Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. June 18th, 2011.

Jinx Match 3

Well it’s time for the third Jinx Match, and with the way the weather had been in the week leading up to the match I wasn’t expecting anything other than the cloudy sky with the promise of rain that greeted me as I looked through the curtains. Our 3 furry alarm clocks (the cats) had done their usual efficient job, and with them fed, and a couple of cups of coffee drunk I soon had the car loaded, making sure the waterproofs were there, but leaving the brolly out as I find it just gets in the way, especially when I’m pole fishing.

Setting off the clouds cleared a bit and the sun appeared, surely trying to lull me into a false sense of security. Breakfast in Battersea as usual was my first port of call, and with a ‘Full English’ duly dispatched  it was off to Rolfs. A smooth run down saw me pulling into an already filling car park around 10am. 13 hardy souls had fished Malc’s Annual JINX Night Match yesterday evening and had stayed over prior to todays match.

Now never let it be said that The Jinx Squad don’t know how to spoil their better halves. Geoff had brought down Mags and Saffi for a threesome in the caravan (Don’t worry Saffi is Geoff & Mag’s dog), Paul had brought wife Jayne along to share a tent, Simon and Gem had forsaken their usual spot in the caravan so were also in a tent (providing Gem didn’t burn anymore holes in it) and Nick had also brought Wife Lisa and little Josh along for a wet weekends camping to celebrate their 11th Wedding Anniversary. Who said romance is dead ?

Well after that it wasn’t the greatest surprise to find that Nick was the proud wearer of The Pink Elephant today ……

Anyway 11·30am and draw time and I’m in B section today and with the way I’ve been drawing all bets were off on me pulling Peg 13. Somehow though Nick Williams managed to intercept it and I found myself with Peg 29, a walk of all of 2 yards from the car park. The downside was that that left Peg 9 which has been on fire recently for Gem (The Minx) leaving a lot of very worried anglers.

 Well having dragged my kit the huge distance to my peg I settled in to take stock. Peg 29 is another of those pegs that doesn’t get fished a lot and a chat with John revealed he’d had a go on it last night with just 3 carp and a couple of bream to show for his efforts, but he told me where he’d fed and the lines to fish.

Looking up to my left there was Webbo on Peg 31 with Steve Wilson next up on Peg 32, while to my right I had Paul on peg 28 with wife Jayne keeping him company, Steve(Steak) was next up on Peg 26 while Malc(The Jinx) was hiding behind the bush on Peg 25.

Setting up didn’t take to long although the wind blew my keepnets into the peg even before I could start setting my kit up (not a good omen), Anyway the rigs, an NG 0·4 XT Open Water on 0·20 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 14 Guru QM1 for 5 mtrs where I had around 5 ft of water and a couple of NG 0·3 XT Sampson margins on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1′s, One for tight to the bush on my left and the other down the shelf in front of it. The feeder rod was set up as a get out of jail back up. Bait was simply fishery 6mm hard pellet for feed with some 8mm and 11mm donkey chokers that would be banded onto the hook along with some corn and a selection of GOT Baits soft hookers.

All the while it had stayed quite sunny and warm, but the wind was gusting and as the All-In approached the grey clouds were starting to gather. John got us underway at 1pm by ringing the fishery bell. 2 pots of pellet at 5mtrs and a big handful off the end of the bush.
Steve was in straight away on Peg 32, a weigher that tipped the scales at over 18lbs which Dave managed to capture on camera ……

Dave was out on his ‘Feederless Feeder’ but it didn’t seem to be having quite the desired effect for him today. Odd fish seemed to be coming out all round, though not for Paul or me. About half an hour in my float vanished and a gentle lift resulted in a bream doing a passable impression of a dolphin !! It was soon in the net and while it wasn’t the carp I was hoping for it at least saved the dreaded blank. A little while later I connected with a carp, obviously a foul hooker as I’d connected halfway through lifting the rig out and as it powered off the rig came back alone.

Paul was suffering to with a number of foul hookers. The dreaded YEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!! had come from Peg 9 spreading the fear of a Minxing to a good few round the lake. The first of a good few heavy showers had arrived and these would continue off and on for the rest of the match. Sport for me had died completely. It seemed every time I looked up Steve was playing yet another fish and even Dave had forsaken his ‘Feederless Feeder’ for the pole in an attempt to get in on the action……

 If I’m honest, the weather and the lack of any action made me quite despondent and unusually for me I didn’t bother to get up for a stroll to see what others were doing, making do with a couple of hurriedly snapped pictures from my peg. Ady was over on Peg 18 and fishing long trying to tempt fish he could see cruising ……

Lisa however was undaunted and managed to get a couple of decent catch shots between showers, the first being an 18½lb common that Budgie had on peg 11 ……

 And a 13½lb’er for Hubby Nick from peg 8 ……

Then around a quarter to five things started to look up for me as a carp put in an appearance, only a small one of around 7lbs but welcome none the less, and from there on in I seemed to get one every 10 minutes or so, the rain was back with a vengeance as well, thank heavens for a decent set of waterproofs……

A couple of foul hookers did their best to disrupt things, but I was starting to put a weight of sorts together and daring to dream that I might even avoid the dreaded Minxing. The rain had stopped again and glancing at my watch I realised there were just seconds to go when my float vanished, a lift and the fish was on and as it went off on a run the All-Out was called. “FISH ON” and looking up I realised that Gem was in as well along with Malc and a couple of others. Gently does it and within 5 minutes it’s in the net and at 11lbs a nice way to end what had been a torturous match.

Thankfully it stayed dry as we packed away and then it was on to the Weigh-In. Jon kicked things off from peg 34 with 54¼lbs but this was soon eclipsed by Clive’s 140½lbs, but he was cursing a cupping kit that had stuck on his only No3 section forcing him to fish short for the majority of the match having caught well at 14½mtrs prior to that, especially as it would prove to be only good enough for 2nd on the day after Mat on Peg 5 put 141lbs 10ozs on the scales to take the overall win and A section.
Gem set a mark of 48¾lbs to avoid a Minxing. Budgies level 69lbs would give him 2nd in section. Simon had 65¼lbs and Tony had a fine 87½lbs from peg 20 despite being another to suffer a stuck No3 section this time on a top kit. Malc’s 110¾lbs, mostly caught late would give him the win in C section today. My fish weighed 55¾lbs, that final fish saving me from a Minxing and Steve took B section and 3rd overall with 138lbs 10ozs.

So back to the Hut for the results and a couple of Golden Nuggets for me from Dave and Gem. The general feeling was that today had been a proper JINX MATCH, foul weather, and hard fishing for some, reminding everyone just what The Jinx Series can be all about. 11 victims for Gem to add to her Minx List including Fred who had been the only one to survive last year. That leaves just Ant, Mitch, Steve and Clive without a Minxing this Series with 3 matches still to go.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 5	Mat Edwards	141lbs 10ozs
2nd	Peg 2	Clive Pritchard	140lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 32	Steve Wilson	138lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 25	Malc (The Jinx) Doyle	110lbs 12ozs
5th	Peg 20	Tony Roberts	87lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 11	Marcus Burgess	69lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 17	Simon Mound	65lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 4	Dave Moore	64lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 26	Steve Akal             Guest	57lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 29	Peter Morton	55lbs 12ozs
11th=	Peg 8	Nick Watkins-Price	54lbs 04ozs
11th=	Peg 34	Jon Hatch	54lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 13	Nick Williams	51lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 9	Gem (The Minx) Doyle	48lbs 12ozs
15th	Peg 15	Fred Parker	47lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 7	Dai Thomas	46lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 28	Paul Roberts	44lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 18	Ady Williams	40lbs 12ozs
19th	Peg 31	Dave Webster	38lbs 10ozs
20th	Peg 38	Geoff Palmer	32lbs 08ozs
21st	Peg 14	Alex Clark	29lbs 04ozs
22nd	Peg 23	Pete Tapp              Guest	26lbs 12ozs
23rd	Peg 22	Martin Cannon       Guest	26lbs 02ozs
24th	Peg 40	Terry Goff	20lbs 08ozs
25th	Peg 10	Kevin Loveland	DNW

Names in Pink are those that were “MINXED”

Section A
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 5	Mat Edwards	141lbs 10ozs	1
2nd	Peg 2	Clive Pritchard	140lbs 08ozs	2
3rd	Peg 4	Dave Moore	64lbs 08ozs	3
4th=	Peg 8	Nick Watkins-Price	54lbs 04ozs	4
4th=	Peg 34	Jon Hatch	54lbs 04ozs	4
6th	Peg 7	Dai Thomas	46lbs 00ozs	6
7th	Peg 38	Geoff Palmer	32lbs 08ozs	7
8th	Peg 40	Terry Goff	20lbs 08ozs	8
Section B
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 32	Steve Wilson	138lbs 00ozs	1
2nd	Peg 11	Marcus Burgess	69lbs 00ozs	2
3rd	Peg 26	Steve Akal             Guest	57lbs 04ozs	0
4th	Peg 29	Peter Morton	55lbs 12ozs	3
5th	Peg 13	Nick Williams	51lbs 08ozs	4
6th	Peg 9	Gem (The Minx) Doyle	48lbs 12ozs	5
7th	Peg 28	Paul Roberts	44lbs 08ozs	6
8th	Peg 31	Dave Webster	38lbs 10ozs	7
9th	Peg 10	Kevin Loveland	DNW	8
Section C
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 25	Malc (The Jinx) Doyle	110lbs 12ozs	1
2nd	Peg 20	Tony Roberts	87lbs 08ozs	2
3rd	Peg 17	Simon Mound	65lbs 04ozs	3
4th	Peg 15	Fred Parker	47lbs 08ozs	4
5th	Peg 18	Ady Williams	40lbs 12ozs	5
6th	Peg 14	Alex Clark	29lbs 04ozs	6
7th	Peg 23	Pete Tapp              Guest	26lbs 12ozs	0
8th	Peg 22	Martin Cannon       Guest	26lbs 02ozs	0

 

Mill Barn Coarse Fishery, Great Wakering, Essex. June 11th, 2011.

Marsh AC club match.

An early start for me today as it’s a return to The Reservoir at Mill Barn Coarse Fishery for the 3rd Marsh AC match of the year. A glance out of the window confirmed that it looked like a pretty changeable day would lie ahead, so with the cats fed and a couple of coffees drunk the car was loaded up and the waterproofs included along with the rest of the kit. I met up with Chris at Dave’s house just after 6am, the reason for the early start being that the first stop today would be a stop at the Castle pub in Little Wakering for breakfast. A steady trip down saw us pulling into the pub car park just after 7·15am to find Kev, Jean and Keith already waiting. I have to say the Full English was Top Quality and well worth the £6, and having satisfied the inner angler we made our way down to the fishery about 5 minutes down the road.

On arrival we found a number of carpers bivvied up on the car park bank, despite notices posted on the fishery gate reserving this and the left hand bank for our match, but rather than have confrontation we decided to just use 17 pegs down the left hand bank. Waiting for the draw the banter flowed, though I’m not sure that Tony was impressed when he enquired ” Where’s the sunken island” and I helpfully informed him that “It’s under the water“.

Time for the draw and when I went up for mine there were no pegs left in the hat !!!! Somehow only 16 numbers had gone in the hat. I agreed to take number 17 to avoid the aggro of a redraw, but John quite fancied fishing next to Martin who was on peg 16, so it was agreed that I would take John’s draw (peg 9).

I made my way round to my peg and got down to settling in, the water was well down, well below the swims and with steeply sloping clay there was no way I could get my box down to water level. I elected to stake my nets and fish sitting on the sleeper, a little awkward, but better than being perched high above the water.

Last years visit to the fishery saw a lot of members caught out by the speed and power of the fish there, so it was a fair bet that most peoples rigs and gear had been uprated for todays visit in an attempt to avoid a repeat this time. I was just going to use my Rolf’s rigs which should be more than up to it. I just picked a line at around 7mtrs which I could comfortably feed by hand and a couple of margin lines to fish. the rigs were an NG 0·4 XT Open Water on 0·20 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 14 Guru QM1 for 7 mtrs where I had around 6ft of water, while the 2 margin rigs were NG 0·3 XT Sampson margins on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 14 Guru QM1′s. Bait was simply 6mm hard pellet for feed with some 8mm’s that would be banded onto the hook.

A couple of the lads seemed a bit surprised how I’d set up, but with a steep bank behind the peg along with the track to the car park I didn’t want loads of pole to ship back and forth. Keith caught Paul and Kev chatting away to me about the prospects for the day after Paul had got some 8mm pellet from me and Kev had brought a cup of coffee down to me from Jean prior to the off, though we may just have been taking the micky out of each other……

 I had Graham for company today to my right on peg 10, while to my left were Simon on peg 8 with Paul on peg 7. Keith was on peg 6, the peg he’d fished last year. He smashed countless rigs and hook lengths on it then, but was determined to have a better outcome from it today.

So 10am and Dave called the All-In, what would the day bring? A couple of large handfuls of pellet into both margins, then a banded 8mm was shipped out to 7mtrs followed by a hand full of pellet. A couple of lift and drops of the rig and the float buried, Carp on and a spirited tussle ensued before a common of around 3½lbs was placed safely into the keepnet. The next put in was virtually a carbon copy, but this time it was a mirror of a similar size that found itself in the landing net, a good start to the match.

However it changed all to soon, my next couple of fish were small skimmers, then a lull and a couple roach, the carp appeared to have vanished. There’s supposed to be a good head of carp present, but from what I could see nobody was storming away with it. I decided to up the feed, feeding every put in, reasoning that if I could get enough bait down and get the skimmers interested and feeding well it might pull the carp back in. It was changing from sunny to overcast and a breeze kept springing up from left to right, and I couldn’t help wondering if the fish would follow the breeze up to the high numbers?
I was getting the skimmers reasonably regularly and had managed another carp after a couple of hours when the swim died once more.

I re-fed heavily and down the margins and decided to take my cup back to Jean and have a stroll with the camera at the same time. Jean had the kettle on so I took the opportunity to get a refill. Kev was restricted to fishing the feeder as he cracked his number 4 on his pole at Rolfs last week and was waiting for a replacement to arrive. He reported that he’d had a couple of carp, but that was about it ……

Chris was happy to just rack up the bites and was fishing maggot in the margins for silvers as the carp didn’t want to play for him, and he had just landed a nice perch as I passed by ……

Tony seemed to be having a bit of a struggle as well and having failed to get anything going on his pole lines and had gone out on the feeder looking for the sunken island that he knew was out there somewhere under the water ……

Judy was her usual smiling self despite struggling to get to grips today as it became increasingly obvious that most were struggling, at least in the early pegs……

Keith was fairing no better, he’s a good angler and well capable of sussing things out, but it looked like this peg was destined to provide him with another frustrating day, but he was hoping that things would improve later on in the day ……

Paul had started on the pellet waggler, but after managing just a solitary carp that he’d hooked in the posterior that had gone up the bank and he’d reverted to the pole. Simon meanwhile was having a bit of a frustrating time as he was getting bites but was having quite a few fish, mostly skimmers slip the hook before he could get them to the net……

Graham was another struggling to get his head round the apparent lack of sport, He’s joined the fishery as a member this year as it’s local to him and he knows probably better than most the potential for a decent bag so he was sticking at it ……

A little further up I found Terry taking an early look down the edge with his pole and he reckoned that the boys to beat today would be Al and Dave on the next couple of pegs ……

Now Dave and Al are both masters of miss-information and you have to take anything they tell you with a pinch of salt. The rumour was that Dave already had 3 carp for around 20lbs, but he was adamant that they weighed closer to 10lbs. Al was fishing the pellet waggler half way across, feeding 8mm pellet to get the distance and trying to avoid the ducks, and while admitting to 7 or 8 carp but being rather cagey about what they weighed……

Back to my peg and the skimmers were still in residence, however the heavens decided to open for around 10 minutes and give us all a refreshing shower.
As it eased I lifted into another bite, but this time it was a carp. Safely in the net as I transferred it to the keepnet I slipped and nearly ended up in the lake, as the rain had turned the clay I was standing on into something close to a greased slide. Thankfully I managed to avoid a ducking but decided that it was just to precarious to continue, so moved back to sit on my box for the rest of the match ……

 A couple of looks down the margins yielded absolutely nothing, No doubt not helped by a tufted duck that took great delight throughout the day in filling its face with the pellets I’d fed down there. So it was the 7mtr line or nothing for the rest of the match. I still kept on picking up skimmers though and was beginning to think that they might make up a decent part of my final weight. Keith had gone for a walkabout , an indication that he was having a grueller as he rarely leaves his peg during a match and was obviously searching for a bit of inspiration. I’d managed another couple of carp around the 3-4lb mark in between the skimmers, but they seemed to be solitary fish that weren’t disturbing the skimmers. Rod appeared for a chat and seemed happy with his lot having managed a few carp on the feeder which was good to hear as he’s very much a pleasure angler.

Paul had been for a stroll as well toward the end of the match and reported that Dave had taken 3 decent carp from the margins while he’d watched. I just got my head down for the final part and in among the skimmers I managed another couple of carp in the last hour. 4 pm and Dave called the All-Out and as I packed away my kit I wondered what sort of weight I had. I thought the 8 carp would go around 30-35 pounds but had no idea what my silvers net would weigh. All would soon be revealed as the Weigh-in started at the top on peg 17.

 

By the time I got to the Weigh-In John had recorded 16¾lbs and Martin just 5¼lbs. Dave’s fish were being weighed and the final tale of the scales was 67lbs, which would prove to be good enough for 3rd overall. Next up was Al and his weight of 103lbs would prove to be unbeatable on the day. Terry managed a creditable 35¾lbs while Jim could only match Martin’s 5¼lbs followed by Rod’s weight of 24¼lbs. Graham managed just 15¾lbs before the scales got to my peg, My 8 carp registered 36lbs, but my silvers net came to a surprising 48lbs …

Which gave me a total of 84lbs for 2nd overall, Simon’s was a tale of to many lost fish recording 15½lbs while Paul could only manage 9¼lbs. Keith had finally caught late and weighed a level 40lbs, but felt the peg had got the better of him again. Judy put 14¾lbs on the scales but Tony weighed 48¼lbs only to lose out on the section by 12ozs when Ken put a level 49lbs on the scales. Chris had an all silvers bag that weighed 30¾lbs, while Kev finished off the Weigh-In with 22½lbs.

Back to the car park and Dave sorted the results and section pools while the rest of us analysed the days events. The fishing had been patchy at best, but the potential is obvious and I for one would be happy to fish it again next year. Anyway the next club match is at Colemans Cottage on Woods Lake on Sunday July 24th, with Al and I level on 85 points and Dave and Keith just behind on 79 points, so it’s still all to play for. The next match for me however is the 3rd Jinx Match of the series at Rolfs Lake next Saturday, so keep you eye out for that report.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 14	Al Loader	103lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 9	Peter Morton	84lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 15	Dave Collier	67lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 3	Ken Walker	49lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 4	Tony Roberts	48lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 6	Keith Ashby	40lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 13	Terry Goff	35lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 2	Chris Withall	30lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 11	Rod Turner	24lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 1	Kevin Loveland	22lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 17	John Holdsworth	16lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 10	Graham Manning	15lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 8	Simon Watkins	15lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 5	Judy Hermite	14lbs 12ozs
15th	Peg 7	Paul East	9lbs 04ozs
16th=	Peg 12	Jim Boase	5lbs 04ozs
16th=	Peg 16	Martin Hucker	5lbs 04ozs