Rolfs

Back down to Rolfs today for a mid week match with the guys from Talk Angling

A lot of the guys I have met before on Maggotdrowning matches but there are a few new ones so should be a good day out and the weather is forecast to be an excellent day with no wind and plenty of sunshine

I arrived at just gone 9 expecting to find the place empty but to my surprise I was 1 of the last to arrive looks like everyone is keen and eager for this match

It was nice to see Rolf back from hospital and as usual he was busy washing nets and John Bennett was also on site to give Rolf a hand to keep things running as smoothly as ever

After having my nets laundered and buying some more pellets it was time for the draw and to my surprise I drew a peg close to where I actually wanted for once as I am fishing C section in the Spring league this week I was hoping for a peg in C section for a bit of a practise and as I've never fished 19,20 or 21 I was hoping for 1 of them and as luck would have it I drew peg 19

Upon arriving at the peg I decided that I was going to fish 6mm pellets at 6m on the deck

While I was setting up Steve came round and told me that in the last league match the guy on peg 19 had thrown a feeder down along the bush to the right of the peg towards peg 18 and caught fish all day

So I set a feeder rod up

Then John Bennett came round and told me that in the match the day before the guy in peg 19 had caught from the end of the boat

Tight into the bush

So I soon had a rig set up and plumbed to fish tight to the bush at the end of the boat

And my last swim was to be at the bush to the left of the platform

On the all in I put 2 pots of pellets out at 6m and 2 pots at the end of the boat

My plan was to fish pellet/corn at 6m and meat at the end of the boat and on the feeder and also in the margin swim

I decided to start on the 6m line and shipped out a 6mm cat meat flavour pellet on the hook lowered it in and waited

The guy on peg 20 was fishing shallow at 13m I must admit I did consider setting up a pellet waggler and fishing shallow but decided against the idea although within Minuit's I was regretting the decision as he was soon playing a Carp while I sat watching a motionless float

Soon he had 2 fish on the board and it was looking like I had made a mistake when my float shot under and I was into a Carp a quick battle and I had a 6lb Carp in the net

Peg 20 was still catching shallow at 13 and although he was loosing a few foul hookers most of the fish were weighers and it was looking like I was going to get battered I had 1 more Carp from the 6m line another 6lb common then I had a couple of skimmers so I decided to try the swim at the end of the boat So I stuck a cube of meat on and shipped it out tight into the bush after about 5 Min's the float buried and hydro shot out but as I shipped it back the hook pulled and I was left with a large scale on the hook I managed to foul hook and loose 4 fish on the trot and eventually managed to land my first weigher of 10lb 8 oz but after each fish I lost the swim just died and I was waiting too long for the next bite

So I decided to try the feeder, I cast a feeder full of damp pellets with a cube of meat on the hook down along the bush towards peg 18 but in 20 Min's all I managed was 2 missed bites

So I gave up and went back out on the 6m line almost instantly the float disappeared and i was into a Carp and by upping the feed I was soon landing Carp 1 a chuck although they were only net fish and not weighers they all counted

By now peg 20 had given up on his 13m line as it had died and had also come in to the 6m line and was also taking the odd fish but as he wasn't feeding much his catch rate was way below mine and with an hour to go I reckoned that we were about level and I had a little spell of better fish all of which were weighers Then with 45 Min's to go my swim just died and I had only 1 more fish before the whistle

After the whistle went I packed my gear away and headed off round to help with the weigh in

Talk on the way round was that everyone had caught and had a good day and there were a few good weights I reckoned that I had over 100lbs but judging by what people were admitting to I was unlikely to come anywhere on the upside Gemma was only admitting to 60lb ish so i was unlikely to be making another entry into the Minxed club today

When the scales got to my peg I managed to weigh in 135lb 10oz not enough to make the frame but a pleasing days fishing

Result

1. Peg 15 - rive t......................203.11

2. Peg 3 - halfounce.................192.09

3. Peg 9 - fred.........................187.12

4. Peg 8 - griffo.......................185.09

5. Peg 23 - steve001................149.04

6. Peg 13 - dnw.......................147.08

7. Peg 26 - martin b.................144.13

8. Peg 19 - clive.......................135.10

9. Peg 34 - mark c.....................132.00

10.Peg 31- keith........................130.10

11.Peg 38 - matt6900 ................126.04

12.Peg 20 - cantdraw..................107.12

13.Peg 1 - Malc..........................106.09

14.Peg 40 - andy222.....................92.06

15.Peg 29 - dave a........................89.04

16.Peg 30 - buckskinss...................86.02

17.Peg 11 - mpo380.......................84.11

18.Peg 28 - vince...........................69.10

19.Peg 4 - ubat..............................69.08

20.Peg 27 - gem.............................68.06

21.Peg 36 - polebreaker...................64.12

22.Peg 21 - cornerstone...................64.06

23.Peg 14 - kingfisher ....................58.08

24.Peg 2 - Larry Teapot...................53.12

25.Peg 6 - ridgeacre........................51.13

26.Peg 10 - royst............................51.08

27.Peg 7 - polepot..........................49.06

28.Peg 32 - briang...........................36.06

29.Peg 37 - pete m..........................34.00

30.Peg 22 - leetwin...........................9.00

Total weight caught.......2,984lb 5oz

As you can see from the results everyone caught and some fine weights were had Gemma managed 68lb meaning that another 10 poor souls entered into the Minxed club

The biggest catch she had was poor Peter Morton who had a nightmare match on peg 37 (better luck in the "Jinx" Peter)

All in all a good day plenty of fish caught good weather and good company looking forward to the next 1