Windmill Fishery Open

 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.

Weigh sheet of all anglers today.

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.

Mike Nicholls Match at Westerleigh Lakes

 I have spent a few days away last weekend and this at West Bay, my family spent all week there and I took them and brought them back. As I was coming back Saturday I was quite happy to fish a local match on Sunday, would have gone to Windmill probably, but saw Mike promoting this match at Westerleigh and thought why not as I have never fished it. I spoke to Glenn Bailey who gave me some idea of the the approaches and depths of the two lakes, I made up some rigs, tied hooks and even put some new Preston Dural Slip elastic in my top sets. I had plenty of bait as I had got some Sonubait Pro feed pellets in 4mm and 6mm which will cover most of my commercial needs. Also got a new Preston Hardcase Polesafe which is the business.

Sunday morning and grabbed a quick McDonalds to keep me going for the day and got to the fishery 30 minutes before the offical draw time. The match was split into two with each lake effectively being its own match. I was told that the old lake was deep with a central bar and had mainly small carp in it, the new lake with 3 or 4 islands had some F1's and carp with some big carp up to 15lb. I got drawn peg 9 on the new lake, it looked nice with  two islands in front of me, but the locals told me it is not always the best. The water in my lake was very dirty, whilst the other lake was clear.

The picture below shows the island that was in front of me.

This picture shows the island that was off to my left a bit.

Rig wise I set up a mugging rig for any cruisers, but that never happened. A couple of 4x10 rigs one for banded pellet by the island points in about 2 feet of water max, another for the RH margin for meat. A 4x12 for fishing meat down the shelf in about 3 1/2 feet. With the match starting at 10:15 I was ready on time, opposite me was Lee Massey on peg 5, and on 7 and 9 were local anglers Marcus and Brad. Knowing the venue is not stuffed full of fish I started off cautiously, feeding 4mm pellet by toss pot on the point of the island in front of me at 14m, and off to the far left island at 14.5m. I put a 6mm pellet in the band for starters and tried both islands. It was not a great start for me to be honest, I did get an early 3lb carp out which was fouled, and an F1, but I lost 4 or 5 fish. The second hour was not much better, a carp properly hooked, a few more F1's and more lost fish. Lee had a decent 2nd hour and was well ahead of me. The third hour was shite and at the halfway stage I had 9lb on my clicker and was well down on my lake. Lee had done well on pellet, he was fishing the same depth as me but to find that he was was a metre off the island, where as I was much closer. I did see a big carp up to my left that I tried to mug, the float shot under and I hooked it, but after a few minutes I saw it was hooked in the tail, and at nearly 15lb eventually I pulled out of it as it took me for a ride. The lake switched off for a bit, and Lee struggled for a while.

My head told me to try something different, and I changed to maggots, potting maggots in to the left island point and 2 maggots on the hook. It was a good move and I hooked two carp straight away, both were hooked in the mouth, but both came off and the maggot had gone over the point on both. This was not going to be my day, I had now pulled out of about 10 fish, bloody frustrating. I kept going on the maggot and was rewarded with an hour of bites, with a few carp and F1's and at last a bit of decent fishing and not losing anything. Of course this died off, as seemed the norm on the lake, get a couple of fish then nothing. I saw a boil in my RH margin and went down there with meat, I had 2 F1's in quick succession, that was it, did get another later but no more. I had also fed meat way off to my left at 13m hoping for some late decent carp, I had 1 bite here first try and an F1, then no more.

The match finished at 4:15 and I knew I had not done any good today. Lee had clicked 60lb, and I had clicked 33lb. Brad on 11 said he had 25lb, but I knew he had more than me.

Lee did win my lake with 52lb 12oz, he just beat Paul Barnfield who was on favoured peg 2 with 50lb, and peg had 38lb. Brad got 3rd on our lake with 45lb. Silvers was 5lb 12oz.  My net went 29lb.

On the old lake Glenn won with 50lb, some on pellet, some on paste and some on maggot! Dave Haines had 12lb of mostly skimmers to win the silvers on there. To get the full results and peg by peg run down check out Mike Nicholls blog.

That was a bit of a tough day for me. Can't remember the last time I lost so many fish, had enough on the hook to win the match, but need to hook them in the mouth! Nice to finally fish here, it is tough at the moment, maybe with some more warm weather it will improve. Glad I went and gave it a go.

