Thursday, 4 July 2013

Thursday 04/07/2013 - Bathampton Over 55's and Disabled - Withy Pool

It was a toss up whether I went down to Viaduct or went to the Over 55’s at Withy. Withy won out simply because I was knackered from yesterday and didn’t fancy the long lonely drive.
 
After picking up matey Bob Warren and a breakfast at Asda (this is where Bob takes you if he’s paying)!
 
As expected the water level was down. But there is still a few billion gallons left! In to the draw bag and out comes peg 5 (not really the 9 is missing off the platform). I didn’t know what to think about the peg only it was nearly opposite the peg I would have picked – peg 49.
 
The fishing ay Withy has changed over the last few years from small hand size Skimmers and Ronnie’s to much bigger Silver fish. So you have to change your approach to target this stamp.
 
I had the choice of two approaches; CW&C for the Silvers or paste for Silvers and Carp. The choice dependant on the peg I drew. The decision on peg 59 was going to be paste only. These pegs along the North bank are very shallow on the inside, especially with the water lever down, so no margin swims here. That said I did set a paste rig up to fish in 2 foot of water at 4 metres. This rig didn’t get wet. This left the one paste rig to fish at 9 metres out in front a 0.5 gram float was my choice for 6 foot of water.
 
On the whistle I fed a half pot of 4’s at 9 metres and followed up with a two day old piece of paste. I then had a fruitful hour catching two hybrids, four Skimmers, four Bream (to 3 ½ lb) and one Carp. It then went quiet even though I was topping up through the kinder pot with hard 4’s with every piece of paste. It surprising how much you can feed like this. I was waiting so long for a bite that the paste came off so I changed to a whole Dendrabena, the biggest in the container. First try I foul hooked a Carp (so they are there then). The same next put in – bugger.  I then added another four Carp in to the net. I thought 5 was enough in the shallow water so got a third net out. All the while I had been topping up with the big pot of hard 4’s after each fish and by changing back to paste I landed another five Carp, losing one due to a combination of a bit of bad angling and a crafty Common Carp.
 
My Silvers weighed 14lb 2oz and my Carp 85lb 10oz for a grand total of 99lb 12oz. This put me first overall and third in the Silvers.
 
The Silvers was won by Gentleman Dave Bacon (pictured right with the match winner) with 20lb of Skimmers and Bream from peg 67. Dave caught most of his fish on the GB feeder.
 
Full Result:
 
1.      Mike Nicholls 99-12-0 peg 59
2.      Chris Rolfe 92-10-0 peg 54
3.      Mike Jones 66-13-0 peg 44
4.      Andy Shields 65-12-0 peg 73
5.      Terry Bruton 45-08-0 peg 61
6.      Terry Church 42-04-0 peg 66
7.      Bob Warren 40-02-0 peg 60
 
Top Silvers:
 
1.      Dave Bacon 20-0-0 peg 67
2.      Alan Jones 16-01-0 peg 49
3.      Mike Nicholls 14-02-0 peg 59
4.      Bill Ferris 14-0-0 peg 68
 
Weigh Sheets Follow:
 
 
 

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