Thursday 22/07/2010 - Bathampton Over 55's - Withy Pool

Terry Bruton was driven to the match today by his good wife as his Doctor has instructed him not to drive for six months following a recent bad turn. So Terry left his shoes in my car only to leave them behind. I have tried them on and they are too big (we all knew this). I will see if they fit my son, if not I’ll bring them to the next match!

Withy Pool looked very clear with little to no fish surface activity, so the feeling was that the Lake would continue its recent poor form. I pulled out peg 41, a peg I have drawn a few times before. It’s a peg where you will either have a good days fishing for Ronnie’s (they tend to be bigger fish in this swim) or catch big Carp (in match men terms), but not usually both. So I was pleased with the draw. Whilst setting up I could see fish blowing around the swim, primarily down the middle. I suspected it to be Carp but hoping it would be Skimmers. I set up two paste rigs – one for the RH margin set to 1 metre deep and one at full depth out in front at 7 metres. I also set up the Ronnie rig for the caster. On the all in I potted in a small amount of 4 and 8 mm hard pellet, being careful to spread them as wide as possible all on the 7 metre line. On to the caster and I had a few very small Ronnie’s ½ oz. I then foul hooked a Carp. The writing was on the wall. I persevered for the usual three hours with the Ronnie’s, but it was really slow. I was positive it was Carp unsettling them. I went on my Banana walk and the going appeared to be slow on most pegs. Mike Jones owned up to about 5lb of Silvers – about what I had. Back to my swim and I decided to test for the Carp and first put in with paste at 7 metres and a double figure Carp was in the net. It appeared that the fish were really oxygenated as they fought very hard today. I kept on this to the end topping up with 4 mm pellet through the kinder pot, simultaneously with the paste. I added ten more Carp and losing one by the whistle. My Silvers went 6lb 4oz and my eleven Carp went 98lb 15oz giving me a total of 105lb 3oz. This put me first in the match and fourth in the Silvers (I think). Throughout the match I fed about 1 ½ pints of pellet.

I must mention "Ethnic" A name I gave to a dark coloured Common Carp I caught. It's the longest I have fought a fresh water fish taking me what appeared to be an age to land it. It was touch a go as to who gave up first. Ethnic fought all through with it's head down at 45 degrees and it wasn't until I used the shallow bank side water that I managed to get it's head up and net it. I estimated it's weight at 14 lb, so not that big, but worth every pound. Once in the keep net it looked as exhausted as I did, but not for long whilst waiting for the scales the Ethnic keep net was pull in and was the first to swim off after the weigh in. Well done Ethnic hope we don't again soon!

The Silvers was won by Bob Warren (pictured right with the overall winner) with 20lb 8oz of quality Skimmer from peg 45. Bob caught all his Silvers on paste over potted hard pellet.


Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 105-03-0 peg 41
2. Bob Warren 52-0-0 peg 45
3. Pete Phillips 42-07-0 peg 43
4. John Smith 32-15-0 peg 54
5. Harry Muir 24-01-0 peg 59
6. Bryan Sheppard 23-03-0 peg 69

Top Silvers:

1. Bob Warren 20-08-0 peg 45
2. Mike Jones 11-09-0 peg 49
3. Rich Coles 8-02-0 peg 56