Lloyd Rush (Tek Neek Trabucco)

Elsewhere

With floaters not enough feed is going into the lake and as such Rolf has banned using all floating baits as from the end of the Month (to compensate Rolf is going to allow one 300gm Tin of Luncheon Meat and one tin of Sweetcorn - Meat should be of a low fat (less than 10gms per 100gms) Plumrose is about the best both for fishing and the fish. If abused the meat may be withdrawn.

Fish Starting to switch to the Paste, expect the fish weeks of June to be the trigger point. Fish spawned this week and have immediately started to feed on the spawn. Spaying shallow will produce good weights but you'll need to feed at least 6 pints plus to get them coming well - Gary fed about 10 pints today. With pellet so cheap from Rolf there is no excuses.

Lloyd Rush
(Tek Neek Trabucco)
266lb 04oz Peg 8

If you put your hand into the draw bag enough times and eventually you've got to put out a real peach! Peg 8 at Rolfslake is no exception. At the Draw the talk was about Peg 34 as a large number of Carp hand congregated in the corner peg. Slow to the Draw Bag a usual I was still to draw myself, I was more than pleased with 3 the Pegs left in the Bag (4, 7 & 8) as was more than keen to let Gary Draw before me as I knew he'd get rid of Peg 7! ... and he did! Thanks Mate.

At the off I had a quiet start. A number of foul hooked fish on the deck at 14m in the first 20 mins forced me into shallowing up to mid depth. A combination of too few Carp and too many Roach bites on the pellet pushed me into my last gambit that I wanted to fish much later - a Chum Mixer presented at 15m tight to the bank. Within seconds of the bait hitting the water an 8lb Carp sucked in the offering. However, the method never felt right and a bit of chopping and changing between pellet shallow and mixers kept a few fish coming. However, the bait had to be right into the grasses.

By the 4th hour I started to get a run of fish going and the 3rd net was called for. I managed 2 weighers and about 70lb of smaller fish for a total of around 95lb for the last hour. Gary Thorpe to my right by now had given up on catching bleak on the pellet and was putting a lot of fish by spraying full pouches and fishing 10 inches deep. At the all out Gary guessed he had 40lb and that I had about 180lb. It turned out that Gary had 150lb plus and I returned a match winning 266lb 4oz! Still, there is always a laugh or two when your within ear shot of the Ton Up Baits backed angler.

Dave Wightman
(Simons 2000)
230lb 04oz Peg 34

Dave Wightman (Simons 2000) got out of the traps faster than anyone else from Peg 34 with a number of fish taken in the first 15 mins. Fishing on the deck towards the buoys, Dave could not ignore the great number of Carp cruising in and out of the ropes that protect the Lilly Pads. Eventually resorting to a chum mixer as the fish slowed up Dave managed to keep a steady number of fish going into his nets and was clearly on the way to a good 200lb + net and could have pushed his own PB for the lake close (277lb). Going into the last hour Dave would have been well ahead but a lost fish estimated at well over 20lb that cost Dave some time and momentum as he eventually returned a suburb 230lb 4oz. With weights like these it no wonder Dave has a bad back!

Gary Thorpe
(Ton Up Baits)
158lb 08oz Peg 7

A few fish early on the paste at 7m was a promising sign for Gary. However, with Dave Wightman off and running so quickly in full view, Gary looked for another method that would return more fish. A change to mid water on his 7m line and the introduction of loose fed 4mm pellet produced a good initial response from a few Carp but with Roach responding better a change to a floating bait was a last resort at 14m. Again, even this didn't return enough fish and a final change to 13m with heavy feeding was the answer for Gary as he accelerated his catch rate more and more into the final hour. A return of 158lb plus was a good 3rd place from an otherwise quiet peg, Gary put Dave Hawkins (Dorchester) into 4th who had taken 138lb from Peg 37 all on pellet on the deck.

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