Thursday 29/04/2010 - Bathampton AA Over 55's - Bridge Pool

I had a walked around Bridge Pool with Martin McMahon before the draw and decided that pegs 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and perhaps 17 and 18 would be the pegs to draw as there were signs of Carp in all the margins. This was primarily down to the wind direction making these pegs favourite. Well I was delighted to draw peg 24 as it not only has lots of Silvers potential but Carp too. However, after yesterday’s workout on the Ronnie’s I was hoping for a steady day on the Skimmers. So I set up a 4x16 Jolly to fish at 5 metres down the near shelf with pellet or maggot for the Skimmers, a Ronnie rig with the caster and of course the paste rig for the LH margin. The water colour looked a bit strange – it looked clear but with solids appearing to come out of suspension. I started by feeding a pot of wetted micros at 5 metres and the same into the LH margin. I started by loose feeding casters on the Ronnie line and second cast I foul hook a Carp – new hook later and next cast another foul hooked Carp – new hook later and a 7lb Carp in the keep net. Bugger this, lets get on the Skimmer line. Out with pellet and – nothing, so I decided to put a big pot of maggot over this line as I was fancying this bait for the Skimmers. Back on the Ronnie’s (sorry Carp) and an 8lb Carp in the net. Out on to the Skimmers and I had a run of them on double red maggot until I hooked another Carp – thank heavens for the pull-a-bung. Back out on the Skimmer line and – nothing. Sod it Carp day it was going to be and on to the paste in the RH margin. I started by loose feeding caster over the paste and had a couple of Carp. I then decided (because it was on my tray) to loose feed some micro – mistake. The micro was so wet it was braking up as it fell through the water – very slowly at that. This brought the Carp up in the water and I had a bad run of foul hooked Carp. Realising what had happened I switched to loose feeding wetted 4 mm pellet. I then didn’t look back I had Carp up 18lb until the end. My 22 carp weighed in at 201lb 10 oz and my meagre Silvers weight of 4lb 2oz taking my total weight to 205lb 12oz for first overall and a pick up of £25.

The upshot of today was that the Ronnie’s I think are spawning and the Carp feeding up ready to spawn hence, the differential in today’s results.

The Silvers was won by Terry Bruton with 15lb 15oz. Terry fished white maggot short at full depth from peg 22. Runner up was Mike (peter pan of angling) Jones (pictured right with the overall winner) with 15lb 10oz from peg 14. Mike fish waggler and top and bottom whip using maggot over maggot. A good weight from this peg when all considered.

Once again this lake has fished very well and I had a great day’s fishing, but unfortunately I will remember it for the brutal murder of two Mallard ducklings. I witnessed a Canadian goose kill two ducklings whilst the mother Mallard fought like hell to stop it. Once they were dead the goose just kept tossing them about because being a grass eaters it wouldn’t be interested in them for food. What a nasty bird. BAA - the Canadian goose is not a protective a species – so do the honourable thing and shot the fxxking lot. The anglers and the Huntstrete residents will also get some peace and quiet.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 205-12-0 peg 24
2. Terry Bruton 112-11-0 peg 22
3. Martin McMahon 95-7-0 peg 26
4. Pete Phillips 44-09-0 peg 23
5. Bob Warren 32-05-0 peg 17
6. Bill Ferris 32-05-0 peg 28

Top Silvers:

1. Terry Bruton 15-15-0 peg 22
2. Mike Jones 15-10-0 peg 14
3. Bob Warren 15-05-0 peg 17
4. Bill Ferris 12-05-0 peg 28