Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. September 3rd, 2008.

Rive T’s TalkAngling.co.uk Forum Match.

It was down to Rolf’s Lake today for A RiveT Piscatorial Promotion along with the lads from TalkAngling. I Missed getting my name down for this when it was posted on the forum, but managed to get on the reserve list, and nearer the day I was in probably due to the fact that it was a weekday, but as I’d got few holiday days left it wasn’t a problem for me to get a day off.
The weather didn’t look like it was going to be the best with rain pretty much all the way down.

People soon assembled and got their nets dipped, and it was good to catch up with some faces both old and new. Dave’Yorkie’Moore, one of the Jinx mob had snuck down for the day and I was able to finally catch up with Lee(Mouse)Woodhouse on his 1st visit to Rolf’s. Mr & Mrs Sumo were in attendance with Sue hoping to beat hubby once more. Tony(RiveT)Walsh and Larry gathered in the monies and it was Draw time. With everywhere fishing so inconsistently at the moment including Rolf’s I was hoping for either pegs 7 or 8 or the Car Park bank to avoid a long walk and the peg that stuck to my hand was 22, the 1st peg on the Car Park bank.

Now John had been gardening once more and the left hand bush has had a good old pruning, but the brambles to the right are still intact and with nobody to my right till Dave Moore opposite on peg 18 today I fancied it for a few. To my left I had Matt6900 on peg 23 and Curtains on peg 25……

Rigs were my usual ones for Rolf’s with 2 to fish pellet consisting of Malman 4×12 Adam‘s on 0·18 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match hooks, one for straight out at 6mtrs where I had around 5ft of water and the other to fish up against the brambles and to the edge of the bush where there was around 3½ft. I also set up a paste rig with a Mk3 Malman self cocking paste float on 0·21 to a size 12 Drennan Carp Method. I also set up the feeder as I always do at Rolf’s. Bait wise it was 6 and 8mm fishery pellets. a bit of hemp, paste and 6 and 10mm cubes of meat.

So 11am and with the rain falling the All-in was called and I dumped 2 large potfuls of pellet onto the 6mtr line and a handful along the brambles and another to the edge of the bush to my left. While those settled I chucked the feeder over to the edge of the bush on peg 20. On the 4th chuck the rod wrapped round just as I was feeding the brambles once more, but fortunately I managed to connect and after a spirited tussle was rewarded with a nice Common of around 8lbs in the net.

Matt was fishing out a bit further on the pole and was soon off the mark as well…….

but already had the fish fizzing on his pole line and started to suffer with a number of foul hookers though he did manage an acrobatic Skimmer. I’d had no more joy on the feeder and with a few bubbles coming up over my feed at 6mtrs had gone onto the pole and by constantly working the bait I was rewarded with my 2nd fish of the day, a Mirror of around 6lbs.

With thunder starting to rumble in the distance and the rain getting heavier sport was slow with nobody appearing to be doing well around us, just the odd fish coming out though reports were that pegs 7 and 8 were doing OK and a few more fish coming out on the Little Lake. Matt and I had managed a couple more each and Dave had got off the mark with a fish that he’d hooked in the tail that had led him a merry old dance before he netted it.

Thankfully around 1·30pm the rain had eased off and the sun actually came out and with so little action I re-fed and took a stroll to let things settle. Tucked away on peg 13 I found Paul(Justin Case)Law who’d had a bit of a frustrating start but was starting to get amongst a few fishing down his right hand margin……

Looking across I could see Lee on peg 31 doing his best to get to grips with a sort of fishing which is pretty different to his normal approach on the Midland canals………

……….and it seemed that he was being handed a lesson off the next peg by Sue(Mrs Sumo) ………

Back to my peg just as the rain started again and the 6mtr line produced another couple of Carp and Matt found a nice Carp from under his right hand bush, but was then frustrated by a number of Roach that moved onto his bait. I couldn’t buy a bite from the brambles but finally managed a weigher from the edge of the left hand bush. Curtains on peg 25 finally started to get a few weighers and it looked like Matt and I would be playing catch up ……

Peg 17 had started to catch regularly but poor Dave on 18 was having one of those days that we all dread watching others catch without being able to do anything about it himself despite going through all the methods ……

Matt’s fish seemed to have dried up on him and he packed up before the all out and tipped back while I managed a final couple of fish from the 6mtr line before the All-out at 4pm.

 The scales started from my peg and 67½lbs was my reward for the day and a section win. Lee managed 24lbs 6ozs made up of 3lbs of silvers and 2 Carp of 9lbs and 12lbs 6ozs but had lost 7 fish during the course of the day but somehow managed a section win although he was soundly beaten by Sue. The best weights on the day came from the Little Lake with 160lbs winning, 148lbs 2nd and 120lbs 3rd. All in all not the best of days, but certainly better than being at work.

As always though it was good to catch up with friends both old and new and enjoy a day in good company, Hopefully it won’t be to long before we do it all again somewhere. One word of warning though, Don’t have a Mars Bar bet with Lee, as he doesn’t pay up, probably because he eats them all.

NB: It would appear that the result sheets have been mislaid, but if they ever turn up I’ll post the full results.