Thursday 30/03/2023 - Bathampton AA - Over 55's - Bridge Pool

Arrived in plenty of time for a short walk around. Although the pool has been dyed blue it's gin clear.

Paid my pools and waited to be called to the draw bag - No call!! Dave didn't write my name down so peg 29 was put in the bag which was subsequently my peg for the day. Wasn't sure about it, but felt due to fish issues you needed to keep away from the full depth and fish the margins. Being open water peg 29 would normally be good for the Waggler, so would be limited in this respect.

Walking to the peg noticed many dead Skimmers and Bream plus small Roach turning over. Found this very distressing. Got to peg 29 and fished out two Bream, a mistake because the horrid smell left on my landing net stayed with me all day.

The upshot was started short and had a quick run of about 12 Ronnie's dropping a 8 ouncer swinging - duh. That was it the peg died along with any enthusiasm. Tried allsorts adding another 1/2 ounce. I weighed 14 oz of silvers, which was 1 ounce above the average silvers weight caught by 23 experienced anglers. The rain had abated so took the opportunity to PUE (pack up early) and get the scales to weigh in. Most of the silver fish weighed were in very poor condition.

The match was won by Hughie Evans (pictured) with 16lb 11 oz from peg 19 which included a 12 lb Carp (the only one caught) plus some small F1's.

The silvers was won by Tony Rixon (pictured with the match winner) with 10 lb 1 oz from peg 10. Tony caught most of his fish down to the empty peg 11 platform in 3 foot of water. See his blog for for further details.

I just cant understand why the club has transferred silverfish from the other Pools into Bridge for them to die. The club need to find the reason this pool had gradually declined over the past 5 years or so to the state now where it is all but dead. Some questions from me that need answering.

Q1: What is the quality of the water running in between pegs 19 and 20?

Q2: What is the affect of continuing putting Siltex put into a pool that had no silt in it?

Q3: Why very few fish can be caught at full depth? Should samples of the solids on the bottom taken around the pool and analysis to determine its suitability for aquatic life.

Q4: Why no fish fry for some years?

I and many others have had some wonderful sport from this pool and it was heart breaking to come to terms that we will never see back to it's glory years in our life time.

Back to the Compton for a beer with very down hearted company.

Result:

1. Hughie Evans 16-11-0 peg 19

2. Dave Gillard 10-15-0 peg 14

3. Tony Rixon 10-01-0 peg 10

4. Andy Gard 9-11-0 peg 21

5. Chris Ollis 8-05-0 peg 31

6. Shay Gillman 7-10-0 peg 24

Silvers:

1. Tony Rixon 10-01-0 peg 10

2. Chris Ollis 8-05-0 peg 31

3. Shay Gillman 7-10-0 peg 24

Weigh Sheets: