Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. June 2nd, 2007.

The JINX Series 2007

Match 1.

So here we were, back again for yet another Jinx Series. The banter was soon flowing as usual as most of the usual suspects were back again having been released back into the community along with a few new unsuspecting fools that had been attracted in the false hope of not being affected by The Jinx.

The weather in the week leading up to the match had not been kind with heavy rain almost leading the lake to overflowing into the surrounding fields. Thankfully a spot of swift action by John Bennett and a couple of the local lads had saved the day meaning that no fish had been lost. However with every peg was under water and with pegs 16-18 lost to the recent bankside collapse and 19-21 out of bounds as they had been fenced off to keep the fish in, a bit of re-pegging was necessary to accommodate the 29 anglers present on the day.

Oh, and just to add to the problems the Carp had decided that today was the day for Lurvvvvvvve!!!!! thrashing the margins to foam wherever you looked.
Well of course the planned 11·30am draw was never going to happen, This is The Jinx Series after all, as Malc’s car decided to self destruct yet again on the trip up from Wales, so it was more like 12·30pm once the draw was done with the fishing to be done from 1·30pm – 6·30pm.
I had drawn 15, which in reality was somewhere around peg 38 if you had been able to see it, to my right for company I had Monkey (Nick W-P) and Dai for company while Malc had ended up literaly in peg34 (stewards inquiry needed there I think)

How to approach it was going to be the question as the conditions were like nothing I had ever encountered before at Rolf’s. I settled for a margin approach just past a bush to my left which is normally on dry land surrounded by grass and also set up a feeder rod as I had plenty of space down into the corner on my left to throw to.

So 12·30am and all-in sees me put a bit of meat onto the feeder rig and a plug of over wetted feed pellet into the cage feeder and lob it down towards the corner + 3 good handfuls of feed pellet are deposited in front of the bush. A couple of minutes later and the tip wraps round and I’m into a Carp. It actually felt strange to be using a rod at Rolf’s, and despite some encouragement from Malc….”You won’t land it“….. it was soon in the net. Well you can imagine my amazement on lifting the net to find not one but two Carp safely nestling in the bottom of it!!!!!!!!
Apart from the weigher at 9½lbs with my hook in it’s mouth there was another of around 8lbs keeping it company!!!!! However I did the decent thing and put the 8lb’er straight back, a good start none the less.

Straight back out and another couple of minutes pass and the tip wraps round again but this time it’s just a solitary 7lb’er that’s in the bottom of the net. So 10 minutes in and 18lbs+ already, could this be a red letter day?
Unfortunately the next 40 minutes saw not so much as a flicker from the tip, so reluctantly it was out with the pole rig………

Dropping it in to what is normally a shallow margin saw me being plagued by silvers that just whittled away the bait whether it was pellet, paste or meat with the occasional one managing to hang itself just long enough to find itself on the hook.

Conditions were having an effect on most, I could see Eric on 39 fishing his “Margin” and giving what appeared to be some Preston 19h or was it Purple Hydro? a good work out

Brian on what is normally peg 1 was getting amongst a few fish by fishing up in the water, though he did loose a few as they dived under the sunken platform as he tried to land them, while next door to him……
Paul was slipping a few in his net in the hope that he could finally beat Matt off of the next peg as he was suffering from a peg that seemed to be solid with silvers.

Directly across from me was Simon (me)……
who despite the sunglasses wasn’t Terminating to many, while next door to him was Clive………
who despite having spent countless hours over the last few months getting to know the venue by fishing in the various leagues was just having one of those days where it just wasn’t happening for him.

Dirk wandered along with his son who had come down to help him out with a tale of woe involving a 12lb’er and a landing net that split depositing said fish straight back in the water, while monkey having struggled for a bite finally hooked one only to have it strip his rig complete with his newly brought hydro straight out of his top kit!!!!!

Dai finally managed one but it did lead him a merry dance on what appeared to be black hydro, seeming to be ever so reluctant to get it’s head up……
While Malc having finally reverted to the pole was starting to put a number of weighers on the scales.

I finally managed to get amongst a few fish by fishing tight up against the bush in about 12 inches of water over what is grass with a big lump of paste, a tactic which saw me put another 9 fish on the bank though only the last was a weigher, though I probably lost a similar number that just bolted straight through the bush.

Weigh-in time saw me end with 64lbs 8ozs for 3rd in my section and 12th on the day, not the best or worst result on a day that has frustrated many.

Taking the honours on the day was Dave “Yorkie” Moore with a new PB match weight of 150lbs……
a very popular winner as Dave is one of the few originals left that has fished  The Jinx Series since the very 1st series of matches.

Unfortunately Rolf wasn’t present for the match today as a result of having had an operation the previous day, however all our thoughts were with him for a full and speedy recovery and we look forward to seeing him fit and fully recovered on our next visit.
   
So that was it for the first match, hopefully The Minx will be in attendance on the next match at Tunnel Barn Farm so that a few of us can reclaim some £1 coins that we have merely lent her. We’ll see when we do it all again on Saturday 30th June.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 8	Dave Moore	150lbs 10ozs
2nd	Peg 15	Ant Haywood	145lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 14	Roy Ravenhill	139lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 34	Malc Doyle	135lbs 12ozs
5th	Peg 1	Brian Bevan	109lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 9	Mark Causer	93lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 2	Paul Roberts	81lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 25	Nick Williams	76lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 3	Matt Nutt	75lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 40	Eric Robathan	72lbs 14ozs
11th	Peg 32	Colin Sharrard	66lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 38	Peter Morton	64lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 30	Fred Parker	62lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 24	Steve Wilson	59lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 6	Clive Pritchard	44lbs 12ozs
16th	Peg 22	Keith Ashby	36lbs 04ozs
17th	Peg 31	Keith F                     (Guest)	32lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 29	Nick Jones	30lbs 08ozs
19th	Peg 13	Tim Westmoreland     (Guest)	23lbs 00ozs
20th	Peg 4	Simon Rowley	20lbs 04ozs
21st	Peg 36	Dai Thomas	17lbs 00ozs
22nd	Peg 10	Dave Collier	15lbs 00ozs
23rd	Peg 23	David Ashby	8lbs 00ozs
24th	Peg 27	Paul D                       (Guest)	5lbs 00ozs
25th	Peg 11	Geoff Eggison	4ozs
26th	Peg 7	Jeff Hollidge	DNW
27th	Peg 37	Nick Watkins-Price	DNW
28th	Peg 26	Malc Hawkins	DNW
29th	Peg29	Dirk Williams	DNW

Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. May 24th, 2007.

Polepot’s Rolf’s Rumble.

TalkAngling.co.uk Forum Match.

Well today was the day of Neil McMurran aka polepot’s TalkAngling match at Rolf’s Lake and by 9·30am the car-park had filled up as the 30 anglers booked in for the day arrived for the draw. With the sun beating out of a clear blue sky it promised to be a warm one and it was good to see Rolf himself in attendance as he had recently been into hospital.

As always these internet matches provide the opportunity to put faces to names normally only seen on computer screens, and invariably the banter flows and little side bets are made. Malc’s daughter Gemma has recently got back into fishing and already beaten a few good anglers leading to her being christened “The Minx” and a Minxed list has been published on a couple of websites detailing those anglers she’s beaten. We had a £1 sidebet on the day, but I must admit to having an ominous feeling that this could be the day I was added to the list after all the banter that had been flowing in the past couple of weeks.

Into the drawbag and peg37 stuck to my hand, not a bad draw normally on the little lake and as I made my way down there I saw that Mark C had 34, a noted flyer in the corner. 35 was vacant, on 36 I had polebreaker for company and on 38 matt6900 while further round on 40 was andy222 who had the misfortune to have Malc(The Jinx)Doyle for company on peg 1.

Setting up I was a little disappointed to have anglers on pegs either side as the pegs are reasonably tight leaving me without an option of a margin peg as such as there is little or no cover on the bankside there. I set up for just 2 lines, 1 at 12mtrs and 1 at 7mtrs, both hard on the deck with a spare rig for up in the water should it be needed.

11·30am and the all in saw me feed a large pot of Rolf’s feed pellets on both lines and ithen went out at 12mtrs with a GOT 11mm soft hooker. The float just sailed away and I was obviously attached to one of the resident carp. However Malc and Rolf walked past and after a bit of encouragement for Malc the rig came sailing back with just a scale attached.

There then followed 3hrs of absolute frustration as I was plagued by hordes of silvers. It didn’t matter what I put on the hook, Corn, Meat, Paste or Pellet in either 6 or 11mm, I couldn’t buy a bite from a Carp. Looking to my right I could see Mark C steadily putting a decent bag together from 34 alternating between the pole and feeder and even polebreaker was nicking a few………

Andy over on 40 was plugging on and sneaking the odd one or two out and looking forward to a better day than he’d had on a previous visit when is was unprepared for the strength and fighting power of the Rolf’s Carp……

 Malc was having yet more trouble getting to grips with Red Hydro and was having to do his best “Matt Nutt” impression in order to land some of the Carp, but at least he was catching which was more than I was managing ……

While over towards pegs 8 and 9 Fred and Griffo could be seen having a right old ding dong, both obviously heading towards what would prove to be decent bags……

Next door on 38 matt6900 had managed to get a reasonable Tench from his margin peg to his left and finally managed to get amongst a few lumps during the final couple of hours despite loosing one landing net head and breaking another……

While tucked away over in the opposite corner on peg3 Halfounce was making hay and quietly slipping more than a few fish into the net……

For my part, I finally managed an 11lb weigher and 3 smaller Carp, but it just didn’t happen, despite lashing the bait in I just couldn’t feed off the silvers and I finished the match with just 34lbs to show for my efforts.
Tony(Rive T)Walsh took the honours on the day with a fine Double Ton weighing 203lbs 11ozs, a bit of a change from his usual catches from canals.

