Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. August 29th, 2008.

 The JINX Series 2008 

Match 4.

Well after a gap of eight weeks The Jinx Series returned to Rolf’s today for the penultimate round of the Series. Blue sky and sunshine greeted me as I set off which was nice as the weather in the past week hadn’t been the best. A trouble free run down after my customary breakfast stop saw me arrive with plenty of time to spare, with just Dave, Tim and Nick along with John there to greet me. First things first, so nets dipped and laid out to dry then a look at the Lake.

John’s got some plant on site digging out some flood defences so pegs 19 and 20 are out of the match today as the work is going on right behind them, and I couldn’t help wondering if it might just have an effect on the fishing today for those pegged on the Big Lake.

Soon the car park was filling up and the usual banter and micky taking was starting to flow as is customary on these matches. Even Malc was on time as he’d travelled up with Dai (Yes the Rover is still dead) and today he had his 2 youngsters in tow (Crystal & Liam) could Rolf’s survive the presence of 4 members of The Jinx Family? Indeed many were wondering whether the change in weather would affect things too as a lot of venues have been fishing poorly recently.

Anyway with 23 anglers assembled it was time for the draw (yes it was late) and I was hoping for the car park bank and a nice short walk, and peg 29 was my reward, a stroll of around 5 yards as my car was parked right behind it.

For company today I had Keith to my left on peg 31 and Mitch on 32 with Kevin to my right on peg 28 and Dave on peg 26.

I was planning on keeping it reasonably simple today and just set up 3 rigs. I to fish paste just on the slope of the shelf at the ends of the bushes to my left and right and this was simply a Mk3 Malman self cocking paste float on 0·21 to a size 12 Drennan Carp Method. The second was to fish pellet straight out at around 6mtrs where I had around 5ft and was a Malman 4×12 Adam on 0·18 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match and I also set up a Malman 0·3g MTD1 dibber on 0·18 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match in case they wanted it up in the water. I also set up the feeder as I had it there in its ready sleeve, but wasn’t expecting to use it. Bait wise it was just 6 and 8mm fishery pellets and some paste.

With plenty of time till the all in people could be seen discussing the prospects for the day ahead…………

…… or maybe not in some cases …………………

So 1pm and Malc called the All-in, a handful of pellet by each bush and 2 big pots of pellet went out onto the 6mtr line which I followed out with an 8mm banded pellet onto the 6mtr line just as I heard Malc’s shout signifying his 1st fish from peg 7. After raising and dropping the rig a couple of times the float buried and a Common of around 7lbs was safely in the net to get me off the mark. This was swiftly followed by another Common around the 9lb mark, a great start, but short lived.

Looking to my left I could see that Keith was into his 1st fish of the day which appeared to be a Skimmer while across on peg 10 Clive was also into his first of the day…………

I then went through a frustrating spell, suffering from a number of foul hooked fish resulting in a collection of scales on my sidetray but nothing added to the net. Kevin with nothing to show from his pole line except a solitary Roach decided to go for it on the feeder, and it seemed to be the right choice as it produced the occasional fish for him throughout the rest of the match.

Keith meanwhile seemed to be bringing a steady stream of fish to the net, but this was deceptive as a number of them were lost as it turned out. Dave Moore meanwhile having been through numerous variations in an attempt to find a fish had been back to his van to retrieve his pellet waggler rod to implement ‘PLAN Z’ as he put it.

By around 3·30pm it was obvious that most were struggling. I hadn’t seen Tony on peg 14 land a single fish and he was having a stroll around. Slim was having a bit of a mare losing a few fish while Clive next to him on 10 continued to slip the odd fish into the net ………

Having tried my 2 inside lines with no success and with just a lone skimmer taken on the feeder, I decided to concentrate on the 6mtr line which I’d been feeding regularly for the remainder of the match. I soon had a couple of Carp one of which was a weigher, to add to the net and as Tony arrived for a chat I latched into a slightly better one. Into the waiting landing net and it proved to be a weigher and at 14lbs was just the inspiration that Tony needed to get back to his peg and try and avoid the dreaded DNW.

The pellet wag finally produced a very welcome Carp for Dave as I was attached to a rather fed up foul hooker, a decent Common which I briefly saw before it did me underneath the right hand bush. This seemed to kill things for me as I couldn’t buy a bite in the following 30 minutes.

With an hour to go I was in again and had a run of fish including another weigher of 16lb. With around 10 minutes to go I had another 5lb’er and Kevin asked me what I thought I had. I reckoned that one more fish could see me reach the ‘Ton’.

Sure enough the float buried once more and an obviously decent fish tore off bottoming the elastic!!! Fortunately the rig held and as a rather disoriented Common with the hook firmly in it’s pectoral fin surfaced on it’s side I scooped it into the net, a weigher that went 16½lbs and before I had the chance to get the rig in again Malc called the All-out.

Chatting to others while packing up it was obvious that a lot had struggled, though Malc was owning up to a ‘Ton’ and I was sure that Clive had won the match, but Slim was really worried that he could be on the receiving end of a Minxing. However while we waited for the weigh-in, Slim’s good lady showed fine form demonstrating to Slim how it should be done when she had a go ……

What a star she proved to be, even coming round with the iced lollies during the afternoon. While I’m at it, I mustn’t forget a big Thank You to Kevin’s partner Jean who kept me supplied with cups of coffee during the day and a sticky bun at the end.

Soon the weigh-in revealed just how hard it had been. My fish weighed 113lbs for the early lead that I felt sure I would to lose to Clive. Ant had managed 76½lbs. Gemma managed 31¼lbs from peg 2 leaving Slim looking nervous, much to everyone’s amusement. Malc’s fish went 109½lbs, a very relieved Slim just avoided a Minxing with a level 35lbs and sure enough Clive took the win on the day when he put 154lbs on the scales. Nice one Clive.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 10	Clive Pritchard	154lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 29	Peter Morton	113lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 7	Malc Doyle	109lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 38	Ant Haywood	76lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 14	Colin Sharrard	72lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 25	Steve Wilson	72lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 8	Simon Mound	67lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 36	Roy Ravenhill	64lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 31	Keith Fellows	63lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 4	Dai Thomas	50lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 34	Paul Roberts	44lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 9	Ade Williams	35lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 28	Kevin Loveland	33lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 2	Gemma Doyle	31lbs 12ozs
15th	Peg 18	Tim Westmoreland            (Guest)	31lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 22	Nick Williams	24lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 40	Dave Collier	23lbs 12ozs
18th	Peg 23	Mark Causer	23lbs 08ozs
19th	Peg 26	Dave Moore	21lbs 00ozs
20th	Peg 14	Tony Roberts	19lbs 08ozs
21st	Peg 32	Mitch Auger	14lbs 12ozs
22nd	Peg 5	Nick Watkins-Price	DNW
23rd	Peg 16	Ieuan Davies                     (Guest)	DNW