Thursday 28/03/2019 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's - Bridge Pool

First match of the year for the Bathampton AA Over 55's. Geoff and I had another great breakfast at Hungry Horaces followed by a steady drive to the fishery and got us there in plenty of time for us to have a walk around. I'm not sure Geoff listens to my narrative on the pegs, Geoff draws peg 24 and didn't know where it was - and he has drawn it before!

With Chris Rolfe retired as match organiser Dave Gillard and Ken Morgan have stepped in to run the this years series, so again in good hands.

We were to have a beautiful Spring day, windless and warm sunshine. Great to be out in the countryside.

Nineteen fishing today so it really didn't matter where I drew as I expected to get some bites for most of the day - of course the fish needed to cooperate.

Into the draw bag and had the choice of three disc with one seeming to stick to my palm I pulled it and found myself on peg 16. This peg has of late been poor for Silvers but have been replaced by the F1's that hug the opposite island which is only 11 metres away. For company I had Bailiff John Fry on 15 and Dave Poole on peg 18. I could see Geoff who surprisingly had found peg 24.

Three rigs - a 4x12 Roob set to three foot to fish over, a 4x16 to fish down the channel in 6 foot of water and the Ronnie rig in case the Roach were dominated.

Fed the Ronnie line with GB laced with Pinkie and down the channel at top-set plus four with GB with loose micro. Started on this line with 4 mm expander and had a couple of 1 lb Skimmers. However, the bites were very strange a double pull, but some of it may have been liners - who knows? I then had an F1 - so was it them giving these indications - who knows?  I stayed on this line for half the match catching the odd Skimmer. It was clear from conversations that it was fishing hard/difficult. By this time my swim had completely died and although the were no signs of Ronnie's I had a quick go on the Ronnie rig only to catch four tiny Perch. So all put to the side for the Roob. So with 4 mm expander on the hook and feeding the same through the kinder pot I caught the odd F1, however, it was a question of catching two and waiting for them to return. It was never frantic until the last half hour when the proper Carp arrived catching two 2 pounders and a bonus 9 pound Common. My match went as I anticipated.

My Silvers weighed 8 lb 6 oz and my Carp 28 lb 6 oz for a runner up total of 36 lb 12 oz.

I have been trying various expander pellet and can say that there is very littler difference between all the makes. Just choose a pellet that retains its shape and dont fall apart. I do like to pump mine, otherwise it's a question of taking some whether they are used or not - I hate waste and by god we anglers do waste a tremendous amount of bait.

I was stood next to Tony Rixon when he drew his peg 28. I knew from the look on his face that the match was over for the rest of us.Tony (pictured upper right with his Carp catch) went on to win the match with 103 lb 10 oz. Tony caught at 17 metres over to the island catching on hard pellet fished of loose fed pellet - for the details see his blog...

The Silvers was won by Hughie Evans (pictured right) with 18 lb 8 oz from end peg 31. Hughie caught mainly Skimmers up in the water on maggot over loose fed maggot.

Result:

1. Tony Rixon 103-10-0 peg 28
2. Mike Nicholls 36-12-0 peg 16
3. Hughie Evans 18-08-0 peg 31

Silvers:

1. Hughie Evans 18-08-0 peg 31
2. Dave Wride 15-08-0 peg 7
3. Chris Ollis 14-14-0 peg 26