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Dave Crookes Fishery at Hunstrete Arial Shot

Notice to BAA Members

Posted on by Shane Lovell

Notice to be BAA members.

The BAA committee has been notified that members are arriving at Hunstrete and queuing in the early hours of the morning.

Notices regarding this matter were posted previously stating that arriving before opening times is not acceptable.

15 minutes before opening times is the earliest acceptable time to arrive.

Please switch off engines and radios etc. and remain in your vehicles to keep disturbance to a minimum.

This situation will be monitored and opening times will be changed to 8am if early arriving persists or complaints are received from local residents.

BAA Committee

Open Junior Match 20/9/20

Posted on by Shane Lovell

Bathampton AA

Open Junior Match

Sliver Fish Only

Members £2 entry Non Members £3

Saturday Sept 19th Bridge Pool Hunstrete

Draw 12pm fish 1pm to 5pm

Under 11, Under 14, Under 18

Contact Junior organiser to enter

Rod Bracey

01225 338127

Those age 10 and under may receive parental or guardian help with initial ground baiting, baiting the hook, gentle guidance playing a fish, netting the fish and un-hooking. NO.assistance with casting, feeding, hooking or playing the fish unless the fish is too large for the youngster to handle. prize £10

13 and under,may receive assistance with netting and un-hooking no other assistance unless the fish is too big for them to manage. prize £10

14 plus no assistance .prize Three day tickets if a member, or a junior membership if a non member.

Advice and assistance may given to all by the BAA coaching team.

Dave Crookes Fishery at Hunstrete Over Night Fishing Results

Posted on by Shane Lovell
Dave Crookes Fishery at Hunstrete
Over Night Fishing Results 1/2 August 2020
 
15 fish in total caught
365lb 5oz Total weight
1st Peg 28 Lewis Gray 4 fish 27lb 13oz mirror
                                      25lb 15oz mirror
                                     20lb 15oz mirror
                                       27lb 4oz mirror
                                      Total 101lb 15oz
2nd Peg 33 Mitch Wood 2 fish 28lb 2oz triple row linear
                                           22lb common
                                        Total 50lb 2oz
3rd Peg 36 James Calderon 2 fish 23lb mirror
                                                26lb common
                                                Total 49lb
4th Peg 29 Ben Metcalfe 2 fish 20lb 2oz linear
                                           23lb 2oz mirror
                                           Total 43lb 2oz
5th  Peg 30 John Cannings 2 fish 20lb 10oz mirror
                                                 21lb 4oz mirror
                                                 Total 41lb 14oz

6th Peg 25 Gary Budd 26lb 8oz mirror

6th Peg 35 Lee Fitzgerald 26lb 8oz mirror

8th Peg 34 Benjamin Cannings 26lb 2oz

Thursday 30/07/2020 Over 55’s and short walks match results and write up

Posted on by Shane Lovell

Friday, 31 July 2020

Thursday 30/07/2020 – Bathampton AA – Over 55’s and Short Walks – Bridge Pool

Hot day it was to be and was. Arrived early and walked around all three Lakes, they all looked dour especially Bridge Pool without any signs of feeding fish. On the walk I found this Fungi, I wish I knew more about such things – beautiful, in which case probably not edible.

I was hoping to be at the car park end as I have done my stint sitting in the the far end. Dave Gillard got the draw under way (

attached to the Drennan 25 elastic which I love fishing – Adrenalin rush. At last the all in and only fed the 0.5 g line with micro and went straight over it with paste and hooked a Carp which caught me by surprised taking me into the fish refuge losing the lot. These refuges are a hindrance to the fishing and provides limited protection from predators. The tiny Rudd like sitting on top of it though – not one of the better decisions and need taking out. Sounded like Tony was also battling with his refuge. New 0.5 rig setup and next put in another Carp of about 5 lb which I did get out – sad sight as it was very dark and blind. I persevered with this line but no more fish not even nibblers which was worrying. I started to feed the caster and with single caster on the Ronnie rig had one singe bite a large Perch which came off. I couldn’t even catch a Ronnie, so this was abandoned. I spent the rest on the match in the margin – first four put-ins accounted for four F1’s – blimey these fish are quick 0-60 in a millisecond. It slowed but kept adding the odd F1 and some better Carp. The bites had completely dried up and stay on this too long. It wasn’t until the last 15 minutes (though I had another 45 minutes) that I chanced going down towards the refuge and added another three F1’s before the all out. Should have kept a closer eye on the time.

The Silvers was won by Dave Haines (
What glorious weather for a pint in the pub garden – now what happens in a pub garden stays in a pub garden – however, did you know Cliff spends a lot of time in Keynsham pubs. I know Geoff Grant would make a plump Rat but you won’t see one climb a drain pipe quicker.

Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 56-0-0 peg 19
2. Dave Haines 41-05-0 peg 29
3. Paul Barnfield 38-10-0 peg 1
4. Pete Greenslade 38-03-0 peg 24
5. Harry Muir 36-08-0 peg 7
5. Rob Baker 36-08-0 peg 21
Silvers:
1. Dave Haines 29-04-0 peg 29
2. Hughie Evans 17-04-0 peg 4
3. Dave Gillard 14-06-0 peg 31
4. Kev Winston 14-0-0 peg 30
Weigh Sheet:
written by
Mike Nicholls
Newbridge River Avon Bathampton Angling Association

Riverfest Qualifier Newbridge results and write up

Posted on by Shane Lovell

SUNDAY, 26 JULY 2020

Riverfest Qualifier Bristol Avon Newbridge

Annual attempt to qualify for the Riverfest final, which this year is on the River Trent. The pools were paid directly to the Angling Trust, and Kev Dicks was the local organiser who had booked the Riverside pub at Saltford. The organisation was good, a bacon roll and cup of tea (after booking in with the pub) and then all stayed outdoors. Kev drew the pegs for everyone (bar himself and the two other helpers) and it was done in alphabetical order. I got given peg 46, which turned out to be permanent 104 , this is a peg in C zone which is in the trees and just to the right of the arch. It certainly isn’t a great peg or area, and rarely frames so it was a tough draw, I expected the end pegs to do well and maybe also the stream on peg 90.

The rain the day before had given the river a nice bit of colour and flow, and I thought this might encourage the skimmers / bream to feed, and so the section could be better than normal and I thought 20lb would be needed.
I was positive in my set up today, a 3g pole float with 18 N20 t0 0.11, and a 4g flat float with 16 N30 to 0.13. Only other thing was a feeder rod for groundbait feeder with 14 to 0.15.
The match started at 12:30, yes you read that right, the reason for the late start is it allows all of the rowers to clear off, and to be fair we didn’t see many if any after the start. I put some bait in on the feeder line with a big feeder, and then put 14 balls on the pole line which contained casters and hemp to start. I went straight in on the pole with a caster, but as ever I couldn’t get a bite on it, swapped to maggot and started to get bites, the fish though were small and all swingers, little roach, chublets, and poxy bleak. I kind of already knew I was struggling after an hour and I put some more balls in with worms and more casters. I started to catch a few better fish, but these were perch of 2oz to 3oz so not what you really want. Soon I had Dave Haines sat behind me watching, and we had a good chat as I struggled on, though I did get a chublet about 10oz on the pole while Dave was behind me. He said my neighbours Steve Vernon and Mark Brush were both struggling too. More info came up from Jerry Pocock, he said the anglers down at the end were all catching well on the pole and had 8lb+ at least.
I gave the feeder a go, but this was mainly a waste of time with just odd chublet taps. so I piled some more worm and caster in on this and came back in on the pole. I had a small hybrid of 6oz first drop and then a couple more chublets before the bites stopped again, more top ups on this line and back on the feeder. Whilst on the tip I saw a huge pike come out of the water, Dave didn’t see it but saw the huge boil on the water it left behind. Dave went off to watch someone catching better than me, and not long after he had gone the rod was nearly dragged in! I grabbed it and thought this must be a chub, but soon realised it was a pike. Whether it was the monster I had seen I do not know, but this was big and as they don’t count I pulled hard, then everything went slack, but the pike hadn’t broke me. It had actually bit right through the fish, never had the before, and here’s a picture of what I swung out lol, just the head with one eye missing.
Back in on the pole trying my best to catch better fish, but they weren’t there, in fact reports were the river was fishing poor for bream and the bottom of my zone was the best place. I did have a good run of roach on the pole for an hour, they just turned up and were quite easy to catch, but not great in size. I then had a tangle on the rig, but got on with it and carried on catching until a jack pike struck and that was enough of that. Sat it out on the feeder till the end of the match hoping for a few pull rounds but it was not to be.
I decided to weigh in to see what I had, and the scales gave me 6lb 8oz, nowhere near enough but at least some roach seem to be showing now, and there are lots of chublets about. Steve DNW, and Mark Brush had 5lb 4oz, so not great but we all tried hard to catch elusive skimmers and bream. Though below Mark, Geraint Powell caught 2 skimmers and 2 chub in the last 40 minutes to add 7lb to his weight for a decent 11lb which would win him the ten peg section.
My zone was won by Paul Purchase who was 4 off the end peg, he had 20lb 8oz all on the pole, roach, chublets, and a few small skimmers, he also won the match with that weight, well done Paul. My zone below and you can see the weights were good at the bottom.
The other two anglers going through to the final were Rueben Guerra who was on end peg 1 and had 2 bream, chublets and roach on the pole for 16lb and won zone A (and came 2nd overall), and Kev Dicks who had 2 late bream on the feeder to go with some chublets and won B zone with 12lb. This was quite a shock as everyone expected this zone to be the best with bream showing, but they simply did not feed and most weights were poor. Anyway, well done to those three and I wish you all the best in the final.
at 22:05
The Long Meadow River Avon Bathampton Angling Association

Saturday 18th July 2020 newbridge match results

Posted on by Shane Lovell

SATURDAY, 18 JULY 2020

Bathampton Open – Newbridge

Unusually for me a double header this weekend, with a riverfest qualifier on Newbridge next weekend I wanted to get on the river to get back in the groove. Kev Dicks advertised this match on facebook etc, but sadly only 8 people turned up, still it would do for me. My gear is still not with me and I have to make trips to my parents to get my gear. However, work has started on my house, with old falling down garage and shed pulled down, new surface laid, and now my workshop is being built. Fellow angler Ben Rendall is doing the job, with Kev Dicks and Warren Bates also assisting. This time next week I hope to have my gear with me again.

Back to the fishing, Kev ran the match on the same hours as riverfest is planned. 10 am draw fish 12 to 5pm. At the field the other anglers were, Ben Rendall, Jerry Pocock, Nigel Evans, Mike Martin-Davies, Andy Cranston, Mike Shellard  and Kev Dicks. Pools paid, draw done, and I was heading for peg 10 in the little field, with nobody below me I had plenty of room. Ben was above me on peg 7. It has been a while since I have fished 10, would have loved if the river had plenty of colour in it as bream are in the area, but sadly the river was pretty much stood on its head most of the time, and it was clear but not worryingly clear in my opinion. With no flow on the river I opted against setting up float rods, but did set up a feeder rod with 14 N50 to 0.13. Three pole rigs, a 1.5g pencil rig with 20 N40 to 0.09, 2g bodied float with 18 N40 to 0.10, and finally a 2g with 18 N20 to 0.13 for holding still.
To begin the match I balled in 12 jaffas of my usual Sonubaits river, lake, bit of black roach and my faithful brown crumb. I went in using caster on the hook, but three run throughs were biteless then I had a bleak, errrr. Stuck a maggot on and had a dace, then a small roach. Things became difficult already and I had to pick up the pencil float as I was missing bites. It was better for a couple of roach and dace, but then tiny chublets and bleak became a real pain. Even with a bulk pushed down and droppers all next to the hook length it was hard to get past them, but occasionally I had a better fish. Things though got worse, the bleak went and so it seemed had everything else! 90 minutes in and I couldn’t get a bite, potting more bait in had no effect either. Perhaps some bream had moved in (I wish) so I dropped the feeder over the pole line, 30 minutes of nothing other than a 4oz roach. I tried the heavy pole rig with a worm on, and I was just about to give it up when I had a bite down the peg, turned out was a 1lb skimmer. No more followed.
Glenn Bailey rang me 2 1/2 hours into the match and I told him I was struggling with about 3lb. I was now in danger of losing faith, but I gave the pole / feeder line a rest and caught a few bleak at 7m where I had been feeding a few maggots, a few were there but after I caught about a dozen they weren’t happy. Team mate Geraint Powell had been sat behind me for a few minutes when I then went back on the feeder, I had 3 small perch in three casts on a worm and red maggot so at least some bites, and then it went quiet next cast, then the tip went round nice and steady and the rod hooped over. I had a bream on and it felt a good one, river bream always give a good account of themselves and so I was glad when this one went in the net, maybe 5lb. Where there’s one there’s more… not this time, the feeder line went real quiet after this. Geraint told me that Mike Martin-Davies had a bream and skimmer on peg 16, but not much else was caught at this stage.
I had a bit of a struggle until the last 40 mins really, Mike had 2 bream now and I thought I was a long way behind so stuck it out on the feeder and I had a skimmer of over a pound to renew my interest. Then a 8oz perch and then a perch of just under a pound in three casts. In the last 20 minutes I had a couple more bites and landed two eels, one had to be 1 1/2lb and was my last fish. As you can imagine they were all taken on worm hookbait, and it was nice to get a few species in the end. I thought I had 12 to 13lb.
Weights as I know them..
Peg 1    Nigel Evans 10lb 2oz (a bream and a very big perch)
Peg 4    Jer Pocock 8lb (lots of small roach)
Peg 7    Ben Rendall 10lb 2oz (roach and chublets)
Peg 10  Tim Ford  14lb 12oz
Peg 16  Mike Martin-Davies 14lb 10oz  (sorry Mike!)
Peg 24  Mike Shellard think it was 23lb+ (4 bream + perch)
Peg 30  Andy Cranston just under 10lb of roach
Peg 34  Kev Dicks.. Not sure what Kev had but maybe 7lb
As you can see the old man himself Mike Shellard won, and I came 2nd which was worth £50. Compared to many places that was good fishing and some decent weights. I suppose it was mission accomplished as far as catching some fish and practicing, with roach not really playing ball a bonus or two will be needed in this zone next week.
Tomorrow I am on the superleague at Staverton, peg 31.
Written by
at 21:27

