Thursday 21/07/2011 - Bathampton AA Over 55's And Disabled - Bridge Pool

The weather forecast was for dry warm morning with heavy showers later and that’s exactly what happened.

Before the match Bob Warren and me took the scales down to peg 11 and had a look around. We found on pegs 14, 13 and 11 a load of rubbish which we collected and binned. Sometimes match anglers get criticised for leaving rubbish, however, the rules are that if you have litter in your peg at the time of weighing in you are disqualified, even if it isn't yours!! Litter is one of my pet hates.

In to the draw box and out comes peg 25 again! I was hoping for somewhere different as it was likely to be a case of same again.

Last visit I lost the Skimmers and was left wondering whether I had brought them up in the water after re-feeding after the initial feed which I am sure does get to the bottom before the fish realise. So I decided to feed ten balls of hard GB laced with micro pellet and 6mm meat (Spam) on the 7 metres line which is just down the shelf in 9 foot of water (one of the deepest pegs on the Lake me thinks). Well I had two Skimmers on meat and lost one ½ oz Ronnie. Umm, that didn’t work then. The Skimmers appeared to be having a day off. So out comes the Ronnie rig for use with caster over caster. Whilst sorting the rig out I knock over the caster and pellet – as the Dodgers are not allowed expletives it was loud “balderdash”. I started well on this rig catching small Skimmers and Ronnie’s to 8oz. That was until the Carp moved in and I hooked and landed a 6lb Mirror. I decided to abandon the Silvers and out with the paste fished over loose fed hard 4’s – as I predicted exactly as last time. This resulted in 14 carp to 15lb (a Common Carp). My small amount of Silvers weighed in at 7lb 12oz and my Carp 141lb 2oz for a winning total of 148lb 14oz.

The Silvers was won by Ray Bazeley (pictured right with the overall winner) from peg 16 with a good net of Skimmers. Ray worked two swims both at 6 metres, one with CW&C fishing worm or caster over the top and the other swim Ray fed soft pellet and fished expander pellet over the top.

It was good to see the BAA Secretary walking around today, however, it would be much better if we could get him out match fishing again, I am sure it wouldn't be long before he's competing with the best.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 148-14-0 peg 25
2. Ian Shepherd 81-08-0 peg 9
3. Chris Snow 67-0-0 peg 28
4. Bob Warren 53-08-0 peg 24
5. Terry “Master Class” Bruton 51-12-0 peg 21
6. Andy Shields 46-08-0 peg 13

Top Silvers:

1. Ray Bazeley 26-08-0 peg 16
2. Bill Ferris 16-10-0 peg 14
3. Mike Jones 15-05-0 peg 15