Silverfox Match Angling: Thursday 03/08/2017 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's And Disabled - Dave Crookes Fishery - Bridge Pool

Thursday, 3 August 2017

Thursday 03/08/2017 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's And Disabled - Dave Crookes Fishery - Bridge Pool - Silvers Only

I had a leisurely breakfast at Hungry Horace’s and giving Wetherspoons a miss. Plenty of time for a walk around Bridge Pool where there was little signs of feeding fish. The wind was all over the place but mainly blowing into the near end pegs 18 and 19. Last night I was only thinking that I haven’t drawn peg 18 for some while, which is one of my favoured pegs, especially when Carp was on the menu. Into the draw bag and staring back at me was peg 18 – scary, but happy. For company I had matey Rich Coles on peg 19, so another peg battle.

I was expecting to catch down each margin so set up the Ronnie rig for the RH side and a 4x10 winter for down the LH side. All I can say is that I was very disappointed to later discover that I couldn’t get any bites whatsoever from either side! This was to reduce my weight considerably. The rig that I could only catch on was a 4x16 winter fished at top-set plus three out in front with single DR over GB laced with a few casters and DR’s. To say it was a struggle is an understatement. I had hooked six Carp by half way through and had about 4lb in the sack, so went for the Banana walk and found that the fishing was difficult all around. Back in the saddle and it was either a small Perch or a large Carp. I started to feed pellet in the margin to distract the Carp. This seemed to work and had a few Skimmers and Hybrids on either worm or double caster. I then hooked what I thought was another Carp only to discover it was a hard fighting Tench, worth the visit just for this fight. An early bath for Rich Coles followed shortly after and very little more sport for me either. The wind was so difficult for presentation and I really only caught when it subsided.

I finished with a respectable 13lb 10oz.

The match was won by Alan Jones (pictured upper right with his net of Skimmers) with 21lb 6oz from peg 16. Alan caught on his usual bait of CW&C fished at 10 metres.

Full Result: