Windmill Fishery Open

Some of you may have read the title and are thinking why has Tim not yet fished the river this season. Well I do love my river fishing but there’s not been any matches on my local Bristol Avon that I’ve been able to fish. My Thatchers team matches have been on the Stour in Dorset, and I’ve given them a miss due to the early starts and plenty of local lads to fish ( we won both matches so well done team). The urge to get back on the river will come, when there’s less boats, swimmers and paddle boarding.

Before I say anything else today, got to say I was gutted to see that Tony Rixon had his van and some fishing gear stolen, it’s every anglers worst nightmare. I hope he gets his stuff back.

Back to today, a good turnout of 19 anglers with a decent contingent from the Swindon area, including a very old team mate of mine Pete Philips. As always I’m open minded what to fish for on this venue, so entered the overall super pool as well. I fancied pegs from 8 to 18 as the wind was blowing down that end of the lake. I drew peg 22 which is deep and not got any shallow water to fish a pole into, rather be here in winter lol. I had John Williams on 21, Mick Gale was on 23, and Fishery management Kev Winstone on peg 24 not a fancied peg. With lots of wind and rain forecast tactics were going to be important, and I put a brolly up to keep me a little more comfortable.

My peg has a lot reeds opposite but it’s not safe to fish close to them for carp. A lot of anglers chuck the lead to the right of them in the only shallower water, I did set up a lead for here, but it was a last resort as it would be hook and hold. My two main rigs were my usual paste rig for 11m, and a 4x16 for fishing at 14m towards the reeds where I try micro, worm and corn.

I started on the paste at 11m and fed my usual 4mm pellets, there was no fizzing or signs for 10 minutes, then out of the blue my firs bite. I connected and shortly after a skimmer jumped out of the water, it stayed on and at nearly 3lb was a nice fish. I had another couple of near 2lb skimmers on the paste and a 3lb carp in the first hour. Looking around me not a lot had been caught. I stuck with the paste and whilst it was slow going there was the odd fizz and bite to keep me interested. Then I heard Shaun Townsend was emptying peg 16, so that was probably the winner. My paste line yielded a few more small common carp and skimmers before going dead after 2 hours.

The 14m line was tried but it was not successful, and I upped the feed here hoping to get some skimmers over it later. A couple more small carp on paste than nothing again. The wind and rain just kept on coming, and it made things difficult. With 2 hours to go I had my first bite at 14m, another small common took my worm hook bait. Next two drops same result, but then nothing. I did get a skimmer and 1 more carp here later but it was never great.

I preserved with paste as for the last 80 minutes I was getting little fizzes and bites…. But I was hooking absolutely nothing! Not even a fouler, it was doing my head in lol. Then with 15 minutes to go I had another 3lb carp, then a proper lad of nearly 12lb, then a 10oz skimmer and that was the end.

From what I could see I’d beaten all around me, but knowing that Shaun and Glenn Bailey had bagged I was struggling to get third. I thought I had 60lb, then Leighton Palmer on peg 1 said he had 70lb, ah well not looking good for coin today I thought. There was a set of scales either side of the lake and on my side they weighed from 12 up to 24. Glenn had 90lb on 14, Towner 160lb on 16, that was top 2. My silvers went 11lb 10oz and my carp 52lb 6oz, a nice round 64lb. Mick Gale on 23 had 11lb 1oz of silvers, and I was top silvers on our side of the lake but was even more surprised to find out that I was top silvers weight on the day!

The weigh sheets are below, I didn’t get many pictures as I didn’t want my phone to get wet, lovely weather for July. Not sure if this will be my last match for a while, or if I will go next week. But I have an operation on the 28th July which will keep me out of action for sometime. I’ve been waiting for this op for nearly 18 months, it’s related to my old operations from many years ago, and will hopefully make my life easier when it comes to toilet habits. Wish me luck is all I can ask, and thanks in advance.