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.

The best laid plans

 I was really looking forward to fishing the match at Newbridge Sunday, there were 40 booked on with reserves waiting. Monday night and just as I was going to bed I started to cough, and I seemed to have a bit of an irritated throat, I woke up 4 or 5 times coughing. Tuesday morning and still coughing and feeling a little unwell I did a Lateral Flow Test as my work would want me to before going in, test was negative. Wednesday and I was supposed to travel to Guildford for a customer meeting and so did another LFT, this time it came up positive, bugger. I stayed home and would have to do so for the rest of the week, I did a test Friday to see if I was over it, but the positive line came up quicker stronger. As I wasn't feeling great I made the decision to cancel all my plans for the weekend, so sold my ticket for football and called Ben Rendall to cancel Sunday. I know that we don't have to self isolate but to be honest out of respect for others I wouldn't want to pass it on, I also know I made the right decision as the energy levels are still low.

Having stayed in all week other than a short walk on Saturday, I decided to go for a walk up the river at Newbridge to watch the match, making sure I kept my self a good distance back from the anglers. I parked up in the old layby and wandered down to the river. I decided to not go up into the Little Field as I thought that might not be good today, so got to peg 14 and found match organiser Ben Rendall fishing the groundbait feeder. As we chatted for 6 or 7 minutes Ben told me he had 2 chub for 1lb in the first hour and we were now about 90 mins in when he had a proper bite and landed a bream of about 3 1/2lb which had taken a worm.

I moved on to  peg 16 and found Steve "Stretch" Saunders praying for a fish as he was blanking.

His prayers were answered though as within 5 minutes of sitting behind him he had a lovely drop back bite and was soon playing a bream. It wasn't far off 5lb and put a smile on his face. At this stage I had proven quite lucky to the first two guys I'd watched lol. I saw Darren Gillman walking along with his wife, and he told me it was all quiet further down bar a couple of anglers with early bream.

Rich Whitmarsh on 18 was blanking and then the lad on 20 had 1 bream, after this there was not a lot caught until I got to Jeff Surmon on peg 28. He told me had taken 7 small chublets but it had gone quiet, and within a few minutes of chatting his tip dropped back and he had a bream on too! I took a little video of Jeff landing the bream, it did make me laugh lol.

Off I went again walking downstream and I was really pleased to see Craig Pinker who I had not seen for ages. Craig had covid back last year and was in intensive care and was literally at deaths door. He's still struggling for energy but at least he's out and about. The pegs on the straight weren't great and there was just one bream at this stage that was caught. Shane Robinson on peg 44 was struggling and snagging up and looked a little fed up, but I told him his peg has produced bream as had the peg below 46 which Jerry Pocock was on with a 7lb bream in the net.  As I chatted to Jerry I looked up to see Shane strike and he was into his first bream, looked a 5 or 6lb fish to me. 

After Jerry there was nothing caught until a lad on peg 50 had 2 bream, and from here to peg 61 I expected to see bream as it's a very good area. It was quiet with 1 bream on 52, Nige Wyatt blank on 56 but then Dave Lewis had just landed a 6lb bream on 59, to go with 2 others and a estimated 2lb roach. Below Dave Derek Coles had just one 4oz chublet but being end peg I was sure he would get some bream later as it is often the case that the bream will start to show more in the last hour. By the time I walked back up to Nige Wyatt he told me he had just had 3 bream in 3 casts, and then as I saw him cast out again on his 4th cast he had another bite, we both thought another bream, but it wasn't it was a 1lb chub. Still Nigel was now right up there, but I had spoken to Dean Harvey who was down in the trees and he was probably winning the match with an estimated 18lb. As I left the anglers in the 50's they all had 3 bream in the net.

As I rounded the corner from the high 40's (which were rancid) I was back with Jerry Pocock, and within seconds he was into another bream, slightly smaller at 3lb and taken on maggots. Most fish seemed to be coming out on worms but Jer had changed that cast to maggots and it paid off.

Walking back upstream as I was, I really began to feel the cold wind which was blowing stronger and in my face, and I think everyone wished they had an extra layer or two on! Shane had 2 bream now and he missed a good bite whilst I was there, it was going to be close between him and Jerry. My walk back up the straight was quite fast as all the anglers were struggling with only 1 bream being the best it seemed. Kevin Dicks was on about peg 32 and only had 1 roach, but it was good to chat to him as I asked him about his recent matches on the River Wye, Kev has had some big weights over there with 99lb 1oz being his best (still didn't win the match wow). Catching on 6 to 8m whips is what is needed for these big weights.

Back at peg 18 and Rich Whitmarsh had 2 bream, and Stretch was on 2 but hooked one whilst I was there only for it to come off, the worm had doubled over the hook. Ben on 14 had done well to end up with 4 bream, the last one on the whistle and that would win him the 5 peg section with 16lb 9oz.

The little field had indeed fished really hard, Ivan Currie and Paul Purchase both caught 1 bream each and Ivan's was bigger and he won that section. The full result is in the picture below, and well done to Dean for winning the match with 33lb 10oz, not only bream but also a fair few roach on the feeder, probably more than the rest of the match put together. It looks like Dave Lewis peg must have died on him, and the early leaders name does not appear on the sheet. 

Well done all, I would have loved to have fished even though it was difficult for some. Now next Sunday is my last chance to get on the river before the season ends, it doesn't appear that there is a match on sadly, so I may have to get out pleasure fishing once more. Then after that I will have to get the gear changed around for a few months of commercials, assuming I can get on some matches.