Windmill Fishery Open

 I was umming and aahhing about coming back to Windmill simply because the carp appear to be balled up at either end of the lake, so very Peggy. However, I thought maybe third time lucky, surely a carp peg would come my way?  But this time I took some casters , maggots and worms just in case.

When I got to the fishery car park it was a pleasant morning and the air was alive with bird song. I paid my pools to Dave Haines and soon it was draw time. I was gutted when I pulled out peg 18 which is the middle of the lake. I had peg 19 a month ago and struggled to catch much then. When I got to the peg I had a look at the usual anglers on the carp pegs 😂, and decided there and then I was going to fish for silvers for the full 6 hours. 

I set up a 4x12 chianti with 0.10 to 18 SFLB for top set and casters. A 4x16 with 0.11 accupower to 16 SFLB for fishing at 11m, a 4x12 with same gear for fishing at 14m. All these lines were going to be fished left and right so 6 areas to fish. We started at 10:30 and I cupped a few balls of Sonubaits Thatchers and F1 dark on one 11m line, worm and caster on the other, I did the same at 14m. Started on the top set with casters, but after 20 minutes I only had 1 tiny Rudd. Out to 11m over the gbait, where I had a couple of roach and then a few 4oz skimmers. I then had a nice 2lb skimmer but then lost one when the hook bait went over the hook. Managed another skimmer but then all quiet. Onto the worm line but this was not good with just small fish. Back on the gbait and could only get bits on maggots and no bites on a worm. I topped it up and went out 14m over the gbait, this was rubbish! But over the worm I had 2 skimmers and then lost a fouler which ended the activity.

Back to 11m and on double red maggot I had a a steady run taking 6 skimmers all about a pound. But when this died it was a struggle to catch anything on these long pole lines. I was doing well though at this stage I guessed, with Mat Tainton on my left on 20 having a few skimmers. The carp were showing at the far end and I was happy with my choice of target species. Onto the top set with caster on the hook, it was actually quite difficult to get a bite but the roach and Rudd were decent 4oz fish. I kept at it knowing I was putting something in the net, but eventually it went as all I could get was the odd tiny dip on the float from micro roach. Unfortunately the rest of my areas were non responsive and to make matters worse Mat was now catching big skimmers from right across. 

Resting the caster line did it good, with an 8oz roach and 10oz perch plus more roach. But Mat was getting away from me and I couldn’t beat him just on the top set. I copied Mat and fed some gbait further across my peg and heavily topped up my 11m gbait line. After 10 minutes I went across with caster on the hook, it didn’t take long to get a bite and it was a skimmer, nearly 3lb and my best fish. Next few drops I had roach, so I put a piece of corn on and had another skimmer. Of course it died on me and never had another skimmer here. In the last 20 minutes I caught 2 more skimmers off the 11m line which were welcome but not enough to get back at Mat.

Mat weighed in first and his silvers went 35lb 14oz, good weight and he had some big fish compared to me. He fished a good match, 16m with meat mainly over gbait.

Me next and I was a bit surprised to weigh 27lb 10oz, Mat commented that I had a lot more fish than him and he didn’t realise I had that much. The weather was much better than forecast but typically it started to pee down as we weighed in!

The match overall was won by John Fuidge from peg 12 with 154lb 8oz. He caught on hard pellets in his LH margin.

2nd was Mat Challenger on peg 3 with 117lb 6oz also on pellets. 3rd Gerry Welsh 116lb 4oz on peg 14, and 4th Tom Baker 115lb 6oz peg 11. Just 1 fish in it from 2nd to 4th!

I’m actually pleased I got things a bit better today, and I thoroughly enjoyed the day keeping busy and spotting lots of birds and even my first orange tip butterfly I’ve seen this year. It was a good day to be on the bank.

Windmill Fishery Open

Didn’t fish last weekend as I spent the weekend in North Devon with my wife, awful trip getting to our destination due to flooding, but had a great time after that. Work is quite stressful and busy at the moment, seeing me travel all over the country and up as far as Aberdeen. It’s not leaving me a lot of time to prepare for fishing or think about it, and I completely forgot to order any bait. Pellets and corn again then..

After watching the Gas win at home for the first time for a few months I was in a positive mood and had at least managed to tie some rigs and more hook lengths. Fishery manager Kev Winstone kindly picked me up at 8 am Sunday morning, we only live about 2 mins from each other. There was a full house of 21 anglers today meaning no empty pegs, and therefore I thought a draw in those areas where you might have a little more room would be best, and with the wind blowing into pegs 11 and 12 that might be a good draw. Having read Mike Nicholl’s blog it seemed that peg 5 was not the place to be. Kev got the draw started, I held the bag of discs and  Kev had Pedro draw his peg, he got 3 a good one normally as it has a lot of reeds opposite. Then Nick Saunders drew me peg 4, oh dear not been good. Mike was rather unhappy when he pulled out peg 5 again and told me we were both in for a poor day. When the draw was done I found a disc still in the bag, peg 22, and as it was a recorded draw we couldn’t understand why this was. However, soon realised Pedro had not realised he drew a peg for Kev, and he was sat on peg 3 lol. All sorted without a fuss.

Peg 4 is a wide one, 16m wouldn’t get me to the far bank here, but unless I saw signs of carp in the shallowest water I wouldn’t go tight over. 15m got me into 2 1/2 feet of water and I had a 4x10 carp shallow with 0.15 to 16 KKM B here. A similar rig for my left hand margin, and a 4x14 for 5m with a 0.11 to 18 SFLB. Also had a lead rod and a method rod readied.

We started at 10:30 and I cupped some micro and 4mm pellets at 5m and 15m. Started at 5m looking for any mug carp or skimmers, but never had a bite on pellet or corn. Over to 15m with a 6mm pellet in the band, the rig didn’t budge for 5 mins, but then a bite at last and a fair bit of 11 red hollo came out of the pole. A 5lb carp was landed, and I went back across and fed some more micros. Once again I had to wait a while for a bite, missed it but then was quickly in again. I thought I had another carp on, but up popped a 4 1/2lb bream hooked near the pectoral fin. By the end of the first hour I had 2 carp and the bream in the net.

Trying the 5m line to rest the long line was once again fruitless and no sign of any fish. Back across and I lost a fouler, had another carp and a 2lb skimmer. But this line then died, and I was not keen to sit for a long period of time with 16m of pole. Another try at 5m, nothing, then onto the lead for nothing, not even a liner. I guess after a couple of hours I had 20lb, Mike had a couple of pounds of silvers, Leighton Palmer on 6 had 1 fouled carp, and Kev was also struggling with 1 carp and 1 skimmer, but had lost a few foulers and floats. However, as we moved into the second half, my peg was seemingly devoid of any fish, just two carp on the lead each out of the blue and no bites on any other line. Kev had moved lines and fed worms and casters to get carp and skimmers. I did get a good bite on the lead but soon realised a fish Kev had hooked had gone through my line, and I had been playing his fish.

In the last hour Mike had 2 carp on a maggot feeder, Leighton had a great run of skimmers on the pole, and I had one more carp on the lead. Also had another of Kev’s fish hook my lead up, but Kev lost that one eventually. Think he needs to beef his elastic up lol.

Match over and it had gone just about how Mike said it would, and it seemed we were way off the pace. The top 3 anglers all came from the bottom end,..

Jason Pitman peg 12 153lb 14oz

Gerry Welsh peg 9. 103lb 12oz

Bill Knight peg 14  92lb 5oz

John Fuidge was first out the frame with 90lb on peg 23  and on 24 Mat Challenger was 5th with 68lb.

Silvers was won by Mat Tainton with 17lb 3oz of skimmers and roach, followed by Leighton (I’ve had no sleep) Palmer 13lb 3oz and then Kev with 12lb 15oz.

Full results sheet’s below. My last couple of matches here have not been great, could have drawn much better but also probably having casters and worm’s would have helped. Still it was a good day to be out and I enjoyed watching the birds whilst waiting for the tip to pull round lol. Mother duck has a brood of chicks.