Thursday 26/02/2026 - Over 55's - Silvers Pairs League - Round 5 - Acorn - Paddocks

Nice to have Kev Winstone back out after his hospitalisation. Needs to put on a couple of  pounds. Kev was like a kid with a new toy being so excited to be back out fishing.

Driving down with Kev there was something nagging at me. The penny dropped had my Carp pole instead of the silvers pole. Which meant the lightest elastic was the Drennan 9 to 11. My concern soon evaporated realising there are not many small Ronnie's so this elastic would probably do.

Bought my bait at the fishery. Have to say it was high quality 

Into the black bag and and peg 23 for me. It's a strange peg as it's in between to bridges and the middle of three pegs which were not occupied. It's like a small pond all to yourself.

Got to the peg and the SW wind was blowing in to the peg at 11 o clock. and landing in my peg with peg 24 being sheltered by the wind. I would liked to have fished the waggler over to the far bank to the corner but would have been passed peg 24 which was close to be fair. So thought about setting it up but finally decide not. Just two identical rigs 4x14 Winters one to fish caster at top set plus on barrel with a 18 hook and the other to fish two and a bit barrels with a 22 hook for double/single pinkie. Running both rigs through was disappointed to find both were going with the wind - towards me - hate that.

Fed half a pot of casters short and would loose feed a few throughout. Fed the long line with pinkie crammed in GB only enough to get the pinkie near bottom - thinking loose feeding them for full depth would bring up the fish especially the Ide.

Took a while to get my first Ide, after which I had a good half of the match catching decent skimmers, Ide and three Tench, just one coming from the short caster line - a 5 lb Tench on double maggot 😊. The last  2 hours was a struggle. only adding a couple of Ronnie's and Ide. Thought it might have been due to the arrival of Carp but didn't hook any.

I weighed 20 lb 12 oz for second section. Very enjoyable day slightly spoil by more rain late on.

The fishery fished exceptionally well with only one angler under 10 lb, plus one angler on peg 3 would have weighed 73 lb catching short with maggot over maggot had he not gone over in one net - twat.

My pairs partner Tony "Turbo" Ponting (pictured) won the match from peg 5 with 38 lb 5 oz. Tony caught on maggot over loose maggot at 10 metres down wind at 11 o clock initially catching Ide then small Tench. Both the Ide and Tench moving in and out moved in and out. Well done matey.

Back to the Prince of Waterloo for a pint with the usual suspects. Bloody diversion at Chew Magna though.

Weigh Sheet: Bit messy

Pairs Results : One match Left: Pays top 5