Thursday 22/11/2012 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's and Disabled - Bridge Pool

The forecast was for high gusting winds up to 70 mph and heavy rain. As I hate fishing in the wind I was in two minds whether to fish or not. Fish I did and was surprised that another 24 Coffin Dodgers also braved the forecast.

 

Match organiser Mike Jones as usual gave great thought to the pegs that might be the least affected by the wind. However, the wind proved to be gusting from all points of the compass making most of the pegs difficult to fish.

 

I noticed a bit of commotion near the draw and discovered that Mike Jones had left the peg balls home and for some unknown reason Bob the Bread was left to staple up the draw tickets – but not very well, it took three staplers before we had the draw ready and then Harry Muir pulled a peg with three draw cards stapled together!!

 

In I went and pulled peg 19. Yippee a peg I have yet to fish. I have often looked at this peg and could never see any reason why it shouldn’t throw up few fish as it next to one of my favourite pegs - 18. However, looking behind me there are two big Oak trees which are close to the edge of the steep bank and due to the wind it caused me a bit of concern, but they appeared to be still live.

 

After inspecting the pitch I found that the water had become very clear with the margins a no go area. So I decided to keep it simple setting up two rigs; my Ronnie rig and a 4x16 jolly Ronnie rig to be fished at 9 metres all with caster. After potting in half a pot at 9 metres I started on the Ronnie rig with single caster. I started well catching 2-3oz Ronnie’s with the occasional hybrid. However, it wasn’t long before I was playing a Carp. I was expecting this to upset the Ronnie’s but not, I carried on catching them that was until the next Carp which was a bit bigger and lead me a merry dance. After this I couldn’t get the Ronnie’s to settle, so it was out at 9 metres with caster hook bait which resulted in a few Perch and the odd small Skimmer. The upshot was that I kept switching between 9 metres and the Ronnie rig to keep the small fish coming. However, the long line was hard work because of the wind, which resulted in more time close in.

 

My two Common Carp weighed 16lb and my Ronnie’s 13lb for a total of 29lb. This put me first overall and third in the Silver.

 

The Silvers was won by Alan Jones (pictured right with the overall winner) from peg 24 with 19lb 4oz of CW&C caught Skimmer.

Bill Ferris on peg 33 caught a 2lb 4oz plump Perch.

 

Full Result:

 

1.      Mike Nicholls 29-0-0 peg 19

2.      Chris Rolfe 28-14-0 peg 29

3.      Pete Greenslade 25-02-0 peg 4

4.      Pete Phillips 22-14-0 peg 2

5.      John Fry 20-12-0 peg 29

6.      Alan Jones 19-04-0 peg 24

 

Top Silvers:

 

1.      Alan Jones 19-04-0 peg 24

2.      John Wild 13-02-0 peg 21

3.      Mike Nicholls 13-0-0 peg 19