Thursday 14/09/2018 - Bathampton AA Over 55's - Bridge Pool

With Geoff  indisposed I travelled alone. Whilst loading the car I felt as if I had missed something, checked the kit all present and correct. Arrived early at the fishery but had lost the access gate number so had to wait until Mike Jones arrived with his new Jag and tackle trailer. In the meantime I relised I had left my maggots home! Bugger. I had a walk around the Lake and found no signs of feeding fish, which wasn't surprising as many of the fisheries around this area are slowing down, plus it was only 4 degrees. The water colour had dropped out some. Oh well someone got to win.

Into the draw bag and out comes peg 29. Umm, open water swim. Peg 29 use to be a good peg for the Silvers but since the club moved the majority of Carp a couple of years ago it has become difficult. For company I had match organiser Chris Rolfe on peg 30 and Hughie Evans on peg 28. Couldn't help noticing that the island opposite Chris has had a serious haircut. Same formatt for me - Silver first half and Carp second half if the Silvers were doubtful for a pick up.

Ronnie rig was set up but failed to catch so had an early retirement in the reeds. A 4x16 F1 to fish at top-set plus four barrels in full depth of 7 foot. A 4x14 F1 to fish top-set plus two barrels about 1 foot up the inside shelf - this covered the first half. For the second half two paste rigs one to fish over the top-set plus two line and the other for the margin. Leaving plenty of time left for a chat with Chris and Hughie.

Started by potting some chopped worm, caster and micro on the long line but started short on the 4 mm expander over micro and caught a few Roach and some small Skimmers. I started to miss bites which were either small Perch or small Roach. Luckily matey Chris had given me some red maggot hookers so put one on and started to hook both small species. It was one a bung but catching them unshipping is slow. So I tried the worm line and had two decent Skimmers before I was pestered by small Perch nicking the worm tails. I decided to mix some GB and go full out on the small Roach which I did up to five minutes before halftime during which I converted the short line for Carp by potting hard fours and similarly the margin. At halftime it was obvious it was fishing hard. I shared a sandwich with matey Chris Ollis on peg 24 who had about 8 lb of Silvers. I felt the decision was correct as fishing for small Roach on the longish pole is to tiresome. So back in the saddle with the bait tray cleared for the 4's and paste. I tried the top-set plus two first and was happy so find the paste wasn't being nibbled to death so knew a Carp or two were about. It took two tries before I had my first Carp, and quicker to get the second. I refed this line and went in the margin and caught some right lumps. I switched between the two until the end. I did foul hook two on the longer line and lost a munter from the margin swim.

My Silvers weighed 10 lb 8 oz which wasn't that far from Silvers coin. The Carp weighed 83 lb for a match winning total of 93 lb 8 oz.

The Silvers was won by Paul Barnfield (pictured right with his catch of Skimmers) with 27 lb 12 oz from end peg 32. The post match interview went something like this:

Me "How did you catch Paul"
Paul "Worm"
Me "Did you feed worm?"
Paul "Yes"
Me "How much and was it neat?"
Paul "Yes mate not much"
Me "Why is all that micro on your platform?"
Paul "I fed a small amount of micro as well"
Me "How much?"
Paul "Three scoops"
Me "How much is a scoop?"
Paul "Three scoops is three pints!"

I was left thinking how much worm did Paul feed to make it neat equivalent?

Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 93-08-0 peg 29
2. John Smith 41-14-0 peg 11
3. Paul Haines 35-12-0 peg 18
4. Harry Muir 32-12-0 peg 16

Silvers:

1. Paul Barnfield 27-12-0 peg 32
2. Mike Jones 15-10-0 peg 7
3. Pete Greenslade 14-04-0 peg 14

Weigh Sheets: