Rolfs Spring league - Match 6

Down to Rolfs in Oxfordshire today for the last match in the spring league series

I must admit I'm not really up for this match after fishing here on Thursday in glorious sunshine today in contrast its bitterly cold pouring with rain and blowing a gale

This week I am fishing in C section and The Assassins have a full team with Steve fishing A section and Paul fishing B section

At the draw Steve had a great draw pulling peg 34 out of the bag Paul pulled peg 10 out ( looks like some of my luck is rubbing off on him) and I managed to draw peg 26 not a great draw but I had it in Malc's match last week and had a few fish from it

On arriving at my peg I decided to set the brolly up and just fish short on the 7m line and a margin swim I did consider setting a feeder up but with the bushes either side blowing right across me in the gusts of wind I decided it would be too much hassle

So settled for fishing pellet/corn at 7m

And Meat at the end of the bush to my right

On the all in I put 2 pots of pellets out on the 7m line and a couple of handfuls under the bush then went out on the 7m line fishing a 6mm cat meat flavour pellet on a size 16 B911 fished at dead depth

first put in I had a skimmer and the second and the third in fact in the first 2 hours that's all I managed to catch was skimmers although I did have 1 foul hooked Carp that left me with a large scale on the hook I tried pellet and corn on the hook and I tried fishing over depth and up in the water but no matter where I went all I could get were skimmers

So in desperation I put a cube of meat on and dropped it in the swim at the end of the bush after what felt like hours but was in reality was probably only 20 min's the float shot under and after a hectic battle under both bushes I eventually slid the net under an 11lb 8oz common

I went back in with another cube of meat but after 30 bite less min's I gave up and went back out to the 7m line with a grain of corn on the hook and eventually the float shot under and I was into another of Rolfs beasties this 1 stretched my hydro all over the place and being between the 2 bushes with not a lot of room there were a lot of heart stopping moments but thankfully I managed to get it in the net and a quick trip up to the scales and I had a 13lb 8oz common on the board

Back out on the 7m line with corn again and I had 2 fish in quick succession both about 4lb then the skimmers were back in a bid to avoid them I fished an 11mm pellet and eventually managed to hook and land another common of 11lb and foul hook and loose 2 more fish and that was it Rolf blew the whistle

For a while I thought I was going to have a nightmare of a match especially as I had sat watching Phil on peg 15 bagging up all day while all I could catch were small skimmers but eventually I managed to get a few fish and reckoned I had about 50lb

After packing my gear away I set of round the lake for the weigh in and with the pouring rain not letting up 1 bit it was a very damp occasion and the lake was very patchy with weights coming from only the most reliable pegs

Unfortunately the result was marred by "Scribble gate" but in every ones opinion the match was won by Phil Powell with a fine 205lb from peg 15

I had 36lb on the board and my net of skimmers weighed 9lb and my 2 net Carp went for 8lb giving me a total of 53lb for 5th in section and 2 points Paul had a better day on peg 10 with 96lb 12oz for 2nd in section and 5 points and Steve had a great result from peg 34 with 193lb for 1st in section and 6 points

Giving The Assassins a total of 13 points today joint 2nd on the day but we had the better weight so we took 2nd place and picked up some more winnings

So that's it another league over

Certainly better fishing and results than the winter league and we managed to come 4th in the league and only 3 points behind second place considering we were 1 man short last match it could have been a lot closer

But as usual the league was well run by Rolf and John Bennett and good fun to fish with a great bunch of guys

Unfortunately I won't be fishing the summer leagues as they are being fished on Saturdays and I already have a few Saturday matches and other commitments so that's my league fishing finished until the autumn