TalkAngling - Polepot's Open
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24 May 2007
Report by Peter Morton

Well today was the day of Neil McMurran aka polepot's TalkAngling match at Rolf's Lake and by 9·30am the car-park had filled up as the 30 anglers booked in for the day arrived for the draw. With the sun beating out of a clear blue sky it promised to be a warm one and it was good to see Rolf himself in attendance as he had recently been into hospital.

As always these internet matches provide the opportunity to put faces to names normally only seen on computer screens, and invariably the banter flows and little side bets are made.

Malc's daughter Gemma has recently got back into fishing and already beaten a few good anglers leading to her being christened "The Minx" and a Minxed List has been published on a couple of websites detailing those anglers she's beaten. We had a £1 sidebet on the day, but I must admit to having an ominous feeling that this could be the day I was added to the list after all the banter that had been flowing in the past couple of weeks.

Into the drawbag and peg37 stuck to my hand, not a bad draw normally on the little lake and as i made my way down there I saw that Mark C had 34, a noted flyer in the corner. 35 was vacant, on 36 I had polebreaker for company and on 38 matt6900 while further round on 40 was andy222 who had the misfortune to have Malc(The Jinx)Doyle for company on peg 1.

Setting up I was a little disappointed to have anglers on pegs either side as the pegs are reasonably tight leaving me without an option of a margin peg as such as there is little or no cover on the bank side there. I set up for just 2 lines, 1 at 12mtrs and 1 at 7mtrs, both hard on the deck with a spare rig for up in the water should it be needed.

11·30am and the all in saw me feed a large pot of Rolf's feed pellets on both lines and then went out at 12mtrs with a GOT 11mm soft hooker. The float just sailed away and I was obviously attached to one of the resident carp. However Malc and Rolf walked past and after a bit of encouragement for Malc the rig came sailing back with just a scale attached.

There then followed 3hrs of absolute frustration as I was plagued by hordes of silvers. It didn't matter what I put on the hook, Corn, Meat, Paste or Pellet in either 6 or 11mm, I couldn't buy a bite from a Carp.

Looking to my right I could see Mark C steadily putting a decent bag together from 34 alternating between the pole and feeder and even polebreaker was nicking a few. Andy over on 40 was plugging on and sneaking the odd one or two out and looking forward to a better day than he'd had on a previous visit when is was unprepared for the strength and fighting power of the Rolf's Carp.  

"Malc was having yet more trouble getting to grips with Red Hydro and was having to do his best "Matt Nutt" impression in order to land some of the Carp, but at least he was catching which was more than I was managing  .........."

While over towards pegs 8 and 9 Fred and Griffo could be seen having a right old ding dong, both obviously heading towards what would prove to be decent bags. Next door on 38 matt6900 had managed to get a reasonable Tench from his margin peg to his left and finally managed to get amongst a few lumps during the final couple of hours despite loosing one landing net head and breaking another.

Matt9600

While tucked away over in the opposite corner on peg3 Halfounce was making hay and quietly slipping more than a few fish into the net.

For my part, I finally managed an 11lb weigher and 3 smaller Carp, but it just didn't happen, despite lashing the bait in I just couldn't feed off the silvers and I finished the match with just 34lbs to show for my efforts.

Rive T took the honours on the day with a fine Double Ton weighing 203lbs 11ozs, a bit of a change from his usual catches from canals.  Halfounce ended up in 2nd place with 192lbs 09ozs while Fred came out just ahead in his peg to peg battle with Griffo with 187lbs 12ozs to 185lbs 09ozs.

Gemma managed 68lbs 06ozs to double my weight and take my £1 as well as add my scalp along with 9 others to "The Minxed List"

So finally a big THANK YOU to Neil for organizing a most enjoyable day in good company. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again in the not to distant future. I'm back at Rolf's next Saturday on the 1st round of Malc's Jinx Series, hopefully I'll be able to avoid those silvers and find a few more carp then.