As the anglers arrived at the draw today what they wanted was an enjoyable days fishing at a lovely venue, what we actually got was rain of biblical proportions and i expected to see Noah and the arc go past us. What i also found out was that that my tried and tested Halkon Hunt clothing that i had had for a few years was not up to the job as it acted like a sponge and did not repell the water. This is not because it is no good but the reverse as i have had it for many years and it has given me many great years protection but it has now reached the end of its life.

The reason i talk about clothing is because we at Rolfslake had experienced fantastic weather for the last six weeks so it was by luck that most anglers had brought wet weather clothing rather than the shorts and flip flops that had been worn in previous weeks as it was supposed to be summertime in this country.

With the little lake being used for todays match as it gave the regulars a different view for a change and also gave the pleausre anglers a different area to fish. With the draw completed and the big lake out what was not a surprise was that draw bag John Bennett had drawn end peg flyer peg 7 in the gap between the two parts of the lake. Elsewhere around the small lake master float maker Jon Walker was to have another special day ,Paul Jay was going to turn a great peg into an average peg { only joking Paul } and both Pat Pritchard and myself were going to be peg kings if we could catch as pegs 39 and pegs 3 were in.

After about 30 minutes the rain started and after an hour the sky turned black and the heavens opened but it did not hamper the fishing it actually improved it as anglers could be seen playing fish all around the lake as i suppose it added oxygen to the water. Today also saw the return to the lake of Festival winner Andy aka Pellet King and i had a great view of him as he started catching all types of fish fishing shallow at the start and then he came closer as the match went on . Both Pat and myself had a slow start fishing corner pegs but towards the end the fish moved in and we could not catch them fast enough. Jon Walker was up to his normal specimen hunting tricks as his first fish after half an hour was massive and it went 21-12 so he was off and running and from where i could see both Mick Jones and Paul Jay were catching so good weights should be had by all.

The winner today was lake owner John Bennett who was on peg 7 and after catching a few fish from the far bank on the bomb fished with meat noticed his edge line that he had been feeding to his left towards peg 8 was boiling with fish and never looked back. John fished this line with paste fished tight to the edge and had fish to double figures { in fact 101lb of them } and had a real struggle with some of the bigger fish as he was broke 4 times as the real big fish moved in in what he said was a really enjoyable / frustrating match but still had 245-00 { well done John }. In second place was specimen hunter Jon Walker on peg 38 who was also chasing the peg king for this peg put fell just short in the end.

The amazing thing about Jon’s weight was he had no carp to weigh -in at the end as they were all on the board but had a fantastic 14 fish for 195lb and had carp of 21-12, 20-08 and 20-04 and many other doubles in his weight. I have been fishing Rolfslake for over 10 years and never had a 20 but Jon has a nack of catching 20’s as he has caught a few over the years, and Jon today caught a few carp fishing long but the majority of his carp at 6 metres fishing paste and pellet hook bait in his weight of 205-12. Completing the frame was Andy on peg 4 who had a very close battle with me but in the end ended one fish in front fishing his usual pellet hook bait. Andy started fishing long shallow catching carp and skimmers but fishing was slow for him but in the last two hours was able to get the fish closer at a range of 6-7 metres and this helped his final weight of 151-08.

Results.

Place	Angler	Peg	Weight	Bait
1st	John Bennett	7	245-00	Paste	Rolfslake
2nd	Jon Walker	38	205-12	Pellet/ Paste	Rolfslake / Walker Floats
3rd	Andy	4	151-08	Pellet	Rolfslake
4th	Eddie Taylor-Green	3	142-12	X4 Paste	Rolfslake / Walker Floats
5th	Mick Jones	6	127-12	Meat	Rolfslake
6th	Pat Pritchard	39	120-04	Meat	Rolfslake
7th	Paul Jay	34	73-00	Pellet/ Paste	Rolfslake

New peg kings ,John Bennett peg 7 ,Pat Pritchard for peg 39 and me Eddie Taylor-Green for peg 3.

The score between John and myself stands at John 6 Eddie 7 .

Elsewhere around the lake the pleasure anglers have been catching big fish with Taff catching big fish like this 18-08 common carp.

Until our next report tight lines Eddie and Simon.