Thursday 12/10/2018 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's - Bridge Pool

Arrived at the fishery in plenty of time to have a walk around the pool with Dave Gillard and Steve Dawson. The water was too clear for my liking especially down the far end - didn't want to draw down here. With Chris Rolfe away the morning assembly was held by Mike Jones - subjects today - No swearing and no abusing car drivers by leaving poles behind you on the road side.

In to the ASDA "bag for life" (no draw bag) and out comes the last disc I would have chosen - peg 31. I always seem to struggle on this peg but have managed to scrap last in the silvers money or onced out. I should have taken this experience of the peg more seriously. for company I had Hughies Evans and Rob Duffety who was end peg 32.

I set up two paste floats one for just up the inside shelf and the other for a deep margin (water clarity). Setting up these rigs was a mistake and proved to be no more than a distraction for what I should have done all match. The Silvers rigs were the Ronnie rig and a 4x16 f1 to fish top-set plus one Barrel which was 4 inches up the inside shelf.

I started on the 4mm expander over micro on the F1 and caught two decent Skimmers in the first two put-ins, both on the drop, going to empty it then. That was it except for one Ronnie. Did the right thing and fed some GB on the same line and switched to maggot and got a bite every put-in with only 50 % resulted in adding ounces to the net due to them either dropping off or missed bites. I think I might have to succumb to micro barbed hooks (they are permitted). I persevered with this to half time. I had to assist weigh in again today and it was clear the pool was fishing hard for silvers. I estimated I had 8 lb which was as good as anyone. The biggest Carp weight was 35 lb which also could be easily over hauled if I could get the margin munters. My tactics have been to fish for Carp second half, but today it was a dilemma. The upshot was I made the wrong choice by trying the paste in the margin for far too long which resulted in two lost Carp followed by some nibbling. I went back to the Silvers but was getting frustrated by flying Ronnies (the increase force between fish and hook from them being in water and suddenly not was the main culprit). I hadn't fished the Ronnie rig because I thought the water was too clear, but now gave it a go and relised that if I had started and finished on this rig I would have had a lot more Ronnies in the net I also had two more decent Skimmers.

I had one F1 and my Silvers weighed 15 lb which was 2 ounces from a pick-up. Will I never learn. Still I did enjoy it.

The match was won by Dave Wride with 71 lb 4 oz from peg 21.

The runner up today was Tony Rixon (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with... see his blog for details. It involved catching mainly F1's fishing long everywhere.

The Silvers was won by Paul Barnfield with 24 lb from peg 28 (why was pegs 27 and 29 not fished?). Paul caught long ising worm hook about over chopped worm and micro. Paul "only" used 1/4 kilo of worm and 4 pints of micro!!!  I noticed that he had at least a gallon of wetted micro on his bait tray!

We finally got back to the pub after negotiating lots of traffic on a rat run around the road works on the junction of the A39 and A368. One frustrated tosser asked Dave Gillard "Where he thought he was going travelling down the lanes" - Dave replied in his usual dry way "The pub, where are you going?".

Result:

1. Dave Wride 71-04-0 peg 21
2. Tony Rixon 67-0-0 peg 4
3. Paul Barnfield 59-06-0 peg 28
4. John Smith 41-03-0 peg 6

Silvers:

1. Paul Barnfield 24-0-0 peg 28
2. Mike Jones 18-0-0 peg 7
3. Steve Dawson 15-02-0 peg 24
4. Mike nicholls 15-0-0 peg 31

Weigh Sheets: