Windmill Fishery open

 After my battering at Viaduct I decided to stay local this Sunday as I was going to have a busy weekend. Windmill is a bit of an enigma, fishing good one day and bad the next, and the carp seem to frequent certain areas at certain times. The weather forecast was for a lovely sunny day, about time too!

I felt a little jaded Sunday morning, probably due to celebrating my eldest daughter’s birthday and then popping to the pub to watch the football final. A breakfast at Wetherspoons was very welcome before I made my way to the fishery. 15 fishing today and Gerry Welsh said the wind was blowing towards 24 /25 and he fancied those pegs, 22 had won on Thursday. Gerry drew 25 lol, Kev Winstone 22. I drew peg 7, bang in the middle of the lake. Last time I drew here I couldn’t catch a carp but won the silvers with just under 8lb. When I got to the peg and saw Chris Telling on 9 and Glenn Bailey on 10 it made my mind up. I just couldn’t see me framing overall and decided to target the silvers exclusively. My neighbour on peg 6 Andy Gard would also likely fish for the silvers.

I put up 3 rigs a 4x10 for the margins, 4x12 chianti with strung 11’s for top set plus one, and a 4x14 F1 maggot for 11m. All rigs had 18 SFLB to 0.10 accu power. 

We started at 10:30 and I fed a small ball of gbait (Sonubaits F1 and sweet skimmer), at 11m left, some micros 11m right. Fed maggots by hand top set plus one and in margin. Started on the top set plus one, no bites, margin 1 minuscule perch. Early look over the micro for one tiny roach, then onto the gb line and float buried immediately, but it was a carp. I did manage to land it, about 4lb. By the end of the first hour I had 8oz of silvers

The second hour I managed to get a couple of 4oz skimmers but these were a flash in the pan. All I could catch was the occasional little roach on the long lines. The left hand margin then produced a run of bites from 1 to 2 ounce perch. This died and I had to rest it. I basically had to go around the lines trying to get bites and find a few fish. Topping up wasn’t working, and I just couldn’t find a skimmer. However, it was clear that the lake was fishing hard for everyone and so I just carried on ploughing the same furrow.

About 2 hours to go I hooked another carp over the gb line, it was a bigger fish but I hung on and luckily it didn’t fight much despite it being about 8lb. Most of my fish were coming from the margin (best) and top set plus one. Still mainly little perch and the odd roach. I was desperate for a bonus skimmer but it wasn’t looking likely, then 2 minutes before the end of the match I hooked one in the margin, probably 2lb and I was made up to get one. Match over.

I had a Quick Look at my net as I wasn’t sure if I had 6lb, but it felt like 8lb. Gardy was admitting to 5lb, and Martin Reyat 4lb (he’d not had a carp). The scales soon came round, Glenn DNW, Chris Telling had 66lb on the method feeder on peg 9, my silvers went 8lb 3oz. Andy Gard had 5lb 3oz, Martin Reyat 5lb 5oz. My silvers weight turned out to be enough for the win. 

Final results

1. G. Welsh         p25    76lb 11ozs

2. C. Telling        p9       66lb 8ozs

3. S. Townsend p20     56lb 7ozs

4. K. Winston    p22      41lb 7ozs

5. L. Reynolds   p14      36lb 2ozs

6. J. Pitman      p2         27lb 11ozs

Silvers; 

1. T. Ford          p6      8lb 3ozs

2. J. Osborne   p16   5lb 8ozs

After the match Andy Gard went all Captain Pugwash and rowed out to the island to retrieve his lost waggler. Fair play.