Thursday 17/02/2022 - Bathampton AA - Winter Silvers Series - Withy Pool

Looks like all but a few Sea Gulls have gone from Bridge Pool - hopefully not too long a road to recovery.

Twenty two fishing today. Great job Dave's doing keeping the pairs going by juggling reserves for absentees. Hopefully I'll get a decent "Ringer" for my partners absence next match!

Another windy day. Looking around the Pool I wanted to be on the North bank where the wind would be off the back, plus additional shelter from the trees. Definitely didn't want peg 71 where the wind was gusting into from all directions.

Into the draw bag and out comes - yes peg 71, worse still Tony my pairs partner turns up on the next peg 70. Moan over as these are the best two pegs in a very difficult section. So expected 1 and 2 points from us which would be good enough on the day.

This peg is known for its small Ronnie's which I'm not adverse in catching. Set up a 4x13 MR and plumbed up at top set plus two barrels to only find five foot an additional barrel took me to six foot. Thought the Ronnie's might prefer the shallower water albeit the waters looked a bit clearer so set up the 4 metre wagglerised flick tipped whip which took me nicely to the two barrel line. John Smith fished it last match and had 7 lb 12 oz on the waggler failing to catch short, so that was set up.

Fed one large ball of GB with a few particles at two barrels. Started on the whip with single LR. The wind was atrocious with the the float going with wind far too fast and was surprised it didn't seem to bother the fish as I had five 1 - 3 oz Ronnie's in 5 casts. I loose fed a few casters over the top and next cast was trying to play a carp and was surprised I had it on for 20 seconds before the inevitable. Decided to pot a second ball of GB anticipating the carp had devoured the first.  New hook length and out again and couldn't get a bite. So Potted a ball at top plus tree barrels. whilst that settled tried the waggler which presented good considering the conditions the issue was feeding - it was going everywhere, only had a couple of small Ronnie's on this plus a lot of missed bites. On to the three barrel line with the MR and had three small Skimmers and some more Ronnie's. I was again playing a carp which was possibly fouled as it wasn't on long. This line had now died. Tried the whip again and had a few more but it was really slow and now the bloody sun had arrived making this line hard to fish. It then poured down to erected the brolly for it to do a "Mary Poppins" and got scagged. The trolley also decided to go off road and luckily got stopped by a sapling. Rain stopped and decided to spend the rest of the match on the waggler fishing it down wind in to the bay to my left. Single LR over loose fed same and was soon adding some better Ronnie's. Made a mistake of loose feeding some casters which attracted a carp hooking one which I played for abut 10 minutes and started to think I would land it but once close in the shallow water it broke me. This again seem to bugger the line up, but kept to feeding LR's to the end catching spasmodically. The little and often wasn't working, it was feed and fish out. My hands were glad to hear the all out.

I weighed 7 lb 12 oz for second in section my partner weighed 9 lb 5 oz of mainly small skimmers to win the section so mission accomplished. This has put us to the top on weigh count back.

The match was won by Paul Barnfield (pictured with the runner up - introductions unnecessary) with 19 lb 2 oz from fancied peg 54 in the narrows. Paul caught mainly on caster over caster both over to the island and down the track. His catch mainly consisted of Roach and included a 3 lb Bream and a specimen Roach of 1 lb 14 oz. Well done matey.

There was some quality Roach caught today with Dave Haines (pictured) catching 15 lb of quality fish on the 3 metre whip on maggot from peg 63.  There are loads of these quality fish in the Pool, however, the small fish tend to get the bait first.

Back for a pint with the usual suspects fro a warm around the log fire. Glad I don't have a match Sunday had enough of this weather.

Result:

1. Paul Barnfield 19-02-0 peg 54

2. Tony Rixon 15-06-0 peg 56

3. Dave Haines 14 10-0 peg 63

4. Alan Smith 1209-0 peg 45

5. Bryan Derrick 12-04-0 peg 66

6. Kev Winstone 9-08-0 peg 41

Weigh Sheets:

Pairs After Match Four: