Thursdays 26/06/08 Bathampton AA Over 55's and Disabled - Bridge Pool

It was last Christmas that I decided to have a clear out of my accumulated ground baits and pellets. I found a large number of various makes of expander pellet which was destined for dusty bin. Being prudent I decided to crush some up as an additive to my skimmer ground bait. I was surprised that once crushed (using a 4lb lump hammer) that most sank without adding water.

I added one third crushed expander to one third Sensas Lake (My favourite all time ground bait) and one third Gimps Gold (John Bradford – not the Gimp in “Pulp Fiction”) fish meal. This mix has worked very well for me over the winter for the Skimmers particularly in the deeper venues such as Huntstrete. Now we have warmer water temperature the mix appears to be less effective - as I discovered today. The ground bait is improved when mixed the night before, or used from frozen. So get crushing!

Drew peg 28 today - again a good draw (whats new). The brisk wind was blowing at 11 clock in to me so decided to go for the silvers to my right where there was some shelter. I started on the caster and caught some Ronnies and skimmers for about an hour. I then latched in to a double figure Carp. I tried the 6mm expander pellet at 6 metres over my ground bait, but pestered by 1 to 2 oz Ronnies. I came back on the caster, but found it very slow, then another Carp. At this point I decided to focus on Carp using paste. I ended the match with 14lb 9oz of Silvers and twelve Carp for 93lb 8oz and a total of 108lb 1oz for first in the match and first in the Silvers and a pick up of £25.

John Bennett who was on the next peg 29 offered to to take my photo. John was shaking so much that Chris Snow also took a photo. However, John assured us that his photo would be fine! I have published both can anyone tell the difference?

My long time friend Terry Bruton was runner up (for once) with 65lb 13oz of Carp from peg 24 using the shallow pellet waggler.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 108-01-0 peg 28
2. Terry Bruton 65-13-0 peg 24
3. Dave Bacon 51-01-0 peg 8
4. Martin Alexander 39-04-0 peg 3
5. Colin Young 36-14-0 peg 10
6. Pete (the real) Phillips 33-04-0 peg 6

Top Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 14-09-0 peg 28
2. Pete Phillips 14-0-0 peg 6
3. Chris Snow 13-0-0 peg 26
3. Keith Firks 13-0-0 peg 32