Not looking like I will be fishing next weekend, and need to see what I can get booked onto for the future.

Windmill Fishery Open

 Last weekend was a bit crazy, I travelled down to Winscombe after work on Thursday for a couple of nights away with my wife. We had a lovely walk on Friday on the "Strawberry Line" and then had a tour of the Thatchers Cider plant at nearby Sandford. It was really interesting and nice to try a few different ciders, and I bought a selection in the shop after. All told we walked 12 miles on Friday, and after a nice meal and few ciders I slept like a log!

Lucky I slept well really as I was up bright an early to go home and get ready to catch a train to London, I was off to Wembley to watch England, I was with my eldest daughter and her friends. My first time in Club Wembley, and was treated to some lovely food and drink, and got to meet a couple of legends, Ray Parlour and Paul Merson. Those two guys were very nice and chatted away to all of us for ages.

The day out was great, until I had to stop a man falling back down an escalator, unsurprisingly I was knocked over but managed to keep hold of him. He had a nasty cut on his head, could of been worse, I had a badly bruised leg where it landed on the edge of a step, but nothing more. Got home at 1am, and slept well again!

Back to this weekend, and it was back to Windmill again, though the last few days cold weather and hard frost was bound to make it hard I thought, this would be right. Another breakfast in Spoons, on my own this time, and then got to the fishery in good time, a dozen anglers had turned up. I paid my pools to Mandy Salter, and then saw her partner Gerry Welsh was not fishing, he was there but he was not well as he had been robbed and beat up in the week, needing stitches in his head. There are some horrible bastards around, get well soon Gerry.

I hoped to draw a peg at the bottom end of the lake pegs 10 to 14, but once again I managed to avoid them, I was on peg 6 which hasn't been great this winter, but it is a peg that should be good as it warms up as there is a nice shallow area by an island which is 16m away.

The hard frost was being melted by the sun, and I soon felt quite warm as there no wind and the sun is getting stronger. I set up a rig to fish at just past 13m in about 3 ft of water, 4x12 F1 pellet with 0.15 powerline to a 18 KKM-B for pellet. I also set up a shallower rig for tight over that I would also use for slapping. I also set up a couple of silvers rigs (as I was thinking that with some good anglers on good carp pegs it might be my best chance of coin) a 0.4g Shipper and a 4x12 Chianti.

We started just after 10am, on my left Paul Staite on peg 8, and on my right Steve Salter on peg 4 both started on the lead. I fed a small amount of 4mm pellets out at 13m, and 3 balls of groundbait off to my left at 11m. I shipped out with a 6mm pellet in the band and sat for 10 minutes without a sign, I decided to put a piece of corn on and after a few minutes I had a bite but never hit it. In fact in the first hour trying either pellet or corn I must have had a dozen bites and never hooked a thing, liners or small fish? Paul had a carp on the lead but not much had come out after an hour, but the air was blue down on peg 11 where Leighton Palmer was getting rather annoyed by the angler on 10 casting into areas that Leighton believed were his peg. I did have a chuckle to myself, lol. As I was blanking I tried the gbait line, I had a small roach first drop, then a 1 1/2lb+ skimmer next drop. Unfortunately I never saw another skimmer, and the small roach quickly petered out, and never came back.

I was back on the pole and the indications were few and far between, I also tried the lead as much as anything to see if I got any liners, and I did get a couple but no bites. Three hours in and I had been firing a few 6mm pellets across to the island and slapping but still nothing, and all of a sudden there were a few carp in the swim as I could see them. I caught my first carp just short of the island and it was about 8lb, it took a while for the carp to return but then I hooked one that swan into peg 7 and snagged me up about 9m out. I lost another carp, a fouler, and then hooked another that was fouled. This one was in the tail and after a long battle I netted another 8lb carp. I lost another fouler and then caught one slapping. With three carp in the net I was doing well, and things were looking up, but the sun had been replaced by clouds and the carp left the shallow water. The next two and a half hours were devoid of any fish activity, I could not get any indications on any of my lines, nor in the margins. For the umpteenth time I tried the 13m line again and I had a bite straight away, came back with a scale, next drop same result, grrrr. I picked up the slapping rig and nailed a carp, there were only 15 minutes left when I hooked it. Landed that one and went  back out and after a few minutes got another which I landed with 1 minute left. That was the end of the match, I thought I had 30lb of carp and my silvers.

It wasn't long before the weigh in started, and 28lb was best from the top end peg 25. Steve had 2 carp for 15lb 1oz, and my 5 carp went 29lb 9oz, my silvers 3lb 2oz, 32lb 10oz total. I wasn't expecting to do any good with that as expected to be beat by 10, 11 and 14, so I carried on packing up and didn't follow the scales. However, when I got back to the car park I was happy to find out I had come 3rd and last in the money.

1st Antonio Barson peg 10 44lb 12oz, mainly on the method feeder (allegedly in Leightons peg lol)

2nd Nick Sanders Peg 14 (again!) 38lb 11oz.

3rd Tim Ford Pe 6 32lb 10oz

4th Leighton Palmer peg 11 31lb 3oz (chip shop sausage).

Silvers was won by Tony Bailey with 11lb 11oz on peg 20.

Those last two late carp got me into the money today, I wish they had returned a little earlier. I know though I made a mistake by not fishing the slapping rig more when the fish first turned up, you live and learn. Still 4 matches here this year and 4 pick ups which is nice. 

A big thanks to Gerry and Mandy for running these matches, here they are pictured with Mandy's brother Steve who was pegged next to me. No fishing for me next weekend, as running a few errands.

Windmill Fishery Open

 My weekend started early this week, a visit to Cheltenham on Friday to watch the horses. I had a thoroughly enjoyable day with the lads, the sun shone and the Guinness flowed and I only ended up about £20 down on my bets which is good for me lol. On Saturday I messaged Gerry Welsh to book in for the match at Windmill, I'd left it late as I wasn't sure about plans. In the end my wife got over covid and I took her out Saturday and we spent some money at Cadbury Garden Centre. On the way home I popped into Premier Angling and grabbed a pint of red maggots for the match. Then watched the Gas on iFollow with Glenn Bailey, another win, whooo hooo!

Sunday morning feeling fresh as a daisy I went to Wetherspoons in Kingswood for brekky again, slightly different in there this week. Last Sunday it was quiet and peaceful, this week it was not busy but it certainly wasn't quiet. There were three girls in there who had clearly not been to bed yet from Saturday night and were very loud, the duty manager was not happy with them but somehow kept his cool. I ate my brekky as fast as I could and got on my way.

At the fishery and no Gerry today, but Nick Sanders and Steve Salter were running the show, 16 fishing today so that was better. The draw was ready but we were waiting for one angler to arrive, my Thatchers Preston Innovations team mate Shaun Townsend, who duly arrived. Time to grab a milk bottle top, and with everyone saying you still need to be down on 10, 12 or 14 I went and drew bang opposite end on 25. Still it is generally a decent peg and when I came here in January I drew this peg and won. That day Nick Sanders was on peg 1, and amazingly he was on peg 1 again today. Shaun wasn't happy drawing 18 again which has been really poor.

I set up on the peg to the left of the dodgy pallet platform, and took a look around. It was tight pegging with 24, 23 and 22 in and with the point of the island 5 people could cast there in theory. Chris Davis was on peg 23 and said he felt like a sardine lol, always makes me laugh does Chris and had me in stitches with his latest jokes.

Last time on this peg I caught everything down the left hand margin by the reeds by dobbing, but with some colour in the water today I would have to feed some bait here. I set up a 4 x 12 Preston Carp Pellet float, with 0.15 to 16 GPM.

I set up a 0.5g Shipper Pole Float for fishing straight out in front at about 10m with an 0.10 to an 18 SFL. I was going to feed gbait and fish for skimmers / silvers here in case the carp weren't about. I did set up a straight lead but in the end I never picked that rod up today.

We started around 10am and I cupped in 4 balls of Sonubaits F1 Dark with some Thatchers at 10m, then fed some 4mm Pro feed pellets with a bit of corn 10m along by the reeds. I spent about 25 minutes by the reeds and never had a sign, which didn't give me a lot of confidence that there were enough carp in the peg to get in the money. I went in on the bait line with double dead red maggot but also never had a bite, by this stage I had only seen Nick on peg 1 catch a carp on the lead. I went down to a single live red maggot just to catch something, and I did start to get some 2oz roach, they weren't coming fast and when I caught 2 tiny perch I fed some more gbait. A few more small roach followed but really not great. I started to feed some red maggots over the top of this line, it was tricky to do so as the wind was blowing in towards me, so I used a cad pot some times as well as the catapult. After about 90 minutes I hooked a rudd on the drop, and about 15 minutes later I hooked another. I was really struggling to catch on the bottom, and in my head I was thinking I needed to be fishing up in the water where the water would be warmer. I got a 4x12 Chianti with 20 SFL to 0.10 with strung out stotz rig out and set the depth at about 4 feet, about half depth. I carried on feeding small amounts of red maggots and dropped the new rig in, well it was a good move as the float buried on the drop with a nice 4oz rudd. Back out again and a roach all on single maggot. I then had a nice couple of hours catching rudd and roach, the rudd were bigger, and just had to adjust the depth of the rig and feeding to try and keep them coming if bites went iffy.

It went right off after this, and I went on the deep rig to rest the upper layers. The bites were tiny and so were the fish here, but I did get a 6oz skimmer and a 2lb carp out of the blue. Back up shallow and the rest had done it good and the rudd were back. However, the wind that had created a good ripple now dropped and my bites almost stopped dead until the ripple came back but not as much as earlier. I was having to lay the rig in all over the place, in the feed, past it etc, to try to tempt a bite. I got a lucky break doing this, hooking a near 3lb bream shallow.

With an hour to go the wind dropped and never returned, I eeked out a couple of silvers, but went down the reeds at 14m to break the boredom and caught a couple of small carp and got snapped by one. The match ended with me swinging in a roach. I guessed I had 15lb of silvers.

Talk was of the other end of the lake being good again, but Nick on peg 1 had caught in his margins on and off all day and was admitting to 60lb. The scales started with Chris Davis and had to go all round the lake to get back to me and I would be the last to weigh. Top silvers was 6lb 12oz before I weighed, and so I was chuffed to put 16lb 2oz on the scales.

Nick Sanders did well to win the match on peg 1 with 73lb 13oz, he won last week too so has got the carp sorted at the moment. Full results sheet here.

A couple of Eastern European lads took 2nd and third, I think they were from Romania. They caught on method feeders.

Well that was fun, been a while since I have caught a net of fish like that, nice busy fishing that I find very rewarding when you have to work at it. I won't be fishing next weekend as I need to spend some time on the vegetable patch, got onions, parsnips, lettuce, carrots, beetroot, sprouts and beans to get sorted.

Windmill Fishery Open

 The keen eyed among you may have already spotted that I changed my plans and did not fish the river this weekend. I dearly wanted to give it a go (though I could not find any matches) and had a few ideas of where to go depending on the river condition. I had left it late to order any bait, and then I saw the forecast talking about heavy rain on Friday. I decided the river was probably going to be to high to fish and that sadly I was going to have to wait until June to get on it again.  For once I got the decision right, because it did rain heavy Friday and again Saturday night, and as I looked today the river up at Saltford was showing a level of 0.8m, to high for a decent day really.

The weather forecast for Sunday wasn't looking great, strong winds and showers, but being free of Covid at last (although my wife has got it now) I was looking forward to getting out. Having booked in with Gerry Welsh I spend a couple of hours Saturday morning prepping, with two tip rods made up, one for the lead and one for the method feeder. If it was windy those rods would be first out. Also made up a few new pole rigs and sorted some elastics out in my top sets. Spent the afternoon at the Memorial Stadium witnessing another fine display by the Gas, it has been like watching a different team in 2022, 10 games to go you never know!

Sunday morning and awake before my alarm (so the Thatchers cider and stuff was obviously not over done) and was soon sat down in Kingswood Wetherspoon having a large breakfast, it's been a while. Only 4 or 5 others in but I knew one of the lads but had not seen him for 3 years so was good to catch up. I think it took me longer to drive down the "track" to the car park than it to get to the fishery from Kingswood, pot hole hell. It seemed the weather forecast had kept the numbers down, with only 7 people showing up sadly. I paid my pools to Mandy Welsh and the draw was soon underway, very quickly there were a few groans when Nick Sanders drew 14 (he'd won off it the last match) and John Williams drew 10 (he won off it the week before). Apparently this is where the bulk of the carp are residing at the moment. I got peg 20, which is up at the wrong end at the moment but can be a decent area. I had nobody pegged anywhere near me so had lots of room.

I hadn't come to the match with any maggots or casters as the silver weights have been diabolical here all winter (1lb won last match) and all I had with me were, micros, 6mm pellets, expanders and corn. My view on peg 20 of the island.

I had the method feeder set up to fish towards the reedbed in the top left of the picture, and I had the bomb set up for casting off to the right. I had 0.17 to 16 GPM on both set ups.

The margin to the left looked lovely and was nearly 3 feet deep, but I never had a bite in the margin, think the water is still a bit clear.

As the wind was already a bit nasty and I assumed it would get worse, I only set up a token top set plus 1 pole rig. Obviously not far enough out as never had a bite on this either! 

We started at 10am, and I began on the topset plus one for no bites, and was quickly on to the method feeder with a 6mm pellet in a band, I was using Thatchers original groundbait for my mix to start. On either my second or third cast I had a jaggy bite which might have been a liner but it jagged again and I lifted into a fish, it was a skimmer of nearly 2lb. A couple of casts later and a similar bite and skimmer number two was netted, had I already won the silvers? I then had my first proper pull round and carp on, it was a lovely brightly coloured 3lb common. Things went quiet so I added some micros to some of the groundbait so feed a little something more. Soon after this I had an early visitor in the shape of Mike Nicholls, he saw me miss a bite (or liner) and then get my third skimmer. Mike went off to visit others and left me to it. I made a change to corn on the hook, and my first cast on this saw the rod ripped off and I could not stop the fish and it snapped the hook length. Back out on the corn and I had another near 2lb skimmer, but after this it went dead on this line.

I had been feeding small amounts of 6mm pellets with a catapult off to the right about 3m off the island, and now just after the hour I tried this line with the bomb. As Mike came back round he saw me casting out and said "what's that on your line a plummet" lol, I was using a Preston inline cube. I then had my first bite on the lead and netted my second carp, Mike wished me luck and went on his way. I stayed on the lead for the next hour and had 2 more small carp but was not getting any indications. After trying the pole lines I went back to the method feeder swim with corn on the hook again. No liners or indications for a couple of casts, but then a couple more skimmers graced the net. Sadly the method feeder line never threw up another bite after this.

Back on the lead and pellet and 2 carp in 2 casts, thought here we go but no, that was a real flash in the pan. I had tried feeding a bit of pellet off to my left once the method had died, but this only produced 1 bite, again from a skimmer. I was told that peg 22 often produces good skimmers, so maybe the odd one drifted down to me today, never caught one infront of me or to my right. I was struggling a bit now until with about 90 minutes to go I had 2 more carp in 2 casts on the lead, but as before no more followed. I endured a fruitless hour and 15 mins when I was thinking things would improve. Then with 15 mins to go I dropped the lead out on the right line and it went straight round as I was tightening the line, but it came off about 30 seconds later and I am sure It was fouled. Never mind next cast it went round after 5 minutes for another carp, and next cast it went round again! Then the whistle blew at 15:30 for the end of the match.

I had 40lb on my clicker for the carp, and the six skimmers I hoped would go 10lb. I had hear that Nick on 14 had bagged up on carp, and I could see John Osbourne on 25 had caught roach most of the day but no clue how I had done.

My clicker was working well today with my carp going 40lb 2oz, and the skimmers went 11lb 2oz. 51lb 4oz in total, not a bad day and I actually enjoyed it as I felt I had to work hard all day. I do think in hindsight that I could have fished the pole long, as although the wind strength did get up a few times it was not as bad as I expected. Still we will never know, and there certainly was not a lot of fish in front of me as the lack of liners for the last four hours proved.

As it turned out my net of skimmers was enough to pick up the silvers prize today, but it was close with John Osbourne having 10lb 2oz on 25, and Andy Gard 10lb on peg 1.

Once again Nick Sanders did the business on peg 14 with a great 81lb 5oz, some on the lead but most on the pole down his RH margin. Opposite on 10 John Williams also made no mistakes (though he was struggling early doors and went for a walk) to end with 63lb 7oz all on the lead. My weight overall was next.

I think some spring like weather is arriving, and certainly I felt very warm fishing today, needed a layer less. A few spring migrant birds have started to arrive. I heard a few chiff chaffs today, and noticed lots of birds paired up and the mallards were getting it on. It's only March but the nights are getting lighter and hopefully the fish will start to feel hungry again.