Rolfs Winter League. Final Match.

Sunday 31st January.

The day had arrived for the final match and I was hoping for an ice free lake. The weather had been good in the week before the match. But Friday night it had dropped cold again. This is what greeted me when I went out to get my tackle from my shed.

Saturday morning Snow 🙁

Budgie was fishing again and was kindly picking me up. He arrived at 7am and once the gear was loaded we set off for the hour and a half drive to the lake.

On the way to the Lake

On arrival we saw the lake was indeed frozen over again but it was not as thick as last time so Ice breaking would no take as long. I was fishing in A section this week for the final time and Budgie was supposed to be fishing in the fancied C section but after he agreed to allow Ron to fish in C Section he was left with A section. I drew peg 2 and guess which peg Budgie drew……… Peg 40 😀 Could there be a great battle on the cards, could I get my own back for him beating me in the last match… we shall see.

Peg 2 after breaking the Ice

Very cold monring on Peg 2

Whilst setting up Budgie called me over to show me his secret bait for the day. Could this help him get the edge over me, I hope not.

Budgies secret bait

New King of Pop Up Baits I think

I set up 2 lines for today, 10m in front and 11m to my left towards peg 3. At the all in I started out on my 10m line but after 1 hour I still had not had a sniff so went down the edge and after another hour again not a bite. By this time Budgie on 40 had managed a tiny perch and was fishing to his right top kit length out. I could not let him beat me today.

I went back to 10m and back to 11m trying all baits and depths trying desperately to catch something. My prayers were answered, the float twitched and started to sail away. The result was a nice little perch. Last match I dry netted so I cant tell you how good it felt to catch this little bugger 🙂

I was freezing so I decided to go for a walk to warm up a bit and take some pictures.

Mick Lane on peg 7

Eddie with a nice bag of donuts

Budgie trying desperately to catch a fish

Back to my peg and my moment of glory was short lived as the next hour was again biteless. In the final hour I had been concentrating on my 11m line more and was getting the odd bite but missing them. Then the phone rings and Malc (THE JINX) was on the other end, as soon as he starts speaking I have a bite and hook into a good perch and loose it 🙁 THE JINX effect work even when he is in Wales…

After a few choice words Malc leaves me too it lol. Iget back to fishing on the 11m to my left and manage to catch another 2 small perch. But was it enough to beat Budgie on peg 40.

11m line towards peg 3

Budgie weighed in 2oz and I weighed in 4oz so I had manage to double his weight hehe 🙂

The lake had again not fished very well with a lot of people really struggling for fish. Poor team mate Steve on peg 16 had blanked, the same peg I blanked on last match. He did manage to hook in to a carp but lost it it.

I would like to say thank you to Steve Wilson and Clive Pritchard for asking me to fish with them. I had a good time despite the very cold weather and lack of fish, just another grueller for me really like TK’s Grueller series 🙂

It was also good to meet everyone, there are some right characters that fish the lake for sure.

One more picture before the results. Neil Riddy had been fishing on peg 4 and managed to catch a massive fish. Here we are…

Neil Riddy with a new PB, Can you see it.

Man of the Match- Ron on peg 22 for Falling asleep whilst fishing. LOL

Rock a by baby on the tree top....

RESULTS

A Section
1st Mick Lane peg 7 2-4 RG
2nd Steve Palmer peg 34 2-2 TS
3rd Simon Mound peg 2 0-4 A
4th Marcus Burgess peg 40 0-2 MFS
5th Neil Riddy peg 4 0-1 RP
Mike Stimpson peg 38 DNW RD
B Section
1st Phil Powell peg 32 14-7 RG
2nd Jon Walker peg 30 6-5 RD
3rd Fred Parker peg 9 2-2 MFS
4th Clive Pritchard peg 13 1-3 A
5th Mark Orchard peg 28 0-12 RP
6th Lloyd Moss peg 10 0-1 TS
C Section
1st Ian McCulloch peg 18 30-4 RD
2nd Earnie M peg 26 3-2 TS
3rd Paul Jay peg 14 0-11 RP
4th John Bennett peg 24 0-4 RG
Steve Wilson peg 16 DNW A
Ron Byus peg 22 DNW MFS
DAY TEAM POINTS POINTS
1st Rolfs Gold 15 RG
2nd= Rolfs Diamond 11 RD
2nd= Team Spro 11 TS
4th Rolfs Platinum 10 RP
5th= Assassins 7 A
5th= Match Fishing Scene 7 MFS

FINAL LEADERBOARD

TOTAL  TEAM POINTS POINTS
1st Rolfs Gold 74 RG
2nd Rolfs Diamond 73 RD
3rd Rolfs Platinum 54 RP
4th Assassins 51 A
5th Team Spro 43 TS
6th Match Fishing Scene 42 MFS

Eddie’s report for this match can be viewed HERE

Rolfs Winter League. Match 5.

17th January.

This morning Marcus Burgess aka Budgie who is mad on Rolfs Lake was coming along too. He would be fishing for Match Fishing Scene team. He loves the lake but how would he fair in the winter and would he still love it as much after….. we shall find out.

