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.

 

Windmill Fishery Open

 After my holiday at Viaduct I had a weekend off and enjoyed the hot sun with my family. I’d really like to be fishing on the river at this time of year, but due to my recent dicky ticker and old war wounds I’m not confident of travelling far from home. With no matches on my local Avon that I was aware of and the team fishing the Dorset Stour, I elected to stay local and fish at Windmill.

Had the usual Wetherspoons breakfast, I was tempted by the cider on display but stayed stafe with the cranberry juice lol.

I arrived at the fishery in good time and was surprised to see a fairly empty car park. It seemed a lot of things had clashed for the regulars so only 8 anglers here today. Dave Haines pegged the match and put peg 1 to 14 in, so easy to park behind your peg. Peg 12 had won the last two matches and so that had to be the favourite peg with the wind blowing down that end. Paul Reed drew 12, and then I drew peg 1, bummer I thought, as far away from the fish as possible.

As I set up and looked at the peg I felt more confident, lots of room being an end peg, and an island chuck. It’s a deep area of the lake and can be good for fishing pole shallow, but I decided to fish shallow on the pellet waggler, two spots one by the island and one out past the bush on the point. Next a lead rod for the island, then three pole rigs, a deep margin, a shallow slipper and a paste rig. If you read my blog on paste fishing then you’ll know how I set it up. 

Match started at 10:30, I fed a decent pot of soften 4mm Sonu pro feed pellets at 11.5m and dropped in with the paste rig. I fed 6mm pellets to the island and 8mm pellets further out to the bush, so two places to try the waggler. It was a slow start on the paste, no fizzes or signs of fish, but I caught a 3lb carp after 15 minutes. It was then a wait for bites but when one came it was a skimmer and I was happy with that. A couple more small carp and probably had 20lb after the first hour, Mat Challenger on peg 3 had a few early carp but seemed to be struggling after that.

Second hour and a couple of skimmers and a few more 3lb to 5lb carp, and was now at 42lb 2 hours in. Third hour and the small carp were showing more and the skimmers had enough and went elsewhere. I was simply feeding 4mm pellets in my Preston paste pot and was getting fizzing and quickly getting indications. The fourth hour saw a change in the size of my fish, with a run of 7lb to 10lb carp and my clicker was going up fast. The wind was blowing nastily and did make feeding the island tricky, and caused a few tangles on the paste rig. 

I had a couple of visitors going into the last two hours, Kev Winstone and Leighton Palmer. I think my fishing suffered as I struggled to hold my pole whilst i laughed at their banter 😂 . After a great couple of hours the paste started to fade away, less bites, missing more bites and losing fish I hooked. The island was alive with carp feeding on my loosefeed 6mm pellets, and I couldn’t resist no more. I started on the pellet waggler with an 8mm pellet on a 16 KKM-B to 0.21 powerline. I’d forgotten to clip up so casting was a not great and then caught the grass, but pulled the pellet of it and the float buried! Tug of war commenced and I won this game. I hooked a few more but when a carp took me straight into the reeds and snapped the line I went back to the paste. It was not good with just 1 carp landed. Last 25 minutes I cast the lead over to the island and caught 4 carp and pulled out of two.

Match over, I checked my clicker, I had 176lb on it, but thought I might have over estimated on that. Bankside info had it that the angler on peg 14 had a big weight but the rest not much. Peg 14 was weighed first and had 165lb 14oz, mostly caught in close on pellet. I was hoping my clicking was not too much!  I was last to weigh and I was either going to be first or second. 

Fishery management were on hand to weigh me in, Kev Winstone was on the scales.

Dave Haines was on the board adding up.

My skimmers weighed first just over 14lb (top weight of silvers but no prize for them today). Then my 4 nets of carp went 176lb, exactly what I had clicked lol. With 190lb 13oz that meant I was the winner today. My best weight at this fishery and a very enjoyable day. I fished the paste exactly as I explained on my previous post, and fed around 2 pints of pellets.

The icing on the cake today was hearing my Thatchers teammates had managed to come first and second on the Stour, bringing them back into contention after a couple of bad rounds. 

No fishing next weekend due to a work event at Truck Racing, got to get on the river soon though!