As soon as I got home I had to change my trousers. Not because of the diarrhoea I have been suffering from due to the antibiotics I’ve been taking! But because I got soaking wet. PRESTON INNOVATION your DRIFISH 1000 doesn’t do what it say’s on the tin. It‘s going in the bin tomorrow and I will buy some proper Gortex clothing.
I came away today with the impression that the Huntstrete complex is turning in to a bird sanctuary. I was pestered all day by various species of wild foul and sea birds. Won’t be long before “Twichers” will be joining Bathampton AA!
I drew peg 6, another virgin peg for me. The peg doesn’t have much form, but happy with it nonetheless. I set up a “messy business rig” (cw&c), a Ronnie rig and a paste rig for the left hand margin. I started on the messy business, potting in 250 ml of cw&c at 6 metres. After half an hour, the result, one micro Perch and a small hybrid; umm. I switched to the Ronnie caster rig at 5 metres; but nothing, until I shallowed up. This resulted in a run of 12oz Skimmers, Hybrid’s and 4oz Ronnie’s. However, it was very difficult to keep them coming. It was all to do with the feeding pattern. The quantity of feed had to be just right, but seemed to vary; if that makes sense (you needed to be there). Now and again I did try the paste in the margin, but to not avail. I could see at least half the other competitors and none appeared to be catching Silvers, so I decided to stay with the caster to the end. I weighed 13lb 15oz of Silvers and as suspected this was good enough for first in the Silvers and a pick up of £25.
John Bennett (pictured right) won the match from peg 28 with 63lb 2oz of Carp. John caught his Carp on paste over 4mm pellet at 6 metres.
Runner up was Bob Warren with 61lb 10oz from peg 7 (next to me). Bob caught most of his fish on paste fished at 9 metres. Bob lost a large Carp (and top-set) when the Carp pulled the top-set free. This cost Bob the match. However, the two Terry’s retrieved the top-set for him from the opposite bank – of course, less the Carp! This happened to me once at Viaduct and since then I have got in to the habit of checking all the pole joints are tight as I ship out. The joints can come loose due to the pole vibrating in the wind on the pole roller. I have missed two "coffin dodgers" matches where Bob has won the match and I haven’t been there to record it.
1. John Bennett 63-02-0 peg 28
2. Bob Warren 61-10-0 peg 7
3. Dave Bacon 47-01-0 peg 11
4. Bob Price 36-07-0 peg 18
5. Paul Poole 34-02-0 peg 3
6. Martin Alexander 31-15-0 peg 16
Last: Terry Bruton 0-0-0 peg 23 (blank)
Top Silvers:
1. Mike Nicholls 13-15-0 peg 6
2. Ian Sheppard 8-04-0 peg 10