Over 55’s Match Bitterwell Lake

For some years now there’s been a group of anglers that formed an over 55 years of age match group. They fish matches on a Thursday and have traditionally fished at Hunstrete lakes, but due to issues they’ve now picked to fish Bitterwell. Due to my break from work I now can fish mid week so I asked if I could fish and I was told I could do so.

This match was to be every species counts, but the day before fishery manager Paul Isaacs said it had to be silvers only due to carp spawning. That meant I had to make a few more rigs and get some bait as my 8mm pellets approach was trashed lol.

Thursday morning and fought my way through the traffic to the lake and met my fellow over 55’s, well I think over 65 might have been more apt 😂. I was made to feel very welcome and looked forward to the match. I drew peg 20 which is under a tree and so some nice shade on a sunny day. On Tuesday I’d seen Paul Isaacs catch 40lb of silvers from 21 and so I was well coached and he gave me more advice and help today. I found out the payouts on this match are 1st and 2nd in section, my section started with me and went round to the car park bank which is a good area. Haydn Withers was on peg 23 which had won the last two silvers matches, and two pegs along on the end peg was Mike Nicholls. On 21 was Dave Gillard and he and I were being deafened by noise of spawning carp.

I set three rigs up today; 4x14 F1 maggot with a bulk, 4x12 F1 maggot with strung out shot, both had 0.11 to 16 SFLB. Also a 4x10 Chianti with 18 to 0.11 for fishing off bottom. My plan was start short top set plus two feeding maggots for as long as possible and then go to 13m looking to fill my net with skimmers and odd tench.

Match started at 10, I fed some worms at 13m and then started short on the maggots with 4x12 strung out rig. I had a steady start with a few 4oz hybrids, small perch and a couple of small skimmers. It died after 30 minutes so I added another section and had an another run of fish. I had a few on the 4x10 rig fishing off the deck, including a 12oz tench. After an hour and 15 minutes most people were struggling and having carp trouble, but Haydn and Mike had both caught quite a few skimmers. With the maggot line dead I went to 13m, only waited 10 seconds for the float to bury and then waited a tad longer to net and return a 9lb carp. After a long wait I got a skimmer but there no other signs.

I was falling a long way behind Mike and Haydn, so I opened another 13m line but fed this with maggot and caster since the worm was not great for me. The next two hours were a real grind for me, I hooked another 3 carp, and caught 2 skimmers off the long lines. I thought that the silvers would have backed off, but as it seemed not I wondered if they were right in close to the margins enjoying some carp spawn. I plumbed up left and right with my 4x10 rig and began feeding small amounts of maggot. Carp spawning activity had slowed but there were many in the area, at one time 19. Poor Dave on 20 was plagued by them, and only had a couple of tench.

The last 2 1/2 hours of the match were very satisfying for me, catching roach up to 12oz, odd hybrid, 3 small tench up to 2 1/2lb and of course did lose a couple more carp. I had to keep resting it and swap between lines, but only the margins yielded fish. Should have worked this out earlier, but to be fair in all my coaching this was not in the plan 😆

Match over and Haydn looked like the winner but Mike had endured a poor last couple of hours so it might be close. Mike to weigh first and his weight 18lb 4oz, he had some quality skimmers caught on wag and mag, lovely.

Haydn went into the lead with a similar bag of fish that went 21lb 4oz, he caught on the pole and worm. My net of fish went 19lb 7oz definitely a bit more than I thought! Nice picture of my fish with Paul showing off one of the quality roach.

As you can see from the pictures there was a big difference in the fish caught, I’d set my stall out to catch skimmers like Mike and Haydn caught, but eventually changed tact. It was a good decision on my part as I came second with my catch to the winner Haydn, well done H! Mike was third and venue expert Martin McMahon was 4th with 16lb 7oz.

A nice day’s fishing if a little hard at times, and the carp certainly interrupted a lot of anglers baits during the day.  Went back to the Ring O Bells pub for a roll and a pint, good crowd there, and saw the lads from Windmill match and so I booked in to fish there on Sunday.

