Eddie at Rolfslake: Rolfslake 1st night match 10th July 2009.

Malc Doyle with an 11-12 mirror caught at 10.00 pm

Today saw the very first night match at Rolfslake to be fished under floodlights. The first to fish this match were the 19 lucky visiting Jinx series anglers, who were preparing for their match on the Saturday but were allowed to fish this evening as an experiment to see what happens late in the evening.

The draw was to take place at 4.30pm and the match was to be fished between 6.30 and 11.30pm so as to give the anglers the maximum time to prepare and make their pegs as safe as possible as fishing in the dark and trying to weigh-in double figure fish would have its own challenges. John Bennett had prepared floodlights to use once it had got dark and these were positioned on pegs 24 ,28, and 35 and would be switched on when it got dark 9.30pm.

The theory behind this match was on a Wednesday open between 5.30 and 7.30 the anglers found this to be the most productive catching time so who was to say the fishing would be any different later on. As the anglers drew their pegs they were armed with free starlights and each had either torches or tilly lamps to be able to view their floats as it got dark.

As the match commenced the anglers started to feed as if a normal match was going to end and they were rewarded with fish staight away. The anglers that were 0n pegs 23 to 32 on the car park bank seemed to be catching the most consistent so good weights were on the cards. In the small lake the fishing was a little slower with many of the anglers foul hooking fish as the fish would not settle on the feed, but would do later in the match.

At 9.30 pm John Bennett turned the lights on and did it light up the lake on one side and blind everyone on the other {cheers John}, but the fishing just got better and better and as i looked around the lake everyone seemed to be into fish which was fantastic and this continued right to the whistle by which time had got very dark . All the anglers helped with the weigh-in to ensure that it was done in a safe way just as it is done during the day, and the anglers were buzzing as they recounted their match to each other and an hour later the weigh-in was complete.

After 5 hours fishing the anglers had caught 2288 lb of fish at an average of 120-04 per angler and there were 3 x 200lb and 9 x 100lb weights so i think the experiment was a brilliant success ,and all thanked John for being the first to experience this most bizarre match which may happen again in two weeks time.