Thursday 19/12/2019 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's and Short Walks

Not a good start to the day firstly my burglar alarm went off in the early hours due to a power cut and a faulty battery in the alarm. Putting the kit in the car I tripped up a step saving myself with my left hand, I now have a sprained wrist - bugger.

Arrived in time for a quick walk around the Pool, a little bit more colour, a few signs of fish on pegs 8, 9 and 10, but hoping for peg 24.

Time for the draw and I heard John Smith say I could draw now as peg 29 had been drawn, but peg 31 was still in, so I waited a bit more. Finally into the draw bag and out comes peg 21 - yippy somewhere different. I had to think for a minute where it was! I subsequently realised it was a 13 metre peg to the island which I can normally handle, however, I was prepared to give it a try but was doubtful due to the sprained wrist.

When we have something new we are eager to try it out. I understand that Tony Rixon had new dentures and went around the Pool biting off feeders - just ask Paul Barnfield and John Smith. Let this be a lesson to organisers giving some anglers too long to set up.

I had decided to leave the umbrella home as the wind was supposed to increase - mistake as it rained all day with little wind - lesson learnt yet again.

From peg 21 I could only see two anglers John Smith on peg 24 and Pete Greenslade on peg 19. my peg today has not really finished since the summer so I didn't know what to expect. One thing for sure the big Carp that are caught during the summer ain't never far away.

I set up a 4 x16 to fish top-set plus two for Silvers with Pinkie and GB and a 4x14 to fish to my left down the inside shelf in 5 foot of water with kindered DR's. The 4x14 also suited over to the island at 13 metres but found my wrist wasn't up to it so only fished this until I had a Ronnie. As I had time I set up a small GB feeder to chuck around if things got hard.

The upshot was I had a 2 lb Skimmer first try then small Perch before I had another Skimmer about 8 oz all on triple Pinkie. The rest of the fish on this line were small Ronnies, but felt there was a marauding Carp around. I had  five F1's on the DR's down the left. I did have a few chucks on the feeder which only attracted small Perch and Ronnies. I felt I should have set up the Ronnie rig and loose fed it, plus fed some micro down the left.

My few Silvers weighed 4 lb 7 oz and my F1's 6 lb for a nowhere total of 10 lb 7 oz.  I did sit it out in the last hour for a bonus Carp which i knew wasn't far away which would have made a big difference.

Luckily it did stop raining whilst we packed away and weighed in.

The match was won by Pete "The Meat" Greenslade (pictured right) with 18 lb 14 oz from peg 19. Pete caught down both his edges in two foot of water using meat over potted meat and micro. Most of his weight was made up of three decent Carp.

The Silvers was won by Enigma (pictured right with the match winner) with 16 lb 7 oz from peg 16. Steve caught on the pole using Maggot feed and maggot hook bait.

Result:

1. Pete The Meat Greenslade 18-14-0 peg 19
2. Harry Muir 18-12-0 peg 11
3. Paul Barnfield 18-09-0 peg 28

Silvers:

1. Steve Dawson 16-07-0 peg 16
2. Tony The Teeth Rixon 13-12-0 peg 31
3. John Smith 10-03-0 peg 24

Weigh Sheets: