Rolfslake Open Wednesday 24th November 2010

The Pirate strikes back in todays match.

Given time off for good behaviour from work allowed me to attend todays low attended open and after the indifferent weights from last weekends league series i wanted to try something i had been working on recently. The weather was cold but very bright turning really cold towards the end so it was a good thing i was well wrapped up as i expected bites to be hard to come by in todays match.

We decided to have a walk off today and i knew exactly where i wanted to go if i drew a low number and as draw was called i wasted no time putting my hand in and to my surprise drew number one PERFECT. The guys already new it was going to be small lake peg 3 as i had been talking about it for the last four weeks but had not been allowed to fish it because it had been out of view from the rest , and the thought of me out of abuse range did not appeal to them.

In the big lake the pleasure anglers were catching carp on the bomb fished with corn and both Taff and the angler on peg 18 were having quite a few indications so at least the carp had not switched off so the signs were good for my fishing plan.

John had decided he had to be near to me so he could keep an eye on me so was on peg 34, Kev Dalton was opposite on peg 7, Paul was on 16 with the rest scattered around. I had not realised that the all in had been called as John had run out of gas for the air horn and i was surprised that he used the whistle as he is usually full of hot air {only joking John } and i was about 10 minutes late starting as they were cutting the grass on the main road and i could not hear him.

Todays winner was me Eddie aka Bandanaman who confused John into thinking that i was only using corn and pellet and that in fact i was using paste just to prove a point to myself that you can still catch on paste when the water gets really cold.

What i was not using today was my trusted X4 but Markyu AFP 300 that i was given to me by Mick Wilkinson earlier in the year whilst doing an Angling Times feature down on the lake. It is so easy to mix one cup of paste mix to one cup of water mix it up and leave it for 5 minutes and thats it.

The one thing that Rolf always told me about peg 3 was that there are always carp in the hole on peg 3 and he was never wrong about that. To just prove it was no fluke today i caught more carp than anyone else 7 and lost 6 on the paste and the nearest one to me today caught 3 so this paste works a treat. I caught my fish either at 11 metres towards peg 4 or against the bush and had it not been for the sun in my eyes i would of seen a lot more of the bites as some even pulled the elastic out. At the end of the match i had caught 7 carp for 41-12 but it was enough to prove a point to me that it can work.

In second place was Barry Crawley fishing peg 11 and Barry caught three big carp on the tip fishing corn casting about half way across towards peg 30 and he weighed 37-00 on only his second trip to the lake { well done Barry }. Completing the frame was John on 34 who could not catch on the tip and corn so ended up fishing the bush to his right on the pole using maggot, which brought him one big carp of 17lb one small one of about 7lb and 3 odd pound of silvers for his final weight of 27-08.

I have left this picture big so you can see John's fish.

John even sent Pete Morton round to see what i was using and i had to hide it in my bag to keep it secret .

I managed to pull one point back on John and the score now stands at John 14 Eddie 10 but i fear time is running out.

P.s thanks to Mick Jones for my KitKat chunky and for Pete Morton for the photos.

Until our next report tight lines Simon and Eddie.