Marcus Burgess, aka Budgie

After a nice drive down we got to the lake to find John in the boat breaking the ice up in the boat. It allowed some much need oxygen in the water but left big sheets of ice floating around the lake which I would find out later turned out to be a right nightmare.

John Bennett doing a scene from Titanic.

I was in C section again this week which is usually the best section to be in. Neil Riddy was first in the bag and pulled out peg 14, to say he was not happy was an understatement. Me to draw next and I wanted to be on the car park bank as there was no ice there, so I pulled out peg 16 where the ice was at its thickest. My team mates had drawn ok, Steve was on peg 10 in B section and Clive was on 40 in A section. I could see Budgie over on peg 30 raring to go too.

Budgie on peg 30

My home for the day. Peg 16

Getting ready for a grueller...

I had cleared the ice from my peg to about 14m’s and a nice swim to the left by the bush. Within the first 30 minutes of fishing the Ice all started floating back in to my swim again. Steve on 18 and Neil on 14 were having the same problem too. Great sheets of ice floating around. Me and Steve managed to get the biggest sheet on peg 17 and then punch a hole through the middle of it with the ice breaker, we then tied it to the bank to stop it floating around.

Blooody ICE !!!!

I spent another 30 minutes clearing ice from my peg but more kept floating in so I gave up in the end and had a go down the margin. An hour goes by without so much as a twitch on the float, things are not looking good. Its not just me though. Mick, Danny and Neil are also dry. Steve on 18 and Mike on 22 both have carp. Little Danny managed to hook in to some carp but lost them at the net, least you had some action mate hehe.

My Margin Swim

I fed my inside line in an attempt to get some action going down there and went for a walk round to see Team mate Steve on peg 10. As I was walking round I could see he was fishing down the edge and could see 3 or 4 carp around his float. Despite fish moving in and out of his peg he had not managed to snare one. I settle down behind him and he strikes… fish on. After a short battle he lands a nice double and a big smile beams across his face. Out again and within 2 minutes he has another on. John Bennett over on peg 32 is shouting abuse trying to make him loose it lol.

Well I was jealous and wanted to go back and try and catch one for myself but he would not let me go. I stayed for one more fish which he hooked right away again but lost it. While he was bringing it towards his peg there was another carp following it in, he nearly had two for the price of one.

Eddie Taylor turned up to come and see how we was all doing as he had some time off work. He was hoping to get some pictures for his blog but with the lack of fish being caught was causing him some problems.  In the final hour of the match I knew deep down that I was not going to catch anything but kept going in the vain chance of hooking one of the normally not so shy Perch.

Eddie and Danny on peg 24

At the ‘all out’ my heart sank, I had drynetted for the second time at the lake. Not too worry it probably won’t be the last time hehe.

The weigh in told the story today with not much been caught at all. My Team mates had both won their sections. Fair play well done lads. I did feel a bit guilty picking up money and not having caught a fish but I suppose thats the way it goes sometimes.

The whole lake had fished very hard again but C Section fished the hardest with 4 dryents. I do feel slightly better knowing that venue ace Mick Lane also blanked and he normally good for a few fish.

Steve Wilson managed to win the match with 5 carp for 53lb 4oz. Well done Steve.

As for Budgie…..He managed 3 perch for 7oz and bored me to death on the way home so I went to sleep lol. Well done matey.

The next match is on the 31st January…..Please let us all catch some fish.

Results…. Sorry for the messy Tables, still trying to sort them out

A Section
1st Clive Pritchard peg 40 9-5 A
2nd Fred Parker peg 7 0-2 MFS
3rd Phil Powell peg 38 0-1 RG
4th Lloyd Moss peg 34 DNW TS
5th Derek Hammond peg 4 DNW RD
RP
B Section
1st Steve Wilson peg 10 53-4 A
2nd Ian McCulloch peg 13 2-9 RD
3rd Paul Jay peg 28 1-2 RP
4th Ernie M peg 9 0-10 TS
5th Marcus Burgess peg 30 0-7 MFS
6th John Bennett peg 32 0-1 RG
C Section
1st Mike Stimpson peg 22 15-6 RD
2nd Steve Palmer peg 18 8-3 TS
Simon Mound peg 16 DNW A
Danny Blackwell peg 24 DNW MFS
Neil Riddy peg 14 DNW RP
Mick Lane peg 26 DNW RG
DAY TEAM POINTS POINTS
1st Assassins 12 A
2nd Rolfs Diamond 11 RD
3rd Team Spro 8 TS
4th Match Fishing Scene 7 MFS
5th Rolfs Gold 5 RG
6th Rolfs Platinum 4 RP

OVERALL LEADERBOARD

TOTAL  TEAM POINTS POINTS
1st Rolfs Diamond 62 RD
2nd Rolfs Gold 59 RG
3rd= Rolfs Platinum 44 RP
3rd= Assassins 44 A
5th Match Fishing Scene 35 MFS
6th Team Spro 32 TS
1 2 3 4 5 6