Silverfox Match Angling: Thursday 25/01/2018 - Bathampton AA Open

Thursday 25 January 2018

Thursday 25/01/2018 - Bathampton AA Open - Bridge Pool

It was back to Bridge Pool for the Bathampton Open. I arrived in plenty of time to have a walk around and have a look at the new Withy Pool Bridge (pictured right) a good job I thought.

Hoping for a peg where I could fish the waggler and when I drew peg 14 I thought I had one. Arriving at the peg I soon realised I was sat in a Parrot cage with over hanging trees above me, which are gradually leaning over due to their proximity to the edge of the back bank. I did a survey and reckoned if I did a very accurate side swipe cast I might be able to use the waggler which I subsequently set up. I had few practice casts and only once hit the tree. The only other rig was a yellow topped 4x16 to fish at 10 metres, which was the furthest I could fish without breaking down.

After feeding a big ball of GB laced with maggot and catapulting some LR’s over I started on the pole and had three Skimmers before it died. So I re-fed and picked up the waggler with double live reds fished over loose fed LR’s. The wind was problematical for both presentation and feeding. Catapult elastic pulled back and just on launch the wind would veer. I was doing alright catching small Perch, Chub and the occasional decent Ronnie. The problem was if I lost focus on the cast I would end up in the tree which happened four times, only having to set up again once. That was until loss of concentration and gusting wind I went up the tree again alas for the last time because I broke a bit off the top of my rod – bugger. I went for a Banana walk and a moan. Ray Beazley loaned me his waggler rod which I tried only to find I couldn’t cast that well with it, only reaching middle. After a few casts and further inspection I found that Ray had clipped it up. So clip off and another cast where I have a similar problem and found Ray had clipped it up twice!! It wasn’t long before

I lost Ray’s hook in the tree, so gave the rod back. I wasted the rest of the match on the pole catching the odd small Ronnie. I did hook and lose a 1lb plus Perch, as we do. It was a shame about the trees as I am convinced that I would have picked up some coin if I could actually fish the peg properly.

I weighed 4lb 14oz for 6^th in the Silvers.

The match was won by Chris Rolfe (pictured upper right with his two important Carp) with 18lb 10oz from peg 15. Chris caught a few silvers on the pole then in the last twenty minutes caught two Carp on the straight lead over t0 the island on 10mm meat.

The Silvers was won by Tony Rixon (pictured right with the match winner) with 16lb 9oz from peg 24. Tony caught……see his blog for details.

Full Result: