Thursday 05/01/2017 - Baththampton AA - Silvers League - Round One - Bridge Pool

First match of the Bathampton AA Silvers League and as fate would have it, the coldest night of the year so far and as anticipated ice breakers at the ready. I started my day in Hungry Horace’s with John Smith and Pete Greenslade.

Twenty Four booked in to the league and only one no-show matey Rich Coles who had a bad back – all comes with old age. I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of stand-ins Craig Fletcher who I fished with for many years on the river, he reminded me of how I use to fish dried blood in GB to catch Eels, and Graham Beevor (pictured upper right) whom I haven’t seen for 12 or so years, he haven’t lost it, Graham is still smashing poles! Hope to see more of these guys.

In to the draw bag and out comes tripled stapled and glued peg 10. Happy with this and amazingly would have been next to Rich Coles on my left and on the right was John Smith and next to John Pete Greenslade. On my left also was Dave Wride (pictured right) with whom I had some great conversation for once, but still couldn’t get a smile. Although an excellent peg I worried I had too much room/ice where the fish could back-off into.

After swinging the 4lb Lump Hammer around tied to 11 metres of blue very cold and wet rope I eventually warmed up, although my hands were freezing. The ice was about 10mm thick so not too bad. What didn't surprise me was that pulling the hammer along the bottom it didn't colour the peg - due to no silt! I usually go for a 4x16 float on this venue but because of the conditions I set up two 4x14 Malman F1 Winters – one with a black top to fish in front and a yellow top to fish at 10-o-clock both to fish at top-set plus four. However, this size proved to be a little light as the small pieces of floating ice was holding up the float – but we persevere.

Set my mind for one dinner plate on the black top rig. So initially fed a knub of GB laced with a few dead reds where I would fish either a single dead or double Pinkie. Amazingly I had an indication first dob-in, however, it took a15 minutes before I netted my first 2oz Skimmer. It was fishing very hard. The upshot was I caught 24 small fish during the match and got worried in the last 15 minutes when Chris Rolfe had his first bite – a big Skimmer and then John “Jammy” Smith a 2lb 8oz Skimmer. Luckily I held out weighing 3lb 7oz for a section win.

There is no overall payout with the exception of a Veals £25 tackle voucher which ironically was won by Callum Dicks. Dad Paul had a chuckle – expect some restocking of his shop soon! Callum (pictured right) caught seventeen Skimmers for 9lb 2oz from peg 21. Callum caught on maggot over GB at 13 metres. As he said we were all handicapped by the ice having to fish the broken channels.

As the result show that the Pool lacks small silver fish.

Finally back to the pub for a warm up with the usual suspects and Craig Fletcher. 

Full Result:

A Section: Paul Barnfield 1-10-0 peg 32

A Section: Tony “where was Judith” Rixon 0-08-0 peg 33

B Section: Mike Nicholls 3-07-0 peg 10

B Section: John “Jammy” Smith 2-09-0 peg 8

C Section: Graham Beevor 6-09-0 peg 14

C Section: Mike Owens 6-09 –o peg 15

D Section: Callum Dicks 9-02-0 peg 21

D Section: Craig Fletcher 4-14-0 peg 29

Weigh Sheets: