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