3rd April
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE (click to enlarge)
A cold raining day saw the start to the Rolfs lake’s Easter festival, and the anglers had a chance to meet old friends and rivals they had not seen for a year. I was pleased to see all the anglers arrive down the lake {as i was on stewarding duties today } and surprised to see people who knew who i was due to the website, so new angling acquaintances were made.
With one angler dropping out leaving only 23 anglers, it was left with two sections of 8 anglers and one of 7 so the points would be reversed with the winning angler getting one point decending down to either 8 or 7 points which all the anglers agreed was a fair result. Also with the anglers spread out leaving a long walk to the scales it was decided by John for this weekend only that fish over 10lb could be put in the keepnet but only a maximum of 6 would be allowed in one net but any monster carp 17lb + would have to be weighed there and then.
As the anglers drew their pegs they preferred to have sections B {pegs 9,10,13,14,27,28,30,31} or section C {15,17,18,19,21,23, 24 or 26} as section A { 34,35,37,40,2,4,7,and 8} usually fishes better on day 3.
The summary of the day was with an annoying breeze making presentation difficult , the anglers found a slow start to the match with section C anglers having a few fish and Matt Smith {champion 2008} was making good progress from peg 15 and right opposite on peg 27 Mark Malin was also having a few carp. Derek Hammond on peg 19 started well but struggled towards the end, and the Swindon Mafia trio of Powell, Lane and Bennett had all drawn in B section so today we would see who would be the Godfather . In the dreaded A section Tim Guise and Mark Bedford {champion 2009} were catching fish but the anglers down the bottom bank 40,and 2 were struggling for bite and also had the wind blowing in their faces so it would be cold for them today.
Phil Powell struggling on peg 10.
As the match progressed more and more anglers started to catch all around the lake as the wind died down and the anglers could see their floats properly and the anglers that were using banded pellett were catching better than the ones using soft pellet and corn and even Chris Telling was catching on the paste .
After 5 hours the top angler on the day was Matt Smith with a fantastic top weight on the lake of 212-04 {sorry Simon} and he started off fishing long 16 metres on the deck and in the end was catching a lot shorter also on the deck fishing banded pellet and two ton weights from Tim Guise and Mark Bedford from A section also fishing the banded pellet made for good viewing from where i was sitting. Normally on days two and three the fishing gets better so i will keep you updated with the progress as it happens.
View from the small lake.
Festival Day 1
| A Section |
PEG |
WEIGHT |
PTS |
| Tim Guise |
7 |
122-12 |
1 |
| Mark Bedford |
8 |
102-0 |
2 |
| Chris Telling |
2 |
65-4 |
3 |
| Jason Astle |
40 |
57-2 |
4 |
| Andy Chandler |
4 |
52-2 |
5 |
| Paul Newbury |
34 |
38-2 |
6 |
| John Hague |
37 |
18-0 |
7 |
| Lee Giles |
35 |
14-0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
| B Section |
|
|
|
| Mark Malin |
27 |
93-12 |
1 |
| Mick Hughes |
14 |
66-4 |
2 |
| Mark Bowerman |
13 |
62-14 |
3 |
| John Bennett |
28 |
52-4 |
4 |
| Mick Lane |
9 |
41-0 |
5 |
| Phil Powell |
10 |
27-8 |
6 |
| Andy Johnstone |
31 |
25-2 |
7 |
| — |
30 |
— |
— |
|
|
|
|
| C Section |
|
|
|
| Matt Smith |
15 |
212-4 |
1 |
| Derek Hammond |
19 |
90-0 |
2 |
| Dave Whiteman |
23 |
85-0 |
3 |
| Clive Pritchard |
24 |
65-4 |
4 |
| Gary Haisman |
26 |
54-6 |
5 |
| Paul Glenfield |
17 |
47-0 |
6 |
| Chris Walters |
18 |
29-2 |
7 |
| Colin Wedgebrow |
21 |
26-13 |
8 |
| Top 6 |
|
|
|
|
| 1st |
Matt Smith |
1point |
212-04 |
|
| 2nd |
Tim Guise |
1 point |
122-12 |
Fishermans Friend |
| 3rd |
Mark Malin |
1point |
93-12 |
|
| 4th |
Mark Bedford |
2 points |
102-00 |
|
| 5th |
Derek Hammond |
2 points |
90-00 |
Banbury Guns and Tackle |
| 6th |
Mick Hughes |
2 points |
66-04 |
Hydro 2000 |
