Rolfs Lake 3 Day Easter Festival

DAY 1 

Saturday April 19th 2014

As the title says today is Day 1 of The 3 Day Rolfs Easter Festival and this is the first year that i have entered the festival and with many of the best Rolfs venue regulars and experts amongst the 24 fishing i'll be more than pleased if i finish in the top half of the field.

Only time will tell though and as long as a few fish come my way along with a good craick i'll be happy no matter where i end up.

For the Festival the lake is split into 3 x 8 peg sections and we will rotate around all 3 sections in turn over the 3 days.

A SECTION PEGS

34 - 36 - 38 - 40 - 2 - 4 - 5 - 7

B SECTION PEGS

8 - 9 - 10 - 13 - 28 - 29 - 31 - 32

C SECTION PEGS

14 - 15 - 17 - 18 - 22 - 23 - 25 - 26

Today saw me fishing Peg 17 in C Section and the other anglers in my section for the next 3 days are Justin Macabe Peg 14 - Ernie Maylon Peg 15 - Mick Lane Peg 18 - Paul Newbury Peg 22 - Dan Deakin Peg 23 - Frank Hardy Peg 25 - Anthony Flint Peg 26

Over recent years i've almost given up preparing for any fishing match but i must be honest and say that on Thursday i actually changed the elastic in 2 top kits and on Friday i tied up 9 rigs (which will probably last me all year).

The 3 Floats on the Left were tied up with .21 Powerline for fishing long in open water and the other 6 were tied to .24 Powerline for the Margins.

FLOATS USED

The 3 long line rigs were tied at 8ft long (allowing 4 inches for a Guru hook length) as that's the length of my top kits and it also means any i shorten i can make another margin rig out of what i cut off as i am a tight git after all lol.

All 6 margin rigs were tied at 4ft.

I also ground up 6kg of Paste to cover the 3 days so really i think i done more prep for this weekend than i did all last year lol.

So onto todays events just to shock everyone i arrived BEFORE the draw today and enjoyed a fresh cooked breakfast at the lake thanks to Pauline -Annette & Ann.

As you already know my home for the day was Peg 17 sandwiched between Ernie on 15 & Mick on 18

PEG 17

I've not fished Peg 17 for a few years so although most rate the peg lowly in the section i was quite happy with my draw as i do like getting different pegs plus its also got a bush either side which suits my favoured style of fishing short.

First line i set up today was a long line for me which was on a top 4 straight out in front.

Second line was a top 2 to the edge of the right bush.

Third line was top 3 to the edge of the left bush using the same rig.

All rigs had 4inch Guru hook lengths with a size 10 hook and all had Orange Hollow Vespe Elastics fitted.

The all in was called at 11.15 and an 8mm pellet was lowered onto my long line and no sooner had the float settled than it was gone and fish on

A couple of seconds later a nice little 7lb carp was lowered into the keepnet GOOD START

Next 2 put ins on pellet resulted in missed bites so 4th put in was on Paste which resulted in 2 more missed bites, then 2 more put ins with pellet resulted in a small Skimmer and a Hybrid so with 20 minutes gone that kit got put away and out came the margin rig.

First put in down right edge on Paste resulted in an instant missed bite, but next 2 put ins resulted in 2 fish both going around 15lb each. 

-------- TOP KIT STRIKES AGAIN -----------

Next 2 put ins were down the left side first resulted in a lost fish but 2nd resulted in what turned out to be a 20lb 9oz Common.

So with about an hour n half gone i had about 55 to 60lb in the nets with just 4 fish (i was enjoying myself already).

Well for the rest of the match i switched between both left and right margins taking odd fish from each along with the odd lost fish (think i lost about 8 in total).

I ended up with 19 Carp of which 11 i guessed were weighers (in 2 nets) and 8 net fish in a 3rd net and 2 silvers in a 4th net.

With all fish going in nets over the 3 days and a 100lb maximum per net i had 6 weighers in one net which went 97lb 9oz (close call).

Once all nets had been weighed in i had a total weight of  244lb 1oz and a BIG GRIN

BIGGEST FISH TODAY

20LB 9OZ COMMON

As luck had it i ended up Winning my Section and an added bonus of best weight on the day as well

FULL SECTION RESULTS

POINTS & WEIGHTS

Pound side bets won from both Dai & Mickey today which is a good start to the year 

A Section for me in the morning and regardless where i draw i'll still be grinning following todays result.