Saturday, 14 July 2012

Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. July 14th, 2012.

The Jinx Series 2012
Match 3
Rolfs Lake
It’s match 3 of this year’s Jinx Series today and having stopped over I was up early just after 6am and soon had the kettle on for a coffee. Dave Moore was also up and about so I made him a coffee too. We sat on the bench in front of the hut discussing the prospects for the day ahead and watched the resident Red Kite patrolling above the lake and were fortunate enough to see it swoop and take a fish from the surface of the lake not 10 yards away from us. Why is it you never have your camera with you to capture moments like that ?

Soon we were joined by several others including Dave Wall who had stopped over on the off chance that there might be a spare peg allowing him to fish today. As the morning wore on more people started to stir from their slumbers and after another coffee Dave and I headed for The Harvester for a spot of breakfast. With that taken care of it was back to the lake where the banter was in full swing. The weather was looking similar to yesterday but the forecast warned of showers later in the day.

Around Noon Malc called for the draw and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t hoping to draw peg 6 again. However it was not to be and I found peg 38 resting in my hand when I pulled it from the draw bag.
Jinx3pegplan.jpg Jinx Match 3 Peg Plan
 So time for a stroll round to peg 6 to collect my kit and move it round to peg 38. Ade had peg 6 today with Dai on peg 4 ….. 
SMFROLFS027.jpg Dai on peg 4
and Neil on peg 2…… 
SMFROLFS025.jpg Neil on peg 2
Nick W would be to my left on peg 40 ……
SMFROLFS023.jpg Nick on peg 40
while to my right was Geoff on peg 36 …… 
SMFROLFS058.jpg Geoff peg 36
while Terry on peg 34 completed A section ……
SMFROLFS021.jpg Terry on peg 34
Setting up was once again simplicity itself as the rigs from yesterday were still set up on the top kits, but to recap for those that haven’t read the previous report they were a couple of Nick Gilbert’s handmade 0·5g Power Pencils that were made up on 0·21 Ultima power match with size 14 Guru MWG’s at the sharp end to cover the seven metre line along with a 0.3 NG Edger again on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for the left hand margin where there was about 18 inches against the clump of grass that overhangs the water. Bait was a mix of 4 and 6mm fishery pellet for feed, some of which was well wetted down. Hookbaits would be 6 and 8mm’s to band along with some GOT Baits soft hookers and corn.
SMFROLFS062.jpg Peg 38
So with plenty of time before the All-In I had a wander back to the car to collect my jacket in case the predicted showers arrived and got a coffee as well. The question on my mind was would it fish as well as yesterday? I’d noticed that the wind had changed for a while earlier in the day blowing up into the Big Lake and had to wonder if it had taken the fish with it? we would soon find out.

2pm and the All-In was called and I potted a cup of mixed pellet and corn onto the 7mtr line and a handful of wetted pellet into the margin. Peg 38 has a reputation of being one of those all or nothing pegs, relying on the fish turning up in the margin at some point and if they do they tend to be decent fish and you can do a big weight, if they don’t it can be a struggle. Anyway out with a banded 8mm to the 7mtr line and start plugging away.

Well it wasn’t fast and furious but after half an hour I was off the mark with a bream. Dai had made the best start out of all of us though with 3 or 4 carp in the net after an hour. A carp was next up for me just after the hour, not a big fish at around 8lbs but welcome none the less and that was soon joined by another bream. Dave Wall came down for a chat, unfortunately for him it was a full house today so he hadn’t been able to fish but had stayed on to watch and top lad that he is even went back to his motor to make me another coffee.

It really wasn’t happening for us though down in the Little Lake and when Dave returned with the coffee word was filtering down that people were starting to catch up in the Big Lake including The Minx which was worrying along with Kev and Dave the Fish. After Dave had drunk his coffee he said that he was going to have a stroll round before heading home, so I took the opportunity to give him a run down on my camera and sent him off to take a few shots for me and after taking one of me ……
SMFROLFS022.jpg Peter on peg 38
He soon caught Geoff landing what looked to be a weigher and heading off toward the weigh station ……
SMFROLFS026.jpg Geoff with a weigher
So the next bit is the story of Dave’s stroll around the lake with my camera. Ade (Slim Shady) was having a quiet time on peg 6 …….
SMFROLFS028.jpg Adie on peg 6
but round on peg 7 Dave Moore was having a better time of it battling a carp ……
SMFROLFS029.jpg Dave Moore
eventually getting it safely in the net ……
SMFROLFS033.jpg Safely in the net
Paul Roberts was having a slightly less hectic time on peg 8 which rather sums up his performance so far in this years series……
SMFROLFS031.jpg Paul on peg 8
Steve Wilson was on peg 9 and hoping to put one over The Jinx ……
SMFROLFS034.jpg Steve on peg 9
who was on the next peg and suffering one of his quieter matches at Rolfs , or was it that he was just missing Julie? ……
SMFROLFS036.jpg Malc on peg 10
Tucked away on peg 13 was Nick W-P (monkey) trying to tempt a fish from the margin. 
SMFROLFS038.jpg Nick W-P
Tony Robert was working hard on peg 16 but obviously had one eye on what The Minx was doing on peg 18 ……
SMFROLFS040.jpg Tony Roberts
and it was plain to see that the rumours of impending Minxings were true as there she was with a nice Mirror that she’d just weighed……
SMFROLFS039.jpg Gem (The Minx)
Round on the car park bank Kev was into more action on the feeder and obviously doing the business today……
SMFROLFS042.jpg Fish on for Kev
and it looked like the car park bank could be the place to be today ……
SMFROLFS044.jpg Looking up the car park bank
with Mat on peg 28 landing a Mirror right on time to have a picture taken with it ……
SMFROLFS049.jpg A Mirror for Mat
While Simps and Clive were having a bit of a head to head battle on pegs 30 and 32 ……
SMFROLFS050.jpg Simps and Clive
and as he made his way back he even managed to capture that rarest of events… Paul landing a carp over on peg 8……
SMFROLFS055.jpg Safely in the net
As he arrived back I lifted into a carp which powered of and as he tried to get a photo I suffered the curse of my own camera, the fish shedding the hook and the rig flying back.

Almost immediately though there was a splash as while Nick was feeding his peg a carp made off with his pole before he could react……
SMFROLFS059.jpg Pole 1
Luckily for Nick though the fish made it’s way over to Dai’s peg where Dai saved the day and retrieved the pole with the fish still attached. Nick finally landed the fish which wouldn’t count to find that it was an 18½lb’er. Dave said his farewells and left us to it. I’d had a couple more carp and another bream while he’d been strolling around the lake but sport still hadn’t picked up and most were struggling for a bite and Neil had even given the pellet wag a go in an effort to find something to no avail.

With time marching on it was time to take another look down the margin but all I was getting were bites from little roach so I shortened up one of the pencil rigs to fish the bottom of the shelf around 4 feet out from the bank but had to wait a further 15 minutes for the float to bury. A decent fish powered off determined to go and see Neil on peg 2, then disaster struck, the dacron in the top kit parted meaning I lost not only the fish but the rig and elastic as well.

I shortened up the other pencil rig to match the first and went back out and was soon rewarded with another bite, another decent fish that seemed to take an age to get in but land it I did, a Mirror of 15½lbs that was hooked outside the mouth explaining why I’d had so much trouble controlling it. The worrying thing was that the sky was becoming a darker grey as the match drew to a close. Another decent fish put in an appearance and I was just on my way back from the weigh station when the heavens opened, luckily I had my umbrella ready and was soon huddled under it as it poured down. I managed another couple of carp as the rain persisted but as I slid the second one into the net the All-Out was called.

There’s nothing worse than packing away your kit in the rain, but it had to be done. I thought I had around 80lbs and was hopeful that it would be worth some decent section points but it was hard to tell how others had done. I got the kit back to the car just as the rain eased off as is always the way and soon had it loaded up and back in the car before going to the Weigh-In.

As usual it started on peg 34 where Terry had just 25lbs to show for his efforts. Geoff weighed 52½lbs and my fish came to a level 89lbs. Nick W had 87¾lbs and Neil 88lbs.
Dai beat us all with 97lbs to take the section as Ade had just 65lbs on peg 6. Onto B section where Dave Moore had 72lbs and Paul R 31½lbs. Steve had managed 71¼lbs from peg 9 while on peg 10 The Jinx had suffered his own curse to take just 21lbs 14ozs. Nick W-P had taken 42lbs from peg 32 to finish off the first part of the section. Fred kicked off C section with 64lbs followed by Tony R with 60½lbs. Gem obviously had suffered a quiet second half as The Minx Mark was set at 44¾lbs. Round to the car park bank where Kev had a decent day recording 95lbs followed by Dave C with 79¼lbs and Budgie just 28lbs and Mat tied with Dave C on 79¼lbs. The final part of C section was finished off by Simon with 108lbs and Clive with 100lbs exactly.

Back to the hut for the results and the winner today was Simon with Clive in second  and third going to Dai. The section winners were Simon, Dai and Kev.
The Minx claimed 5 victims today including her Dad (The Jinx) and I collected a Golden Nugget from Neil and Gem.

The next Jinx Match is August 18th when the sections get redrawn for the second half of the series and it’ll be interesting to see how those sections work out as it will probably decide who’s in with a chance of taking the title this year.

Overall Result
Position
Peg
Angler
Weight
 1st Peg 30 Simon Mound   108lbs 00ozs
 2nd Peg 32 Clive Pritchard   100lbs 00ozs
 3rd Peg 4 Dai Thomas    97lbs 00ozs
 4th Peg 22 Kev Loveland    95lbs 08ozs
 5th Peg 38 Peter Morton    89lbs 00ozs
 6th Peg 2 Neil Riddy    88lbs 00ozs
 7th Peg 40 Nick Williams    87lbs 12ozs
 8th= Peg 28 Mat Edwards    79lbs 04ozs
 8th= Peg 24 Dave Collier    79lbs 04ozs
 10th Peg 7 Dave Moore    72lbs 00ozs
 11th Peg 9 Steve Wilson    71lbs 04ozs
 12th Peg 6 Ade Williams    65lbs 00ozs
 13th Peg 14 Fred Parker    64lbs 00ozs
 14th Peg 16 Tony Roberts    60lbs 08ozs
 15th Peg 36 Geoff Palmer    52lbs 08ozs
 16th Peg 18 Gem (The Minx) Doyle    44lbs 12ozs
 17th Peg 13 Nick Watkins-Price    42lbs 00ozs
 18th Peg 8 Paul Roberts    31lbs 08ozs
 19th Peg 26 Marcus Burgess    28lbs 00ozs
 20th Peg 34 Terry Goff    25lbs 00ozs
 21st Peg 10 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle    21lbs 14ozs

Names in Pink are those that were “MINXED”

A Section
Position
Peg
Angler
Weight
Points
 1st Peg 4 Dai Thomas    97lbs 00ozs
1
 2nd Peg 38 Peter Morton    89lbs 00ozs
2
 3rd Peg 2 Neil Riddy    88lbs 00ozs
3
 4th Peg 40 Nick Williams    87lbs 12ozs
4
 5th Peg 6 Ade Williams    65lbs 00ozs
5
 6th Peg 36 Geoff Palmer    52lbs 08ozs
6
 7th Peg 34 Terry Goff    25lbs 00ozs
7

B Section
Position
Peg
Angler
Weight
Points
 1st Peg 30 Simon Mound   108lbs 00ozs
1
 2nd Peg 32 Clive Pritchard   100lbs 00ozs
2
 3rd Peg 7 Dave Moore    72lbs 00ozs
3
 4th Peg 9 Steve Wilson    71lbs 04ozs
4
 5th Peg 13 Nick Watkins-Price    42lbs 00ozs
5
 6th Peg 8 Paul Roberts    31lbs 08ozs
6
 7th Peg 10 Malc (The Jinx) Doyle    21lbs 14ozs
7

C Section
Position
Peg
Angler
Weight
Points
 1st Peg 22 Kev Loveland    95lbs 08ozs
1
 2nd= Peg 28 Mat Edwards    79lbs 04ozs
2
 2nd= Peg 24 Dave Collier    79lbs 04ozs
2
 4th Peg 14 Fred Parker    64lbs 00ozs
4
 5th Peg 16 Tony Roberts    60lbs 08ozs
5
 6th Peg 18 Gem (The Minx) Doyle    44lbs 12ozs
6
 7th Peg 26 Marcus Burgess    28lbs 00ozs
7

 

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