Thursday 07/02/2019 - Bathampton AA - Club Match - Sections Only - Bridge Pool

Geoff and I had another enjoyable breakfast in the Cafe opposite:

We arrived at the fishery in plenty of time. Everyone commented on how milky the water looked in Bridge pool. It was evident that the Pool had been Siltexed once again. The Siltex appeared to be suspended in the cold water. Another waste of club funds.

Chris Rolfe has stated that he won't be running this years Coffin Dodgers matches which start in March 2019! Shame.

Into the draw bag and out comes peg 16. Happy enough with this peg as it is the narrowest peg on the Pool. However, the wind was howling through the peg which would make presentation very difficult if not impossible at times.

I set up a red top 4x16 Winter Titan to fish top-set plus four. And due to the siltexing  I wasn't sure if the fish would be on bottom so set up a 4x12 WT to fish halfway up the far shelf. Both lines would be with pinkie either with or without GB.

I started on the deep line which was at 2 o'clock by feeding a knub of GB laced with Pinkie and with the same on the hook started to get bites from small Ronnies, unfortunately most of them were falling off. I did change to a lighter elastic which didn't cure it. I'm not sure why this happens, but certain it's not anything to do with me or tackle, my thinking is they are very small and don't take the hook bait properly. I persevered with this line and occasionally got the float to go against the wind. I wanted to try over but the wind and sun prevented this for some while so had to stick catching the odd very small Skimmers and Ronnie. Once the sun moved on and the wind dropped I did go over and caught a few more Ronnies and four F1's. If only I could present I would have had a lot more. Today the environmental conditions conspired to turn a decent peg into a right struggle. A third way in to the match Dave Wride on peg 19 had an early bath for a FOE.


My four F1's weighed 4 lb and my Silvers 4 lb 11 oz for second in section weight of 8 lb 11 oz. My section was won by Chris Ollis (pictured right) with a nice net of quality Perch and Roach weighing 9 lb 4 oz from peg 24. I was envious of him having the wind off his back.

The match and silvers was won by Tony Rixon (pictured right with his Silvers catch) with 15 lb 14 oz from peg 29. See his blog for the details...

Result:

A Section: 
1. John "Cliff" Smith 9-04-0 peg 7
2. Paul Barnfield 8-14-0 peg 4

B Section:
1. Steve Dawson 10-08-0 peg 10
2. Hughie Evans 6-01-0 peg 8

C Section:
1. Chris Ollis 9-04-0 peg 24
2. Mike Nicholls 8-11-0 peg 16

D Section:
1. Tony Rixon 12-12-0 peg 29
2. Ray Bazeley 9-02-0 peg 30

Weigh Sheets: