Stockton Reservoir. Southam, Warwickshire. July 29th, 2006.

The JINX Series 2006

Match 4.

I pulled into the car park at Stockton around 10·30am in glorious sunshine, and a quick look around found the yorkie’s, Dave & Tim wandering around with Nick(monkey) along with Neo and Brian with Darren(badatfishing) in tow.
I thought that the water looked spot on, but there again I really like Stockton as a venue, although I know there are a few that really hate the place.

With a bit of time to kill before the draw we adjourned to the garden of The Blue Lias for a pint or two where we were joined by John(Bucko) and his good lady, who though they weren’t fishing had decided to come down and meet the lunatics who fish The Jinx Series.

Anyway at around noon we stirre our stumps from the comfort of the pub garden and strolled back up to car park for the draw.

 Now at Stockton any of the pegs between 1-15 and 22-25 have a feature in the form of reed beds or islands to fish to so of course I pick 20 with absolutely jack in the way of a feature, unless you’re crazy or desperate enough to try tempting them out from under the boards.

Setting up it was obvious that if nothing else the company for the day was going to be good with Dirk, Simon(Me) and Neo to my left and Paul with his better half Jayne, Malc, Keith and Matt to the right.
Setting up was pretty simple as I had decided on one approach that I was confident would get me a few fish. Pole at 9mtrs to fish paste over pellet in 4feet of water.
Last time we fished the same pegs I found that the tow could be a bit of a problem as it can be quite exposed, so I had made my paste up stiffer than usual to stop the hook being dragged out.

1·30pm saw the all-in so a ball of paste along with a few GOT 4mm sinkers was shipped out and I was ready for action.

About 10 mins in and the float buried and I was attached to one of Stockton’s residents, a nice Mirror that gave the usual good account of itself before it was safely in the net. As usual the “support and encouragement” from those around me was outstanding and set the tone for the day early on.

For anyone that hasn’t been to Stockton, it’s hard to appreciate just how fit these fish are and what a good account of themselves they give, also they are without exception in stunning condition which is great to see.

About an hour in and the sun vanished as the wind brought in an ominously grey sky with the threat of rain to come, however apart from a couple of very brief showers, it thankfully didn’t materialise though the sun struggled to put in an appearance for the rest of the match.

After about 90 minutes I’d had 3 carp and was into a 4th, however this one led me a merry dance and dived under my platform, however I managed to get it out but before I could net it, it got under again and out round my keepnets. Needless to say I lost it. I’d like to say thanks for the sympathy shown by my fellow anglers at this point, but I think you can probably guess that it wasn’t forthcoming.

Looking down to the right I saw Keith finally get of the mark, fishing double cat meat he soon had the fish under control and in the net…………………….. a 2″ Rudd.

Paul was fishing The Method with his little red men as hookbait, and only a lightning reaction saved his new Preston Carbonactive going for a swim as he was finally into one. Now they reckon you can’t lock up a Carbonactive, but Paul seemed a tad reluctant to try this theory out despite encouragement from the rest of us.

Meanwhile Simon(me) was devastating the resident Perch with paste while studiously avoiding any nuisance Carp, leaving these for Dirk on his right.
After being given the run around by the carp under the platform out came the bung and a foot and a bit of elastic was removed. Modification completed another bit of paste was shipped out and devoured. After a brief tussle I soon had a decent common in the net. However I then had a spell where I pulled out of three fish. Sympathy and advise flowed freely of course, telling me that I’d removed to much, Malc even offering some superglue so I could stick the discarded elastic back on. It really does your heart good to be sharing the bank with such caring mates.

Further down Matt could be seen fishing his usual tidy match, though we were treated to a couple of box climbing incidents (no photo though as we’ve seen it all before)

With a couple of hours to go I had 5 Carp and had lost 3, and both Paul and Dirk had caught me with 5 Carp each, however I then had 3 more in rapid succession to pull away from them again.
Going into the last half hour I managed one more, but lost another two, while Simon finally found himself attached to something other than a Perch, however after a high speed charge through Dirks swim he managed to lose the nuisance.

6·30pm and the all out saw Paul still refusing to try out the anti-lock properties of his new rod as he brought a final Carp to the net.

With Malc doing the Honours on the scales my 9 carp weighed 59lbs 12ozs, enough for 4th overall and a 1st in section.

 Dave (yorkie) Moore took the honours on the day with a fine 84lb bag, while MarkC on yet another end peg!!!!!! was just edged  out into 3rd by Matt, both having 70lbs+ bags.

Back to the pub for the results and a pint, an enjoyable day all round, and well done to Nick WP (Monkey) who picked up his section money with a fine 40lbs+, his best Jinx result so far.

Next up Manor Farm for the penultimate round of the series, should be fun.

1st	Dave Moore	84lb 08oz
2nd	Matt Nutt	71lb 08oz
3rd	Mark Causer	70lb 04oz
4th	Peter(Mugger)Morton	59lb 12oz
5th	Geoff Eggison	54lb 00oz
6th	Nick Watkins-Price	41lb 04oz
7th	Paul Roberts	36lb 00oz
8th	Darren                  (Guest)	33lb 08oz
9th	Roy Robathan	30lb 08oz
10th	Eric Robathan	27lb 00oz
11th	Ant Haywood	28lb 12oz
12th	Dirk Williams	28lb 04oz
13th	Brian Bevan	25lb 00oz
14th	Dave Ashby	24lb 12oz
15th	Steve Wilson	24lb 04oz
16th	Steve D                 (Guest)	16lb 00oz
17th	Malc(The Jinx)Doyle	13lb 04oz
18th	TimWestmoreland	11lb 00oz
19th	Keith(Gandhi)Ashby	10lb 00oz
20th	Richard H               (Guest)	8lb 00oz
21st	Nick Williams	5lb 14oz
22nd	Simon Rowley	1lb 00oz
23rd	Kev Lake	1oz