Thursday 22/04/2021 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's and Short Walks - Bridge Pool

Arrived early and had my usual walk around the Pool. With no rain, high winds and plenty of sunshine for weeks I suspected low oxygen, so was surprised that the aerator wasn't running all night. Anyway it didn't look good with no fish showing anywhere. I felt pegs 18, 19 and 21 would be the best bet today.

Dave Gillard announced that we would have to weigh in both Silvers and Carp at 1 pm and return them to restart again at 1:30 pm. This was followed by a lot of groaning and grunting. No one was happy about this, with a lot of disquiet and talk of finding a new venue to host these matches.

Dave did the draw and put me on peg 16, happy enough with this, but can be a bit hit and miss for the Silvers also prepared for some pole fencing with Mike Taylor on peg 15 (pictured above with Cliff on peg 24).

I thought a plan was needed - Decided to fish for Silvers first half over two lines one at 10 metres down the track to my left with a 4x16 Winter Titan which would be switched to a virgin line PM same distance down to the right into the open water. And in front at top set plus one with a 4x14 MR which would be abandoned PM in favour of fishing long over to the island which was currently bathed it sunshine which PM would have some shade for a while hopefully for the F1's and a lump or two.

Fed the long left line with GB and DP's and the same short in front. Fed a pot micro over to the island. Started down the long line and soon had a bite which came off. For some unknown reason I lost another three, however, they were tiny fish. I had a feeling they were foul hooked? It wasn't happening on this line so switched to the short line where I had been loose feeding Pinkie and had a few Skimmers and F1's and the occasional snag.

The first half resulted in 5lb 8oz of Silvers and 4lb 8oz of F1's - 10lb. The section midway was tight with just a few pounds between us in the section.

Second half I think we all knew we could all but right off catching any more Skimmers/Silvers due to the tip back. I did feed the long right side and started to loose feed LR's over to the island. I tried for some more Silvers and lost a decent Skimmer landing one about 4oz. I noticed that both Chris Ollis and John Smith were also losing Silvers. All abandoned except the island where I fished out the rest of the match with double semi-conscious maggot hook bait. I had a run of eight F1's losing two, one in Bramblegate, another fouled. I then hooked a decent Carp which unfortunately I lost trying to avoid Mikes pole. As soon as the sun came back on the water the F1's dried up to be replaced by Rudd, I did add a couple of small Tench.

My total Silvers weighed 8 lb just10 oz from a pick up with my total weight 24lb again 3 lb from a pick up. Bit of bad luck. If I stuck on the RH long line I'm sure I could have got those Silver ounces, but I like all my options open.

The match was won by newbie Andy Gard (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with 38lb 7oz of F1's from fancied peg18. Andy fish down to his right using either expander hook bait or hard pellet over micro. Andy found the hard banded best.

The Silvers was won by Paul Barnfield (pictured with the match winner) with a very poor weight of 13lb 2oz from peg 11. Paul caught mostly on maggot over maggot and GB adding a couple of bigger Skimmers on worm.

Result:

Section A

1. Steve Jefferies 15-04-0 peg 7

Silvers: Hughie Evans 6-14-0 peg 5

Section B

1. Paul Barnfield 27-13-0 peg 11

Silvers: Dave Wride 8-10-0 peg 14

Section C:

1. Andy Gard 38-07-0 peg 18

Silvers: John Smith 7-13-0 peg 24

Section D:

1. Kevin Winstone 31-12-0 Peg 33

Silvers: Dave Haines 11-0-0 peg 30

Weigh Sheets: