Thursday 13/01/2022 - Ray's Rip Off - BAA - Hunstrete - Withy Pool

Heavy frost on the car this morning - both inside and out! Minus 4 degrees.

Arrived and asked to walk round the pool to identify 13 pegs. Ray's instructions was to put in the car park bank and opposite, leaving out the North bank (too shallow close in) and behind the island. Noticed a few small Ronnie's topping on the walk. I also relised how much work the BAA committee put in to keep this fishery looking really nice - well done to all.

I didn't fancy pegs 41, 42 or 43 as they won't see the sun all day with the frost staying all day - pictured right towards the far frosted bank. 

In to the draw bag and out comes peg 41! Not what I wanted. Have fished this peg a few times over the years and have had good days in the summer but not so good in winter. The positive, it was an end peg. Great company with Pete Greenslade on peg 42.

I have had rod rings freeze over but today was very unusual and a first. During the first half of the match all my kit, including the pole went white with frost and later when it thawed ended up soaking wet during what can only be described as a beautiful sunny day! - by some!!! The rod rings didn't freeze because the water was warmer than the air. It was bloody cold, luckily I had the battery body warmer on for most of the day.

The peg is only about 13 meters wide, shelving up very quickly. Fancied the skimmers wouldn't be in this gully this time of year so would target the Ronnie's. As it was an end peg set up the waggler to fish down to my right at about 25 metres in to a bit of a bowl - still not pass the next pallet. On the pole line the light was awful so was forced to fish at top set plus four barrels to get the yellow top Winter Titan into the darker water. There was a narrow bit of light water closer in but reserved that for my new Drennan 5 metre whip reduced to 4 metre today - what a lovely piece of kit for the money - excellent value, and its no longer a virgin!

Started by feeding a knub of GB with a few Pinkies on the pole line and loose fed some casters on the whip line. Started with two Pinkies on a 20 hook and after 15 minutes didn't have a bite, so refed a bigger ball of GB (which had frozen) and Pinkie and picked up the whip with single caster and again didn't have a bite. So back out on the pole and had a few small Ronnie's. This soon died. So picked up the waggler and without any feed cast a single LR down the peg and had a bite first try, subsequently caught a few Ronnie's but again it died. Started to feed a few LR's and messed around with the depth and found 3/4 depth was perfect and had three hours catching the odd 2 oz Ronnie. Felt I got the feeding right. I had been loose feeding Pinkie on the whip line so tried that and had three better Ronnie's before that died. Went out on the pole where I had been topping up with GB which had attracted the smaller Ronnie's which were falling off due to heavy elastic. With 15 minutes to go I spied a carp rising down on the waggler line so fished that to the end catching more regularly than previously. No carp though. I did enjoy the match even though it was hard, which wasn't unexpected.

My Ronnie's weighed 6 lb 10 oz for a section pick up, so happy with that one. The only thing I now wished I had tried caster on the waggler line - next time - perhaps.

The match was won by Dave Poole from peg 63 (pictured with the silvers winner) with 14 lb 2 oz which included a 12 lb carp caught on waggler and single bronze maggot. It took a while to lake as Dave was using 0.1 hook length. Well done matey.

The silvers was won by Andy Greenham with 12 lb 14 oz from peg 45. Andy caught 50/50 11 metre pole and waggler. The waggler was fished with single caster over loose fed caster and similarly his pole line was fished with caster and GB. Well done matey.

Nice to see Steve Jefferies out again, certainly made his presence known 😎.

Made a nice change to have a match on Withy Pool, however, can expect it to fish much better in the warmer months.

Result:

1. Dave Poole 14-02-0 peg 63

2. Andy Greenham 12-14-0 peg 45

3. Pete Turner 8-02-0 peg 44

4. John Smith 7-12-0 peg 65

5. Mike Nicholls 6-10-0 peg 41

6. Steve Jefferies 5-14-0 peg 46

Silvers: 

1. Andy Greenham 12-14-0 peg 45

2. Pete Turner 8-02-0 peg 44

Weigh Sheets: