Today saw the start of this years winter league. There were supposed to be 8 teams this year but 1 team had to drop out leaving 7 teams of 3 anglers.

Rolfs Team Gold are the current champions and are undefeated in 8 years.

Rolfs Team Gold. John Bennett, Mick Lane and Phil Powell

All the teams lined up for the draw, each team has 3 anglers which in turn draw from a,b and c section. They rotate round through the sections in each match. Last year a section was the place to avoid but no one knew how it would fish so everyone was optimistic.

John handing out the rules

With fishing from 10.30am – 3.30pm we only had about 45 minutes to set up. The person on peg 32 is responsible for starting and stopping the match, that person this week was Steve Wilson. At 10.30 Steve signalled the start of the match with a policemans whistle.

Most people chucked the tip rod out to start off with while other went straight out on the pole. Malc Doyle fishing for Rolfs Rejects was having some success of the tip.

Malc with a fish on the tip

In the net

Jon Walker over on 14 was walking away with the match catching a lot of weighers. Derek Hammond on 13 was also catching alot of fish but his were silver fish. He had caught some monster perch and some nice bream to give him the top silver weigh on the day also.

Derek Hammond's top Silver weight with Steve getting in on the picture

Another picture of Derek

Round on peg 28 Dai Thomas fishing for Rolfs Rejects managed to catch a new personal best carp.

Dai Thomas with his new PB carp. 18lb 14oz. Well done

Everyone was catching carp except me, I only managed 4 roach for a massive 8oz luckily everyone was very nice to me and didn’t take the micky too much YEAH RIGHT !!!!

I could not see down in the little lake but word was that John Bennett had been in every tree/bush with in a 20 meter radius of his peg

Steve Waters was leading the little lake with John very close to him. Will get some pictures of the little lake next time sorry.

A few pictures from round the big lake.

Superstar Jon Walker on peg 14

Geoff Palmer on peg 16

Phil Powell on peg 18

Looking down the car park bank

RESULTS

With a clean sweep. All 3 section wins, top carp weight and top silver weight Walker floats team {Jon Walker, Derek Hammond and Steve Waters} set the pace leaving current champions Rolfs Team Gold in second place. 5 Matches to go and a lot can change.

Top team of the day. Walker Floats

The next round is on the 21st November, Draw time is 9.30am. There is a Silver fish match on the 20th November too. Please call John to book in.

Thanks for reading, Eddie and Si.

Jon and Pat waiting for the draw

A very hard match indeed, a sign of things to come for the winter league maybe ? The carp were very shy today but the silvers turned up in large numbers. I was on one of my favourite pegs, peg 26 and only had one bite before I had to leave. I Had a party to get back for but would have liked to have caught a fish before I left but I didn’t so another blank for me

I took a few pictures before I left…

Mick Lane, the man with the golden drawing hand

Mick, Chris, Steve and Pat

Dai and Malc

Malc on peg 14

Paul Jay on peg 18

Chris on peg 24

Dai on peg 29

Dai with one of his many perch

Results. {thanks Pat }

1st Steve Waters peg 6 69lb 4oz (included 13lb of silvers)
2nd Pat Pritchard pg 8 42lb 8oz (24lb of silvers and one carp of 18lb 8oz
3rd Paul Jay peg 18 41lb
4th Mick Lane peg 32 38lb 8oz (All silvers)
5th Chris Lovelock peg 24 34lb 12oz
6th Jon Walker peg 10 28lb 12oz (one carp of nearly 9lb and the rest silvers)
7th Ernie Malon peg 9 22lb
8th Mick Chappell peg 16 21lb
9th Dai Thomas Peg 29 20lb 8oz
10th Richard Doolan peg 13 12lb 8oz
11th Malc Doyle peg 14 7lb 8oz
Simon Mound peg 26 DNW

There is another open next Saturday the 30th October. Please call John to book in.

It was almost a winters day on Saturday morning, it was cold grey skies and a blustery north east to greet the 12 anglers who turned up to fish the match.

Car park bank setting up

After the usual coffee tea and doughnuts the draw was made and the match got under-way, it was soon realized that it was going to be hard work with very little activity early on, during the course of the match the wind picked up and unforcasted heavy cold rain made things even more difficult,

The match itself turned to be very tight with the top six anglers with 1fish good making the difference between 1st and 6th.

The results were,

1st  peg 7 Dave Whiteman 74lb-0ozs

2nd peg 14 Dave Stratful-way 62lb 12ozs

3rd peg 26 Mick Chapple 60lb-4ozs

4th peg 16 Simon Mound 59lb-4ozs

5th peg 4 Chris Lovelock 56lb -4ozs

6th peg 28 Adam Griffiths 53lb-4ozs

Simon with a 15lb carp

Gem was along to support Simon but soon went shopping when it rained

Neil Riddy

Report to follow….

Results.

Malc Doyle, Todays Winner. Well done

My new PB, 20lb 10oz.

Report to follow…

Results.

On form again. Match Winner, Mick Jones. Well Done

15 anglers turned up today, some were already at the lake having fished the night match last night. The draw took place and as predicted by Neil Riddy John Bennett opened his hand to reveal peg 8. That rainbow goes from peg 8 to peg 9

Fishing today was from 1-05pm to 6-05pm. Fishing was also very hard today but Mick Jones was having no problems on peg 16 catching regularly from the bush on the right. Myself on peg 9 and Richard on peg 32 were suffering from major foul hook problems, both loosing 7 fish in a row.

On the car park bank Dave Whiteman on peg 26 and Del Smith on peg 29 both started catching well during the last half of the match but it was not enough to catch Mick up. John Hague on peg 11 was running past me with weigher after weigher.

John Bennett was also having a nightmare on peg 8, he had been catching ok in the first half of the match but then lost the fish for the last half without a single bite in the last 2 hours.

This was his last bite of the day

John Bennett with a weigher.

The leaves are falling off the tree’s now at the lake and the temperature is falling meaning autumn is well and truly here.

The match was very hard going for most. On to the results…..

Results.

Well done to Mick, top result for the day. Peg 16 continues to be the place to be.

Mick Jones, a fine win on a hard day at the lake. Well Done.

Night time at Rolfs

9 anglers turned up to fish the night match at the lake. A few people were also camping over so they could fish the open match on Saturday. Some people had dropped out meaning we could all get on the big lake.

The draw took place and the normal flyer pegs 32 and 9 went to Marcus Burgess (budgie) and John Bennett.

The weather at the lake was cold and dark anyway but as the all in came at 7.45 it was dark already and the lights were turned on. First to catch was Neil Riddy on peg 23 who was fishing on the tip rod. Mark Chard on peg 10 was also right in to fish and had a very good start catching 6 or 7 fish in the first hour.

Budgie fishing on Peg 32 was a different story though, his first fish was a skimmer followed by a chub and was struggling to get the carp to bite like most of the other anglers. I had managed to get 4 carp in the net in the first hour fishing from peg 18.

The temperature dropped throughout the match to 2 degree’s. We had a small rain amount of rain before the mist rolled in. Justin Watkins fishing from peg 11 had started catching well along with John Bennett on his home peg 9

The rest of the match was a complete struggle for most and everyone was very cold and eager to get round to have a warm by the BBQ by the end of the match. John had laid on some good food that was been cooked by master chief Dave Whiteman

While the BBQ warmed up the weigh in was done but word was that Justin had won it and indeed he had. John thought he may have enough to beat him but was just a few fish short.

Results.

Neil Riddy had commented to John…. “Leave your gear round there as you will be on peg 8 tomorrow”

Neil was right too, John indeed drew peg 8 on the Saturday Open. More on that later…..

Well done to Justin, fine win on a hard match. He also takes the Peg King for peg 11

Justin Watkins (on the right), Tonights Winner from Peg 11

The lake fished very hard for the Cove AC lads today. Two 20lb plus carp were caught by Dick on peg 6 and Adie on peg 9 though, John reports that the bigger fish were showing today but not in their normal numbers.

Results.

The lads went off with the results so Pat Pritchard kindly sent them to me. Any additional info will be filled in soon.

Talk Angling Forums were visiting the lake today, the match was been organised by Larry Teepot and Rive T. The draw was supposed to be at 9.30am but due to Larry taking a tour of Oxford it was delayed until 10.30. Fishing was then changed to 12-5pm.

I got to the lake nice and early having secured a last minute slot for the match as I had the day off work, Thanks Larry.

Larry and Rive T sorting out the pegging and monies

Justin making some hooklengths

Anglers gathering for the draw on a sunny morning

Mugger catching up with a blast from the past.. Mark C and Roysty

The draw was soon done and everyone headed off to their pegs for the day. I had drawn peg 32 and still had rigs made up for that peg so I was set up by 11am which left an hour to go and take some pictures.

Roysty on peg 30

Mark C on peg 28

Rive T one peg 26

Jay 411 on peg 24

Larry on peg 18

Silverfish on form peg 16

Markco on peg 14

Steve 123 on peg 13

20 meter Bob on peg 10

The Brick on peg 9

Mugger on peg 8

Justin on Peg 7

Rive's Mate on peg 6

Flexi Mo on peg 4

Budgie (TA) on peg 2

Mo M on peg 40

Froggy on peg 38

Cov Blaze on peg 34

My peg. Peg 32

Pauline doing a bit of gardening

Eddie keeping a watch over the anglers

The match was started at 12 by John ringing the bell and first angler that I could see in to a fish was Justin on peg 7. He had not even fed anything at 16 meters and foul hooked a fish. In which time I had lost a fish and hooked and landed a 17lb’er. Not a bad way to started the match.

Throughout the rest of the match Justin continued to suffer from fouled fish problems. Mugger was struggling for a bite until he went down the left hand bush and managed to finally find the fish but they came in a slow run. I had had a tremendous start but had lost the fish on the 7 meter line and all the fish from the two bush lines were foul hooked.

The Brick over on peg 9 was putting together a great weight fishing from his right hand bush line.

The Brick tempting the fish out from the bush

20 Meter bob was snaring fish fishing shallow and mugging the odd fish from the surface scum that had gathered in front of his peg. He was building a good weight up with a lot of big fish and making regular visits to the weigh station.

Down in the little lake peg 4 was really struggling which is quite shocking. Pegs 38 and 40 were having a good run of fish. Up in the big lake Rive T, Jay and Silverfish were putting a few in the nets.

Rive T with a weigher

Just minutes before the ringing of the bell to signal the All Out mugger on peg 8 hooked in to one last fish. It turned out that fish just put him in front of me by 4lb TYPICAL MUGGER….

After a smooth weigh in todays winner was revealed and I had my revenge on Justin after his pee taking on Facebook all week, I didn’t give it him back as “What goes around comes around” in the world of fishing

Results.

Larry sorting the results out, well trying too....

Rive T sorting the money out

Record breaking payout time.. The Longest

After much confusion about the sections to be payed out the winner were sorted out….

Overall Winner. 20 Meter Bob

2nd Overall. The Brick

3rd Overall. Jay 411

Section Winner. Peter 'mugger' Morton

Section winner. Froogy

Section Winner. Silverfish.

Mugger looking smug and Justin nursing his 'Baggers Elbo'

John and Pauline relax

Thanks Larry for another excellent well run match. It was a frustrating match for many but some good weights came from the lake at the end of the day.

Thanks for reading, Si and Eddie.

Results.

Good job I fed it up so well for Mick Lane yesterday Paul Jay takes peg 29 Peg King title too.

Eddie will add some more to the report when he can.