Stockton Reservoir. Southam. August 10th, 2007.

The JINX Series 2007

Match 4.

Well, off to Stockton today for the 4th round of the Jinx Series. A nice trouble free drive up saw me arrive in plenty of time enabling me to take a leisurely stroll round what I consider to be one of BW’s most scenic waters and to have a look at the pegs we would be fishing today.

 In previous Jinx matches I’ve fished on the venue we have fished “The Boards” pegs, but for this match we were on those to the right as you enter from the car park including those known as The Animal pegs due to them being surrounded by masses of rushes which can make extracting any of the resident Carp something of a challenge. They are also home to plenty of bird life too………

Most of us arrived in good time allowing for a pre match drink in The Blue Lias Inn and the chance of a chin-wag and a chance to catch up.
As usual Malc had forgotten a number of things including the weigh sling and draw sheets so the draw was a little delayed, meaning that we would be fishing from 1·30 – 6·30pm.

The draw bag had dealt me peg 41, right on the end of the Animal Pegs so that I had relatively open water with just the end of the reeds reachable with a short cast on the feeder. To my left I had Paul Roberts accompanied by his good lady Jayne (Though rumour has it that she’s really his community care worker) on peg 42. While to my right on peg 40 was young Ant Haywood, current leader of this years Jinx Series, and only needing another section win to tie up the series with one match to go.

My plan of attack was going to be simple, just setting up a feeder rod  for the chuck to the edge of the reeds alternating baits between meat, catmeat, corn, pellet or worm until I could find what they wanted. Initially I didn’t set up my pole intent on sticking with the feeder.

All in and most started on the feeder but Ant fed heavily at both 16mtrs and 8mtrs before spending a short time on the pole. Paul soon discovered that with Colin to his left and myself to his right he was surrounded by “Cockneys” and it would be fair to say that it set the tone for a sustained 5hrs of light hearted banter and mickey taking.

Sport was so slow that it was almost none existent, even this fella didn’t seem to be having any luck…………..

though Ant managed to foul hook a Carp and played it patiently to the net with plenty of encouragement from yours truly and a short while later this was followed by another similar fish………….

Me? I couldn’t buy a bite and after 2½hrs out came the pole. Dave Collier came up for a chat and almost right on cue the float dipped up up popped a foul hooked Perch, straight into the net and at least a DNW had been avoided, this was soon followed by a Rudd that swallowed a worm twice it’s size, I was positively baggin……….NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul was getting a few bites on the paste by now but was having trouble keeping them out of the reeds, but at least he was getting some fish into the net. I sat the final hour out on the paste over pellet and was briefly attached to a couple of Carp before they vanished into the distance, but the reality was that the final whistle was a blessing, as I had the feeling that I could have sat there for another 5 hours and progressed no further.

So yet another £1 coin handed over to young Gemma due to her MINXING me as I weighed in an incredibly generous 4ozs from the scales-man.(The cheque’s in the post Malc.)

Paul edged out Ant for the section, but he’s still in pole position for the series. Matt Nutt won on the day with 6 Carp all caught on the pellet for 48lbs.

I still love the venue but it can be incredibly frustrating and it beat me today but I will return as it’s one of those venues that I really enjoy.

Next weekend I’m out with the members of Marsh AC at Hartleylands Farm where we’re fishing the Reservoir, hopefully I’ll manage a few more fish than today, but who knows? I’ll let you know the outcome. 

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Matt Nutt	48lbs 00ozs
2nd	Roy Ravenhill	41lbs 08ozs
3rd	Paul Roberts	28lbs 00ozs
4th	Gary Thorpe                (Guest)	26lbs 00ozs
5th	Nick Jones	24lbs 08ozs
6th	Brian Bevan	23lbs 12ozs
7th	Dirk Williams	23lbs 00ozs
8th	Fred Parker	21lbs 12ozs
9th	Ant Haywood	17lbs 08ozs
10th	Nick Williams	16lbs 12ozs
11th	Eric Robathan	15lbs 04ozs
12th=	Steve Wilson	15lbs 00ozs
12th=	Dave Collier	15lbs 00ozs
12th=	Jimmy L                       (Guest)	15lbs 00ozs
15th=	Mark Causer	10lbs 00ozs
15th=	Keith Ashby	10lbs 00ozs
17th	Kevin Lake	9lbs 12ozs
18th	Malc Doyle	8lbs 04ozs
19th	Tim Westmoreland        (Guest)	8lbs 00ozs
20th=	Dave Moore	7lbs 08ozs
20th=	Clive Pritchard	7lbs 08ozs
22nd	Dave Ashby	7lbs 00ozs
23rd	Gemma Doyle	6lbs 04ozs
24th	Geoff Eggison	1lbs 08ozs
25th	Nick Watkins-Price	12ozs
26th=	Peter Morton	04ozs
26th=	Colin Sharrard	04ozs
28th=	Mark Lake	DNW
28th=	Dai Thomas	DNW
28th=	Simon Mound                (Guest)	DNW