Rolfslake switches on Big time.

As i looked out of the kitchen window it was sunny with little wind and i was hoping that when I turned up at the lake that the fish would not be on the suface, forty minutes later when I turned up at the lake there were lots up in the water.

As I was unable to fish the Wednesday open match this week it made a nice change to see a different group of anglers hoping that Rolfslake’s carp would finally get their heads down and have a feed and today Rolfslake did not disappoint.  At the draw it was decided that it was going to be a walk off and having the eighth choice of swim I was hoping that no one chose either pegs 6, 9 or 3 and to my surprise all the other anglers were in the big lake and with Geoff Edwards last to draw he looked at peg 32 and said that will do for me { that was our first mistake of the day }. 

The story of the match was after a slow start it turned cloudy after two hours and then Rolfslake went fish crazy, as the fish seen on the surface earlier decided to go down on the deck and into the margins and then it was who could catch the fastest and it was a 5 horse race for victory. The last time I fished a match like this the angler that came last in a 17 peg match weighed an incredible 179lb which still is a record for last place in a match that was won with i believe 440lb, and for a brief period that was on for three anglers and maybe more. All of the anglers today had a great days fishing with carp ranging from 5lb to 20lb and everything in between and it took the four of us nearly fifty minutes to weigh the fish in.

In first place today and claiming king of the lake was Geoff Edwards { Reading Angling Centre } who was more than happy to be fishing peg 32 on the car park bank and after a very slow first hour, Geoff managed to turn his swim into a fish catching haven. From where I was I could see Geoff was fishing three lines, the first was to the bush to his left and beyond, the second was a short 5 metre line straight out in front and the third was to the margin to his right and this was to be his main catching line. The bait that Geoff used today was paste fished on the deck feeding 4mm pellet {two bags worth} and after falling 6 fish behind at the start as Kevan Orr on peg 10 was flying Geoff set about catching the field up and by the fourth hour was level with the leaders and by the end had caught about 40 carp to nearly 20lb to seal victory with a fantastic 353-08 and the top weight from the lake this year { well done Geoff }.

King of the lake Geoff Edwards 353-08.

In second place was Paul Jay who drew a low number and chose peg 22 at the bottom of the big lake , and as Paul draws this pegs on a regular basis all his rigs were set and ready to go. Paul started on the wagger catching a couple of carp early but a switch to the right hand margins fished with 8mm banded pellet saw his catch rate rocket, and with regular feeding managed to keep the fish coming for the five hours. Again Paul caught big fish today to nearly 19lb and at the weigh-in was convinced he had over 300lb but in the end fell one fish short with his weight of 291-04 but still a great weight so well done Paul.

Second place Paul Jay 291-08

In third place was me Eddie Taylor-Green, and after chosing my favourite peg on the lake peg 6 I set about making 5 hours of fishing seem very difficult. I started off on the 7 metre line fishing my X4 2012 mix which failed miserably last week and was going to give it one last chance or it was going in the bin, and after the first hour was struggling with 2 carp and 7lb of skimmers, but as i had fed the right hand margin could not believe my eyes as the water was boiling with fish feeding.

 I straight away switched to the top two plus one and margin rig and that was the start of fishing fantasy for three hours as every time the bait went in the float buried very soon after which was fantstic until the 5th hour when I ran out of paste and had to fish the banded pellet which caught me 3 fish. Most of the fish buried the float and pulled the pole round but it was was me dreaming of 400lb that messed up my fishing as i started to speed up and lost 15 fish around the platform and the nets in my rush to get the next fish in. After 5 hours I caught over 30 carp to 18lb for my weight of 289-08 and one small skimmer off second.

Eddie with third place and 289-04.

9 anglers fished

With these Monday and Wednesday opens moving forwards I will expect this year that one of the big weight anglers will catch the first 400lb for the first time in a few years. The cloudy weather played a very big part today as the fish followed the bait down as there were less visable fish after two hours and at this point the fishing just got better. There were a lot of big fish caught today to nearly 20lb and all the anglers caught doubles, but the anglers reading this just remember Rolfslake is not an easy fishery where you can just turn up and catch 200lb you have to work it out.

 I thourghly enjoyed catching my fish today but not weighing the 1,600lb of fish the 9 anglers caught as it was very hard work for the 3 that got involved cheers guys.

New Lake king in Under a week. Geoff Edwards

Well done Jeff, Cracking weight.

Thanks for reading John ,Simon and Eddie.