Thursday 20/12/2012 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's and Disabled - Christmas Match - Bridge Pool

The weather girl got it spot on, with temperatures a balmy 11 degrees and light rain all day until 15:00. So it was a soaking wet day but the winds were kind for most of the day.

 

Once again another good turn out of 22 for today's annual Coffin Dodgers Christmas Match, with only two no shows, for good reason, and all pictured below except the Gimp and John Fry who were late – I hope the Gimp got back home OK through the flood waters – I think he now knows he’s not driving an amphibian!

 

 

In to the draw bag and out comes a virgin peg for me – peg 13 (only two pegs left to fish on this venue pegs 1 and 2). I was happy with this because I like a new challenge, plus I had empty pegs each side of me – so plenty of room. Once again I found myself technically next to matey Bob Warren.

 

Although the water was very clear I knocked up some paste, which I tried five times without success – so no more on this. In addition to the throw away paste rig I set up the usual – Ronnie rig and a 4x16 jolly to be fished at 9 metres.

 

I started by feeding a small pot of a 50/50 combo of micro and caster at 9 metres. But started fishing on the Ronnie rig with the usual caster over caster. Third cast I hooked a 12oz Ronnie which came off. Next cast the same – bugger. Worse to come, next cast and I hook a big Carp which over five minutes didn’t move more than 5 foot hugging the bottom all of the time – it didn’t have to as it let its weight do me. Next cast and another lost Carp, which I think was fouled – but never sure. With the net still empty things settled down, I started to catch some decent Ronnie’s and Hybrids’, I then hooked and landed a 2lb + Perch. The swim then died so it was out on the 9 metre line with 6mm expander. I had a run of very small Skimmers which spent an age inspecting the bait before taking it which lead to a lot of re-hooking and frustration. So I switched to caster hook bait which although this took longer to get a bite the fish was much bigger including some better Hybrids. So after feeding the 9 metre line with a 75/25 mix of caster and micro it was back to the Ronnie rig. The format was to catch a few on the Ronnie rig before they scared off, then on to the 9 metre line which I finally converted to caster only. I managed to keep the quality fish coming until he final ten minutes when I hooked another Carp and because I couldn’t get the pole on to the top set quick enough the hook length broke because the elastic bottomed out – bugger. As it worked out it didn’t matter as my 18lb 11oz of Silvers was enough to win the match and a large joint of beef for the Special one to cook.

Thanks to Mike Jones and Chris Rolfe for once again running an excellent series of matches throughout the year and for Bill Ferris and Mike Jones for organising to days prizes - excellent days fishing all round me thinks.

 

Full Result: (only Bill Ferris caught Carp so top six only)

 

1.      Mike Nicholls 18-11-0 peg 13

2.      Bill Ferris 15-03-0 peg 15 (Incl: 9lb Carp)

3.      Mike Jones 14-04-0 peg 32

4.      John Smith 12-08-0 peg 8

5.      Dave Poole 11-08-0 peg 19

6.      Rich Coles 9-13-0 peg 26