Blog moved

Blog can now be found here

Jinx Series

Jinx match 4 Stockton Reservoir

This round is at Stockton and any other time I would be really looking forward to fishing here as I've never fished it before and everyone raves about the place and the hard fighting monster Carp that lurk around the platforms waiting to destroy your state of the art equipment

But the way things are fishing this year I don't hold out much hope for a net full from Stockton today

I had a nice steady drive down and arrived in plenty of time to pop into the Blue Lias Inn for a shandy before the draw unfortunately the pub wasn't open so instead I had a walk around the reservoir and had a look at the pegs for todays match

Once back in the car park the other Jinxers started to arrive and after another look at the pegs we set off for the pub and eventually the doors opened and we got our pre draw drinks

After a bit of chatting and catching up over a pint with the other Jinx members sat in the sunshine by the canal it was time for the draw

I drew peg 54 it didn't really mean much to me but I knew it wasn't peg 47 or 48 which were the ones I had my heart set on

Still I set off to my peg

As you can see peg 54 is in open water and the nearest island is a bus ride away!

My plan for today was quite simple 2 margin swims

One to the left

And the other to the right

Both fished tight in to the reeds

And another swim at 6m straight out in front

And if all those fail I plan to chuck a feeder out just past the duck (just hope he don't move )

At the all in I put a pot of pellets in each swim and 2 balls of ground bait out at 6m and then started on the 6m line with a 6mm soft hooker pellet and for the first hour I tried pellet, corn and meat and all met with the same response zilch!

Simon to my left was trying the feeder with no luck as was Dai to my right so I stuck with the pole line and tried paste at 6m and after about 10 Min's the float slid under and I struck into a heavy fish which woke up and tore off with my red hydro in quick pursuit just as I started to ship it back in the hydro snapped back into the pole and all I was left with was a rather large scale hanging on the hook

But still it was a fish so I went straight back out with another lump of paste but for the next hour I had no more indications let alone bites

I decided to chuck the feeder out and see if I could mug a fish as rumour had it that Gem had a couple of fish in the net and a "Minxing" was on the cards

So out went an open ended feeder full of ground bait and corn with 3 grains of corn hair rigged on the hook After about 4 top ups with the feeder I was just reaching for the flask to have a coffee when the rod bent double in the rest and at long last I was attached to a Carp not wanting to loose it I gingerly played it out and eventually slid the net under a nice mirror of about 8lb I stayed on the feeder in the hope of more bites but they were not forthcoming with the exception of 1 drop back that I missed

Dai on the peg to my right managed to hook a decent Carp on the feeder and after a decent fight lost it right at the net and that unfortunately was his only bite of the day Simple on the peg to my left never had a touch all day (well he had a visit from Gemma so who knows ) but certainly no bites

So in the last hour I tried the margin swims but all match there had been no signs of fish in the margins and they both lived up to my expectations with no bites coming from either swim

With 10 Min's to go I managed to foul hook and loose another fish on paste at 6m again then on the next put in another then on the next put in the float just sat still and waited for the whistle and that was the end of my first visit to Stockton

When the scales arrived my fish weighed 7lb 8oz a bit less than I thought but enough to avoid a minxing

In fact the fishing was very poor with almost 1/2 the field under 10lb but with usual Jinx high spirits everyone was upbeat and made the most of it even poor Peter who ended up with a foul hooked Perch for 4oz and once again became an entrant in the "minxed" list

The match was won by Matt with a fine 48lb

Result

1st..Matt Nutt.........48lbs 00ozs
2nd..Roy Ravenhill...41lbs 08ozs
3rd..Paul Roberts.....28lbs 00ozs
4th..Gary Thorpe......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..........15lbs 00ozs
15th=Mark Causer....10lbs 00ozs
15th=Keith Ashby....10lbs 00ozs
17th..Kevin Lake.......9lbs 12ozs
18th..Malc Doyle.......8lbs 04ozs
19th..Tim W.............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.........DNW

All in all not a bad day out it was nice and sunny with good company the fishing was a bit patchy but I'd certainly give Stockton another try as it looks like a fantastic place just didn't produce the goods today

Last match in the series is back at Rolfs in a few weeks :)

Willow Park

Today is the 2007 Southern Intersite match being fished at Willow Park Ash Vale Aldershot

The intersite series is being contested by 4 sites this year

Maggotdrowners

Talk Angling

Total Fishing (good weather permitting)

Angling Forums

Maggotdrowners have 3 standing team rules for Intersite matches

1. A contestant must never knowingly fish competitively

2. winning is not an option

3. you must have fun and enjoy the day

-

I had a nice steady drive down to Willow Park and arrived in time for breakfast and met up with the rest of the Maggotdrowning team

Dai had A bit of car trouble so was unable to make it down to Willow but luckily Vince found a stand-in to take his place

The team captains made the draw and I got peg 15 on Middle lake not too bad a peg and I was quite pleased as I have pleasure fished peg 15 a few times in the past and so headed off to set up looking forward to the match

Peg 15 is a corner peg with a large platform and a tree in the water to the left of the platform

And a culvert and a bay to the right of the platform

Looks real good eh ?

I was looking forward to it as although its probably a year since I last fished it I always had a good day on peg 15 with skimmers and F1's a chuck until the Carp turned up and pushed them out then it was a Carp a chuck with some real lumps and a few decent Tench coming from under the tree later on

So with that in mind I set up 3 main lines

1 straight out in front at 8m where I hope to catch skimmers and F1's

1 tight into the tree to my left where I hoped to catch Carp and Tench

And a margin swim tight into the reeds in the bay to my right

I also plumbed up a swim by the culvert just in case it was hard going

Well that was it I was all set up and ready for the off the sun was shining I had a decent looking peg that I had fished before and caught well from it was only a short walk from the car park and I was set up with time to walk along to the cafe for a cold drink what could possibly go wrong ?
As soon as the all in was sounded I found out what could go wrong there are no fish in Middle lake any more!
I shipped out a pot of pellets to the 8m line and a bit of corn and hemp into the margin swim and a few pellets and hemp under the tree
Usually when you put a pot of pellets in middle lake within a few min's the swim is fizzing and its not long before you are attached to a flying skimmer that thinks its a Trout but I had no fizzing in fact no signs of any fish and even worse no movement on the float
I tried pellet ,paste ,corn and meat and had no joy on any of them after almost an hour I caught a small Roach well I say caught it I think the pellet hit it on the head as it dropped down and in a semi conscious state it threw it's self on the hook then on the next put in the other fish that lives in that corner of the lake feeling lonely snuffled my pellet in a bid to stay with it's mate and had 2 fish in the net 1 little Roach and a small mirror Carp
And that was it I spent the next 4 hours trying everything everywhere to get a bite but all in vain
At last the hooter sounded and it was over
The day wasn't totally wasted as I did manage to catch a bit of sun but unfortunately I couldn't weigh that in
When the scales arrived the 2 fish weighed 14oz and for a while I was leading the section as the guy on peg 14 had only weighed 6oz then the guy on peg 16 stormed into the lead with 2lb odd and peg 17 took the section with 16lb most of which was 1 fish in fact the top weight on middle lake was only 18lb and when you consider Big lake was won with 90lb and small lake with 80lb makes you think something bad has happened to Middle lake
Once the gear was away and I got back to the cafe reports started coming in and it looked like Team Maggotdrowning had retained last position so at least Dave would be proud of us
Peter almost made a slip up by landing a 17lb Carp on big lake and was looking like taking the section with 24lb odd but luckily for him the next peg saved his embarrassment by weighing in 29lb and taking the section
But at least even though the fishing wasn't too good we did have a good laugh
but hopefully next year the match will be moved some where with a few more fish


Official Team Result

Angling Forums 30 Pts
Total Fishing 28 Pts
Talk Angling 23 Pts
Maggot Drowners 19 Pts

Maggotdrowners Pairs

This weekend is the Maggotdrowners Pairs match at Rolfs in Oxfordshire

The match is fished over 2 days with a 5 hour match each day and a points total for both anglers from both matches deciding the eventual winners

There were fears that with the terrible weather we have had over the last week or so that the match would be cancelled and when we heard that Total Fishing had cancelled their match on the Friday before ours quick calls were made to John Bennett to find out the situation and he assured us that the lake would be fishable and come on down

Once again Maggotdrowners lead the way where others fear to tread

Upon arriving at Rolfs I was pleased to see that the lake looked fantastic although the water was over the platforms by about a foot John Bennett and John Walker had done a fantastic job keeping the levels down and had even found time to install 3 temporary pegs on 16,17 and 18 to ensure we had plenty of pegs as we had 30 fishing Saturday and 2 special guests arriving to fish on Sunday so a big thank you to the 2 Johns

By the time I arrived most of the Md's were busy putting bivvies up and sorting out gear as we are staying on the site over nite

I drove my bivvie to the site so all I need to do is clear some space in the back of the van and I'm sorted

The first draw of the day was for pairs partners and I was drawn with Ady aka bigladwigan

-

I don't know what he was thinking about with the hat but he's a nice enough chap

The next draw was for pegs and I had a great result as I pulled out peg 4 not a flyer but a peg that I like fishing

-

As you can see the water is well up I'm just glad I took my platform with me so I could get out in the water to the end of the platform

-

Only problem I can see is going to be getting on and off with all the fish I will be weighing but thats a small price to pay

My plan of attack today is going to be the same as the last time i fished peg 4

I'm going to fish pellet at 7m straight in front

And meat/corn tight under the bush to my right on a top 2

Last time I fished peg 4 I had some real lumps from under the bush late on in the match so I was hoping for a repeat this time I also set up a paste rig to fish under the bush too just in case they were having it

On the all in I put 2 pots of pellets at 7m and 2 pots under the bush to my right

then went out on the 7m line with a 6mm GOT catmeat flavour soft hooker pellet on a size 16 B911 hook

The fishing was a bit slow in the first hour I only managed a few skimmers and I managed to bump a decent fish off as I missed the bite while I was watching Dave Moore playing a fish on the opposite bank in fact all the people opposite me had had a few Tony on 38 had lost a lot of fish but had some on the board Geoff had a few in the net as did Dave Moore on 36 and Pete "Mugger" Morton on the flyer peg 34

But at least the skimmers had disappeared and there were Carp about in my swim so it was only a matter of time

And sure enough on the next put in my float buried and I was into 1 of Rolfs babies after a quick fight I slid the net under a nice 7lb common I had another 2 fish in quick succession both net fish then all of a sudden the skimmers were back so I put a couple of pots of pellet in and had a try under the bush to my right with a cube of meat

After a bit of jiggling and ducking and diving the float slid under and I struck into a fish which tore off with my hydro in quick pursuit but from the moment I hit it I knew it was foul hooked and sure enough as soon as I put some pressure on it the hook pulled in fact during the match I must have hooked and lost about 15 fish from under the bush all foul hookers except 1 which took a large lump of paste and as I struck it tore off round the bush towards peg 3 and bottomed out the hydro and snapped my 0.20mm line as though it was Cotton

So I concentrated on the 7m line which in the last hour came to life and I was soon making regular trips to the scales to weigh fish and I also managed a few more for the net

Looking on the board I had about 60lb and reckoned I had about 30lb ish in the net and Gemma had 98lb on the board from peg 8 but that was it really

Chin on peg 7 had 2 weighers and was admitting to a few in the net but not enough to beat Gem so it looked like being close

When the scales arrived at my peg I weighed 91lb 4oz Chin weighed 108lb 8oz and Gemma had 98lb

The rest of the lake fished very hard by Rolfs standards so we took the top 3 places for day 1

Ady my partner had 36lb 12oz from peg 9 which I think left us in 3rd place over night

Individual Results - Saturday

1. Chin..............108-8
2. Jammy1...........98-0
3. Clive...............91-4
4. Dirk................84-12
5. TommyTurtle.....84-8
6. Gazmalman......80-12
7. Looney.............77-12
8. AlexM ..............77-12
9. Peter ...............73-4
10. Simple Simon.....57-8
11. Dave Moore........57-0
12. Antwood.............45-8
13. SpamWham.........45-0
14. Dave the Fish......44-8
15. Nomorelongwalks.42-8
16. Geoff P...............40-12
17. Teepee...............37-8
18. BigLadWigan.......36 12
19. Daifish...............30-4
20. WilyCoyote.........29-12
21. Cybermanc..........29-12
22. Steve Wilson.......27-8
23. TommoDeisel......23-0
24. Vg1037..............17-0
25. Colin the Pike.....15-8
26. Malc..................15-0
27. Me....................11-4
28. SteveB................8-4
29. Dave..................6-8
30. Rockyroads.........1-0

-

Once all the gear was put away it was time to crank the barbie up and crack a few beers open

All the new members of the "Minxed Club" were welcomed into the club and today Gemma made a new record by adding/re-adding 28 names to the list of shame only Chin managed to escape a minxing

Chin may be ok at knocking a few fish out but he hasn't mastered a medium steak yet!

As luck would have it Gaz Malman was down to fish the match and had brought a selection of floats with him to sell so I was able to add to my ever growing collection of hand made "Thicko's"

Talking of Gaz Malman he made 3 big mistakes on day 1 of the 2007 Pairs match

First

He slipped off his platform while setting up before the match started and fell in the lake

Second

He didn't make sure Pete Morton was nowhere in sight before he got changed

Class photo Peter

Third

During the match he was getting up with a 10lb+ fish to go to the scales when he slipped back into the lake again and lost the fish

Just not your day Gaz

During the match Rolf turned up and had a walk round with John Bennett and John Walker and had a chat with people and he also stayed for the barbecue and had a bite to eat and enjoyed a nice bit of steak Dave cooked for him

After the food was finished it was time for a few beers and some good light hearted banter mostly at the expense of Simon (Me) but it was a good evening and I haven't laughed so much for ages

Day 2 started with a spot of breakfast

Then as we had a bit of time to wait until the draw we gave the 2 Johns a hand with a bit of peg maintenance (when I say we I really mean Malc the rest of us just watched really)

After all his help John let him have a little play in the boat

-

After collecting a few of the floats that were bobbing about in the lake John put him back to work cutting back the branches on peg 22

At last draw time arrived along with the 2 guests for the day who were Keith Arthur fresh from his morning radio show and Pete Archer from Vespe

The worst pair from Saturdays match were split up and paired up with 1 of the guests in the hope of improving their place in the final rankings

At the draw bag I managed to draw peg 16 out not really what I was hoping for as yesterday from 15 right through to 20 fished very hard with few fish showing but you never know with all the feed going in yesterday it might spur the fish on a bit

-

Dai was next to me on peg 15 and he had fished peg 16 yesterday and said he had struggled for 30lb so he wasn't looking forward to it too much today

My plan is to fish at 7m straight in front

And I have also plumbed up a swim under the bush in my left margin

And to complete my master plan I have set up a shallow rig and also a feeder rod but I suspect if I get any fish they will come from the 7m line so thats where I shall be concentrating my efforts

On the all in I shipped 2 pots of pellets out to 7m and 2 under the bush to my left then I went out on the 7m line with a GOT 6mm Red Liver flavour soft hooker pellet on a size 16 B911

Everyone else up this end of the lake appeared to going with the feeder which was a bit worrying especially when they all started to catch a few fish but I stuck with my plan and continued to feed pellets on my 7m line in the hope of drawing a few fish in

After about 45 Min's my float buried and I was into a Carp and soon had a nice common of around 5lb in the net although there was a long wait between fish I was starting to get a few fish now and after an hour and a half I had 1 on the board and 5 in the net

I gave the feeder a quick try but had no joy and also the margin swim showed no signs of life to I stuck with the 7m line and after missing a bite on the next put in my float shot away and I was into a decent fish that felt heavy and after a battle that seemed to go on for ever I slipped the net under a lovely 16lb common Carp

By now Malc was making regular visits to the scales from peg 13 and it looked like he was bagging up but my peg just switched off no bites and no signs of any fish

DaiFish on 15 was struggling to find any fish and Tommodiesel on peg 17 and AlexM on 18 were both struggling

Opposite me on peg 24 I could see Gemma

But after her fantastic day yesterday beating almost everyone today she was struggling and had only had a couple of fish in the first hour then nothing since

I continued to struggle to find any fish trying meat ,corn and pellet and even another go on the feeder but to no avail

Eventually with 15 Min's to go I managed to get 1 more fish on red liver pellet at 7m but that was it the 5 hours were up and I reckoned I had about 60lb which was better than most around me with the exception of Malc who had 120lb on the board and 4 or 5 fish in the net

After putting my gear away I went off round to help with the weigh in and it seemed to have fished a bit better than yesterday with 6 weights over the ton led by Malc with a fine match win from peg 13 with 143lb but on the whole the lake did not fish well yet again

I managed to weigh in 59lb 8oz but lost out on the section to Keith Arthur on peg 20 with 88lb 12oz

My pairs partner Ady (Bigladwigan) had a respectable 44lb 12oz from peg 32 but all the leading pairs from yesterday had caught well today so I doubt we will be troubling the frame this year

Individual Results - Sunday

1. Malc.....................143-0
2. SpamWham...........136-0
3. SteveB..................121-4
4. Dirk.......................114-8
5. Nomorelongwalks.....111-14
6. Chin.......................105-12
7. Peter........................91-0
8. Keith Arthur...............88-12
9. Cybermanc.................87-8
10. Vg1037......................75.12
11. TommyTurtle...............65-12
12. Me.............................60-4
13. Clive..........................59-8
14. Simple Simon...............58-4
15. Steve Wilson...............54-0
16. Antwood.....................50-12
17. Teepee.......................49-4
18. Geoff P.......................48-8
19. BigLadWigan...............44-12
20. Dave..........................44-0
21. Looney.......................32-12
22. TommoDeisel..............26-8
23. AlexM.........................25-4
24. Pete Archer..................25-0
25. Gazmalman.................24-4
26. Jammy1......................24-4
27. Dave Moore.................23-0
28. Daifish........................22-8
29. Dave the Fish .............17-12
30. WilyCoyote..................10-8
31. Rockyroads..................13-8
32. Colin the Pike..............DNW

At last the results were announced and the Maggotdrowning 2007 Pairs Champions were Peter and Spamwham (Tony)

Who received their trophy's from Keith Arthur

Ady and I came 4th over all and had a prize each donated by Pete Archer of some Vespe gear

And I had a pick up for coming 3rd in the match on Saturday so all in all a good weekend

Results Pairs Total Points

1) Peter / SpamWham.. 52

2) Chin / Vg1037.. 46

3) Simple Simon / TommyTurtle.. 44

4) Clive / BigLadWigan.. 41

5) Malc / Looney.. 39

5) Dirk / Daifish.. 39

6) Antwood / Nomorelongwalks.. 38

7) Gazmalman / Jammy1.. 35

8) AlexM / Geoff P.. 33

9) Teepee / SteveB.. 29

10) Cybermanc / TommoDeisel.. 28

11) Keith Arthur / Me.. 26

12) Dave / Dave the Fish.. 20

13) Steve Wilson / Pete Archer.. 18

14) Dave Moore / Rockyroads.. 13

15) Colin the Pike / WilyCoyote.. 11

Dave the fish had a bit of a result today as he was blanking from peg 38 for most of the match when his float shot under and he played and managed to land the biggest fish of the day a common of 17lb 12oz and to his amazement it had a complete rig with elastic attached to it and it turned out to be the fish that had snapped Keith Arthur up 15 Min's before at the other end of the lake

Well thats it for the Pairs Championships for this year a fantastic weekend as usual with great people and great banter can't wait for next year