Wednesday 02/09/2009 - Carps AC - Huntstrete - Withy Pool

It's now official the River Chew Dace caught by Paul Randell highlighted in my blog

http://silverfoxangling.blogspot.com/2009/06/sunday-07062009-bathampton-aa-open.html

has been confirmed by the Environment Agency as a Chub hybrid. Unlucky Paul - good fish though.

Any one fed up of hearing about the Lockerbie bomber release yet - I am!!

Well done to "Woody" Woodington for his first double ton this weekend - for details see comments today.

My first expander, like most anglers was the Ringer, however, the quality dropped with additives such as hemp adding to the breaking up of the pellet and attracting Ronnie's. I swapped to the GOT pellet (Ton up), which, for some time was OK. As with the Ringers they now seemed to have lost quality with the pellets being inconsistent in size. So I have now switched to Halibait pellets (can be purchased from Avon Angling). I use both the 4mm and 6mm, but when ready for use the are more like 6mm and 8mm!! They do keep their shape and can be squeezed to perfectly shot the float.

Isn't it amazing how Autumn is a sudden step change where as Spring never seems to happen! Torrential rain today - AND I STAYED DRY - not a drop on me - unfortunately this was the highlight of my day! I wore my Halkon Hunt Gortex for the first time today. You only get what you pay for in this world. My Preston 1000 crap is now hung in the kitchen for washing up!!

I was hoping for peg 41 again as I didn't do the peg justice on the last match (so I thought). I was the last to draw and pulled out peg - 41. Lucky Halkon Hunt! I was a little apprehensive as to whether the Silvers would feed - particularly the Ronnie's after my experiences at Viaduct Sunday. This peg is Ronnie's or nothing with huge Carp later in the match. So I set up two Ronnie rigs, one on the 3 metre whip and one paste rig both these rigs were at top set distance. I started on the caster and second put in I latched in to something that fought very strange - after 10 minutes I was starting to think really big Eel. Then I saw a fixed in line method feeder attached to my hook. I then saw a huge tail of a Carp - I estimated it at 16lb. What had happened was, my hook had caught in the method feeder which was attached to the Carps tail by a 6 inch piece of heavy line. I was determined to get the Carp out for two reasons - one no one was catching and more important to me was to untangle the Carp. So I played it very carefully, but after 45 minutes I realised that I wasn't going to get it out, mainly because of the method feeder attachment. Suddenly my hook pulled free from the feeder. Why is it that this fishery is one of the only of the few in the country that allows fixed method feeders - this superb fish will probably be dead by tomorrow. Who ever used this rig shame on you - Bathampton AA BAN THESE RIGS NOW. This all episode really upset me. After this I struggled for any sort of fish. I half heartily picked off the odd Ronnie on caster for a weight of 5lb 8oz for fourth in the Silvers. The lowest weight this year.

The match and Silvers was won by Terry Bruton (pictured right) from peg 43 with 16lb 14 oz of Bream and 43lb 4oz of Carp for a total weight of 60lb 2oz. Terry caught at 8 metres on paste. Well done matey - I am expecting a phone call. It's all Bob Warren' s fault for coaching Terry on the paste!

Full Result:

1. Terry Bruton 60-04-0 peg 43

2. Bob Warren 37-02-0 peg 48

3. Steve Jefferies 32-08-0 peg 53

4. Dave Bacon 30-0-0 peg 47

5. Bill Ferris 23-08-0 peg 50

Top Silvers:

1. Terry Bruton 16-14-0 peg 43

2. Bill Ferris 11-04 - 0 peg 50