Thursday 02/08/2012 - Bathampton AA Over 55's and Disabled - Bridge Pool

I have missed a few matches due to holidays. It was good to be back fishing with the Coffin Dodgers on Bridge Pool. It was a good turn out with 30 fishing and to see Mel Ansty down on his annual visit from Manchester.

In to the draw bag and out comes peg 32. One peg down from where I was last match. Last match I felt that I stayed on the Silvers too long and yesterdays match the opposite giving up far too early. Try the compromise today.

I set up three rigs, a 4x16 Jolly for the CW&C to be fished at 6 metres at 12 0 clock. A Ronnie rig with caster over caster and the usual 0.2g paste float for the LH margin.

After feeding a pot of CW&C at 6 metres it was on to the Ronnie rig with single caster. It was soon obvious that the Ronnie’s were having a day off as all I could muster was two plus four tiny Perch (chasing this year’s fry hatch). So out on the worm and I had a decent Skimmer first put in, followed by a few more of the smaller ones. I didn’t have to wait long for a positive bite. I was beginning to think I was on for a great day on the Silvers when it went quite and all I could catch was small Perch. So I re-fed and had another, but shorter run of Skimmers. I then had a liner from a Carp and it was soon clear that the swim was being disrupted by this species. Only half hour gone, too early for the Carp me thinks so re-fed CW&C again and tried the caster up in the water for anything that swims. This produced bugger all. Out again on the worm and two more tiny Skimmers followed by more eager tiny perch. I wasn’t going to waste any more bait on this line. So after an hour it was in for the Carp – far too early.

The upshot was that I fished the paste steady dripping in hard 4’s for five hours catching Fourteen Carp, all Mirrors except one dark coloured Common. I lost three foul hookers and one slipped the hook – no breakages.

With thirty minutes to go the heavens open complete with thunder and lightening. The heavy rain softened the 4’s and I thought feeding these over the paste was a better option which I will try and remember for the next visit.

My Silvers weighed 11lb 8oz; I think I stopped fishing for them too early as only 14lb got in the frame. My fourteen Carp weighed in at 129lb (averaging 9lb). This gave me a match winning total of 140lb 8oz.

It looks as if the Carp have now moved out from between the Islands and occupied their old haunts in the thirties.

The Silvers was won by Bryan Sheppard (pictured right) with 21lb 12oz from peg 10. Bryan caught on worm fished over GB laced with chopped worm. Interestingly Bryan didn’t have any casters. So something to try next time perhaps.

Full Result:

1.      Mike Nicholls 140-08-0 peg 32

2.      Bob Price 92-12-0 peg 29

3.      Martin Alexander 69-04-0 peg 21

4.      Dave Bacon 65-07-0 peg 22

5.      Dave Poole 54-14-0 peg 1

6.      Terry Bruton 47-10-0 peg 13

Top Silvers:

1.      Bryan Sheppard 21-12-0 peg 10

2.      Pail Haines 15-03-0 peg 33

3.      Terry Bruton 14-02-0 peg 13