Thursday 25/03/2010 - Bathampton AA Over 55's - Bridge Pool

Today was the first match of this seasons Bathampton AA “Coffin Dodgers”. It was good to see that the regular had made it through another winter. I put his down to the governments heating allowance!! Plus a new comer - Dave Haines, I didn't think he'd make 55.

Bridge Pool was subject to” exploratory” netting yesterday, apparently to determine the Lake stocking. During the netting eight double Carp were remove and put into…. hang on, this I am sure will all be on the Bathampton AA website so no need to say anything further here – is there?

The Dodger's were wondering if this netting would effect the fishing today. I thought definitely not. The more exercise the fish get the hungrier they become, combine that with a memory of six seconds and we should have a decent day’s fishing (apparently four seconds longer that one of the Dodger's wives - isn’t that right Mr. Jones). – I believe I was right in my thinking.

Colin dropped the entire disabled draw in the mud, so I thought I would go in for the cleanest draw card I could see and out comes peg 29. It’s one of the better pegs on the Lake and not a disbaled peg. It’s usually a good Skimmer peg so I set up a 4x16 Jolly at 9 metres and my usual Ronnie rig for the Caster. I thought I would also set up a margin paste rig – I will say now it was a waste of time – the water needs to warm up a bit more. On the whistle I cupped in a few wetted micros with a dash of caster at 9 metres. I subsequently loose fed caster on the Ronnie line. After 15 minutes or so I didn’t have a bite, so out on the Skimmer line and I had three 3 oz Skimmers straight off. It then slowed so I fed a compressed ball of micros (compressed to sneak it past the small Ronnie’s hanging around at half depth) through the kinder pot. I had another couple of small Skimmers plus a few of the small Ronnie’s I couldn't avoid. I decided to re-feed this time with a full pot of caster with a dash of micro and go back on the Ronnie line. I started to catch some decent Renaldo’s to 8oz, but found it difficult to pin them down. It took me another three hours to realise that although my feeding pattern was about right I was fishing in the wrong place!! The under tow was quite strong and once I started fishing two metres up wind I started to bag on the Renaldo’s. Unfortunately I also found the Carp. After losing my first Carp due to being foul hooked I switched to 4mm Expander pellet which accounted for five Carp and another three lost foul hookers. However in between I kept a few Silvers coming. My five Carp weighed in at 37lb 12oz and my Silvers went 13lb 12oz for a total of 51lb 8oz and first overall and third in the Silvers and as Colin stated a pick up of £25.

The Silvers was won by Bill Ferris from peg 11 with 17lb 6oz of Roach.

The overall runner up was Alan Jones, who must count himself very - bewitched. I am a witness to this. Alan was playing a Carp for about a minute or so when it appeared to come off. On retrieving his rig he finds a frog attached!! How scary is that. The mistake Alan made was not kissing the Frog. I would have, expecting it to turn in to a 10lb Common. In any case the Frog would have gone in the Silvers net.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 51-08-0 peg 29
2. Alan Jones 40-08-0 peg 31
3. Terry Bruton 37-12-0 peg 24
4. Rich Coles 32-07-0 peg 33
5. Martyn Alexander 27-04-0 peg 32
6. Dave Bacon 17-10-0 peg 18

Top Silvers:

1. Bill Ferris 17-06-0 peg 11
2. Terry Bruton 16-0-0 peg 24
3. Mike Nicholls 13-12-0 peg 29
4. Bob Price 10-10-0 peg 25