Thursday 27/04/2017 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's - Bridge Pool

It was yet another hard frost this morning, with a bitterly cold wind.

If there are any doubts about Bridge Pool having Otters then see picture right of one of three savaged Bream I seen along the car park bank by pegs 18 and 19. This one I removed from my swim.

Mike Jones has given up running these matches and has handed over to Chris Rolfe. Into the draw bag and out comes peg 19. All or nothing peg at the moment so went to the peg with fingers crossed. For company I had “Satnav Gillard” on peg 18 and “Gas Head Greenslade” on peg 21. The bloody freezing wind was blowing into the peg along with all the broken bits of straw from the hay bales placed around the fishery. I spent 15 minutes scooping as much as I could from the margin as I was expecting to catch half my weight here.

I set up three rigs two were identical 4x16 Winter F1’s but one had a black top and the other yellow to cater for the different reflecting trees. The black was for short at top-set plus three and the yellow top-set plus four. The third rig was a 4x12 Winter F1 for either Margin. The problem with this peg is the bank behind limits how far you can fish without breaking down. I tested the water temperature with my hand and it was still very cold.

I started on the short line with 4mm expander over GB only feeding the RH margin with caster leaving any other swim feeding to later one I had found out how it was to fish. I had four very quick 3 oz Skimmers so fed another line with the same GB at the same distance but to my right for once the first swim died. It went quiet but came back to life catching more small Skimmers and a couple of 12 ouncers. First swim dies so re-fed and went over the second swim which produced nothing. I can be impatient at times, not always a bad thing, but was today I think. So I went longer with wetted micro and 2mm expander feed again this produced nothing. Subsequently I tried my banker margin with caster at top-set plus three down to the tree and to my horror there were no sign of fish. The straw and wind wasn’t helping presentation but that wasn’t the reason for not catching, it was the lack of feeding fish. I tried fishing the LH margin using single maggot over maggot and was rewarded with a 3 oz Chub which thought is was 2lb and a 3lb Carp which for a moment I thought was a Tench, Silvers only match so it went back. I reckon by halfway I had 5lb and decided to go on the Banana walk. Everyone appeared to be doing better than me with Alan Jones admitting to 18lb on peg 28. Went back and decided that there wasn’t enough feeding fish for catch up so went into experimental mode fishing on the previously pellet fed lone using just 2mm and 4mm expander hookers over expander feed which as we know sink very slow so fished over them on the drop. I did have another motive which was to try and catch up with Satnav who already had 10lb as I couldn’t stand another piss take at the pub and the Satnav I beat you dance. The upshot was I caught three big Roach and some more Skimmers all on the drop missing loads of bites which may have been either liners or the cautious big Roach.

I weighed 10lb 12oz and luckily beating Satnav by 6oz, phew. Considering the conditions it fished well with 10lb being par today.

The match was won by Paul Barnfield (pictured upper right) with 25lb 10oz from fancied peg 10. Paul fished at 13 metres using white maggot over GB laced with maggot and micro. His £30 winnings wont be quite enough to pay for his broken 13 metre Maver section.

Runner up and close behind was Alan Jones (pictured right with his catch) with 25lb 7oz from another fancied peg 28. Alan fish worm over CWandC. Alan fed about four pints mixed 2/3 caster to 1/3 worm.

Full Result:

1. Paul Barnfield 25-10-0 peg10
2. Alan Jones 25-07-0 peg 28
3. John Smith 20-12-0 peg 29
4. Steve Dawson 19-09-0 peg 14
5. Joint 5: Mike Jones 15-12-0 peg 8 and Jim Norris 15-12-0 peg 32

Weigh Sheets: