Thursday 15/03/2012 - Bathampton AA Silvers Championship - Bridge Pool - Round 7 - Final Round

Month after month we hear criticism from Government and the Media of Banks for not lending to small businesses. Why don't they - simple:

"A Banker is someone willing to make you a loan if you present sufficient evidence that you don’t need  it."

I am amazed that Politicians are unaware that Bankers are adverse to risk with their own money but frivolous with everyone else's!! After all Bankers don't want to risk their obscene bonuses.

Back to the fishing:

So with Dave Wride in the Bahamas having all but sewn up the Individual league thanks to his impressive 54lb on Withy, I was left with only being able to draw with Dave on points, needing 34lb to beat him on weight. I realised it was a “Bridge” too far, but that wouldn’t stop me trying. First of all I needed a good draw. Having accomplished that by pulling peg 18 (I have plenty of history with this peg), although pegs 4, 8, 16, 24 and 26 would also have done, it was left for the venue to fish extremely well. Unfortunately it only fished very well.

I was fishing against John Smith in the knockout final, John had pulled peg 25, a good Carp peg. I knew John would struggle for Silvers on the peg.

The other chance of coin was winning the Pairs with my partner Mike Owens, who had drawn peg 32. I did pay a quick visit to Mike before the whistle with some advice (Mike’s first series on the venue).

I had Ray Bazeley opposite me on peg 17, which can be also a good Silvers peg on its day.

I set up a Ronnie rig which I scaled down to 0.1 mm line (on reflection this was unnecessary). I then set up my usual 4x16 Jolly to be fished as far as the bank behind me would allow – 10 metres. I decided to go positive even though the weather was almost freezing fog, feeding a pot of micro with a good measure of caster. Ray went one better feeding two big pots of GB some 4 metres from my swim. I started well catching small Skimmers with two that went 1lb each on soft pellet. I then hooked and landed a 2 ½ lb Tench. After one hour I started to realise I might have over done the feed – so did Ray! Fish were hard to come by. I tried the Ronnie rig with caster over loose fed caster which didn’t produce anything. So I made up my winter jolly and knocked some of my Skimmer GB. Mixing in a few Pinkies I opened up another swim at 10 o clock, where I had another run of Skimmers and a few small Ronnie’s on double Pinkie. After feeding another nugget of GB with Pinkie the swim slowed. So it was back over the first line again with expander – the struggle continued. I kept swapping between the two lines nicking the odd fish, until I fathomed out the feeding pattern which was again winter type, feeding ten micros after every fish. Luckily I did have a very productive last hour. I thought I might have 20lb and was surprised to weigh 25lb 8oz. not enough top beat Dave Wride but enough to win the match which you really can’t do much more. So I gladly settled for joint overall, second by weight count back – that 54lb disserved to take the title on its own.

As I suspected John Smith struggled, but did get the most out of his peg with 12lb.

Luckily my pair’s partner fished well, following our team plan. Mike weighed in 16lb 1oz for a section win and fourth overall, giving us the pair’s title.

The accidental Carp was won by Terry Bruton from peg 15 with a lonely 15lb Common.

The surprise of the day for me came form Dave Haines (pictured right with the match winner) who came second in the Carp pool with one or the smaller ones weighing in at 5lb 11oz.

My thanks to Mike Jones and Chris Rolfe for running a superb league and of course not forgetting BAA for providing a wonderful well managed venue and Veals Fishing for their sponsorship. I am already looking forward to next years series.

Full Result:

1.      Mike Nicholls 25-08-0 peg 18

2.      Mike Jones 19-08-0 peg 26
2.      Paul Haines 19-08-0 peg 24
4.      Mike Owens 16-01-0 peg 32
5.      Paul Barnfield 15-08-0 peg 14
6.      Terry Bruton 13-12-0 peg 15

Accidental Carp:

1.      Terry Bruton 15-0-0 peg 15

2.      Dave Haines 5-11-0 peg 33

The final League positions will be published on the BAA website in due course.