Friday, 12 May 2017

Thursday 11/05/2015 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's and Disabled - Bridge Pool

I arrived early so had walk around Bridge Pool and at first I thought it looked as if the Skimmers were feeding all around the pool. Which didn’t seem right, then my thinking went back to another time when the water temperature had increased during spring causing what I think is a reaction between silt and Siltex causing is to gas off. I assume the silt has to be changed from a solid to gas to be removed from water - otherwise. During this period it was very difficult to catch fish on the bottom and that how it was to prove today. Anyone know this chemistry?

In to the draw bag and out comes peg 14 which is one of the deepest pegs on the pool at 8 foot. There were plenty of bubbles coming off bottom which I must say does look like feeding fish. For company I had organiser Chris Rolfe on peg 14 and the next nearest peg to my right was birthday boy Pete Turner on peg 11. Peg 15 and 16 are at 90 degrees to each other so some negotiations take place on who pole roller goes high and who’s go low and typically ends up as pictured upper right – Crisscross – Chris/Ray

Unfortunately we are not allowed to put Carp in keepnets so they don’t count which is a shame as a few were caught today especially from peg 26 (pictured right).

Set up the Ronnie rig for caster over caster down to my right but didn’t hold out much hope as there appear to be a complete lack of Roach in this Pool. A 4x10 F1 Winter to fish shallow and the main attack a 4x16 F1 Winter which I plumbed all around the swim indentifying six different places where the depths were similar, starting at top-set plus two working around and out to a nose bleeding 13 metres. So started short with GB and DR’s and caught five small Skimmers then re-fed had two more before it completely died. I usually stay in the same swim for most of the match but because the Pool is fishing strange you need to keep starting new swims catching a couple of Skimmers before it dies and that how my match went and after three hours I had emptied all six spots. I knew the fish were up in the water so tried the shallow rig which to be fair I didn’t give long enough as I switched to the margin with the same rig and started to get bites from tiny Perch on DR’s which kept me occupied for an hour or so. I didn’t get one bite on the Ronnie rig – what’s going on. Back in the margin I saw a large black bream of about 4lb swim to the surface and race out of the swim. Next put in I hook the culprit that had chased the Bream out a irritated Carp which broke me. I now couldn’t get a bite anywhere so thinking I was well behind packed in 15 minutes early. If I had known it was close for the top 7 (except one) I would have opened another swim.

I weighed 10lb which was more than I thought and saved me from another OOO (One Out Of) sneaking in 7th and last in the coin. With only 12lb 12oz coming second I should have persevered a little longer.

The match was one by Steve Dawson (pictured right) with 32lb from peg 28. Steve started at 9 metres using 6mm expander over micro catching a few Skimmers but once the wind got up pushing his float through with it changed to his shallow rig catching two foot deep on maggot over throwing stick maggot. Well done matey.

Full Result:

  1. Steve Dawson 32-0-0 peg 28
  2. Paul Barnfield 12-12-0 peg 26
  3. Alan Jones 12-06-0 peg 19
  4. Chris Rolfe 11-10-0 peg 15
  5. John Smith 11-09-0 peg 3
  6. Chris Ollis 10-02-0 peg 10
Weigh Sheets:





















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