Rolfslake Wednesday open 28th April 2010.

Another Wednesday another Rolfs lake bagging session, and as the anglers waited for the draw to commence it was nice to see two of Rolfslake’s top anglers return to the open scene in Jeff Edwards and Ginger aka Micheal Jones.

Normally when Jeff and i am at the lake we normally draw next to each other and today was no different, because i drew peg 26 on the car park bank and Jeff drew peg 24  and as i was waiting for my regular beating from him or was i going to prove to him that my fishing was improving. As for the rest of the anglers John Bennett had drawn flyer peg 18 in the corner, Ginger had drawn peg 13 in the bay and the Judge had drawn peg 32 by the hut with the rest of the anglers scattered around the lake.

With the day starting off sunny with a brisk breeze blowing from the south with a possibility of rain ,the anglers set off to their pegs in hope that the recent good weather would kick start the fish into feeding well, but as they know the sun does not always mean good fishing ,but would today be any different ?. With the match start time being 2pm these midweek matches normally take a while to get going and today for most anglers this was the case except for John on 18 and Ginger on peg 13 who were into fish quite quickly and started to pull away from the rest. After about two hours around the lake i could see more anglers starting to catch carp from all pegs with the motorway bank providing most of the action, but after the third hour it was as if someone turned on a switch as all the car park swims came to life because at one point i could see 5 anglers playing carp at the same time which included me for a change. As the match reached the final hour the carp were really switched on as everyone started catching and i could see the results being really close as there were more and more anglers running up to the scales to weigh their fish {all fish over 10lb have to be weighed straight away} which normally means they are bagging.

Ginger

Todays winner and just ahead of the chasing pack was the Midlands maestro Ginger on peg 13 who put on a real good demonstration of catching long down the edge {16 metres down to peg 12} and short range fishing to his right. Ginger was fishing the banded pellet fished on the deck on both lines but when the wind died down and the sun was out he had to fish the long line due to the sun being in his eyes. As the match went on he was able to catch to the first bush to right and was rewarded with fish to 15-12 in his final weight of 229-12 {well done Ginger it was nice to see you back }. In second place was my nemesis Jeff Edwards who was slow at catching fish on the long pole but a change to the 7 metre line fished with paste brought his swim to life and towards the end was flying catching fish to 13lb in his final weight of 199-04 and just one small skimmer off the double ton [thanks for another beating Jeff and welcome back}. Completing the frame was Rolfslake owner John Bennett who has been stuck on peg 18 for a few weeks and today made all that knowledge count as he fished at a range of 5 metres straight out in front, fishing on the deck and using paste as hook bait but feeding quite a lot of bait to keep the fish there. As is usual on this peg at about 5 o’clock as the sun goes down it beams straight into you eyes and this slowed the fishing down for John as he could not see his float { i felt sorry for him } and this stopped him also weighing the double ton as he weighed 188-12.

As for me i had another of those days as i had forget not only my X4 paste ,i also had lost my cap so i had to wear my bandana so as not to burn my head like last week, much to the amusement of the other anglers as they kept calling shiver me timbers and where’s me parrot and your going to walk the plank which was a bit much after 5 hours.

Eddie bagging on paste . Photographs by Malc Doyle thank you.

I started off on the 6 metre line with lots of foul hooked fish and lots of bubbles fizzing from the swim but no fish for the net. I was also feeding heavy the edge swim to my left to try and bring a few fish closer for later on in the match. With no X4 paste to fish with i made a batch down on the lake which just did not work very well and also with a damaged number 4 section on my pole i was rushing everything and spoiling what should of been a good day. As Malc on 28 Jeff on 24 were giving me a thrashing i was wondereing what to do next just as my float burried and another fish was heading for the snags which eventually broke my float and rig. On searching in my bag for another float i could not believe my eyes as my X4 paste was at the bottom of the bag ,so with a new rig on and the paste i went down the edge and in the last two hours  was rewarded with big fish to 18-08lb and lots of good bites. My only motivation was to try and catch up with John on 18 as he was about 70lb in front of me and after 5 hours i was just 5-12 short with my weight of 183-00, but a very enjoyable end to the match.

