Thursday 20/01/2011 - Bathampton AA Silvers Championship - Huntstrete - Withy Pool

A very heavy frost followed a Hunters Moon, with a bright day promised so it was always going to be a difficult days fishing. It was surprising to find we had only two absentees.

I took this picture (right) of one of the competitors car boot with their gear neatly stowed – does anyone recognise it?

The draw for the pairs took place and I drew Paul Barnfield. I was happy with this as Paul is a fair angler. As luck would have it Mike Jones drew with his long time buddy Chris Rolfe – fix I hear – no I pulled out the names.

There was a lot of debate on the best 22 pegs I think the debate will continue as Withy Pool is notoriously difficult to peg.

I drew peg 66 which is a peg that I didn’t fancy because it would be in the shade most of the day with the light NW wind blowing in to it. But the real issue with this peg is the light reflection on the water due to the opposite high leaf bare trees.

I wanted to fish longish at 11.5 metres for the Skimmers but this wasn’t going to be possible until 12:30 when the sun came on to the float bristle. So I had to settle fishing at 5 metres in to a small area of white reflected water. To enable this I set up a 4 x 16 red tip Jolly for the long line and a 4 x 14 black tip Jolly to be fished at 4 foot (a depth I thought would give the warmest water at depth) on the short visible line. On the whistle I fed two tangerine balls of a Skimmer based GB at 11.5 metres and two balls of Ronnie based GB laced with casters at 5 metres. I started long with double Pinkie on a 20 808 hoping for early Skimmers. But as stated earlier the light was so bad it was a bit of a guess as to whether I had a bite or not. The fish I did have, were between ½ to 1oz Ronnie’s. So I gave this up and went on the 5 metre line with single caster on similar terminal tackle. I had a run of 1 to 2oz Ronnie’s. Come 12:30 and with anticipation of some Skimmers went out to 11.5 metres with single red maggot and it was much the same small Ronnie’s and no Skimmers. So I re-fed two more balls of GB and switched back to the 5 metre line. The upshot was that I kept small Ronnie’s coming by feeding and switching to the end of the match, by which time I was bloody freezing. My Ronnie bag weighed in at 6lb 3oz which was just good enough for 4th place and last in the pools.

My pairs partner Paul Barnfield won the Silvers match from peg 44 with 10lb 1oz. Paul fed a 13 and 16 metre line the long one with CW&C with some dead reds and the shorter line with micro and red maggot. Paul left it until the last half hour on the 16 metre line to catch two sizeable Bream (apparently 2 of the 150 odd that was transferred from the Main Lake on Tuesday). Because of the daft points system which Mike Jones has employed which he based on Formula One system I think if Paul wins the next match the Silvers League title will be his, he already has 40 Points!! What’s wrong with the tried and proved section points system? F1 spends millions of pounds taking the luck out of their sport; however, we anglers have to live and with it. Anyway well done partner a good start for us I think.

The Carp pool was won once again by Martin Alexander with 12lb 8oz from peg 43. Martin is trying to convince us that he was really fishing for Silvers, however, we all know he’s out to mug us Silvers anglers - fair play to him though.

Runner up in the Carp pool was Harry Muir (pictured with his 6lb Carp). Harry also lost another from end peg 74 fishing red maggot over red maggot and micro.

Full Result:

1. Paul Barnfield 10-01-0 peg 44
2. Bob Price 9-12-0 peg 47
3. Rich Coles 8-04-0 peg 69
4. Mike Nicholls 6-03-0 peg 66
5. Terry Bruton 6-02-0 peg 71
6. Mike Jones 6-0-0 peg 41

Top Carp:

1. Martin Alexander 12-08-0 peg 43
2. Harry Muir 6-0-0 peg 74