Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. July 28th-29th, 2007.

Maggotdrowning.com

 Rolf’s Pairs Tournament 2007.

So there I was 6·30am on Saturday with the car all loaded up and ready to get off to Rolf’s Lake for the 2nd Annual Maggotdrowning Pairs Tournament.
A quick stop off on route in Battersea for a spot of breakfast followed by a trouble free run down the M40 saw me pulling into the services just after 8am, closely followed by Paul East (NoMoreLongWalks) along with Dai and his good lady Anne and Vince (vg1037).
A short phone call soon revealed that Ady (BigLadWigan) was doing a passable impression of lost & confused driving around Holton trying to remember where the lake was, so he elected to return to the services and follow us down there.

Soon it was a case of back into the cars and down to Rolf’s, arriving just after 9am you can imagine my shock to find Malc and his daughter Gemma already there, indeed the car park was almost full as various Maggotdrowners arrived from all corners of the country.
Geoff P had taken the long distance award, having been chauffeured down from Scotland by his son for the weekend. While looking around you could see a mini Maggotville emerging as a number of bivvies went up.

Talk as usual was about just how many “tons” would come out over the weekend but as I took a walk round the lake, nagging away in the back of my head was a little voice telling me that things might prove to be a lot harder than many people thought owing to all the water that had been in and out of the venue during the preceding weeks.

It was good to see that pegs 16-18 had been reinstated opening up the choice of pegs available, indeed standing in the car park it was hard to believe that the lake had been bursting it’s banks the previous weekend and it was a tribute to the efforts of John and his helpers even going to the trouble of running a pump round the clock in order to make sure that the venue was eminently fishable, leading many to wonder why another website’s match due for the Friday had been cancelled by them the previous Monday.

Finally Dave Webster (RedLeader) arrived, having collected Tony Prentice (teepee) on the way he’d obviously had a “Blonde” moment setting the Sat Nav so that the route from Yorkshire to Wheatly was via the M25??????

So finally we’re all assembled and the draw takes place for pairs, which finds me paired for the weekend with Tony Roberts (spamwham) a fellow Marsh AC member, and then the draw for pegs. Dave and I were the last to draw and I found myself holding Peg 34, considered by many to be a flyer, so no pressure. However on arriving I found that the rope that marks the far edge of the swim had been moved away from it’s usual position???? Tony. my partner had drawn peg 38 so at least we could keep an eye on each other.

Settling into the peg I set the box up on the submerged platform and elected to concentrate on the margins which were about 18″ deeper than usual, but also taking advantage of the new ruling that allows the use of rod and reel, set up a feeder rig to cover my options.

Next door on peg 35 I had Dave “Yorkie” Moore for company, a fellow competitor in The Jinx Series of matches, so if nothing else a good bit of banter was assured.
12noon and the all in sounds, and it would be nice to say that we all got off to flyers, but it was Gazmalman who had flown off his platform before the match had even started, Malman Floats? well it would appear he does, even if he is well dotted down due to consuming a few to many pies………

………….the crazy bit is that he did it again during the match, this time losing a weigher in the process that probably cost him the section. 

For a lot of the anglers it proved to be a hard old day, most had fish in their swims at some point in the day but getting them to show an interest in a bait was another matter. Try as they might it proved to be a struggle, some like Dave grafted away for 5 hours and were only rewarded with a single fish proving once again that there is more to it than just turning up at Rolf’s to guarantee a ton-up bag.

I was lashing in the pellet on the margin line while fishing the feeder out by the rope but for no reward, while teepee opposite on peg 6 had landed 1 and lost a couple. However we all had to watch as Ian Ward (Chin) on peg 7 and Gemma on peg 8 caught steadily from the off and with the lake not fishing to it’s potential strolled away from the rest of us. Ian winning the day with 108lbs 8ozs, while Gemma was unfortunate enough to lose a good fish in the final minutes that could have pushed Ian all the way, but still finishing in overall 2nd place with 98lbs, a really top performance on the day allowing her to take more than a few £1 coins off of the assembled company.

I had been fortunate enough to nick a  few decent fish at the end with a final 12½lb’er with 5 mins to go, my 73¼lbs pushing up to 9th on the day while Tony had found out about the power of Rolf’s fish, putting 45lbs on the scales for 13th overall but losing many more. A lesson learned hopefully.

As most know Rolf’s health has not been the best so it was especially good to see him put in an appearance during the afternoon and have a gentle stroll round having a chat with those present.

The weigh-in proved just how hard it had been for most with only the 1 “ton” and more weights under 50lbs than above it, Rolf’s had indeed shown us it’s hard side, though hopefully with plenty of feed having gone in, things would improve on Sunday.

Soon the Barbecue was lit and the beers cracked open with Rolf stopping on for a bite to eat before returning home.
Around 9pm the rain stared to fall, but with Dave’s gazebo and countless brollies available the banter continued for some long into the night.

Sunday dawned dry and sunny and with breakfast cooked once more on the barbecue for most it was just a question of waiting for Pete Archer (Vespe) and Keith Arthur (Fisherman's Blues) fresh from his morning radio show to join us for the draw. Both duly arrived and the draw was underway.

I found myself on peg 9 this time while Tony had draw sock on with peg 8, while I had Chin to my left on 10.
with the all in at 12noon, Ady on peg 31 was looking like Raison, Nudd & Wilson rolled into one as his paste attack brought immediate rewards, alas it was not to last, but he looked good while it lasted, unfortunately all to briefly.

I started off with an absolute nightmare, there were fish in front of me but regardless of what I put on the hook or the depth I fished at, all I got were foulhookers that proved to be unlandable. By the time that Ian walked past with his 5th weigher and yet another fish trashed another rig, my pole was thrown up the bank, to stop myself from smashing it in a fit of temper.

Once again I reverted to meat fished in conjunction with a feeder full of fishery pellet, which finally allowed me to put a few fish together. Ian meanwhile was putting another decent net together but was losing a few under the submerged platform costing him several damaged top kits.
Tony however was going along steadily and managed to beat his PB Chub 3 times during the course of the match, culminating in a glorious 5¾lb’er.
Tony (Teepee) had drawn peg 6 for the second day running and although he managed to improve on his day 1 weight, it wasn’t by enough to have any effect overall.
Throughout the match even though I couldn’t see him I could hear Malc (The Jinx) mostly as he traded banter and insults with young Ian ………
however he played a bit of a blinder edging to a win on the day with a level 143lbs, pushing Tony down to 2nd place with a creditable 136lbs. I managed 91lbs for 7th on the day and both days results gave us a total of 52points which proved to be enough for us to take the title of MD’s Rolf’s Pairs Champions for 2007 and receive our trophies from Fisherman’s Blues himself.
Finally I would like to add my thanks to Dave for organising the whole weekend. To John & Pauline Bennett & John Walker whose efforts to get the fishery ready for us were very much appreciated. To Keith Arthur for joining us on Sunday along with Pete Archer & his sponsor Vespe for providing some goodies for the winners. To Rolf, It was good to see you at your fishery once more and Finally to all The Maggotdrowners in attendance, it’s you that make the weekend the success it is. Let’s do it all again next year.

Position	Pairs	Points
1st	Peter Morton & Tony Roberts	52
2nd	Ian Ward & Vince Gould	46
3rd	Simon Mound & Paul Thompson	44
4th	Clive Pritchard & Adrian Wood	41
5th=	Malc Doyle & Chris Kendall	39
5th=	Dirk Williams & Dai Thomas	39
7th	Ant Haywood & Paul East	38
8th	Gaz Malman & Gemma Doyle	35
9th	Alex Malman & Geoff Palmer	33
10th	Tony Prentice & Steve Bowman	29
11th	Chris Ellis & Tom Little	28
12th	Keith Arthur & Simon Rowley	26
13th	Dave Webster & Dave Collier	20
14th	Steve Wilson & Pete Archer	18
15th	Dave Moore & Dave West	13
16th	Colin Sharrard & Terry Goff	11

	Saturday
Place	Angler	Weight
1st	Ian Ward	108lbs 08ozs
2nd	Gemma Doyle	98lbs 00ozs
3rd	Clive Pritchard	91lbs 04ozs
4th	Dirk Williams	84lbs 12ozs
5th	Paul Thompson	84lbs 08ozs
6th	Gaz Malman	80lbs 12ozs
7th=	Chris Kendall	77lbs 12ozs
7th=	Alex Malman	77lbs 12ozs
9th	Peter Morton	73lbs 04ozs
10th	Simon Mound	57lbs 08ozs
11th	Dave Moore	57lbs 00ozs
12th	Ant Haywood	45lbs 08ozs
13th	Tony Roberts	45lbs 00ozs
14th	Dave Collier	44lbs 08ozs
15th	Paul East	42lbs 08ozs
16th	Geoff Palmer	40lbs 12ozs
17th	Tony Prentice	37lbs 08ozs
18th	Adrian Wood	36lbs 12ozs
19th	Dai Thomas	30lbs 04ozs
20th=	Terry Goff	29lbs 12ozs
20th=	Chris Ellis	29lbs 12ozs
22nd	Steve Wilson	27lbs 08ozs
23rd	Tom Little	23lbs 00ozs
24th	Vince Gould	17lbs 00ozs
25th	Colin Sharrard	15lbs 08ozs
26th	Malc Doyle	15lbs 00ozs
27th	Simon Rowley	11lbs 04ozs
28th	Steve Bowman	8lbs 04ozs
29th	Dave Webster	6lbs 08ozs
30th	Dave West	1lb 00ozs

	Sunday
Place	Angler	Weight
1st	Malc Doyle	143lbs  00ozs
2nd	Tony Roberts	136lbs  00ozs
3rd	Steve Bowman	121lbs  04ozs
4th	Dirk Williams	114lbs  08ozs
5th	Paul East	111lbs  04ozs
6th	Ian Ward	105lbs  12ozs
7th	Peter Morton	91lbs 00ozs
8th	Keith Arthur	88lbs 12ozs
9th	Chris Ellis	87lbs 08ozs
10th	Vince Gould	75lbs 12ozs
11th	Paul Thompson	65lbs 12ozs
12th	Simon Rowley	60lbs 04ozs
13th	Clive Pritchard	59lbs 08ozs
14th	Simon Mound	58lbs 04ozs
15th	Steve Wilson	54lbs 00ozs
16th	Ant Haywood	50lbs 12ozs
17th	Tony Prentice	49lbs 04ozs
18th	Geoff Palmer	48lbs 08ozs
19th	Adrian Wood	44lbs 12ozs
20th	Dave Webster	44lbs 00ozs
21st	Chris Kendall	32lbs 12ozs
22nd	Tom Little	26lbs 08ozs
23rd	Alex Malman	25lbs 04ozs
24th	Pete Archer	25lbs 00ozs
25th=	Gaz Malman	24lbs 04ozs
25th=	Gemma Doyle	24lbs 04ozs
27th	Dave Moore	23lbs 00ozs
28th	Dai Thomas	22lbs 08ozs
29th	Dave Collier	17lbs 12ozs
30th	Dave West	13lbs 08ozs
31st	Terry Goff	10lbs 08ozs
32nd	Colin Sharrard	DNW

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. July 21st, 2007.

Well having got back into the swing of things with last weeks Match at Holly Farm, I was keen to get back out onto the bank again to make up for some of the fishing I had missed out on in the preceding weeks.
A couple of jobs to do first thing in the morning meant that I didn’t arrive at the fishery till 10am, and with a match on Peartree and the Reservoir a comfy peg on Nick’s Lake would do nicely.

Unloading the car I could see there was an angler on peg 29 in the corner, so I took a short 20 yard stroll up to peg 32 that had plenty of cover in the margins which would be suitable as I was planning to try out a couple of paste baits and some solid 22 rated Vespe elastic that I had rigged up in my margin pole.

A couple of handfuls of mixed pellet into both margins while I set my gear up was all the prep needed, and although it was cloudy, hopefully the wind would keep any rain at bay, after the torrential downpours we had experienced in London the day before.

Plumbing up revealed a comfy 3 ft in the margins allowing me to fish a simple dibber rig cocked with a single BB shot at just under half depth on 0·21 MAP Carptek straight through to an eyed size 10 barbless Raptor. The real object of the day was to see how soft a paste I could get away with using, so all the paste would be shipped out with the aid of a small paste pot made up to Teepee’s design.
I had made up plenty of paste (six pints) in 2 different varieties, as I would be relying on just the paste coming off the hook to feed the swims.

1st put in at 6mtrs down the left hand margin and the float just slid away after 30 seconds and a nice little Common Carp of about 2½ lbs was soon in the net to get me off the mark.
Bites continued to be almost instant, but a lot of them were from the hordes of small palm sized Skimmers that seemed to have invaded the swim, though doubling the size of the paste bait meant that the bait lasted long enough for yet more Carp to find it before the Skimmers polished it off.

By about 12·30 the sky had darkened ominously and the angler on peg 29 had packed up and left, and I made the decision to move down there despite the fact that I had landed 25 Carp by then.

Yet again a couple of handfuls of mixed pellet into both margins as I sorted the gear out and went back to the car to get my umbrella. Plumbing up revealed another 6 inches on the depth of the previous swim so I tied up another rig to suit the extra depth.
Soon the threatened rain arrived and much as I hate fishing under an umbrella I was glad I had it with me, even though the shower only lasted for about ½ hour.

Just as the rain eased off I glanced round to see the familiar face of Vince (vg1037) who had popped down to check on my progress. Whether it was his presence standing there behind me in a cream sweatshirt (Sky-lining me?) or a change brought on by the rain, sport slowed as yet again the Skimmers put in an appearance, however with the return of the sun the Carp started to return as Vince left to take his other half shopping.

Soon I was into a nice rhythm taking 2 or 3 Carp from each margin before resting it and swapping to the other.
One of the nice features of Nick’s is the variety of Carp in there. Mostly Commons and Mirrors, there are also some Ghosties present along with some really dark Mirrors that are almost black. Another nice feature are the Tench. Normally I’ve found that Tench don’t fare well in waters where they have to compete with a large head of Carp, but through the session I caught a dozen Tench, and while not large they were all fit as fiddles and pleasantly plump.

Here’s a few photo’s showing the condition of the Carp present in the lake……

As the afternoon wore on a better stamp of Carp moved into both margin swims, taking both varieties of paste confidently, the best of them weighing maybe 9lbs. By 5pm they had noshed their way through 6 pints of paste and I called it a day having landed 93 Carp, 12 Tench and a few Skimmers. At a conservative estimate I would think I had 200lbs+ of fish making for a cracking days fishing.

Next weekend it’s the Maggotdrowning Pairs Event at Rolf’s Lake and if I can manage a similar sort of performance I’ll be well pleased. 

Holly Farm Fishery. Gils Lake. July 14th, 2007.

The JINX Series 2007

Match 3.

Well after 6 weeks with no fishing due to work commitments it was just good to be getting out for a days fishing, especially as it was with the group of anglers who fish the Jinx Series.
Holly Farm at Ashby Magna in Leicestershire was todays venue, a complex with 3 lakes, Moby, Trotters & Gils, with us fishing on Gils today.

As usual I arrived with plenty of time to spare after a trip of around 100 miles and had a stroll round the venue, bumping into Nick W-P (another early bird) before retiring to the Café for a chat and a coffee with the others as they arrived.
Malc (The Jinx) had suffered yet more car trouble during the week (Total brake failure this time) so he and Gem (The Minx) travelled up with Nick & Brian, meaning that we at least started almost on time for once.

So into the draw bag to be rewarded with peg 7, at least one of the shorter walks from the car park. Now such was the weather today that the 1st 10 pegs had the wind howling from left to right while the rest were sheltered enough to be flat calm.
The peg looked decent enough with the reed fringed far bank being around 13mtrs away and a bit of cover on both sides. For company I had Nick W-P to my left on 8 and Geoff to my right on 6.

I sorted out 2 main lines of attack, 1 right over against the reeds and the other at 7mtrs down the track while I would also feed both margins during the course of the match, with a view to catching there later on.
Bait wise I had the options of meat, paste, corn and pellet with a bag of the fishery pellet to supplement the feed.

1·15pm and at the all-in I fed 2 pots with a mix of pellet, corn and meat at both 13 & 7 mtrs and with the wind gusting strongly opted to start at 7mts with a single grain of corn on the deck.
30 minutes in and without so much as a knock the float suddenly dipped and within 30secs a small Carp of around 12ozs was safely in the net. This was to be a bit of a false dawn however as another 1½hrs went by without another bite.

I decided to re-feed heavily at 7mtrs and have a stroll to see how the rest were doing, before going to get a burger (which was looking as if it may be the best bite of the day

Geoff was sorting out a feeder as despite sticking it out at 13mtrs on the pole he had only lost the 3 Carp he’d hooked, while Nick could only report a couple of half hearted knocks on his float that hadn’t developed further.
Strolling round Brian was owning up to 7 small Carp while Clive was another with nothing to show for his efforts…… 

although Ant on the next peg was owning up to having around 20 fish in his net………

All along it appeared that there were pockets of fish and if you were lucky enough to have them in front of you, you would catch while others around you would struggle.

Matt managed 3 fish in the short time I watched while Malc could hardly buy a bite, and this seemed to be the story as you went down the pegs.

Returning from my walk I sat at my peg and finished my burger and pondered how to approach the final 2 hours. Geoff had managed a couple of Carp on the feeder in my absence, but Nick was still fishless as was Keith’s lad David, who was sweating on a £1 side bet that he’d had with The Minx who was admitting to a small Roach & Perch in her net.
The deciding factor was that the wind appeared to have died down a bit, and I still had plenty of finely cubed meat, so over to 13 mtrs with a shallow rig and out with the catty to see if I could tempt anything up in the water. 5-6 bits of meat every 30 second, surely this would bring something? 40 minutes later and not a swirl, knock or bite. Back over with a full depth rig, if nothing had intercepted my free offerings perhaps they might be attracted to them laying on the deck? 10 minutes in and the float slid away, but the white hydro couldn’t stop it from reaching the reeds in time!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back out with a Black Hydro’d kit and 10 minutes later the merest dip of the float results in Carp number 2 in the net. In the final hour I managed another 4, nothing of any real size, but positively bagging compared with the rest of my match. David managed to save his £1 from The Minx’s clutches when he had a little Carp on a pellet and his top2 in the last 5 minutes of the match as he started to pack his kit away, not that he rubbed The Minx’s nose in it………..MUCH!!!!!


The weigh-in reflected just how patchy the venue had been on the day with Nick (Neo) Williams taking the win with 52lb 5ozs. Ant managed a 3rd section win on the trot putting himself into pole for the overall series honours. Also it was great to see Nick (Polepot) finally pick up some coin for 2nd in his section, his 1st pay out despite fishing the Jinx Series from it’s start 6 years ago.

My six Carp weighed a meagre 6lbs 6ozs which amazingly enough was enough for 2nd in my section, bringing me a bit of coin to go with my pound that The Minx had to return to me on the day.

So a 200+mile round trip for not a lot of fish, but it was just good to be out on the bank again and end enjoying the crack. The next Jinx match is at Stockton, but before that it is the Maggotdrowning.com Pairs Weekend at Rolf’s Lake which should be a blast if it’s anything like last year.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 29	Nick Williams	52lb 05ozs
2nd	Peg 21	Simon Mound        (Guest)	43lb 15ozs
3rd	Peg 15	Ant Haywood	41lb 05ozs
4th	Peg 3	Roy Ravenhill	37lb 05ozs
5th	Peg 26	Dave Moore	28lb 12ozs
6th	Peg 19	Matt Nutt	24lb 03ozs
7th	Peg1	Eric Robathan	23lb 14ozs
8th	Peg 12	Brian Bevan	15lb 13ozs
9th	Peg 17	Paul Roberts	12lb 15ozs
10th	Peg 2	Mark Causer	11lb 09ozs
11th	Peg 22	Nick Jones	10lb 07ozs
12th	Peg 23	Keith Ashby	8lb 09ozs
13th	Peg 20	Malc Doyle	6lb 12ozs
14th	Peg7	Peter Morton	6lb 06ozs
15th	Peg24	Kev Lake	5lb 10ozs
16th=	Peg10	Mark Lake	4lb 02ozs
16th=	Peg 6	Geoff Eggison	4lb 02ozs
18th	Peg 18	Steve Wilson	3lb 15ozs
19th	Peg 5	Dave Ashby	1lb 12ozs
20th	Peg 30	Gemma Doyle	4ozs
21st	Peg16	Simon Rowley	1oz
22nd=	Peg 8	Nick  Watkins-Price	D.N.W.
22nd=	Peg 14	Clive Pritchard	D.N.W.