Windmill Fishery Open

 Back at Windmill again for the Sunday open. There’s currently two finals later this year, one for qualifiers from Thursday matches, and one for Sunday’s. I missed out on qualifying on Thursday by 2lb, but felt I could have a good chance with a decent peg today. It was a pleasant start to the day weather wise although showers were forecast for later. The draw was done before 9am and I was gutted when the bottle top I pulled out had number 20 on it. 20 and 21 have been awful for a long time and I knew I would not stand a chance to qualify today, reluctantly I decided to just go for the silvers. 

Peg 20 is probably 17m wide, and with pegs 19 and 21 not pegged I had lots of room. I set up 3 rigs, a 4x10 for fishing shallow/ on the drop. A 4x12 for margin and across as depth was the same. Lastly a 4x16 for the deep water. An 18 SFL to 0.10 accu power was used on all rigs for starters. I mixed up some gbait Thatchers and F1, soaked some micros, and had some dead red maggots and some live maggots supplied to me by Martin McMahon who was helping young Charlie Isaacs fish this match. Charlie is son of my team mate and Bitterwell lake manager Paul Isaacs. Charlie has qualified to represent England under 15’s this year, big congratulations to him for this achievement.

Match started at 10:30 and initial feed was 4 spots, top set plus 2 at angles left and right, similarly at 13m. Steady on the feed and gbait on right, micros on left to keep options open. I fed maggots left and right near the margins. The top set plus 2 lines were a complete waste of time, never had a bite on them all day! Out to my long lines, over the micro tried soft pellet, red maggot live and dead, not so much as a rattle, over the gbait and a bite at last! But it was a fouled carp that soon broke me. An hour gone and nothing in the net! On peg 18 Gerry Welsh was fishing for carp and was also blanking.

I tried live maggot in the margins and caught one 3oz perch, maybe more time needed for the roach to show. Tried my other lines again but still not a bite, so plumbed a new spot at 14.5m into shallower water. Fed a mix of gbait, micro and dead reds, and left it for 15 mins. When I went over this new line I had a bite within seconds, unfortunately it was a carp of 3lb which I landed. I then had a 3oz skimmer and then lost a skimmer which was fouled, then lost a fouled carp, and that was the end of that. This was not going to plan. I did manage to get 6 or 7 little roach and perch in the margins, but it just was poor I wouldn’t give it long.

Three hours in and my 13m micro line showed some signs of life at last, I was getting tiny indications on the float that I thought my be liners, and several times the float slid under slowly and my strike resulted in no resistance. My patience was rewarded though, two 3oz skimmers in two drops followed by a near 2lb skimmer. Maybe this was the arrival of a few… hell no lol.

Gerry had now got a tiny perch, and was really hacked off as he could see anglers on the opposite bank catching carp regularly, luckily I couldn’t see them. Brolly went up soon after as the predicted rain arrived, it wasn’t really a hindrance to me as I was mostly sat like a gnome. I tried another new line at 16m to my left a bit, just another carp lost here. With an hour left I’d fed a small amount of meat at 6m looking for a bonus skimmer whilst knowing a carp could get in on the act. I did get 1 bite on the meat, a large carp hooked in the mouth that was soon leaving me to put another hook length on. The 13m micro line gave me another bite with about 40 mins left, and it was a 1.5lb+ skimmer. That was it for me, but Gerry soon after caught his first and only carp.

What a struggle that was, I reckoned on having 5lb of silvers which really wasn’t going to be enough based on recent silver weights here. However, I’d given it my all for 6 hours and was going to weigh in, Gerry was soon packed up though, and he said we’d been on the worst 2 pegs today and he wondered why the fish don’t seem to want to be in this area. The scales soon arrived from peg 12, and I was surprised to see 1lb 12oz was the best silvers so far, my fish went 5lb 4oz and top on my side of the lake.

As you can see one of the skimmers had some red marks on it, I’m sure this is damage as a result of spawning.

When the scales came back from the other side of the lake (where the fish evidently were) I was told there were two higher silver’s weights. However, the anglers who had those would frame and so I ended up winning the silvers, which was a bonus on a tough day. Steve Salter got 2nd in silvers with a 2lb perch and skimmer for a 3lb 14oz total.

Winner overall today was Paul Barnfield who had 163lb from peg 10 on worm and micros.

2nd Nic Sanders 124lb peg 2

3rd L Reynolds 112lb peg 6

My next match is Thursday at Bitterwell lake, and my debut in the over 55’s club, really looking forward to it.

Windmill Fishery Cost Cutter

 Another week on garden leave and another week where spring let alone summer is yet to arrive in Bristol. The thunderstorms in the early hours of Thursday morning woke me up, so I was a little tired when the alarm went off. It was a cold and grey start and it was the same all day just a bit of rain too. No photos as phone stayed in my pocket.

This was my first Thursday match at Windmill, and looking at prior matches the weights aren’t quite as good as they are on a Sunday for some reason. Possibly the 30 minute earlier start and finish? Anyway, talk at the draw was you still needed to be at the bottom end of the lake, pegs 9 to 16 to do well. Once again I drew bang opposite on peg 25 in the deeps, hmmm. I had this peg last time I was here and was 3rd with just under 74lb, that day I had a good 90 minutes slapping a pellet in the LH margin but then really struggled till a few late margin dwellers. Plan today was much the same as last time, a slapping rig, close margin rig, I went with a straight lead to the island as I could feed 8mm pellets with no wind. Also set up a paste rig as signs of blowing fish raised my confidence… I’ll say now that was wrong and the paste was a waste.

We started at 10am and I shipped down to 14m and was soon into a carp by the reeds. A 4lb common, they are buggers to get out of the reeds, 10lb lumps are easier! After an hour I had 4 of these common carp in the net for 18lb and a steady start. On my left Nic Sanders on peg 1 had nothing slapping and had just 1 carp on the long pole. On my right John Osbourne was targeting the silvers and had 1 carp and a skimmer. My second hour was really tough, I lost all signs of carp, and trying going closer to the reeds ended with me hooking a reed underwater and losing the rig,. Went to the reeds on my right and lost a rig on another unseen reed… tedious. Managed to hook another carp slapping only for the hook to pull as it came out into open water.

Tried the paste, no more mention of this waste of bait. Onto the lead and after about 30 minutes of odd liner I had a nice 8lb carp. No more. Rotated lines for an hour for nothing and was wondering where the next bite would come from. Then out of the blue another carp on the lead, and next cast another but this one came off half way back, deep sigh.

I fed my left hand margin at about 6m with some dead maggots earlier than normal and did get a carp here but again a one off. Two hours to go and another carp on the lead, then hooked one slapping which came off at the net, bugger. The left hand margin was dead until 45 mins to go when I had 3 big fish here. Just before the whistle Nic landed a margin dweller, he’d done well last two hours fishing next to the pallet on peg 2 and I thought he and I were close. Other than Paul Barnfield on peg 6 who definitely had more I didn’t know what was caught in those bottom pegs.

1st Steve Venn 99lb 5oz peg 11

2nd Paul Barnfield 89lb 15oz peg 6

3rd Nic Sanders 73lb 12oz peg 1

4th Tim Ford 71lb 14oz peg 25

Silvers

1st Shay Gilman 17lb 12oz peg 16

2nd John Osbourne 8lb peg 24

Well a bit gutted if I’m honest, I’d had a day of very few bites, and any one of my lost fish would have saw me third. Still got to be in it to win it. The winner had nothing after 2 1/2 hours he told me, and was contemplating going home. Then he and peg started to catch carp, he said it got better as a breeze got up. Conversely Paul in second saw his peg dry up last hour as the wind turned up. 

I was going to fish Chilton Trinity on Sunday, but a social engagement means I need to get home early, so I’ve booked to come back to Windmill and see what peg awaits me this time.