 Halfounce ended up in 2nd place with 192lbs 09ozs while Fred came out just ahead in his peg to peg battle with Griffo with 187lbs 12ozs to 185lbs 09ozs.
Gemma managed 68lbs 06ozs to double my weight and take my £1 as well as add my scalp along with 9 others to “The Minxed List”.

So finally a big THANK YOU to Neil for organising a most enjoyable day in good company. Hopefully we’ll be able to do it again in the not to distant future.
I’m back at Rolf’s next Saturday on the 1st round of Malc’s Jinx Series, hopefully I’ll be able to avoid those silvers and find a few more carp then.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 15	Tony(Rive T)Walsh	203lbs 11ozs
2nd	Peg 3	Halfounce	192lbs 09ozs
3rd	Peg 9	Fred	187lbs 12ozs
4th	Peg 8	Griffo	185lbs 09ozs
5th	Peg 23	Steve001	149lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 13	dnw	147lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 26	Martin B	144lbs 13ozs
8th	Peg 19	Clive	135lbs 10ozs
9th	Peg 34	Mark C	132lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 31	Keith	130lbs 10ozs
11th	Peg 38	matt6900	126lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 20	can’tdraw	107lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 1	Malc	106lbs 09ozs
14th	Peg 40	andy222	92lbs 06ozs
15th	Peg 29	Dave A	89lbs 04ozs
16th	Peg 30	buckskinss	86lbs 02ozs
17th	Peg 11	MPO380	84lbs 11ozs
18th	Peg 28	Vince	69lbs 10ozs
19th	Peg 4	Ubat	69lbs 08ozs
20th	Peg 27	Gem	68lbs 06ozs
21st	Peg 36	polebreaker	64lbs 12ozs
22nd	Peg 21	cornerstone	64lbs 06ozs
23rd	Peg 14	Kingfisher	58lbs 08ozs
24th	Peg 2	Larry Teapot	53lbs 12ozs
25th	Peg 6	Ridgeacre	51lbs 13ozs
26th	Peg 10	Royst	51lbs 08ozs
27th	Peg 7	polepot	49lbs 06ozs
28th	Peg 32	Brian G	36lbs 06ozs
29th	Peg 37	Pete M	34lbs 00ozs
30th	Peg 22	leetwin	9lbs 00ozs

Monk Lakes. Match Lakes 1 & 3. April 28th, 2007.

Disabled Angler.co.uk
Charities Championship Match.

Well today was the day for the 2nd qualifying match for the Disabled Angler.Co.Uk Charities Championship.
A nice smooth run down to Monk Lakes saw me pulling into the car park around 7·45am soon to be followed by Paul East (NoMoreLongWalks) A quick look at the lakes confirmed it would be windy as usual and with nothing more to be learnt we adjourned for breakfast.

After a while the usual suspects started to arrive, Vince armed with the reams of paperwork that accompany him when he organises a match. Dirk and Craig who he’d dragged along for company. Wayne Panting with his helper Rob Panding, who would also be fishing today. Young Sven for his annual outing onto the match circuit and Clive seeking some respite from his recent gruellers at Rolf’s. Dirk and Craig then set about parting the assembled anglers from a few more with the offer of raffle tickets and a chance in the guess the weight competition.

Draw time saw 39 anglers booked in, mostly lads hoping to get an insight on the venue before next weeks Fishomania qualifier, meaning every other peg was left out on the 2 lakes. Myself(peg24), Dirk(peg22), Paul (peg20)and Vince(peg16) drawn almost together on the causeway of Lake 1 with Sven opposite me on the far bank leading to a £1 side bet mini-match being hastily agreed.

Setting up I opted for the pole, finding a comfy 5ft at 11mtrs and a couple of feet in the margin on either side. I’d taken a waggler rod with the intention of fishing the pellet waggler, but the wind from left to right made it a non starter IMO, though the angler on the peg to my right went with it, so I would be able to judge whether I had made the right decision.

11am and all-in with 2 large pots of GOT 4mm sinking pellet and a few grains of corn going in at 11mtrs and a big handful going into both margins. Bait for the day was GOT 6mm expanders and their 6mm soft hookers in both catmeat and liver flavour.

A small Tench and an F1 in the 1st couple of put ins was a nice start but the wind was making presentation hard.
I stuck at it for about 30mins before having a look on the inside with a top2 which produced a Skimmer straight away.