Thursday 16/7/20 Over 55’s and Short Walks Match results and write up

Posted on by Shane Lovell

Thursday 16/7/20 – Bathampton AA – Over 55’s and short walks – Bridge Pool

 

A number of lads, in particular John Smith asked where my boy friend was? Meaning of course Geoff Francis – “was he under the thumb”? I explained that for some while Geoff had been promising himself a van. So a week or so before the lock down he traded his car in. So the new purchase stood more or less idle for 3 months. It certainly didn’t have any fishing tackle in it, the reason for the purchased. Just as the lock down ended his neighbour bought a mobile home and drove it for the first time back to his home only to crash into Geoff’s van causing significant damage. So today it’s still in the repair shop and expected to be finished in two weeks time.  I’m sure we will see him out soon.

Arrived early and had a walk around to free up the back a bit. which is gradually getting better. The Pool looked dour with no signs of fish. A hard day in the offering, especially with 25 fishing, this match becoming ever popular being local for most.

A new attendee today – Mark Tanner. Unfortunately didn’t draw well and had a baptism of fire.

I will be glad when I can blame myself for the draws as I was given peg 33 which is the wrong end for me. However, on the positive it was an end peg and would be in the shade all day. Arrived at the peg to find the aerator running (pictured) which switched off at 09:00. Opposite I have returnee Kevin Winston (pictured).

Three rigs – Short Ronnie for caster over caster, a 4×16 to fish top-set plus three barrels with 4 mm expander over micro.and a margin paste rig.

I fed the long line which I started on with 4 mm expander whilst I loose fed caster on the Ronnie line. I had a run of small fish – Tench, Skimmers and Ronnie’s, but was missing bites from tiny Skimmers and Perch. The peg gradually faded so refed and tried the Ronnie rig. I had a good 15 minutes catching small Ronnie’s, Perch and Rudd quickly until it went quiet and soon had an F1. I switched to paste and had another six and a 6 lb Carp whilst still lightly feeding caster. I thought I was in for a good day until I hit the two hour mark and all seem to die. I went for a walk and sure enough everyone was struggling. Back eased so tried the long line again and had a 4 lb Carp. Tried the Ronnie rig this time with maggot and had a 1 lb Chub making six species in the Silvers net! Decided to sit the last three long hours out on the paste adding just one more F1 during which time rigor mortise had set in.

My Silvers weighed 6 lb 8 oz and my Carp 22 lb for a total of 28 lb 8 oz for a fourth overall pick up. A number of DNW’s down this end leading with suggestions that sections would be fairer especially as the number of anglers are increasing (pictured above – some anglers chewing the post match fat)The match and the Silvers was won by Paul Barnfield (pictured right) with 19 lb of Silvers and 24 lb 12 oz of Carp from peg 28. Paul caught all his fish on worm over micro at 13 metres. Well done on hard day.

The usual suspects plus three were all eager to get in the pub garden for our first after match pint since lock down – great end to the day. On the way home I could have been excused in my thinking the toure de Somerset had started.

Result:

1. Paul Barnfield 43-12-0 peg 28
2. Tony Rixon 37-14-0 peg 8
3. Paul Haines 33-04-0 peg 31
4. Mike Nicholls 28-08-0 peg 33
5. John Smith 26-09-0 peg 21

Silvers:

1. Paul Barnfield 19-0-0 peg 28
2. Hughie Evans 17-12-0 peg 14
3. Paul Clayton 13-07-0 peg 16
4. Dave Haines 11-08-0 peg 24
5. Ray Bazeley 9-12-0 peg 25

Wrote by Mike Nicholls

ANNOUNCEMENT TO MEMBERS FISHING NEWTON PARK

Posted on by Shane Lovell

ANNOUNCEMENT TO MEMBERS FISHING NEWTON PARK

It has been brought to the attention of the committee that some members fishing at Newton Park are leaving litter.

This matter has been pointed out by the Bath Spa College Administration (who control the fishing rights that BAA rents), BAA bailiffs and members.

If this situation continues it is likely that Newton Park will become unavailable to members to fish.

Anyone found leaving litter at the lake or college grounds, including the car park will face disciplinary action from BAA and it is likely a considerable ban will be imposed.

Any member seeing littering should if possible report this to a BAA official.

PLEASE TAKE YOUR LITTER HOME.

BAA committee