Thursday 06/06/2024 - Dave Gillard's Over 55's - Bitterwell Lake

After being away for a few days, plus the day of the match had to stop off on the way for a blood test. So all a bit of a rush. No bait but luckily Geoff Francis got me 2 pints of reds, had some GB and that was it - plenty!!

During navigating South Gloucestershire's nightmare traffic had a text from Geoff saying it was peg 24 for me - knew it was a good area for skimmers., but more interested that I could park quite close to the peg.

Arrived to being told that I was on the peg Des Shipp had broken the lake record on the Tuesday with 86 lb. Apparently my bait fell well short of what Des fed! Great company with Pete Turner on peg 25, phone calls have all but diminished since he sold the Brewery.

Currently having issues with my sternocleidomastoid muscle which is effecting rotation of my head which would be uncomfortable fishing the pole, so only set up the long and short Ronnie rigs and the waggler enabling me to sit up straight.

Started down the side of the reeds on the short rig - maggot over loose feed. Second put in hooked a Tench which broke me in the reeds. Changed to 0.14 hook length to 20 hook. Landed 2 quick Tench after a tussle in the reeds. Made the mistake thinking more Tench would appear - alas not except one foul hooked lost Carp. Out on the waggler tried up and down only to catch very small Ronnie's which weren't that easy to catch. Up the feed to see if I could persuade the Carp to have a go, they didn't seem interested. The lake was fishing hard. I did have another try with the waggler later but it wasn't working. With two hours to go gave up the short Ronnie rig for the long and mixed up some GB which was fed loose with some LR's. started to catch the odd decent Skimmers and in between Ronnie's. Started to enjoy it. Fishing this way wasn't effecting my neck either. The Skimmers appeared to like the loose GB and loads of it - not that I had that much!

Weighed 17 lb 14 oz of silvers for second overall silvers.

The match was won by Chris Gay (pictured) with 39 lb 7 oz from peg 23. Chris initially fished for silvers on the worm, later fishing down his LH margin to add 4 decent Carp on worm over GB. Well down matey.

Kevin Winstone (pictured) took the silvers with 23 lb 14 oz from peg 27. Kev caught long fishing worm over worm, caster and GB. Well done matey.

Andy Greenham had a nightmare on peg 21 battling with Tench and Carp in his LH margin to such a degree had to call Paul Issacs out for a rig rescue.

Geoff and me finished the day with a curry and a pint of draft Cobra.

Weigh Book: