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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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