Thursday 02/07/2020 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's and Short Walks - Bridge Pool

The rolling draw changed to a "When Olly arrives". The change was made so that we need only put in the number of pegs for the 23 fishing today. I had a walk around the pool and with the wind blowing into the car park end and has been doing so for a week I was hoping to be drawn this end. I noticed some Carp feeding on pegs 30,29 and 28, but fancied pegs 17,18, 19, 21, 24 and 27.

The Corona virus has certainly taken it's toll on hair styles (Good Golly Miss Molly - The Silver haired Little Richard -  pictured right).

More wind and rain expected.

I was called peg 4 - Umm not where I chose, cant wait to draw my own peg. At least I could park behind my peg. Again next to Wayne but swapping pegs. The other side was The Mumbles mumbler Pete Turner.

Although I had an island about 14 metres away which I could get close enough to catch, but due to the wind and having to ship across the very busy road I decided not to bother.

I set up one 0.3 shotted paste float for the LH margin where I was forced to fish by the nasty right to left wind. A 4x16 to fish top-set plus two barrels out in front and my new short Ronnie rig. I ran out of my PB 14 so asked on FB for suggestions where I could buy some and a new found friend Andy Wootton came to the rescue with those shown in the picture right. I must say they are spot on for Silver fishing, extremely sensitive. I'm still to catch a Carp on it to test their durability.

I started on the long line with worm hook bait over GB and caster feed. I had a couple decent Skimmers and with fizzing/blowing I was expecting a good day. However, all I got was micro Perch nipping at the worm. I switched to double caster and found the same. Back on the worm and just pestered by Perch. I now regretted feeding casters and wished I fish expander's. So refed but this time with micro and went on the Ronnie rig with single caster and caught some Ronnie's three small Tench and more bloody Perch. However, my banker was to catch some big Carp later in the match so switched between the Ronnie rig and Long line however the long line produced nothing more even though it was still fizzing. I persevered until half way with the Ronnie rig picking off the odd fish loosing a decent foul hooked Skimmer in the process. Subsequently I started to feed the same margin with micro and some maggots. In anticipation I went in with the paste which just sat there until the float popped up. I kept switching between the Ronnie rig which did catch me one F1 and the paste over the same line with the paste proving to be a complete waste of time.

My F1 weighed 1 lb 2 oz and my Silvers 11 lb 14 oz for a nowhere total of 13 lb. Another 1 lb of Silvers would have got me some coin. The last three matches have all been this close for coin. On hind sight today I should have not buggered my swim fishing paste. For some reason the large Carp didn't really feed on most pegs today.

The match was won by Paul Haines (pictured upper right with his catch) with 76 b 14 oz from peg 14. Paul caught on the method over to the opposite island with banded pellet in wetted micro feed. Paul mainly caught F1's with the odd stock Carp.

The Silvers was won by Ken Morgan (pictured right with the match winner whom I actually caught smiling) with 20 lb 4 oz from peg 15. Ken caught on worm over worm and caster fed in GB.

Result:

1. Paul Haines 76-14-0 peg 14
2. Dave Gillard 38-15-0 peg 28
3. Paul Barnfield 38-08-0 peg 17
4. Tony Rixon 36-12-0 peg 8

Silvers:

1. Ken Morgan 20-04-0 peg 14
2. Hughie Evans 20-0-0 peg 29
3. Paul Barnfield 15-12-0 peg 17
4. Chris Ollis 15-0-0 peg 32

Weigh Sheets: