Thursday 28/10/2009 - Bathampton AA Over 55's - Bridge Pool

Again the weather was very mild with temperatures rising to 17 degrees, this helping towards another good turn out. For some strange reason Colin actually took some advise from Steve Jefferies and put in peg 2. From my knowledge this would be the first time in the draw bag. Also it was a first to see the aerator running in peg 1; luckily it stopped just prior to the draw. The fish on both Bridge and Withy Pools tend to follow the wind. However, the light breeze was coming up from the South (bringing us the mild weather) and into the far end peg 1 and 34. As it happens I pulled out peg 2!! Some anglers thought that the aerator might have affected the peg, but my experience told me not – the wind direction being much more important. I set up a 4x16 Jolly for 3mm pellet, caster, corn and maggot at five metres where I had 9 foot of water. I set up my usual paste rig for the RH margin and a Ronnie rig for caster. I started by cupping in a few micro’s in to the margin and at 5 metres. I started on the 3 mm expander and there were no bites. I switched to the maggot and had a couple of decent Perch to 1lb. I then hooked a 10lb Carp and as I netted it the hooked pulled because it had straightened (it’s amazing how much pressure you can put on with a pull-a- bung). I then had a run of Ronnie’s on maggot, but as they didn’t want the caster I couldn’t get anything decent. I then had a decent Skimmer followed by a lost Carp which broke me. I had already made up my mind that I wasn’t going to leave fishing for the Carp too late (as I had done recently on two matches, which cost me dearly). I had been steadily building my margin swim with 4mm pellet. I think it’s important not to go in to the margin too early as I have found that you catch a couple early then nothing for the rest of the match. So it was on the three hour mark that I went in on the paste and caught straight away. The up shot was that I landed eight Carp to 17lb 9oz for a Carp weight of 98lb 4oz. This combined with my Silvers weight of 8lb 2oz gave me a total of 106lb 6oz. This put me first in the match by a significant margin and 6^th in the silvers and a pick up of £25.

The Silvers was won by Rich Coles (pictured right with Tom Coulston – the overall runner up – incidentally it’s not camera flash “red eye” but Guinness red eye) with 11lb 12oz from peg 24. Rich caught a few small Perch on worm and Skimmers on expander pellet, keeping the fish coming by rotating three lines. Colin Golding was runner up in the Silvers, just 4oz behind – unlucky matey.

Overall runner up was Tom “The Bomb” Coulston with 40lb 6oz from peg 7. Tom caught one Carp on maggot and the rest on Prawns (I must find out more about this bait)!!!

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 106-06-0 peg 2

2. Tom Coulston 40-06-0 peg 7

3. Terry Bruton 40-04-0 peg 25 (Another Ronnie needed)

4. Dave Bacon 36-0-0 peg 28

5. Bob Price 33-02-0 peg 30

6. Chris Snow 30-0-0 peg 29

Top Silvers:

1. Rich Coles 11-12-0 peg 24

2. Colin Golding 11-08-0 peg 17

3. Bill Ferris 10-12-0 peg 32