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.
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