Thursday 30/08/2012 - Bathampton AA Over 55's and Disabled - Bridge Pool

With the Paralympics starting today its worth noting that match angling has good support from the disabled, as we do for the Coffin Dodger matches. There are of course many levels of disablements, some far worse than others. Bob Tilley (pictured right) is one such angler and finds it difficult at times, especially when landing fish. It is also difficult for him to manoeuvre around his peg which often leads to broken pole sections and has broken plenty in his time (but not as many as Mike Jones). However, Bob always manages to land a few fish as he did today from peg 5 landing 24lb 11oz of Carp and Silver fish, well done matey.

 

After a long night drying out my kit for today’s match it was into the draw bag and out pops peg 26. Happy with this as it is predominately a Silvers peg and I could do with a rest from the Carp critters.

 

However, I was concerned whether it would fish today as we had a lot of rain yesterday filling the Lake to the brim, adding some unusual colouring and also a full overnight moon.

 

Peg 26 is one of the deepest swims on the lake, but a 4x16 jolly just about severs ok, which was set up for the 9 foot of water and the Ronnie rig. I did set up a paste rig for the margin but that didn’t get much of an outing today. I started out in front by feeding a pot of CW&C at 5 metres and with a worm on the hook of the jolly rig started to catch a few small 4oz Skimmers. It was soon clear that the Silvers were going to be a struggle. I kept topping up the CW&C every hour but the fishing gradually got worse to the point I changed to the Ronnie rig with single caster. I had a few more small Skimmers, Ronnie’s and Perch, but often interrupted by Carp, losing four foul hookers and landing two for 19lb 3oz. I persevered with the Silvers with the Ronnie rig fishing single caster of loose fed caster until the end weighing in 14lb 4oz for second in the Silvers, with my total of 33lb 7oz leaving my 7^th overall.

 

The match was won by Ray Bazeley (pictured right with some of his 14 fish haul) with 93lb 3oz, Ray caught on a small pellet feeder fished to the point of the opposite island.

 

The Silvers was won by Andy Smith (pictured lower right with the match winner) with 17lb 5oz from peg 11. Andy caught on waggler with worm hook bait fished over Maracu GB laced with worms and micro pellet.

 

Full Result:

1.      Ray Bazeley 93-03-0 peg 28

2.      Terry Bruton 55-11-0 peg 16

3.      John Smith 45-0-0 peg 12

4.      Chris Rolfe 43-06-0 peg 9

5.      Bob Warren 37-08-0 peg 24

6.      Terry Church 36-06-0 peg 1

 

Top Silvers:

 

1.      Andy Smith 17-05-0 peg 11

2.      Mike Nicholls 14-04-0 peg 26

3.      John Bradford 13-04-0 peg 8