Thursday 07/02/2013 - Bathampton AA/Veals Silvers Championship - Round Two - Bridge Pool

I had a walk down to the Lake before the draw and was astonished to see that the colour was very similar to that of two years ago when there were issues. Hence, my expectations for a big weight were lowered.

 

Before the draw we had the draw for the pairs and as it happened this was the most exiting part of the match for most. This year it was my time with Chris Rolfe – so happy with this. However, not a good start as we were in the same section, so down one point before we wetted a line.

 

For some unknown reason I stood close to the organiser and ended up with the draw recording sheet. However, I wasn’t going to be delayed to last in the draw so dug in early into the tight draw bag. And out comes peg 16 - very happy with this one, but inherited another job of scales man along with John Smith who was on peg 15. On peg 17 I found the Bath expat Rich Coles so I had great company.

 

I set up 1x 4x16 jolly with a 20 hook (my last hook – Mr Rixon) to be fished at 10 metres at 1 o clock with maggot over GB. 1x 4x16 jolly with a 16 hook to be fished at 9 metres at 12 o clock with soft pellet. Finally, my usual Ronnie rig for the caster. To cut this  one short, I didn’t have a bite on the caster.

 

Taking the learning from the previous match on this lake the plan was to start on the pellet over micro then after I had emptied if over the first of the match switch to the GB and maggot to keep some fish coming. Well, other than the start the best laid pans don’t always work out!

 

The first 90 minutes went to plan, subsequently, due to the lack of bites and well ahead of plan I was feeding the GB line. This produced a massive 1oz. Back on the pellet and a few more Skimmers, before both swims died. I spent the next two hours catching bugger all.

 

Because of the water colour my thinking was that the fish didn’t want to feed in the deeper water over silt for any length of time. So I fed some GB laced with Pinkie into the margin and fish double Pinkie over it and over the last hour added another 1lb of small Ronnie’s.

 

 As I anticipated the fishing wasn’t brilliant with my 12lb putting me second overall and a section win and just 3 oz behind the winner. The saving grace of the match was everyone weighed in, thanks to the small 1-2oz Ronnie’s, otherwise there would have been a few blanks.

The match was won by Dave Wride (pictured right with the accidental Carp pool winner) from peg 26 (another peg with an empty peg each side). With 12lb 6oz. Dave caught over both his micro line and his F1 GB line using maggot, Pinkies or soft pellet.

 

The accidental pool was won by Paul Staite with a 12lb Common Carp from peg 29. 

It has now become routine to go for a Pinkie Ponk in the Compton Dando Arms after the match. The picture right is the honoury members of the Pinkie Ponk club.

 

Full Result:

 

1.      Dave Wride 12-03-0 peg 26

2.      Mike Nicholls 12-0-0 peg 16

3.      Paul Barnfield 11-15-0 peg 28

4.      Terry Bruton 10-02-0 peg 9 (3lb 12oz Tench)

5.      John Smith 9-04-0 peg 15

6.      John Bradford 8-02-0 peg 33

 

Accidental Carp:

 

1.      Paul Staite 12-0-0 peg 29

2.      Bob “Medium Sliced” Price 9-10-0 peg 30 (Not so accidental)

3.      Terry Bruton 8-08-0 peg 9

 

The weigh sheets are shown below: