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.