Just a small fish on X4 paste, thanks to Malc Doyle for the photo's.

The score against me and John is           John 3 – Eddie 1 roll on next week.

Place Angler Peg Weight Bait
1st Ginger 13 229-12 Banded Pellet Smithys
2nd Jeff Edwards 24 199-04 Paste Bio Fuel
3rd John Bennett 18 {flyer} 188-12 Paste Rolfslake
4th Eddie Taylor-Green 26 183-00 X4 Paste Rolfslake / Walker Floats
5th Malc Doyle 28 147-14 Pellet Jinx League
6th Russ 9 127-08 Pellet Rolfslake
7th Dai Thomas 16 104-02 Pellet Jinx League
8th Mike Stimpson 32 100-04 Pellet Rolfslake
9th Paul Jay 14 76-08 Banded Pellet Rolfslake

3 New peg kings after this match.

Ginger     13     229-12
John Bennett     18      188-12
Mike Stimpson     32     100-04

Well done.

The lake is fishing well at the moment with pellet and banded pellet catching good bags of fish, and although paste is still a bit too early for the fish there are still bags to 200lb to be caught.

Rolfslake’s Wednesday open 15th April 2010

Another Wednesday another Rolfslake midweek match, which normally means big weights of fish and the usual banter that goes with it.

After the poor results from the weekends matches hopes were not high for todays match as the weather in the week had been a mixture of bright sunshine ,cold temperature and a stiff wind so the fish have not been able to settle into a confident feeding pattern so the anglers were going to have to work out what the fish wanted. The midweek matches are now starting to draw a few anglers due to the late starts and that should start to see the begining of the big weights that Rolfslake is famous for.

After the draw had taken place the anglers settled into their pegs and could see carp crashing around the big lake so a decision had to be made whether to fish long and risk the wind wrecking their presentation later in the match or take a chance and see if the fish were getting closer which normally is the method to catch big weights.

With the sun shining the anglers on the motorway bank were kept warm but experienced the problem of having the sun in their eyes, and the anglers on the carpark bank were able to fish longer but were going to get cold due to the shade from the trees so you can never have both. John tells me after a slow start the anglers settled down and started to catch fish with the most productive area being the car park bank in the twenties with the anglers starting off fishing long drawing the fish closer as the match went on, and the anglers on the motorway bank have to fish either the rod or the pole to reach the fish.

In first place today was Rolfslake regular Chris Telling who was fishing on the motorway bank peg 26. Chris is a very confident angler and today he started on the pole fished long on the deck and was rewarded with carp to double figures, but as the match went on  Chris was able to draw the fish closer towards him which helped him catch carp quicker. Chris was fishing using his favoured paste hook bait which has won him lots of matches and by doing so meant he was able to catch bigger fish which means big weights, and after 5 hours Chris had put together a great weight of 259-12 and the top weight on the lake this year {well done Chris you are the current King of Rolfslake}.

King of Rolfslake Vespe's Chris Telling

In second place was Steve Rich who was only two pegs away on peg 28 and Steve gave Chris a good run for his money as he caught very well but caught smaller fish. Steve was fishing banded pellet on the deck fished long but was also able to draw the fish in , and at the end was only one fish off a double ton with his weight of 195-02. Completing the frame was Mick Jones on the motorway bank peg 13 and who was on a good run of form down on the lake. Mick usually fishes short range between 6 to 8 metres and today was no different, and by using a combination of pellet feed and his usual meat hookbait Mick was able to draw fish from the bay area to his peg and at the end put 164-12 to complete a very good frame.

Place Angler Peg Weight Bait
1st Chris Telling 26 259-12 Paste Vespe
2nd Steve Rich 28 195-02 Hard Pellet Rolfslake
3rd Mick Jones 13 164-12 Meat Rolfslake
4th Mark 25 148-08 Rolfslake
5th Paul Jay 15 118-00 Banded Pellet Rolfslake
6th Mike Stimson 18 105-00 Pellet Rolfslake
7th Sean 17 104-08 Rolfslake
8th John Bennett 14 85-00 Soft Pellet Rolfslake
9th Fred Parker 22 68-00 Rolfslake
10th Derek Kelsey 23 68-00 Rolfslake
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