Thursday 05/07/2018 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's - Bridge Pool

It was Hungry Horace's for breakfast with Geoff going for the big one which I thought he couldn't eat because he tried to off-load chips onto my plate. He did and started to regret it on the way to the fishery.

I had a walk round the pool and as per usual the fish appeared to be around pegs 14, 10, 26 and 16 with hardly any fish showing down the bottom end except for a few munters swimming around on the top. So I was hoping for a peg without it beginning with a 3. Into the draw bag and counter number 31 staring at me, it's the third time I have drawn down this end the two previous times missing out on a Silvers payout by ounces. Geoff draw peg 21.

For company I had Tony Rixon on peg 30, next peg was Martin McMahon on end peg 33 and would be in the shade all day - luckily, as it was bloody hot.

I knew Tony would fish 17.5 metres over underneath the tree on the opposite island.  I would have needed 15 metres to reach the island from my peg which I don't own. In any case I wanted to fish for the Silvers. So set up the waggler which was over gunned for the short distance which made casting accurately difficult. A 4x16 Malman 4x16 F1 to fish chopped worm and caster at top-set plus four. I chose CW&C only because I had some left over and wouldn't last another week in this weather. Finally the Ronnie rig.

Whilst setting up there was a commotion on the end of the first island with a Carp being chased by something. Some thought it was a Otter, I wasn't sure and thought it might be a Mink. Later during the match another Carp attack and some anglers seen it clearer and was confident that in fact it was an Otter.

I fed some CW&C but started on the Ronnie rig with caster whilst this settled. I was disappointed that I remained bitless for 15 minutes and it wasn't until I switched to maggot that I caught some small Perch, but no Ronnies! Onto the worm where there was some bubbling. Missed first bite which was probably a liner. I then had a 1 1/2 lb Skimmer followed by more Perch. Re-fed and tried the waggler and had two Skimmers on maggot over loose fed maggot - again followed by more small Perch. The upshot was the worm line had completely died - for some reason you can't catch on the bottom at the moment with all the fish up in the water. I caught three Skimmers on the waggler, one on the Ronnie rig whilst trying boost my weight with Perch on the Ronnie rig and 3 more on the pole at thirteen metres with maggot. I did have one small F1 and lost two foul hooked Carp on the waggler.


I heard a commotion from the other side of the island and saw Harry Muir doing a very good impression of Usain Bolt chasing his top five (pictured right) being towed by a foul hooked Carp.

My one F1 weighed 1 lb 4 oz and my Silvers weighed in at 11 lb 8 oz for last pick-up in the Silvers. Welcome after a couple of near misses. Looking forward to fishing one of the pegs at the other end on the Pool sometime.

The match was as expected won by the only angler (pictured right with his half time catch) fishing who can wield 17.5 metres of pole with a hill behind him with 77 lb 14 oz from peg 30. Tony caught on...see his blog for details.

The Silvers was won by Steve Dawson (pictured right with the match winner) with 24 lb 12 oz from peg 26. Steve caught all his Skimmers during the second half fishing at 5 metres shallow at 3 foot using maggot over loose fed maggot. An excellent weight considering the conditions.

Back to the pub with Geoff where a cold pint was never so welcome.

Result:

1. Tony Rixon 77-14-0 peg 30
2. Paul Haines 59-08-0 peg 15
3. Dave Wride 48-02-0 peg 24
4. Martin McMahon 47-14-0 peg 33

Silvers:

1. Steve Dawson 24-12-0 peg 26
2. Paul Barnfield 15-13-0 peg 11
3. Mike Nicholls 11-08-0 peg 31

Weigh Sheets: