Thursday 14/04/2022 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's - Withy Pool

Wind has done one at last and the the temperature has increased, really felt if Spring was back. So expected the resident carp to make an appearance.

Twenty one fishing, making the pegging easier, some pegs haven't been producing so tried pegs 38 and 40 where some carp have recently shown.

With paste in the bag didn't mind where I drew second into the draw bag and out comes peg 56, so once again on the North Bank - good draw. Next door on carp peg 55 was Paul "Barny" Barnfield and Three Gulp's on peg 57. Pegs 54 and 52 were occupied by John Smith and Geoff Francis - "may be trouble ahead"!

Didn't set up the waggler and later was to regret it, did set up the long Ronnie rig and a 4x14 Winter Titan to fish initially two barrels then later three, also set up a RJ 0.3 gram paste rig for the LH margin. Started on the Ronnie rig with single LR over GB and for the first hour had a flying start catching small skimmers and the odd Ronnie to 4oz. The line gradually faded over the second hour but did have two better skimmers. Third hour switched to the Titan at two barrel again single LR over GB and had an immediate response catch a 2 lb and 3 lb skimmer. The line soon slowed but kept adding the odd skimmers and Ronnie which were really noticeable by their absence in this peg. Fourth and fifth hour was a real struggle having to go to three barrels over loose GB came 6 inches off bottom and added two 1 lb Skimmers but very few Ronnie's. John Smith was having a torrid time losing carp in Geoff's peg lost five!! Meanwhile Barny had been caching carp to 15 lb steady. So come the last 45 minutes I went into the LH margin with the paste where I had been potting GB and micro and lose feeding 4's over the top managing two decent carp before the all out. Nice to see the paste working.

Silvers weighed in at 17 lb 6 oz for first silvers and my two carp 22 lb 5 oz for third overall weight of 39 lb 11 oz and another double bubble.

The match was won by Barny (pictured above with his five carp catch) with 72 lb 12 oz from peg 55. Barny caught down his RH margin using meat over meat. He didn't make the mistake of putting any back unlike John. Well done matey.

The Over 55's are coming to terms with Withy and are beginning to think it's fairer (as result show very close with silver weights) than Bridge Pool, suggesting once Bridge is back fishing well they might want to alternate the two pools as we did previously.

Back to the Compton with the usual suspects and outside in the sun - wonderful. However, had my thermal undies on and started to feel like a melting Snowman so pint downed quickly.

Result:

1. Paul Barnfield 72-12-0 peg 55

2. Pete Greenslade 44-05-0 peg 51

3. Mike Nicholls 39-11-0 peg 56

4. John Smith 39-07-0 peg 54

5. Andy Gard 24-08-0 peg 40

6. Andy Greenham 23-06-0 peg 38

Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 17-06-0 peg 56

2. Chris Rolfe 16-13-0 peg 58

3. Kev Winstone 16-04-0 peg 43

Weigh Sheets: