Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. September 8th, 2011.

A RiveTee Piscatorial Promotion

I’m off down to Rolf’s Lake today for A RiveTee Piscatorial Promotion along with the lads from  TalkAngling  . It’s a match that I fish every year, and it’s always a good day out.  However with it being a weekday and with the kids back at school I knew the trip would take a fair bit longer than my usual jaunt up to the lake at the weekends. With this in mind I asked Maria to get me up early and I’d drop her off at work. So having dropped her off it was back to load the car. Despite the extra traffic, the first port of call was still my customary stop in Battersea for breakfast at the Jimmy’s Griddle Café where a ‘Full English’ was soon dispatched to set me up for the day ahead before heading for Rolfs.

Despite the extra traffic I rolled into the car park at around 9·10am to find John along with Simon and Justin in attendance along with a couple of the other lads. Justin had stayed over as he’d fished the open yesterday, winning it from Peg 4 with 223¼lbs, his first ‘Double Ton’ from the lake. The plan was for a 9·30am draw, but a hold up on the M40 caused delays for a lot of the lads, meaning it was going to run late……

Rive T (Tony) and Larry Teepot (Pete) have been running this match for a few years now, and once they’d arrived, things got underway and the chat among the assembled anglers was that with 2 ‘Double Ton’s’ and 7 ‘Tons’ yesterday hopes were high for a good day ahead. Soon Larry had all the peg fees collected and we were called to order and the draw got under way……

Justin was looking happy having drawn peg 8, but Simon wasn’t looking to enthusiastic having drawn Peg 26. By the time I got to the bag there were 3 pegs left and I was more than happy to find Peg 9 in my hand as it’s one of the most consistent pegs on the lake.

As I made my way round with my gear I found Larry on Peg 16, he’s been trying for a ‘Ton’ since Moses was a boy and has never quite managed it, so it would be nice if he could do it today, and he certainly had a peg that was capable of it. For company I had Alan, a friend of Rive T on Peg 10. Not a match angler, he’d been lured along today with the chance of picking up a big Perch that the lake can throw up.

Settling into the peg it was time to decide how to approach it. On recent matches there I’d seen Steve Akal and Neil Riddy both suffer with numerous foul hookers costing them both top kits and rigs. However Neil sorted it out and won the last Jinx Match off it by fishing a short line straight out in front in the last hour to take a number of weighers, and that was the approach I was going to go with today……

 I picked a line at 5mtrs where a square of white water would make feeding easy and this would be tackled with a 0·3 NG Springer Open Water XT on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with a size 16 Guru MWG. A second similar rig was set up to fish about 2 feet off of the bush to my right, while a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG would take care of the margin swim to the bush on my left. Bait and feed today would be a combination of 6 and 8mm fishery pellets and a tin of corn along with some GOT Baits soft hookers.

 With a little bit of time before the off I strolled down to see Tony on Peg 6. He was talking to Colin B who mentioned that he’d never had a ‘Twenty’ on the pole and I told him that this was the place to do it if anywhere was.

Anyway John sounded the All-In at 11·45am and I fed a small pot of mixed pellet and corn on all 3 lines before shipping a banded 8mm pellet out to my 5mtr line. The float barely had time to settle before it buried and a gentle lift soon told me that I had connected with a substantial Carp. Thankfully it didn’t go steaming off, gentle pressure told and a large Common suddenly popped up in front of my nets, into the landing net and as I went to lift it I realised that it was a bit larger than I first thought. Onto the scales and it went 19lbs which I got Justin to witness, a dream start for me.



With the fish returned it was back out with another 8mm, and after a couple of lift and drops the float buried once more. A spirited fight followed, not such a big fish this one but still a weigher, another Common which weighed 11½lbs. They say ‘Three’s a charm’ and that was the case today as the third put in saw the float bury again. Another good fish which had designs on reaching the bush in the left hand margin, however I managed to show it the error of it’s ways and introduce it to the landing net. A Mirror this time and at 14lbs another weigher.
 

Of course sometimes things go just to well and my next bite proved to be a foul hooker which tore around the peg like a lunatic before the rig came back with just a scale on the hook. After that I re-fed the 5mtr line with a small pot of pellet and corn and had a look over to the right hand bush. Twenty minutes over there proved fruitless as did a quick look down the left hand margin, so having allowed the 5mtr line to settle I had a look back there. Sure enough the float didn’t take to long to vanish, but this time instead of the expected Carp the culprit was one of the lakes Bream, but at around 3lbs it was still welcome. I decided to try corn on the hook, but it just produced lots of knocks and a Roach of around 4ozs, not what I was really after so it was back to the pellet.



Looking around at the other pegs I could see Froggy opposite on Peg 32, unfortunately he seemed to have had his fair share of problems with foul hookers today and had now decided to tackle the bush on his left hand side ……

 Next up on Peg 30 was Tony Williams and despite the fish giving what looked like his purple hydro a good stretching he seemed to be putting a steady run of fish together, leading me to think that it would be pretty close between the two of us if we both kept catching ……

I was soon into another fish, a Common of around 8lbs and my first net fish. This proved to be the start of a run of fish, 3 more Commons and a solitary Mirror, all much of a muchness at around 8lbs each, but very welcome and good weight builders. Then there was a 20 minute gap before I made contact with another foul hooker and the way it charged round in circles made me feel it was hooked in a fin. Well the hook held and as it came to the net it was hooked on the pectoral fin, no wonder it had be so hard to control, but at 12½lbs a nice bonus.

It was just a case of re feeding again and waiting for things to settle down, so I had a look back over to the right hand bush. I missed two quick bites but connected with the third, another Mirror and a good double. Justin however was having a bit of a mare after his win yesterday suffering with foul hookers and also smashing a top kit. Still he was seeing a fair few fish witnessing my weighers.



With just over 2 hours to go I suffered another lull in sport. I already had a ‘Ton’ on my clicker but felt that this could be the day to finally get my ‘Double Ton’ after a long time trying. I added a section on to see if they’d backed off the feed but nothing. Took a section off to see if they’d come closer inside, still nothing. Extra section on and out to the bush still nothing. Leaving the extra section on I took a look to the left on my 5mtr line and fed some pellet round the float. A minute later it buried and I was back in business with a good Common of around 14lbs. Fishing this line meant that I was looking toward Simon on Peg 26 and could see he was also into a fish……

 I’d also heard him encouraging Larry who was opposite him on Peg 16 and from the sound of things today would be the day he finally got his ‘Ton’. Word also filtered down that Colin B on Peg 18 had at last got his ‘Twenty’ with a Common of 22lbs+, and as the afternoon wore on J Mac on Peg 28 was also getting a bit of action……

 With around 90 minutes to go it was just a question of alternating between my two 5mtr lines and I managed a further 7 weighers and another Bream before John sounded the All-Out at 4·45pm. A tally up of my weighers on the board came to 158½lbs after Justin had double checked it and the number on my clicker was 205, so had I got the weight of the fish in my net right? With my gear packed away and back at the car park there was time for a quick chat before the Weigh-In, Larry had indeed got his ‘Ton’ as he had over 100lbs on the board. Colin was well chuffed with his ‘Twenty’ but Simon wasn’t sure if he had a ‘Ton’ and felt he’d struggled on the day.

So to the Weigh-In and a lot of the lads just had board weights and it wasn’t till we got to peg 4 there were fish to weigh, where Cov Blaze just missed the ton with 99½lbs. Tony having struggled at the start had fish turn up to late in the day and recorded 57¾lbs, and Justin had 123lbs. My 5 carp came up agonisingly short of what was needed for 200lbs but those 2 Bream and a Roach did me proud to take the total to 206lbs. Alan on Peg 10 had 45lbs while Cox62 had 53lbs and M Jones on 14 weighed 55½lbs. Larry had indeed battered the ‘Ton’ with 158½lbs and it may take a while to get the grin off his face……

 Colin B’s twenty had boosted his weight to 154¼lbs. Simon got his ‘Ton’ with 108¾lbs while J Mac had 45½lbs. Tony Williams had a fantastic weight of 197¼lbs and a new PB Match Weight for him, while Froggy was left ruing those foul hookers with 93¼lbs to finish things off.

Back to the hut for Larry to sort out the results and monies and the Winner on the day was……………………………………………………..ME.

 Second was Tony Williams and Third on the day was Larry. Sections went to Justin, Colin B and Froggy. A bonus for me was that I finally got my hands on a tee shirt I’ve been after for a while……

 So ended yet another RiveTee Piscatorial Promotion, a great success as always, and fished in the right atmosphere. Thanks to Larry and Tony for organising it, and the  TalkAngling  members that fished it. I’m looking forward to next years one already.

 

 

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 9	Peter Morton	206lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 30	Tony Williams	197lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 16	Larry Teepot	158lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 18	Colin B	154lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 8	Justin Watkins	123lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 26	Simon Mound	108lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 4	Cov Blaze	99lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 32	Froggy	93lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 6	Tony (Rive T)	57lbs 12ozs
10th	Peg 14	M Jones	55lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 13	Cox62	53lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 28	J Mac	45lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 10	Alan	45lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 34	R Evans	35lbs 14ozs
15th	Peg 38	Nuddy	18lbs 08ozs
16th=	Peg 7	Alan	DNW
16th=	Peg 24	Cockney Pete	DNW