06/12/2018 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's - Hunstrete - Bridge Pool

Out to the garage in the dark and whilst finding the garage light I felt some satisfying crunching under foot. Last night I un-bagged some red maggots into a bait box which for all intents and purposes were dead. However, not the case with the mild night temperatures they revided and sweated up - the rest we all know. So spent 15 minutes trying to hide the evidence of this from the Special One.

Travelled with Geoff Francis which always means a full breakfast which we had a Hungry Horace's. I have started enjoying food again so it went down well.

BAA had planned to Siltex the pools earlier this week but for some reason it didn't happen, this cheered up all the twenty anglers fishing today. Let's hope they stop this all together and stop wasting club funds.

I'm still a bit under the weather so thought about a near draw, but soon changed my mind as I hate fishing on the road bank. Into the draw bag and out comes peg 16. Happy with this as it's a short walk and would have the wind off my right shoulder. However, this peg hasn't really produced since the summer, but has a great record. I have had some great days on this peg and I still hold the Pool record from it. For company I had Pete Turner on peg 18, John Smith on peg 24 and behind me on peg 15 the affable Pete Greenslade.

Three rigs - The Ronnie, a 4x12 Roob set to 3 1/2 foot for fishing 11 metres to the opposite island and a 4x16 Winter to fish at 2 o'clock at topset plus three barrels for Silvers. On the bait tray - 1/2 pint of now live reds, handful of Pinkies some wetted micro and some sonubaits 4mm expander, which have gone a darker colour and don't expand as large - consistency would be good!

Fed both the Ronnie line and Silvers line with one small handful of GB laced with a few pinkies and LR's. Started on the Silvers line with single or double LR's on the hook and had a 1 oz Skimmers first and second put-in. I then had to wait before I had the next Skimmer which was about 1 lb. I kept topping up with a laced knub of GB to keep the Skimmers coming. I then had four big Skimmers in four put-ins but lost two of them, glad Mike Jones wasn't here today as I did say a double bugger. At least the feeding was more akin to Skimmer's where it was feed a knub and wait for them to come over it which allowed me to have a swaray over to the far bank. I started over kindering in a few expanders and micro. With 4 expander on the hook I had indications right away but found the expander not robust enough as striking at liners which meant re-baiting. So switch to kindering LR's with double on the hook. This was better for lifting and dropping but was still not connecting with the bites/liners. I then had a 1 lb Roach followed by a 12 ouncer, the culprits for all the missed bites I think. I then had a couple of F1's and four stock Carp. Having kept an eye on the Silvers line I saw some pimpin so back on this line produced some better Skimmers. So a pattern was formed - feed - leave - over to the far bank - back over pimpin. I did hook an 8 lb Carp over, losing it trying to net it, the water was so clear the Carp could see the landing net coming and would dive off, another bugger, I thought this might cost me today. Towards the end of the match the Ronnie's started to have a feed which meant leaving the far bank instead focussing on the Silvers line. As I wasn't catching Ronnies over the Silvers line earlier I left the Ronnie rig in the Roost.

I finished with a total of 31 lb 2 oz comprising of 17 lb 6 oz of Silvers. Luckily this was enough to win both overall and the Silvers - so another double bubble.

The runner up was Pete Turner (pictured right) with 26 lb 1 oz from peg 18. Pete had two big Carp for 21 lb.

The Pool fished better than it looked today.

It was back to the Pub with the usual suspects, where I had to watch Doombar being consumed whilst I drank a cup of black tea!!

Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 31-02-0 peg 16
2. Pete Turner 26-01-0 peg 18
3. Tony Rixon 26-0-0 peg 31
4. Alan Oram 23-02-0 peg 6
5. Steve Dawson 13-04-0 peg 33
6. Harry Muir 13-0-0 peg 11

Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 17-06-0 peg 16
2. Paul Banfield 11-0-0 peg 4
3. Dave Wride 10-12-0 peg 7

Weigh Sheets: