Rolfs Lake

Jinx Series Match Six

Luckily I managed to get a place on this match as a guest

Most of the people that fish the Jinx series are also members of Maggotdrowners so I have fished with most of them before

A quick 45 min drive from home to Rolfs saw me there by 11.30 and in good time to get my nets washed and my gear sorted ready for the draw at 12pm

As I pulled my hand out of the draw bag I was a bit disappointed to see that I had drawn peg 37 not that it's a bad peg but because I had drawn it in the second day of the maggotdrowners weekend match

But on the upside I caught 105lb from the peg that day so at least I had a fair idea how to fish the peg

To my left on peg 38 was Geoff E and to my right on peg 36 was Gemma as I looked up from setting up my tackle and looked across the lake towards peg 4 I had the fright of my life!

Malc "The Jinx" Doyle was setting up in front of me on peg 4 surely a bad omen and tbh I shudder to think why he is fishing in a pair of Y-fronts

Anyway pushing that thought from my mind 1.30 arrives and time to begin

My plan today is to start on paste at 6m and if I start to get foul hookers or struggle for bites from the off then I will swap to meat straight away rather than wait for 2 hours like last time

So off I go with 2 cups of pellets at 6m and I pot a piece of paste out and drop it in over the top and nothing happens no bites no swirls no fizzing

So I throw some loose feed pellets out over the top eventually the float jigs and bobbles about a bit then buries and my elastic races out of the pole just as I'm starting to ship back in the elastic shoots back into the pole and the fish is off (foul hooked) I spend the next 30 mins foul hooking and loosing fish before I finally manage to hook 1 properly and land it a nice weigher of 11lb

Looking around the lake no one was catching fish Malc was foul hooking and loosing a fair few on peg 4 and Brian was having the odd fish on peg 40 but it seemed like it was fishing hard all round the lake

So I decided instead of striking at the indications on the float that I would just wait until the float buried and the fish hooked its self on the elastic rather than keep getting the foul hookers by striking

and this seemed to be paying off as I soon had 4 weighers on the board and 3 fish in the net although waiting for the fish to hook them selves meant a long wait between fish as no one else was really bagging up it seemed a good move

but the waits between fish were getting longer so I decided to swap to meat and fish it over the same line at 6m using the same tactics waiting for the fish to hook them selves and this seemed to be a good move as I started to catch fish faster and they were taking the meat much more positively

Remembering back to the last time I fished peg 37 and a conversation I had with Gary Thorpe after the match he told me you cant feed too much at Rolfs and if the fish are feeding then up your feed rate to get them havin it

So I started feeding 3 handfuls every put in and this had the desired effect as I continued to catch fish right up till the end of the match

Looking on the board I had 101lbs of weighers and 3 fish in my net which I reckoned would go for about 20lb so hopefully I may be in the frame for once

Once the final whistle went I packed up all my gear and headed off to help with the weigh in and it seemed that Rolfs had fished poor for once with lots of low weights and by the time we got round to peg 40 the best weight was only 61lb 11oz so with Brian estimating he had round 100lb things were looking good for my first win at Rolfs

After Brian's weigh in he totalled 109lb 8oz so all I needed was over 8lb of weighers and I'd won

My big moment arrived (drum roll) and my 3 fish weighed 19lb 8oz giving me a total of 120lb 8oz and my first win at Rolfs

Full Result

1. Clive - 120lb 8oz (Guest)

2. Brian B - 109lb 8oz

3. Biglad - 61lb 11oz (Guest)

4. Derek R - 51lb 4oz (Guest)

5. Malc D - 47lb 12oz

6. Dirk W - 42lb 10oz

7. Simon R - 38lb 8oz

8. Nick W-P - 38lb 2oz

9. Eric R - 33lb

10. Nick J - 32lb 8oz

11. Keith A - 31lb 12oz

12. Mark C - 31lb

13. Kev L - 31lb

14. Geoff E - 30lb 8oz

15. Ant H - 28lb 8oz

16. Chris - 28lb 4oz (Guest)

17. Colin - 26lb 8oz (Guest)

18. Steve W - 23lb 8oz

19. Dave - 22lb 12oz (Guest)

20. Neil Mc - 21lb 14oz

21. Matt N - 18lb 12oz

22. Tony - 17lb 8oz (Guest)

23. Peter M - 16lb 6oz

24. Gemma D - 15lb 8oz (Guest)

25. Dave A - 13lb

26. Dave M - 12lb

27. Dai T - 7lb

28. Paul R - 6oz

29. Nick W - D.N.W

Total Weight on the scales was 951lb 3oz and only 1 Blank recorded.

Another great days fishing with Maggotdrowners and hopefully many more to come

Thanks to Malc for inviting me as a guest for the day and arranging the match and congratulations to Brian for winning the 2006 Jinx Series