Thursday 01/03/2012 - Bathampton AA Silvers Championship - Bridge Pool - Round 5

With a foggy start which soon became a glorious spring day, with us all stripping off our winter clothing. Rich Coles was down to his under pants at one stage whilst he took off his Long Jones – Horrible site.

Chris Rolfe and I had a walk round the Lake and both decided that any peg would do except pegs 2, 3, 32 and 33 (opposite pegs). In to the new draw bag, with the new crappy draw paper pegs (now stuck down instead of stapled, no wonder I couldn’t find the double stapled ticket) and out comes peg 3 – I couldn’t believe it, especially when Chris arrived on peg 33. I wasn’t too concerned, until Dave Wride arrives on flyer peg 4 and less so Mike Jones on end peg 2, which is a far worse Silvers peg (good for Carp though!!). Dave wasn’t about to share any of his Skimmers. Dave was using some new GB (pictured right with his bag of GB) recommended to him by Tich. I am not surprised it was recommended as the small bag cost Dave £6.99, Tich must be on commission. But don’t get spending it yet matey, as Dave thought it was rubbish and is taking it back for a refund – man after my own heart.

I set up the one rig a 4x16 Jolly to be fished at 10 metres at 12-o clock with maggot over GB and a swing round to 10 o clock (as close as I could reasonable get to Dave’s swim) needing to swallowing up by 3 inches for expander over micro. Starting on the double red over a tangerine ball of GB laced with a few casters and Pinkie, I sat there bite less for 15 minutes watching Dave catch Skimmer after Skimmer. I decided to switch to the micro line where I had fed a half cup. I was straight in to small Skimmers which lasted about two hours before it got difficult, but not until I had lost three consecutive Skimmers (6oz). In the meantime I had converted the GB line to micro and did pick up a few more tiny Skimmers on this line, but wherever I put the pellet I was plagued with micro Ronnie’s which would only “chew” at the pellet, hardly able to pull the float under the surface (it only takes a number 12 shot to do this), more often than not they would fall off any way. This was the recipe for a very frustrating last three hours of the match – bloody hard work. I tried all sorts of hook bait including single Pinkie, but it was only the soft pellet they were interested in, following down the hook bait from about two foot from the bottom. I weighed 12lb 10oz, which I must say, is a weight I would have more than settled for at the start. This put me third in the section (but picking up the coin by double default) and sixth overall. I had drawn my pair’s partner Mike Owen in the knockout who had 10lb 5oz, also for third in his section, needing only a few more ounces for a section win.

The match was won by Terry Bruton (pictured right with his catch) with 25lb 15oz from peg 5. Terry had some quality Roach and Skimmers, plus a bonus 3lb Tench on white maggot fished over white maggot. Terry loose fed about 12 maggots every put in at 5 metres to the LH tree.

Full Result:

1.      Terry Bruton 25-15-0 peg 5

2.      Bob Price 23-06-0 peg 18

3.      Rich Coles 22-08-0 peg 10

4.      Dave Wride 19-12-0 peg 4

5.      Alan Jones 14-10-0 peg 17

6.      Mike Nicholls 12-10-0 peg 3

Accidental Carp Pool:

1.      John Smith 6-04-0 peg 14

2.      No One!

Biggest Silver Fish:

Dave Gillard – Tench 3lb 6oz Peg 31