I have to start this blog by passing on my condolences to the family of Bob Sheppard. I imagine most people know that Bob passed away last Sunday, I am not entirely sure of the cause of his passing and will not speculate. When I was an apprentice at Bendix I got to know Bob well as a co worker, and he had just joined our fishing team which was a real coup. Bob kind of took me under his wing, and took me fishing on many pleasure and match events, he battered me every time we went, river, canal, lake it made no difference. I knew if I could eventually beat Bob I would be a good angler. We used to have to take a 2 week shut down at Bendix, and the first week we would go fishing. Bob chose the venues and told me a bit about them, we fished places like Jack Whites, Tockenham, Barton Farm, Conham, Bath town and many others. The first year he did me 5-0, the next year 3-2 and then I beat him the next year to which he said I have taught you too much. He was a very positive angler, never afraid of anyone, and if he beat you on the next peg he would let you know! We had some great laughs when he, Kev Boltz, Paul Lumbard and many more were in the team, many stories are not to be put in print! Sadly Bob took a different branch in life, and I saw a lot less of him. I will will remember him for the good times and the help he gave me to make me a better angler, RIP Bob.
This bank holiday weekend was / is a busy one for me, and I only had the chance to fish on Sunday. I would have loved to have gone to Rochdale to watch the Gas (what a win!) but I had Dad taxi duties Sat and Monday. I managed to squeeze in a match at Windmill Fishery on Sunday so I was glad of a local match. Windmill is now under new management with three very good guys now going to do their best to improve the venue for many anglers, Dave Haines, Dave Wilmott and Kev Winstone are the three amigos. I wish them well, and already they have managed to improve the track to the fishery and get the pot holes filled! They have a ton of work ahead of them but plenty of good ideas. Both Daves were fishing the match today, and they let Gerry Welsh carry on his good job of running the Sunday open. There were 20 anglers fishing so not many spare pegs, into the bucket and I pulled out 18, a peg on the end of an island and one I have won from before, but has been iffy for some time this year.
I set up my pole for fishing straight in front to the reeds by the island, about 15m away. a 4x12 with 0.15 to 18 KKM-B for hard pellet in about 20 inches of water. I also set up a slapping rig and a margin rig for meat, and a lead rod for chucking to the end of the tree. Simples I thought. I was slightly worried by the lack of carp activity, no signs of any fish boshing or feeding.. I had venue manager and expert Dave Willmot on peg 17 and Itsman Puskas on 19 who has won a match or two at this venue. I started on the pole to the island, Dave was on the pellet feeder and Itsman on the method feeder. I had a couple of indications and then eventually hooked a carp, soon came off fouler. The indications went soon after and I could not find any joy here. Dave had a couple on the tip, so I underarmed a lead to the tree and hoped for a few pull rounds. Well other than a couple of liners this was also a waste of time.
After 2 hours of trying to catch a carp I was still without one, and blanking! Dave had 4 carp now, but most on my side of the lake were really struggling. Shaun Townsend on peg 5 on the other side was catching carp on the island steadily, and I was now sure that the carp were all on that side. I got off my box and set up a silvers rig 4x12 with a 20 SFLB to 0.10 accu power. I had some maggots with me and started feeding these sparingly at top set just to try and get a bit of a days fishing. Dave Haines opposite on peg 8 had fished for silvers since the start and had 6lb already, so I was fishing for second in silvers at best I thought. I began catching small roach and perch by fishing full depth on the drop, after about 40 minutes of this I had a couple of rudd and I shallowed up and got a few more rudd, these are about 4oz on average and definitely the weight builders. Just as I thought I was going to get a decent weight of rudd they backed off, and it was hard work to catch but I persevered. Eventually this close line was gone, and I went out to 6m where I managed to find a few more rudd and roach, but again it became really hard and I was catching very little. I could see Dave had been struggling for a while, so I thought I might be closer, as result I decided not to go for any late carp that might show and instead went over to the island feeding maggots for the last 30 minutes. It was hard work, but I picked up a few more rudd, roach and a perch, maybe a 1lb 4oz.
I pulled my net out to see what I had, I thought it was 9lb, Hainer said he had 12lb. After a while Gerry Welsh and Mandy got to my peg weighing in, I was surprised to see Hainer top silvers with 10lb 1oz, and John Osbourne with 9lb 15oz in second. I put my fish in the weigh bag and Gerry said straight away this will be close! I got the verdict with 10lb 8oz, making the effort to go long was worth it.
The match was won by my Thatchers PI team mate Shaun Townsend who drew peg 5 and was on the carp side of the lake, he had a whopping 199lb 2oz. A long way ahead of runner up Steve Upton on peg 9 with 68lb 6oz. The top 4 were all between peg 4 and peg 10, also known as the carp zone! My side of the lake was very poor, Dave Willmott did best with 46lb 14oz, on my left Itsvan chucked back 2 carp.
Picture of the overall winner and silvers winner wearing our new Sonubait gear lol.
Good luck to the new management team, they have a lot of work ahead of them to improve the fishery, but they are on the case and I wish them every success.
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