Thursday 11/10/2012 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's and Disabled - Withy Pool

Arriving at the draw we were offered a doughnut to celebrate Chris Rolfe’s 65^th, complete with jam. After a poor rendition of happy birthday, it was into the draw bag and out comes disc 69 for the second time in a month. At least it’s a short walk which was handy as my Arthritis in my foot was playing me up.

 

Taking the learning from the last match I set up four rigs:

 

Ronnie rig

Skimmer rig – 4x16 Jolly

Deep paste rig – 0.5 gram

Margin paste rig 0.3 gram

 

I decided to go positive with a pot of micro at 7 metres at 12 o clock and fish paste over the top whilst loose feeding caster for the Ronnie’s. I wasn’t long before I switched to the Jolly and soft pellet, It was even shorter before I abandoned the swim due to inactivity. Out with the Ronnie rig and after some perseverance and one tiny Perch it was obvious it wasn’t going to fish well at all. "Where have all the Ronnies gone"?

 

So I mixed up a bit of my Skimmer GB and opened up another swim at 7 metres this time at 10 o clock. First put in with single maggot on the same Jolly rig I hooked and landed a 3lb Skimmer. This was followed by a foul hook Carp which broke my hook. So after a retie and another nugget of GB laced with dead reds I hooked another 3lb Skimmer. After losing two more big Skimmers which I think were foul hooked the swim died, catching only another 2lb of small Skimmers.

 

The heavens then opened up and I decided to install the umbrella, for which I am a complete novice as they really get in my way and frustrate me.

 

With two hours left it was paste in the margin over loose fed hard 4’s. First cast I missed a bite, however, next put-in saw a 17lb 2oz Mirror grace the net. I did my best to lose it catching the umbrella a few times with top set and landing net handle. It took an hour before I hooked another which was a smaller variety. With only a few minutes left there were signs of another Carp in the swim, but time did not permit me to bag it.

 

My Silvers weighed in at 8lb 5oz and my two Mirrors 24lb 5oz for a total of 32lb 10oz and fourth overall.
 

The match was won by John Smith (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with 46lb 14oz from peg 42. John caught at 13 metres over to the island using paste and pellet.

 

The Silvers was won by Dave Gillard with 12lb 14oz from peg 48. Dave caught on his usual GB feeder and maggot/worm hook bait.

 

Full Result:

 

1.      John Smith 46-14-0 peg 42

2.      Ray Bazeley 37-06-0 peg 46

3.      Bob Warren 34-11-0 peg 43

4.      Mike Nicholls 32-10-0 peg 69

5.      Dave Bacon 27-08-0 peg 74

6.      Mike Taylor 24-02-0 peg 62

 

Top Silvers:

 

1.      Dave Gillard 12-14-0 peg 48

2.      Rich Coles 12-09-0 peg 53

3.      Alan Jones 12-07-0 peg 59