Rolfs Winter league - Match 6

This week is the final match in the 2006 winter league at Rolfs and even the hard frost on the van windscreen couldn't put a dampener on my spirits today
I soon had the screen clear the van loaded and sped my way to Rolfs in Oxfordshire
By the time I arrived at Rolfs the temperature had risen a few degrees and it was quite pleasant not quite Tee shirt and shorts weather but also not coat weather either. I got my nets laundered by Rolfs net cleaning service wheeled all my gear round to the motorway side of the lake as I'm fishing B Section this week pegs 9-18 and returned to the hut to draw my peg
I was most happy with my draw this week as I wanted either peg 16,17 or 18 and I managed to pull peg 16 out of the bag


As you can see from the picture the lake is still about 4 foot up so I am having to sit on the top of the bank above the platform which makes positioning my nets difficult due to the fact that straight out in front of me for about 6 foot is the platform and if the nets go across it and I fill them with Carp then there is no way I will be able to pull them in without getting into the water to lift them over the edges of the platform so I have squeezed them down between the platform and the bush

As Rolf is allowing running line this week my plan of attack today is going to be a cage feeder with white crumb and bread flake on the hook and I going to fish it about 18m straight out in front of me hopefully just in front of the underwater bar

Main reason for this approach is peg 16 is about 2m further back than peg 15 so using the pole you are at a 2m disadvantage before you start

On arrival at my peg I saw that I had once again managed to draw next to Lloyd Moss this is probably the 5th time this year I have been on the next peg to him and each time he has battered me

Talking to Lloyd as we set up it turned out that he had hurt his back and so wasn't going to bother trying to fish the pole today I also noticed that Bill on peg 18 was also only setting up a feeder rod and no pole. So sensing a gifted advantage I quickly set my pole up
My aim was to stick with my original plan and fish the feeder but if it was hard going then I would swap to the pole and I had corn,pellet,meat and maggots all in reserve

My set up today is my trusted Fox Challenger heavy feeder rod ,okuma inspira reel with 8lb Maxima Chameleon line and a 12 inch Match Team 0.18 hook link with a B911 size 12 hook and a Fox size 3 cage feeder. I am going to use damped down white crumb in the feeder and a large lump of bread flake pinched round the hook

On the all in I picked a tree on the far bank as my marker and cast out a feeder full of crumb with a lump of bread flake on the hook,dropped the rod into the rest tightened up to the feeder and waited ready to pounce!

Straight away the tip started dancing with little knocks from pesky Roach I tried to hit a few of the bites but they were lighting fast and each time I came back with nothing so I decided to sit on my hands and wait for a real bite

After about 5 mins the rod whipped round and leapt out of the rest and I lifted into 1 of Rolfs Carp a nice steady battle with the Challenger rod and I slid the net under a nice 5lb common Carp back out with another feeder full of crumb and after a few mins the rod leap out of the rest again and I soon had another 5lb fish in the net

Things were looking good after the first hour I had 4 Carp in the net Lloyd on peg 17 had 1 Carp fishing bread on the waggler and pegs 18 and 15 were both fishless

I then went through a 20 min spell with no bites and was contemplating giving the pole a shot when again the rod bent double in the rest and I lifted into a fish that roared off towards peg 20 I cranked the drag right up and just bent into the fish and let the rod get it under control eventually the fish gave in and slowly plodded its way back to peg 16 because the platform is under water in front of me I had to play the fish hard and get it on the surface before it spotted the platform legs and dived to safety after a bit of splashing and crashing on the surface I had the fish in the net and a quick trip to the weigh station I had a 13lb mirror on the board

I cast straight back out and within minuets I was playing another fish this time a 10lb mirror

Soon I noticed that Lloyd was starting to catch faster on the waggler and was catching me up, peg 18 was also taking the odd fish now too but I decided to stick with what I was doing and I had a spell of 6 fish in 10 mins 2 in the net and 4 weighers on the board

In the last 30 mins Steve on peg 15 had 2 Carp in quick succession Lloyd was getting a fish a chuck and I started getting fish taking the feeder on the drop I lost about 4 fish which were probably foul hooked but I managed to get a few more weighers on the board by the time Rolf sounded the all out I had 12 weighers on the board for 103lbs and 6 fish in the net

Though Lloyd was saying I had battered him today as he only had 60 odd lb on the board I knew he had sneaked quite a few fish into his nets and it was going to be close but from what we could see round the lake no one else had bagged up so it was going to be between us for 1st place

I packed all me gear away and headed of round to help with the weigh in

There was an 84lb off peg 2 and an 81lb off peg 7 in the little lake then an 86lb from peg 13 and when the scales reached peg 16 I weighed 129lb 8oz and Lloyd on peg 17 weighed 121lb 4oz and Bill on peg 18 weighed 73lb and with the only other decent weight coming from peg 24 with 70lb I had won B section and the match

My 129lb 8oz gave me 1st in section and 9 points Chris had 23lb 14oz for 3rd in section and 7 points from peg 32 and Paul had 12oz for 7th in section and 3 points from peg 38 putting Team Desperate Danns in 2nd place today and finishing in 6th place overall in the league

Winter League 2006

Team-----------------------Total

1.Rolfs Team Gold----------120
2.RS Baits------------------.118
3.Hayes---------------------106
4.Fisherman's B--------------93
5.Rolfs Team Diamond------89
6.Desperate Dann's ---------83
7.Fisherman's A -------------82
8.Musketeers-----------------54
9.Throwbacks----------------51

Well that's it for my first winter league at Rolfs and fishing against venue regulars/experts finishing mid table in the league is a fair result also getting through all 6 matches without a blank was pleasing and finishing on a high by winning the last match made it all worth while

Thanks to Rolf and all the other guys that made it a great winter league