Thursday 17/10/2019 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's and Short Walks - Main Lake

With Dave Gillard still in hospital it was left to Tony and me to run today's match on the main lake. Tony and I pegged the match - Well Tony pegged it whilst I watched! There was plenty of signs of fish all being chased by Pike!

Jeff Grant had bought a new Bib and Brace - I suppose it must be difficult to buy clothes for a cuboid. Jeff also thought he had bought new boots the same as Cliff's (Pictured right and last picture from my current camera), thinking they were black. Apparently Purple is the new Black.

Based on the previous match results all fourteen fishing knew they weren't going to bag-up. This Lake is over 100 years old so considered natural. So a change back to pre-commercial times.

Into the draw bag and out comes peg 16, which was next to the peg I had last time. So applied the learning from last match and decided to fish the pole at 10 metres for 15 minutes to see if the small fish were going to oblige with Pinkie and GB. If this failed I would fish the remainder of the match on the GB feeder. The peg was narrow and a bit of a parrots cage so was forced to fish a 10 foot Daiwa feeder rod a bit stiff for Skimmer fishing.

Well after 15 minutes without any encouraging indications I spent the rest of the day on the feeder. The lake was particularly clear and flat calm and the Pike on a feeding spree. The upshot was I could catch a couple of Skimmers then had to wait an hour for the next pair. I put this down to the Pike scattering the fish. I was playing a 8 oz Skimmer and just as I was getting the landing net a huge Pike came up and snaffled it including the hook length - I estimated it at 20 lb +. I decided to feed the GB as dry as possible to create some cloud on the drop. This worked for about half hour until again I struck at a bite and felt a bump and the end of another hook length - Pike?

I weighed 8 lb 12 oz for first overall. We transferred about 50 lb of Silvers into Bridge Pool, about half that of last match.

Whilst packing up I accidentally loose fed my camera into the Lake using a pole sock! So have to use my phone camera for awhile which I don't like doing.

The ever growing suspects back to the pub and although the fishing wasn't that good most said they enjoyed it and found it different and nostalgic taking us back to the 80's.

Finally thanks to Bathampton AA  for a no peg fee match, weighing in and transferring the fish.

Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 8-12-0 peg 16
2. John Smith 5-03-0 peg 2
3. Paul Clayton 4-09-0 peg 19
4. Ray Bazeley 4-04-0 peg 6

Weigh Sheet: