Thursday 18/07/2019 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's and Short Walks - Bridge Pool

After a week away with the Special One it was back in the saddle at Hunstrete with Geoff Francis. Arrived at the fishery in plenty of time after our breakfast at Hungry Horace's to have a walk around the pool. I was surprised how coloured the pool was. I thought of all sorts that might have caused this but couldn't really say for sure. There was plenty of signs of feeding fish at one end of the pool, however, the far end again look dower with hardly any signs. We concluded that the pool does need restocking and is now probably missing "year fish" that were netted out in previous years. Peg 19 or 21 would have been my choice.

Two pegs left in the draw bag Ken Morgan went in first and pulled peg 19!! Last peg it was then - peg 18!! Happy with this one of which I have lots of pleasant memories. It's also the shortest walk. Peg 17 is not usually in but can be OK, and was in today and found myself facing Geoff (pictured right praying to his God of fish).

Having missed a weeks fishing I was a bit rusty and didn't have a plan. Finally decided to fish the Ronnie rig for starters whilst the Skimmer line settled on the GB feed. I had two shotted paste rigs readied, one deep over the Skimmers line at top-set plus two and one for the margin both left and right.

I started on the Ronnie rig over GB laced with maggot and loose fed LR's over the top. I had a few nice Ronnies and Rudd and an F1. The small Perch soon found the feed and I was getting pestered but felt I was doing OK and expected them to disappear soon enough. However, I had some indications of feeding fish over the GB and micro Skimmers line. So with half hour gone I needed to have a check on the species so switched to the 4x16 Winter Titan with double LR's  and had three small Tench, but these weren't the reason for the blow. So switched to the deep paste rig and had a run of 20 F1's. However, they were a bugger to catch and had to dot the float down and strike at any indication. I think expander's might have been a better choice. I then hooked a decent Carp which was too quick for me and left me climbing a tree to get my rig back! by now the sun had appeared and slowed everything down leaving me just picking off the odd F1. So tried the LH margin with paste and had a couple more F1's. I now converted both sides to Carp by loose feeding hard 4's and started to catch better Carp from both margins, landing seven losing another trying to stop it going into the tree.

My few Silvers weighed 6 lb 8 oz and my F1's 26 lb 6 oz and my Carp 60 lb 1 oz for a match winning total of 92 lb 15 oz. Looking at the Silvers result I felt I could have picked up in the Silvers pool had I concentrated more on them with the Ronnie rig. Another memorable days fishing with great company.

The Silvers was won by Dave Haines (pictured right asleep after a hard day on the whip with the match winner) with 17 lb 9 oz from peg 15. Dave caught on caster or maggot over loose fed caster and maggot fishing short - as he does. Dave bought a Daiwa pole two years ago and hasn't used more than the top-sets so far.

Geoff sneaked in the Silvers pool so a double bubble car off to the pub with more than the usual suspects.

Off to Tony's float only Sunday at Shiplate Farm - can't wait a great fishery.

Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 92-15-0 peg 18
2. Gary Bowden 61-09-0 peg 11
3. Ray Bazeley 58-13-0 peg 27
4. Pete Greenslade 44-02-0 peg 21

Silvers:

1. Dave Haines 17-09-0 peg 15
2. Steve Dawson 15-08-0 peg 29
3. Pete Greenslade 14-04-0 peg 21
4. Geoff Francis 13-08-0 peg 17

Weigh Sheets: