With Dave Gillard still in hospital undergoing more test I was left to run the match - so used my management skills and delegated the manual work to Tony Rixon leaving the admin to me. Geoff and I had another great breakfast in Hungry Horace's. By the time I got to the fishery Tony had pegged it out with twenty swims. Sixteen fishing so a couple extra pegs.Bathampton had kindly waived the peg fee as we were to transfer the boily nibblers over to Bridge Pool where they would be more than welcome.
Very few of us didn't know which would be the best pegs so last into the draw bag and out comes peg 17 on the road bank behind the net dip. For close company I had Chris Ollis which was about 10 feet apart. However, we had plenty of water in front of us, so wasn't sharing. I had a gap in the trees behind me and the bitter cold wind was blowing directly onto my back. Good for the whip but not my health. I soon had a couple of more layers on - Autumn always seems to come suddenly over one night. There were no signs of fish which lowered my expectation of decent weights.
I set up the Ronnie rig, a 4 metre whip, a 4 x 14 Winter Titan all to fish in 5 foot of water and to Geoff Francis amusement a conventional GB feeder set-up. Chris had been pleasure fishing along this bank catching plenty and was going to be positive with GB and half his back garden mix of mud. I decided to fish away from Chris into the white water to my left.
I started loose feeding casters on the short Ronnie rig with single caster - no signs of fish so switched to my 4 metre whip again with caster - no signs of fish. Umm what's happened to all the small fish - overnight cold snap I'm thinking. So onto the Titan at 10 metres over GB and maggot and after 30 minutes I had a 1 lb Skimmer followed by another which I pulled out of. I did have a couple of Ronnie's and a Rudd. Three hours had quickly gone with no further indications so had a stroll to warm up. It was clear that I was in the wrong area as the pegs in the high 20's were regularly catching the Skimmers with 15 lb probably winning it. So never give up I went back and decided to fish the last 2 1/2 hours on the feeder. I used a small Drennan feeder filled with GB and maggot and triple DR's on the hook. I was in a bit of a Parrot cage and found casting accurately difficult which was going to prove important. I was starting to fall asleep when the tip twitched a 1 lb Skimmer. This improved my concentration which lead to another seven small Skimmers. I even started to cast well and enjoy it.
I finished with 9 lb 10 oz which I was pleased with from my peg, putting me in the money in fifth place.The match was won by No Brambles Rixon (pictured upper right) with 27 lb 12 oz from the inform area. Tony caught on ... see his blog for details.
Runner up was Jeff Grant (pictured right with his catch) with 18 lb 3 oz pegged next to the winner. Unfortunately I left asking Jeff how he caught until we were in the pub. Jeff was explaining how he caught a couple of Skimmers on the pole and switched to the waggler catching some small fish before his eyes glazed over and started to talk about fishing trips to Ireland some years ago!!
Although the fishing was poor, most probably due to the sudden change in weather conditions heavy rains and a cold snap I found it interesting. This Lake is old and well established and can be considered a natural venue. Another match on here in two weeks time. Now we know the best Silvers pegs we can peg it accordingly and hopefully transfer more fish.
My next match is the first in the Viaduct Silvers League - hoping for a decent start for once.
Weight Transferred to Bridge Pool:
95 lb 1 oz
Result: (Not permanent pegs)
1. Tony Rixon 27-12-0 peg 12 (Perm Peg 25)
2. Jeff Grant 18-03-0 peg 11
3. Gary Bowden 12-15-0 peg 15
4. Paul Haines 11-13-0 peg 14
5. Mike Nicholls 9-10-0 peg 17
6. Pate Turner 6-0-0 peg 8
7. Dave Poole 5-04-0 peg 13
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