Stockton Reservoir. Warwickshire. July 9th, 2005.

The JINX Series 2005

Match 3.

Well I arrived at Stockton with plenty of time to spare having left early to try and miss any traffic that was heading to the Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The weather was glorious, a nice contrast to the dull grey of the previous 7 days in London, and as I strolled round taking my first look at the reservoir, I couldn’t help thinking that the stories I’d heard of the place being a heartbreaker in matches just had to be exaggerated.

Looking across at the boards I was shocked to see a fisherman already on the pegs reserved for the match…………

However although he was more successful than Scott, he wasn’t doing a lot of harm. 

Back at the car park Nick(monkey) had arrived, and with plenty of time we decided a pre-match pint was in order, so off to The Blue Lias for a drink in the garden, where we were joined by Keith and his son David. 

After a couple of pints it was time for a leisurely stroll back to the reservoir for the draw, where amid groans and laughs I found myself fishing peg 17. A quick chat with Malc recommended 7mtrs for proper fish or 4 mtrs for silvers, so off I set to see what Stockton had to offer.

I found myself between Nick(polepot) on 18 who was quick to inform me of his love of Stockton…………NOT.

and Dai on 16 so a few laughs would be had at least. 

The all-in was delayed by 15mins so at 2·15PM we were off.
Out went a method feeder to see if I could find a quick mug fish, but after 10 mins without so much as a knock that was filed away and it was pole time having seen Keith and young Dan nick an early Carp each on their poles.

Now paste fishing is not something I do a lot of, but having read plenty of Malc’s reports of his exploits with paste at Stockton, I’d come prepared with 3 balls of it already made up (nothing special, just green swimstim with some tuna Felix added) which I was going to fish over loose fed swimstim micro’s.

Plenty of knocks followed as Rudd attacked the paste, but after 30 mins the float just vanished down the plughole. Loads of what Malc refers to as ‘Knicker-elastic’ poured out of the end, and there was me thinking that I’d set it too tight! I finally got it down to my top 3 and then the fun began, these Carp don’t like coming off the bottom, but finally after about 5mins there was a nice mirror in the net of about 6lbs.

Sport for me was never fast and furious, but at regular intervals the float would vanish and another lunatic Carp would put in an appearance. 9 in all while another couple decided they wanted to reach the other side of the Reservoir resulting in hook pulls before I went water skiing.

Towards the end we were treated to Malc giving a Chub a flying lesson from under the boards, while Matt was seen standing on his Rive trying to get a carp in the net.

good job he had those new trays fitted. He’s now searching the Rive catalogue for the accessory step ladder. 

Finally Nick (neo-1) having gone out on a light rig to snatch a few Rudd to avoid the horror of a DNW latched onto one of the Carp that had avoided him all match and as the all-out sounded we were treated to the sight of him playing it on what appeared to be a top 8, and having manfully battled it close to his platform (with plenty of sympathetic support from his fellow anglers) it proceeded to smash his top kit and shed the hook! Never mind Nick, it’s what they call character building.

Come the weigh-in and the scales worked their way down from peg 24 where Eric’s dad Derek had managed a creditable 12lbs 8ozs (The same peg that Scott had managed 6ozs from on the previous weeks Intersite.) with Eric (ejayar) putting an excellent 30lbs+ of Rudd on the scales for a total of 37lbs 2ozs.

I managed 9 carp for 58lbs 10ozs to put me on pole as Geoff could only manage 54lbs 13ozs and Matt on peg 3 53lbs 6ozs. So finally to Dirk on peg 2 who put 9carp and a Tench onto the scales for 59lbs 2ozs and the win. I’m sure that Tench had been force fed ½lb of Lard though.

Back to the car park for the raffle and a bit more banter and that was it until a fortnights time at Makins. Can’t wait.
 

Individual Results.

1st	Dirk Williams	59lb 02oz
2nd	Peter(Mugger)Morton	58lb 10oz
3rd	Geoff Eggison	54lb 13oz
4th	Matt Nutt	53lb 06oz
5th	Roy Ravenhill	44lb 03oz
6th	Eric Robothan	37lb 02oz
7th	Keith(Gandhi)Ashby	33lb 00oz
8th	Dan Thomas	31lb 05oz
9th	Dai Thomas	26lb 13oz
10th	Mark Causer	18lb 06oz
11th	Steve Wilson	13lb 08oz
12th	Nick Jones	12lb 10oz
13th	Derek Robothan	12lb 08oz
14th	Dave Ashby	10lb 01oz
15th	Malc(The Jinx)Doyle	7lb 05oz
16th	Nick Watkins-Price	1lb 04oz
17th	Nick Williams	DNW