Paul behind me was bemoaning the fact that he couldn’t catch up in the water regardless of what he tried, but it was probably due to the fact that he had come straight from a night shift and was cream crackered.

Dirk was enjoying himself as usual putting more than a few fish into the net and so he should have been, seeing as I had drawn his peg for him, his usual flyer of an end peg right next to the aerators'.

Over on the other side Sven seemed happy enough even though from what I could see sport appeared to be pretty slow ……
…………. he wasn’t alone in this however as from what I could see nobody was exactly taking the place apart.

Vince appeared to be struggling with trying to decide which was his best line to fish, though he did have me worried for a while when he came over with a ball of paste for me to try, saying that he was starting to bag a few carp on it ( you have to have fished with Vince to know that “bagging” is a relative term where he’s concerned)
Around 1·30 Dave (The Fish) Collier put in an appearance and very kindly got the teas in for us allowing us to go through to the end at 4pm. I’d had a steady match catching pretty regularly with a real mixture of fish… F1′s, Carp, Barbel, Ide, Tench (both green and golden), Skimmers and even a solitary Perch making up my net that I guessed went over 50lbs but which I knew wasn’t going to be good enough.

Packing up while we waited for the scales was when disaster struck!!!!!! Leaning across my box to lift up the footplate the box tipped and three of my drawers went flying into the swim. Much hilarity ensued as my fellow anglers offered their sympathy as I delved around up to my armpits retrieving spools of line, disgorgers and all the various bit’s and bobs that had come to inhabit those draws over the years.

Scales time and Vince managed a mid thirties weight, while Paul tipped back for a DNW. Dirk took the coin with 72lbs with me only managing 66lbs and Sven a meagre 10lbs, not that he was gloating or anything when he got his hands on our coins…

Back to the car park for the results and it was soon apparent that the lakes had fished hard on the day, though a total of 1871lbs 12ozs was put on the scales, averaging out at just under 48lbs per man.

Raffle done and out of the way it was result time, and firstly the section winners received their coin……

Section A	peg 18	J Young	83lb 08oz
Section B	peg 32	B Maylyn	83lb 08oz
Section C	peg 108	C Pritchard	55lb 00oz
Section D	peg 132	B Ramsden	68lb 12oz

In overall 3rd place was A Willet with 94lbs from peg 12 on Lake 1………


Takingthe runners-up spot with 97lbs 1oz from peg 92 on Lake 3 was Gary Cross………

In 1st place with the only Ton-up weight of the day of 122lbs from peg 112 on Lake 3 was Rob Panding……
Finally just a word of Thanks to Vince for the bulk of the organisation, and a further word of thanks to all the Anglers that supported the day allowing us to add a further £391 to the total for the year. Looking forward to next year already.

1st	R Panding	122lbs 00ozs
2nd	G Cross	97lbs 01ozs
3rd	A Willet	94lbs 00ozs
4th	J Young	83lbs 08ozs
5th	B Malyn	83lbs 08ozs
6th	D Williams	72lbs 00ozs
7th	J Clark	68lbs 12ozs
8th	T Bailey	68lbs 04ozs
9th	P Morton	66lbs 00ozs
10th	A Cumming	63lbs 12ozs
11th	T Clark	60lbs 00ozs
12th	S Joy	56lbs 12ozs
13th	C Pritchard	55lbs 00ozs
14th	G Barbata	54lbs 10ozs
15th	D Wheeler	51lbs 04ozs
16th	A Milsom	50lbs 12ozs
17th	S Sharpe	50lbs 08ozs
18th	K Borer	48lbs 12ozs
19th	J Hague	47lbs 12ozs
20th	M Dowling	47lbs 04ozs
21st	S Pearson	46lbs 12ozs
22nd	T Baker	45lbs 09ozs
23rd	D Ward	44lbs 12ozs
24th	A Walker	42lbs 12ozs
25th	A Szekeres	41lbs 04ozs
26th	J Webber	38lbs 08ozs
27th	W Panting	37lbs 12ozs
28th	W Taylor	36lbs 08ozs
29th	I Carley	36lbs 00ozs
30th	I Webber	35lbs 08ozs
31st	V Gould	35lbs 06ozs
32nd	M Collins	34lbs 08ozs
33rd	D Sage	33lbs 04ozs
34th	A Piper	32lbs 02ozs
35th	C Hunt	24lbs 00ozs
36th	I Covey	21lbs 00ozs
37th	S Castle	10lbs 00ozs
38th=	M Leask	DNW
38th=	P East	DNW

A very pleasant and unexpected aside to this match was both Vince and I being presented at the end with a small token of their appreciation from Disabled-Angler.co.uk for our efforts in putting the match together.