Thursday 18/06/2020 - Bathampton AA - Hunstrete - Over 55's and Short Walks - Bridge Pool

I was certainty glad I had a policy change last year, re use of umbrella's whilst fishing! It rained all daylight hours today - relentless, persistent, and heavy. I felt for Ray Bazeley today his first day out since lock down and with no umbrella and leaking waterproofs got soaked through. But credit to him he sat it out and weighed in - some didn't - fair play.

Arrived at the fishery early which seems to be the thing to do with rolling draws. I was told all 34 pegs was in as the organiser didn't have a clue on how many would turn up and with a rolling draw to prevent "Gatherings" wouldn't be able to count the attendees and select the best pegs for the number.

I missed the usual pre-draw chats with the lads today, but at lest we are back fishing these matches.

I was hoping for a any peg from 17 through to 27 (but not 23). I was allocated peg 3. Reasonably happy with this as it has plenty of Silver form. However, the bonus was I could park behind my peg so was able to leave some kit in the dry. So with little to no wind I was able to erect the Drennan umbrella up high so I was able stand up under it.

So with all the gear in the dry I set up a long and short Ronnie rigs - the long one didn't get used, a 4x16 to fish for Skimmers at top-set plus two barrels and a 0.3 paste float to fish the RH margin.

After an hours wait for the all in at 10 o'clock I started by feeding the Skimmer line with wetted micro and started on a 4 mm expander and was soon getting indications and had a 1 lb Skimmer. Next put in I foul hooked a Carp, it went quiet so re-fed this time with GB laced with micro and had a run of Skimmers before I hooked and landed a 3 lb Carp. The line faded, so had a go on the short Ronnie rig with single LR over loose feeding the same and had a run of Ronnie's and micro Perch and hooked and landed another 3 lb Carp followed by an F1. As it looked like the Carp were going to feed made the decision to drop the Silvers and switch to margin paste. I potted some hard 4's and feed a few over the top primarily to draw the Carp's attention to the feed. The upshot was I landed seven decent Carp with one I must mention out of respect was a near 20 lb Common Carp which I played for at least 15 minutes - it nearly beat me into submission, a beautiful fish and worth coming just to catch it.

My Silvers weighed 12 lb 4 oz and my Carp 62 lb 6 oz for a total of 74 lb 10 oz which got me second in the match. However, with only 19 lb winning the Silvers and with four hours left of the match when I switched to the Carp I think if I stuck with Silvers I could have got very close to this weight if not more. The peg is certainly capable of winning the Silvers today.

The match was won by Junior (pictured right with the Silvers winner - Christmas coming) with 90 lb from peg 24. Gary caught a few F1's on the method, catching most of his weight comprising small Carp on the pole tucked in close to the end on the island with banded pellet, catching regularly throughout the match.

The Silvers was won by Hughie Evans with 19 lb 12 oz from peg 14. As the weigh sheets tells Hughie made no mistake having two good empty pegs to his left and  five empty pegs to his right! Sods law when 34 pegs are in the draw and only 22 fishing. Hughie caught on worm over GB laced with caster and chopped worm.

I thoroughly enjoyed it today, but a visit to the pub after would have been the icing on the cake, even it meant sitting outside in the rain - perhaps next match

Result:

1. Gary Bowden 90-0-0 peg 24

2. Mike Nicholls 74-10-0 peg 31

3. Harry Muir 64-01-0 peg 8

Silvers:

1. Hughie Evans 19-12-0 peg 14

2. Rod Dufferty 18-08-0 peg 25

3. Ken Morgan 16-0-0 peg 32

3. Pete Turner 16-0-0 peg 28

Weigh Sheets: