Thursday 17/03/2022 - Bathampton AA Winter Silvers Series Final Round Six - Withy Pool

Last round of the silvers pairs with Tony and me in second position by 2 points but with a better weight over Kev Winstone and Hughie Evans. So a chance to win even after a lot of abuse the night before from Kev. Into the draw bag and out comes peg 59 which I have fished before being beaten into second section by peg 66 which Kev drew, luckily Hughie drew next to me on peg 58 in the same section as Kev. Tony drew a peg 45 which he has won from so knew the peg well. So the scene set.

Hard frost this morning followed by clear skies was only going to lead to a hard day.

Decided to fish it the same as last match with two adjustments. First one was to set up the 4 metre wagglerised whip to fish at two barrels equivalent. I didn't do this last time as I was put off by it being stoney and shallow. The other adjustment was to feed GB at 13 metres instead of the 11.5 last match as I felt this was too close the shelf. Waggler set up the same and the 4x14 Winter Titan purely to plumb the waggler line, it wouldn't be use to fish with.

Fed one ball of GB on the whip line and two at 13 metres. Started on the waggler and had a run of 1 - 2 oz Ronnie's which I really kept coming for most of the match. I did have three small Skimmers on this. After refeeding another ball at 13 metres I tried the whip where I had been loose feeding some LR's and had a 12 and 6 oz Ronnie but couldn't keep them coming the feeding is very difficult to work out at the moment. Fed another ball on the whip line and back out on the waggler and kept a few more silvers losing two carp in the process. With the light so difficult I spent the last hour on the whip adding the very rare Ronnie. I was sure I had beaten Hughie and also Kev. Tony had been regularly netting fish so felt positive.

My silvers weighed 8 lb 10 oz for a section win and with Tony getting second in the match and section second with 12 lb 14 oz we had 3 points to Kev's and Hughie's 5 so we had won the league on weigh count back. We did have some help from Geoff Francis in one match - beer on the bar.

The silvers was won by Dave Wride (priceless picture of him smiling) with 14 lb 13 oz from end peg 42. Dave caught on the pole in the water.

Top overall weight on the day was Tony Rixon on peg 51 who took time out to fish 16 metres to the island with meat to snare two carp that weighed 22 lb.

Our over section was won by Pete Greenslade (pictured) with one carp weighing 12 lb 12 oz caught first put in from peg 60 next to me. UTG.

Back to the pub with the usual suspects. Looks like the weather is beginning to change at last.

Result (Silvers):

1. Dave Wride 14-03-0 peg 42

2. Tony Ponting 12-14-0 peg 45

3. Phil Morgan 11-10-0 peg 69

4. Paul Barnfield 11-04-0 peg 57

5. Tony Rixon 11-0-0 peg 51

6. Chris Rolfe 9-11-0 peg 44

Weigh Sheets:

Final Pairs Result: