Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. August 29th, 2009.

The JINX Series 2009

Match 5.

Well this is it, the final match of 2009′s Jinx Series. It’s been a close fought series this year and there’s probably half a dozen anglers in with a chance of winning the series going into this last match, and Clive and I still have an outside chance to win The Pairs. There’s bound to be a few tales to tell at the end of it all, besides all the anglers trying to escape yet another Minxing at Gemma’s hands.

Anyway with the car all loaded and breakfast in the form of a “Full English” taken care of by my usual stop in Battersea, a smooth drive down to Rolf’s ensued, though the junction 8 services were rammed with Rugby League fans making their way down to Wembley for The Challenge Cup Final. Pulling into the fishery car park, some people were already there as they were making a proper weekend of it and had fished the Friday Night match and were staying on for the Sunday Fish4Wales match. Clive was already ensconced in ‘Hotel Peugeot’ so I stopped for a chat and to find out how the evening match had fished. Soon the Welsh contingent surfaced along with Simon & Gem and as we chatted the car park started to fill with the usual suspects. Nick (monkey) had brought along wife Lisa and son Josh for the day, While Paul had wife Jayne and the family pooch in tow. Dai arrived with Malc and his boy Liam, while Geoff P had interrupted his holiday to meet up with the Jinx mob once again.

There was a bit of a breeze today and a fair bit of cloud, and with the weather having been a bit unsettled I fancied that the Lake might fish every bit as hard as it had on recent visits, there was also a bit of scum that had collected in a couple of pegs, most notably pegs 10 & 11 and pegs 2 & 3. However there were plenty of fish moving as usual, and it’s notoriously hard to tell just how Rolf’s will fish on any given day, just as long as I didn’t draw PEG 13 I would be happy. Even with Malc arriving in plenty of time, the draw was somehow delayed. Clive however was a picture of joy and elation when he discovered his personal nemesis, in the shape of PEG 23 had been left out of the draw bag, and positively beaming when he pulled Peg 8 from the draw bag. I hung back hoping some other poor mug sucker lucky soul would draw PEG 13. Dai duly obliged (unlucky fella) and I plunged my hand in and came back with Peg 2. Not a peg I’d fished before, but facing a bit of scum was infinitely preferable to spending 5 hours in my personal version of purgatory.

Strolling round to my peg there was Dave on Peg 34, Jon on Peg 36 and Slim on Peg 38. Al was on Peg 40, while on peg 4 was Steve, with Malc on peg 6 completing our section.

Down to the business at hand and set up the kit for the day. 2 paste rigs consisting of small Malman SC Paste floats and rigged it up on 0·20 Power Match with size 12 Ashima Barbless hooks, 1 for the margins where I had around 2ft of depth and the other for 5-8 mtrs where there was around 4ft with just a couple of inches variance over the distance. Then a deck rig for either pellet or corn at 5-8mtrs made up of a Malman 4X12 Adam on 0·20 Power Match with size 14 QM1 hook and finally a Malman Slapper, again on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 Drennan carp match hook for up in the water and to double up down the margin if needed. Bait was Paste, 8mm hard pellet and corn, with feed taken care of by 6mm fishery pellet.

Well it was 1·30pm when Malc’s dulcet tones announced the All-In. I shipped out a large pot of pellet with a few grains of corn to 5mtrs and fed some pellet by hand to the bush down the left hand margin, then shipped out a banded 8mm pellet to 5mtrs, but no amount of lifting and dropping could induce a bite……

In fact the start of the match was slow for most of us that I could see on the Little Lake. Steve had got off the mark though, slipping a carp into his net quite early on…

The Jinx himself, Malc had also uttered his customary shout to signify that he’d landed his 1st fish of the day over on peg 6……

I’d been alternating between pellet, paste and corn for over an hour, when I had a sharp bite on corn. I missed it but the strike connected with something substantial in mid water, a foul hooker that I was briefly connected to before the hook returned with just a solitary scale attached.
Dave however was into what appeared to be a decent carp that was putting up a good account of itself……

With nothing happening for me I decided to re-feed and take a stroll with the camera, and by the time I got round to Clive, Dave was just guiding it into the net……

Terry was having a bit of a struggle getting to grips with Peg 7, but I’m sure I saw a smile spread across his face as he watched Jon’s pained expression as Dave strolled over for him to verify the weight of the fish he’d just landed …

Chatting to Clive for a while, he’d had a steady start and was hoping for better things as the match progressed, so wishing him well I left him to it ……

Nick was having a bit of a struggle on peg 9, having lost a couple of foul hookers despite having the encouragement of Lisa and Josh watching on behind him……

Next up was Fred on peg 11 who also had his good lady watching on to provide moral support, and it looked as if he was going to need every bit of it……

Then it was round to the dreaded PEG 13. There was Dai, with a swim that was bubbling away like a jacuzzi, and a  look of pain on his face that I knew only to well. I really felt for him, having been there far to often for my liking this year, so left him alone with his misery……

Next up was Geoff, who having had a weigher and a couple in the net had a smile on his face and a twinkle in the eye, he was just enjoying his day and as he’d caught that was all that mattered to him……

Looking across I could see Paul, yet again having brought Jayne with him he’d drawn on the car park bank, which by now was in the shade meaning that Jayne had left him in search of some sunshine……

Now it’s obvious that Jayne knows the form when she visits Rolf’s with Paul, as she was to be found sitting in a nice comfy chair in the sun behind the empty peg 19 and looking a lot happier than hubby ……

Gemma was looking distinctly unhappy as it obviously wasn’t going to plan. Nobody had heard her scream as yet meaning that she hadn’t caught, making a lot of people feel a whole lot better as the odds on a Minxing receded……

Big Dave, fresh from a win on the Friday night match, was now experiencing the down side of Rolf’s as it appeared that the fish had wised up to his tactics leaving him struggling …

While to rub it in a bit more, Simon on the next peg seemed to be getting to grips with things and was putting one or two fish in the net……

So back to my peg. There was a bit of activity showing on the 5mtr line, so back out with an 8mm banded pellet on the deck having re-plumbed to make sure the bait was just touching bottom. I decided to cut right back on the feed, by flicking just a dozen pellets out at time rather than the 50-60 that’s the norm. I also shortened the line between the pole tip and float to a mere 4″ in an attempt to hit any indication that occurred. 10 minutes of lifting and dropping and the float slid away and a short lift saw a pleasing amount of elastic coming out of the top kit. A couple of minutes later a pristine Rolf’s Common was safely in the landing net, and a weigher to get me off and running.
Jon on Peg 36 was briefly connected to a Carp that he felt sure was a foul hooker, and sure enough just moments after I took the photo he lost it …

Slim was struggling as well and appeared to be pinning his faith in picking off a few of the fish that he could see cruising in the upper layers of the water in front of him…

Malc appeared to be having a steady match from what I could see, though Steve seemed to be getting a steady run of fish as well, unfortunately for Steve though, quite a few of those were foul hookers that were coming adrift before he had a chance of landing them.


I’d had another couple of net fish and Al had finally got of the mark with a couple of weighers. Jon by now had got just a little bit desperate thinking that he may be on the receiving end of a Minxing, and had got the maggots out and spent an hour fishing for silvers, Desperate or what? Meanwhile it was a case of a blank half hour for me, but I noticed a few bubbles popping to the surface at around 8mtrs. After adding another couple of sections I re-plumbed, fired about 20 pellets out and followed with a banded 8mm. The float kept on going and after a brief tussle a stocky Mirror was safely in the net, another weigher. For the final hour and a half I stuck with the 8mtr line and while it couldn’t be described as fast and furious action I managed to add a further 5 Carp to my net during that time, the last sliding into the landing net as Malc called the All-Out.


So with the gear all packed away and back in the car, it was time for the Weigh-In which as usual started from Peg 34 and Dave started things off with a hard earned 30¾lbs. The first improvement on that was Slim’s 63¾lbs from Peg 38. My 9 fish came to a level 67lbs which would be good enough for 2nd in section, as Malc took the honours in our section with an even 100lbs. Clive on Peg 8 had made the most of his draw putting 128lbs on the board and taking the win on the day. Tony on Peg 10 managed a level 76lbs that would give him 2nd in his section. PEG 13 however had handed out a proper beating to Dai, with just 4lbs of silvers saving him from a DNW.
Gem on Peg 24 on the car park bank had an even more frustrating day with just 3lbs of silvers meaning everyone had avoided a Minxing. Simon on Peg 26 put 124¼lbs on the scales giving him 2nd overall and a section win, Andy’s 78¼lbs gave him 5th overall, while finally on Peg 31 Simon E’s 123lbs gave him 3rd overall and 2nd in section on the day.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 8	Clive Pritchard	128lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 26	Simon Mound	124lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 31	Simon Enticott	123lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 6	Malc Doyle	100lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 28	Andy Spruce	78lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 10	Tony Roberts	76lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 2	Peter Morton	67lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 38	Ade Williams	63lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 4	Steve Wilson	61lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 7	Terry Goff	60lbs 04ozs
11th	Peg 40	Alan Loader	52lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 11	Fred Parker	45lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 16	Geoff Palmer       (guest)	44lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 25	Dave Moore	43lbs 12ozs
15th	Peg 22	Paul Roberts	37lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 9	Nick Watkins-Price	31lbs 12ozs
17th	Peg 34	Dave Collier	30lbs 12ozs
18th	Peg 14	Nick Williams	21lbs 12ozs
19th	Peg 36	Jon Hatch	20lbs 00ozs
20th	Peg 32	Keith Fellows	19lbs 04ozs
21st	Peg 18	Matt Edwards      (guest)	17lbs 00ozs
22nd	Peg 13	Dai Thomas	4lbs 00ozs
23rd	Peg 24	Gemma Doyle	3lbs 00ozs

So that was it, Series over, as we all congregated round the fishery hut and Malc worked out the final positions. Of course boys will be boys and with a few cameras present some opportunities are just to good to miss……

Overall Simon Enticott won the Series with a score of 5 points, with Clive in 2nd place for the 2nd year running with a score of 7 points, and Steve in 3rd place on 8 points.
 Congratulations and Well Done to all of them.

Overall Individual Series Result.

Position	Points	Angler						Total weight
1st	5 points	Simon Enticott	10	1	1	1	2	489lbs 04ozs
2nd	7 points	Clive Pritchard	3	6	1	2	1	469lbs 00ozs
3rd	8 points	Steve Wilson	1	2	3	2	4	438lbs 00ozs
4th	10points	Alan Loader	1	2	4	3	6	426lbs 08ozs
5th	11 points	Malc Doyle	4	4	2	9	1	357lbs 08ozs
6th	11 points	Tony Roberts	3	8	2	4	2	331lbs 12ozs
7th	11 points	Paul Roberts	2	7	3	1	5	314lbs 04ozs
8th	12 points	Ryan Hughes	1	6	1	4	10	385lbs 12ozs
9th	12points	Peter Morton	5	6	4	1	2	370lbs 14ozs
10th	12 points	Fred Parker	10	5	2	2	3	277lbs 14ozs
11th	14 points	Simon Mound	2	8	4	7	1	398lbs 06ozs
12th	16 points	Keith Fellows	3	1	6	6	6	253lbs 12ozs
13th	16 points	Terry Goff	4	3	5	4	5	237lbs 04ozs
14th	17 points	Jon Hatch	8	1	5	3	8	279lbs 08ozs
15th	18 points	Mitch Auger	5	2	3	8	10	225lbs 02ozs
16th	18 points	Ade Williams	5	4	6	10	3	204lbs 10ozs
17th	19 points	Andy Spruce	7	3	7	6	3	174lbs 12ozs
18th	20 points	Nick Williams.	4	7	6	5	5	183lbs 04ozs
19th	20 points	Nick Watkins-Price	2	7	7	9	4	159lbs 00ozs
20th	22 points	Dave Moore	6	5	10	7	4	116lbs 00ozs
21st	22 points	Gemma Doyle	6	4	8	5	7	90lbs 14ozs
22nd	23 points	Dave Collier	10	3	5	8	7	170lbs 08ozs
23rd	27 points	Ant Haywood	9	5	10	3	10	76lbs 00ozs
24th	30 points	Dai Thomas	6	8	10	10	6	56lbs 12ozs
25th	30 points	Tim Westmoreland	10	9	10	5	10	2lbs 00ozs
26th	36 points	Ieuan Davies	7	9	10	10	10	32lbs 08ozs

NB: Anglers were allowed to drop their worst section result during the series so that the Overall Series results were decided by best 4 out of 5 section points. Overall weight counting in the result of anglers tying on points.

In the Pairs the Winners were Simon Enticott & Fred Parker with 49 points while Clive and I were Runners Up just 5 points behind on 54 Points.

Overall Pairs Result.

Position	Points	Anglers						weight
1st	49 points	Fred Parker & Simon Enticott	27	20	8	6	15	989lbs 06ozs
2nd	54 points	Peter Morton & Clive Pritchard	25	36	13	8	8	839lbs 14ozs
3rd	72 points	Keith Fellows & Ryan Hughes	12	15	21	24	41	656lbs 08ozs
4th	85 points	Jon Hatch & Tony Roberts	32	22	21	17	25	611lbs 04ozs
5th	89 points	Nick Watkins-Price & Steve Wilson	14	24	29	31	22	597lbs 00ozs
6th	101 points	Paul Roberts & Terry Goff	23	27	26	27	25	463lbs 04ozs
7th	102 points	Nick Williams & Simon Mound	18	40	35	29	20	581lbs 10ozs
8th	105 points	Dai Thomas & Malc Doyle	29	39	18	32	26	519lbs 12ozs
9th	107 points	Ade Williams & Andy Spruce	43	20	43	31	13	408lbs 14ozs
10th	119 points	Ieuan Davies & Alan Loader	22	31	34	32	41	518lbs 05ozs
11th	121 points	Tim Westmoreland & Dave Collier	18	32	26	45	47	445lbs 00ozs
12th	124 points	Mitch Auger & Gemma Doyle	40	19	33	36	36	361lbs 04ozs
13th	150 points	Dave Moore & Ant Haywood	47	25	48	34	44	203lbs 00ozs

NB: Pairs were allowed to drop their worst points total during the series so that the results were decided by best 4 out of 5 points scores.
Overall weights counting in the result of pairs tying on points.

So yet another Jinx Series comes to an end, I’d just like to say a BIG THANK YOU  to Malc for organising what continues to be the friendliest and best series of matches its been my pleasure to fish.

Yet another BIG THANK YOU to John & Pauline Bennett for all their efforts and for allowing us the use of Rolf’s for the entire series.

Finally a final BIG THANK YOU to all that have fished The Jinx Series, it’s all of you that make it so enjoyable to fish, and long may it continue. See you all to do it again next year no doubt.