Thursday 03/02/2011 - Bathampton AA Silvers Championship - Huntstrete - Round Three - Bridge Pool

Spoke to my good friend Andy Gifford this week who tried to persuade me back to the river, he’s been catching 2lb plus Roach on the River Chew. He said of Commercial Puddles “All you have to do is pee into them and the fish swim up the urine”! Well wasn’t like that today matey, in any case we only dribble these days.

I buggered up the draw today not grabbing into the usual area and ended up with peg 21. This is a hit or miss peg, but was reasonably happy with it until I found that the cold stiff wind was blowing in to my face.

Having played in this swim a few times before, and knowing it doesn’t have any Ronnie history I decided on the one rig, a 4x16 Jolly to be fished in to the white water at 10 metres at 2 o clock. It’s not the deepest peg but does have some flow through it due to the fact it’s very narrow. I went positive and put three tangerines in, of my Skimmer GB, which was the target species. I usually get a Skimmer first put in on single red maggot; however, I started to get concerned when after half hour I didn’t have any indication. After which I had a pair of eyes. The writing was on the wall. I switched to the 3 mm expander and had a run of three small Skimmers! I then have the best fish of the day an 8oz Ronnie. For the rest of the day by feeding a dribble of GB I kept a ½ oz Ronnie coming every 15 minutes! It was hard all round. I weighed 2lb 14oz for no where, but did help my partner Paul Barnfield who caught well on peg 25, to first in the pairs.

The match was won by Mike Keys (pictured upper right concentrating on his next fish and right smiling after his two pick ups) from peg 31 with 9lb 8oz. Mike caught at 8 metres using single maggot fished over GB laced with micro pellet. Mike fed a nugget every half hour or so, to keep the fish coming. His catch included two big Perch to 1lb 8 ½ oz.

The Carp pool was for the third time by Martin Alexander (pictured right) with one Carp for 7lb 6oz. Martin still insist that he was fishing for Silver in the margin with 6 maggots on the hook. His Silvers partner Bill Ferris is tearing his hair out (what’s left of it).

Full Result:

1. Mike Key 9-08-0 peg 31

2. Paul Staite 8-12-0 peg 262.
2. Rich Coles 8-12-0 peg 30

3. Paul Barnfield 8-04-0 peg 25

4. Bill Ferris 6-08-0 peg 29

5. Alan Jones 6-04-0 peg 28

Top Carp:

1. Martin Alexander 7-06-0 peg 17

2. No one - so mugger Martin bagged up on the pools taking both

Top Three Individuals:

1. Paul Barnfield 50 pts
2. Rich Coles 37 pts
3. Paul Staite 23 pts

Top Three Pairs:

1. Mike Nicholls/Paul Barnfield 24 pts
2. Rich Coles/Harry Muir 16 pts
3. Bob Price/Terry Bruton 14 pts