The 1st of April and the weather lady promised us 12 degrees, so I put on my Thermal boots and ended up with soaking wet feet due to the sweat, got it wrong again as we had wall to wall sunshine for the ninth consecutive day. Today was the first of only two open BAA matches on Bridge Pool for 2012. Personally I would like to see more – perhaps a “George Crookes” Open (I would love to have my name on this trophy) and perhaps a “Dave Crookes” Open!
After a breakfast at The Fountain Café with matey Bela, it was off to the venue to meet eldest son Steve who I managed to get out fishing again based on it being local. I was hoping for a peg with Scales written on it – pegs 18 and 17. Alas out comes peg 9 on the disabled platform – so expect a dead knee before the match ended. However, the family didn’t miss out on a flyer as Steve drew peg 18. Bela drew peg 6 a good 16 metre over th island peg which would suit his style – well brawn.
Peg 9 is next to a very good Skimmer peg number eight and with Steve Dawson on it and on next “available” peg 11 was matey Darren Gillman – so I was up against it.
The water was still clearish. I had put this down to the surface water being heated up over the last eight days, with the fish not feeding on the bottom, hence not disrupting the silt. So I decided I would start shallow with my Ronnie caster rig after feeding a pot of 50/50 caster and 2.4’s wetted pellet at 10 metres. On the caster I had a 1 ½ lb Hybrid first put in followed by a few small Ronnie’s before the shied away. So out on the 3 mm soft pellet and it was near repeat of Thursday with the small Skimmers nicking the pellet making the fishing very slow albeit hectic! So I decided to try the CW&C, chopping up five Dendrabena, topping up the cup with caster, hoping I didn’t completely bugger the swim. This did help although I had to wait for a fish they were of a much better stamp. However, I was concerned about the large dark shadows swimming around my float. This was preceded by a very difficult mid match hour, until the Skimmers came back. But with an 1 ½ hours left I had a number of iffy bites until I struck in to a Carp three foot off bottom which decided it would “fly” like a Skimmer. It was foul hooked in the tail and took me twenty minutes to scoop it in to the landing net. It was a Common Carp which weighed 15lb 8oz. It then took until the last 15 minutes to get the Skimmers back - far too late. My Skimmers weighed in at 26lb and when added to the sole “jammy” Carp added up to 41lb 8oz for second in the Silvers and fifth overall. I fed about twenty worms and ¾ pint of caster and 1 ¼ pint of wetted 2.4’s throughout the match.
What more can you ask for dead calm, wall to wall sunshine and fishing one of the best fisheries in the South West.
The match was won by Terry Bruton (pictured right – picture courtesy of Ray Bazeley) from peg 21 with 89lb 2oz. Terry initially tried for the Skimmers by the swim soon died so he went for the carp over to the opposite island with heir rigged 8 mm pellet loose feeding s few over the top of his initial feed of a full pot of 8’s. Terry landed nine doubles with two coming from his LH margin.
I have to mention son Steve (pictured right – picture courtesy of Ray Bazeley) who was runner up with 76lb 5oz – losing eight! – Room for improvement.
The Silvers was won by Match Organised Kevin Dicks (pictured right) with one of the best weights of recent times 36lb 12oz from fancied (for Carp) peg 16. Kevin caught short on caster and worm.
Full Result:
1. Terry Bruton 89-02-0 peg 21
2. Steve Nicholls 76-05-0 peg 18
3. Bela Bakos 53-08-0 peg 6
4. Dave Micklewright 46-0-0 peg 17
5. Mike Nicholls 41-08-0 peg 9
6. Kevin Dicks 36-12-0 peg 16
Top Silvers:
1. Kevin Dicks 36-12-0 peg 16
2. Mike Nicholls 26-0-0 peg 9
3. Mike Jones 19-12-0 peg 32
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