Thursday 31/03/2011 - Bathampton AA Over 55's And Disabled - Bridge Pool

Today was the first match of this seasons BAA Coffin Dodgers. And it looks like a lot of coffin dodging has been going on over the winter as we had our biggest turn out with 32 fishing – only two pegs left out – 12 & 20. It was also Mike Jones first match as organiser coinciding with his 76 67 birthday, so Mike had a rendition of the traditional song. As can be seen from the picture right with Ray Bazeley Mike was well organised bringing his patio set with him (1st and 3rd in the Silvers pool today)

There was a bit of drizzle before the draw which soon subsided and we were left with the angler’s worse condition – high gusting SW winds. The night before I was thinking of the pegs I would prefer and those I wouldn’t. It’s amazing I drew a peg that I didn’t even consider – peg 25. By no means a peg you would say no to. For company I had Terry Bruton on his usual Skimmer peg 24 and Chris Rolfe on his usual peg 26. My peg is 7 metres back from both of these pegs so you need to fish long for the Silvers. However, because of the windy conditions that wasn’t an option. The best I could offer was 9 metres.

For some reason Chris Rolfe was loose feeding most of his tackle throughout the match. The only items that didn’t get a wetting were his pole roller, tackle box and himself! He didn’t get all of it back either.

I set up a Ronnie rig which didn’t catch a fish. A margin paste rig, which although had a few outings didn’t have any interest. A Skimmer rig to fish at 9 metres. The upshot was the lake fished really strange. All I could muster from the swim was 3lb 1oz even though throughout the match I set all sorts of rigs in an attempt to get bites. With the Ronnie’s not feeding and the only way to catch a Skimmers was either on the drop which accounted for the only two I caught or up in the water. This is the second match on the lake that I couldn't catch on the bottom!

I was on the scales today and I was amazed that from pegs 34 to 27 everyone DNW’d, with seven of the angler going early including matey Rich Coles.

The match was won by Martin Alexander (pictured right with his biggest Carp) from peg 27 with eight Carp for 71lb. Martin caught all but one on the straight lead with hair rigged hard banded pellet fished to the opposite island. Martin loose feed two pints of 8 mm pellets throughout the match. Martin did have a big foul hooked Common Carp on the pole.

The Silvers was won by Mike Jones from peg 9 with 14lb 8oz. Mike caught Skimmer on caster over loose fed casters fishing 30 inches deep in 9ft of water.

Full Result:

1. Martin Alexander 71-0-0 peg 27
2. Chris Snow 20-02-0 peg 21
3. Bob Tilley 19-14-0 peg 5
4. Bob Warren 15-04-0 peg 17
5. Mike Jones 14-08-0 peg 9
6. Pete Phillips 12-05-0 peg 10

Top Silvers:

1. Mike Jones 14-08-0 peg 9
2. Terry Bruton 5-13-0 peg 24
3. Ray Bazeley 5-01-0 peg 11