Rolf’s Teams of 3. Spring League.
Well the 2nd round of the series and I drew peg 31 on C section, (the previous winning peg) but for me that was just about the highlight of the day I'm afraid.
At the moment Rolf’s hasn’t settled down with the fish seemingly content to stay in various pegs and avoid others at all costs.
The change in pellet supplier along with a ban on how much you can feed has also effected the water, and in my opinion the new feed pellet is of such poor quality, that the fish appear to actually back off from swims where it’s fed.
I feel that the way forward may be to feed Hemp or groundbait in the future ignoring pellet all together, but only time will tell.
Back to the match and s hours of toil and frustration forjust 4 bites produced 3 small carp for me weighing a meagre 13lbs for 2 points.
Keith in B section fared a bit better and managed 31lbs 8ozs for 3 points.
The star on the day for the F4W team was Steve Wilson who weighed 97lbs 8ozs from peg 34 for a section win and 8 points, finishing overall runner-up in the match.
This leaves F4W tied on 22 points in 5th after 2 rounds of the series.
Rolf’s Teams of 3. Spring League.
Well Sunday morning found me loading the kit into the car for a 60 mile trip to Rolf’s Lake in Oxfordshire where I was taking part in the Spring Teams of 3 League with Malc and Nick as part of the Fish4Wales Team.
It was dull and overcast day with the threat of rain and a fine drizzle would come and go all day leaving everything soaked by the end.
Waiting in the car park for the draw Malc decided to sort out a couple of rigs for the match ahead. Reaching into his seat box he produced this…………
Draw time and peg 14 in B section is mine and on arriving I find GaryH (milomadness) on peg 15 to keep me company, while Nick is opposite me on peg 25.
I had watched Gary Thorpe (The World Record Holder) fish this peg last year, shallow and long, so decided to try the same.
3 hours in and with just 2 bites and 2 bumped carp to show for my efforts I was looking at the dreaded blank and decide on a change of attack. 3 big pots of hemp & pellet go in on the 10mtr line, and I went in with a rig at dead depth, alternating between pellet and bread on the hook.
That got me out of jail and I manage 6 carp at the death to pip GaryH on the next peg with 47lbs 10ozs.
Matt Nutt had the pleasure of being pegged next to Malc (complete with pink baseball cap) but still managed to bag a few, though not as many as he’s used to on this venue.
Team wise we had all struggled but with top weight between the three of us I at least relieved Malc & Nick of £1 each. As a team we managed 6th= on the day so at least we aren’t last. Just got to try and improve next Sunday.
Good Friday, and Maria declares this morning that she’s going over to visit one of her friends, so why don’t I pop out for a days fishing?
Why not indeed, I’ve got plenty of pellets and corn, so fill the flask and load up the car and by 9·30am I’m pulling into the car park at Hartleylands.
Plenty of cars and people gave notice of a busy day, so I drove up to the reservoir to have a look round. Right on cue as I got out of the car the drizzle started, but I had a stroll round anyway, but as I reached peg 8 I spotted a friendly face in the shape of Terry aka Wily Coyote.
After a brief chat I retrieved my gear from the car and settled down on peg 7 next to Terry. It was bit windy from our right to left, but a relatively mild 12 degrees and overcast. Most anglers including Terry were fishing feeders or ledger rigs of various descriptions, but one chap on what looked like peg 13 was catching on a Baggin Wag, showing that some of the fish had to be up in the water.
I set up a waggler to give the pellet a go up in the water, but after an hour without a touch that’s up the bank and it’s time to christen my new Okuma Twin tip Avon rod, pairing it up with my Capricorn 3500 to fish a Baggin Wag with hair rigged corn 2ft deep. Groundbait was simply GOT Baits pure brown crumb with a couple of handfuls of Swimstim Micro’s added.
Within 10 minutes I was into my 1st Carp of the day, a really plump fish that Terry and I thought might scrape 10lbs
Terry on seeing this decided to have some of that, as he’d only managed 4 of 5 skimmers up to that point and he was soon into action.
The resulting fish while not being the largest was at least most welcome
I soon had another mirror of a similar stamp to my 1st
however sport was never fast and furious with gaps between bites, then 2 or 3 fish and another gap, well for me at least, Terry was having one of those days where he couldn’t buy another bite.
About 12·30 the sky became greyer and the wind got up a bit more, brollies were raised and then the rain came.
At this point Terry’s umbrella decided to snap and collapse on him.Such was the change in the weather that I phoned Malc "The Jinx " just to check whether he was in the area??? Having been told it was sunshine and Tee shirt weather in Wales followed by howls of laughter, I bid him a fond farewell just as the rain started to ease.
I seemed to get a run of fish, either mirrors or commons, 2 or 3 at a time, it was if the fish were cruising in small pods.
The commons, while not the largest at the moment, are truly lovely fish, fighting fit and as fat as butter, indeed all the fish appear to have wintered well and bulked up.
As the afternoon went on the wind dropped and the sun tried to poke through the clouds. Terry reverted to the feeder, but alas it wasn’t going to produce anything for him, Meanwhile I managed my 20th carp of the day and tried to look apologetic as Terry did the honours with the camera for me once more.
Back to the Baggin Wag for Terry, but still no joy as I coaxed another couple, and as 4·30 arrived I slid my 25th carp of the session over the net, a nicely marked mirror around the 12lb mark
Terry and I looked at each other and decided to call it quits. A good day for me, but one of almost total frustration for Terry, hard to credit that at times our floats were a matter of feet from each other with such wildly different results, but I suppose that’s the enigma of fishing.
My thanks to Terry for his company on the day, we must do it again, hopefully with a more even result next time.
