again, but this was a much better fish that slowly motored away staying deep, however after about 5 minutes of constant pressure it finally popped its head up ready for the net, a much larger fish and an obvious weigher that took the scales round to 15¼lbs. It also marked the end of the rain as a few patches of blue sky started to break through.

Unfortunately it also marked the end of sport for me, try as I might I just couldn’t tempt another bite, it was as if someone had turned a switch off. Not for Dave over on peg 34 however, indeed another bite proved to be the cue for his brolly to be blown loose hitting him in the head leading him to drop his rod and we were treated to the sight of Dave just managing to grab his rod before it sailed off into the lilies……

 Malc was attempting to dry out and was fishing the feeder to start off with, but it was probably only a matter of time before he reverted to the pole……

Nick over on 38 had a bit of a slow start with just a solitary 5lb’er on the feeder, but a switch to the pole had produced a nice 13lb’er to give him a bit of a boost, though he did manage to crack his No 3 in the process. Neil on 40 however was beginning to think he’d upset someone when a gudgeon managed to snaffle his 11mm pellet. Steve was having a bit of a struggle as well on peg 4 but reckoned that Tony was starting to bag some lumps from down the margin in peg 2.

I just kept the feed going in and rotating my lines in the hope that something would turn up on one of them, but apart from a solitary roach and a couple of small skimmers it wasn’t looking to promising. Al appeared with a grin on his face and asked if I would take a photo of a 19lb’er that he’d just had, so the camera was retrieved from the safety of the holdall to do the honours……

A foul hooker briefly raised my spirits until the rig came flying back with a large scale embedded on the hook. No such problems for Dave however who still appeared to be catching at a steady rate. More than could be said for those on the car park bank when a quick look revealed what appeared to be a distinct lack of action……

With around 2 hours to go the float sailed away as I took another look at my 5mtr line and thankfully a nice chunky Common of around 8lbs was added to the net and this was swiftly followed by another of a similar size before someone switched the bites off again. With around an hour to go I noticed some bright orange elastic streaming out from what was obviously Malc’s pole. I banded up an 11mm and dropped it in close to the grass in the left hand margin, nothing not even the merest tremble of the float was forthcoming and I was on the point of swapping swims once more when I notice a tail pattern close to the float. A few more pellets and a lift of the rig and the float buried, a lift resulting in a decent fish powering out into open water which proved to be a common of 11lbs+. That final 45 minutes went by all to quickly with 4 more weigher’s and a couple of 9lb’ers coming to the net along with a couple of decent Bream before the All-Out was called at 6pm.

Packing the gear away I was confident that I’d managed a ‘Ton’ but cursing that those fish hadn’t turned up on the inside line earlier. With the gear back at the car a chat with a couple of the lads revealed similar tales of struggle with fish turning up late in the day on the big lake as well.

So onto the Weigh-In and first up was Dave on peg 34, he’d only had 3 weigher’s, but a rack of smaller fish gave him 147½lbs, enough for A section and the overall win on the day. Tony on peg 2 weighed 138½lbs for 2nd in section and 2nd overall. My 117¼lbs was only good enough for 5th in section as Malc recorded 131lbs for 4th and Al’s 138¼ gave him 3rd in section and 3rd overall. Dai on peg 10 had a fine 113lbs to take B section while Ant on peg 14 weighed 108lbs for 2nd in C section as Clive on Peg 15 weighed 124lbs to win C section. A string of lower weights told a tale of struggle till we finally got to Pete on peg 32 who had 96¼lbs for 2nd in B section.

So back to the hut for the results and section monies. A definite air of relief as no Minxings had been handed out today, The Jinx effect had definitely flexed it’s muscles once more with the weather and patchy sport, but we’ll all be back to do it all again next month. For me, next up is Woods Lake at Colemans Cottage for a Marsh club match next Sunday.

 

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 34	Dave Webster	147lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 2	Tony Roberts	138lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 8	Al Loader	138lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 7	Malc (The Jinx) Doyle	131lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 15	Clive Pritchard	124lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 5	Peter Morton	117lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 10	Dai Thomas	113lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 14	Ant Haywood	108lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 32	Pete Tapp           Guest	96lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 40	Neil Riddy	78lbs 04ozs
11th	Peg 31	Paul Jay             Guest	77lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 9	Terry Goff	58lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 28	Jon Hatch	57lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 4	Steve Wilson	57lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 23	Nick Williams	56lbs 12ozs
16th	Peg 38	Nick Watkins-Price	49lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 22	Paul Roberts	40lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 29	Dave Moore	37lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 13	Fred Parker	36lbs 12ozs
20th	Peg 19	Geoff Palmer	34lbs 12ozs
21st	Peg 26	Mat Edwards	22lbs 14ozs
22nd	Peg 17	Dave Collier	19lbs 04ozs
23rd	Peg 25	Marcus Burgess	7lbs 00ozs
24th	Peg 18	Kevin Loveland	5lbs 08ozs

No names in Pink today as the “MINX” didn’t fish.

Section A
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 34	Dave Webster	147lbs 08ozs	1
2nd	Peg 2	Tony Roberts	138lbs 08ozs	2
3rd	Peg 8	Al Loader	138lbs 04ozs	3
4th	Peg 7	Malc (The Jinx) Doyle	131lbs 00ozs	4
5th	Peg 5	Peter Morton	117lbs 04ozs	5
6th	Peg 40	Neil Riddy	78lbs 04ozs	6
7th	Peg 4	Steve Wilson	57lbs 04ozs	7
8th	Peg 38	Nick Watkins-Price	49lbs 08ozs	8
Section B
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 10	Dai Thomas	113lbs 00ozs	1
2nd	Peg 32	Pete Tapp           Guest	96lbs 04ozs	0
3rd	Peg 31	Paul Jay             Guest	77lbs 04ozs	0
4th	Peg 9	Terry Goff	58lbs 12ozs	2
5th	Peg 28	Jon Hatch	57lbs 12ozs	3
6th	Peg 29	Dave Moore	37lbs 00ozs	4
7th	Peg 13	Fred Parker	36lbs 12ozs	5
8th	Peg 26	Mat Edwards	22lbs 14ozs	6
Section C
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 15	Clive Pritchard	124lbs 00ozs	1
2nd	Peg 14	Ant Haywood	108lbs 00ozs	2
3rd	Peg 23	Nick Williams	56lbs 12ozs	3
4th	Peg 22	Paul Roberts	40lbs 00ozs	4
5th	Peg 19	Geoff Palmer	34lbs 12ozs	5
6th	Peg 17	Dave Collier	19lbs 04ozs	6
7th	Peg 25	Marcus Burgess	7lbs 00ozs	7
8th	Peg 18	Kevin Loveland	5lbs 08ozs	8