Thursday 03/09/2009 - Bathampton Over 55's - Main Lake

As the fishing was so bad yesterday I had reservations as to fish this match or not. So I decided not to set the alarm clock and only go if the sun was shining. Impossible you might think, but I was awake five minutes before the usual alarm call and the bloody sun was shining. So I reluctantly went to the match. I knew the turn out would be bad and it was, the lowest turn out since I started fishing these matches - just eleven anglers. Believe it or not I persuaded Colin to put pegs 5 to 15 in the draw. I drew peg 9, which I was reasonably happy with. I set up a Ronnie whip and a paste rig for the Bream at 9 metres. I started on the whip and caster and didn't have a bite!! The wind was very strong blowing down to the car park and towing very hard in the opposite direction. I switched to maggot over a small balls of GB and had a run of small Ronnie's and Rudd, but was soon pestered by Pike. I tried the paste but no indications - not even a Ronaldo. I had about 3lb in the net when the swim completely died. So I had a walk and the usual pegs 11, 12,13 & 14 had caught Bream with Bob Price owning up to six for 20lb. I decide that the only way to coin would be to try the feeder. I mixed up a little Bream 3000 and fish whole Denra on the hook. I caught 4 Ronnie's before I decided to call it a day with still two hours to go. I was hoping that yesterdays match on Withy was going to be the worse this year - but alas not.

The match was won as expected by Bob "The Bread" Price (pictured right ) -

Happiness is with a feeder rod in your rest - apparently the smile is residual from last nights dose of Viagra) on peg 11 with 18lb 14oz. Bob caught six Bream, four on corn and two on bread.

Full Result:

1. Bob Price 18-14-0 peg 11

2. Martin Alexander 9-04-0 peg 5

3. Tom Coulston 9-0-0 peg 13

4. Ian Sheppard 5-08-0 peg 8

5. Terry Church 4-12-0 peg 15

6. Pete Phillips 4-08-0 peg 6