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.

 

Windmill Fishery open

 I have been busy last couple of weeks, with last weekend spend at Cheddar Woods with my family for my S-I-L 50th birthday. Weather was really nice and even sat out on the decking without a top off! I was keen on getting back out on the bank this weekend though as I am busy again next weekend. Wasn’t sure where to go and even what day, but in the end I hatched a plan. I’d ordered a new box from Preston and it was coming Friday, so Saturday plan was sort the new box out, get to the gym and get the vegetable patch sorted and put some seeds in.

My new box is an Inception 3D 150, I chose this one as it’s a similar design to my old space station, and it’s not too heavy so I can get it up and down river banks!

It looks nice and clean and still is today, I realised that I didn’t have enough leg inserts to match my accessories so it couldn’t be used. Blessing in disguise really as the garden was a little more work than I anticipated! I’d booked in to fish Windmill and so sorted my gear and rigs for the following day.

Sunday morning and a good start as I remembered that the clocks went forward. Loaded the van and off… errr no, flat battery! I could have just gone back to bed, but then I remembered that Geoff Francis was going and he would be driving virtually past my house. I called him, but he was already in a cafe in Staple Hill, but he still came back to pick me up. Cheers Geoff! 😊

Unfortunately there was a low turnout of only 8 anglers, and 4 pegs were in either side but not evenly distributed. I drew peg 19, not one of my favourites unless it’s warmer.

As normal there was no wind whilst setting up, but this would be a false dawn as the wind increased and it colder as the day went in. I wasn’t going to set a lot of kit up, a 4x12 with 0.15 to 16 GPM for the margins, similar for across at 14m, a 4x16 F1 pellet for the deep water at 11m 0.13 to 16 SFLB, and a lead rod. 

I fed small balls of micro pellets left and right at 11m and the same at 14m but with a few bits of sweetcorn in, so edging my bets with silvers or carp and see what pans out. 

I began at 14m, but after 25 mins one missed bite or liner was my lot. Onto 11m with a Sonubaits 4mm expander, and didn’t wait too long to get a bite, it was an 8oz skimmer. Next drop in and another skimmer but a bit smaller, and another next put in. Next put in and in again but it’s a carp, took my time and landed a 5lb common. No more bites here so went on the RH line and had a skimmer of 1lb straight away, then a wait for the next bite which was a carp. Had to hang on to this one for a bit, but another common landed about 7lb. I hooked one more carp in the deep water but came back with a scale, and no more skimmers.

Back over towards the island and I had a few indications before hooking a carp, despite being on decent gear it took longer to land, a 6lb common hooked in the pectoral area. I then suffered two more foulers which both came off, and that line died. More looks on the 11m line were fruitless and no more fish came from there.

The wind was blowing hard right to left making long pole fishing tricky, so I tried a lead first, and then a method feeder towards peg 18. Neither produced a fish and I was going nowhere fast. Opposite Gerry Welsh on peg 6 had a good run of carp, and the lad on 10 had a few on the lead. I did manage 1 more carp and a skimmer from the 14m line, and had a 9lb mirror from the margin. It was obvious I wasn’t going to do any good with about 35lb of carp and 4lb of skimmers (skimmer weights of 25lb have been winning here). I decided to tip back the carp net, but Dave Haines said to weigh my silvers, so I hung on.

My carp

My silvers went 4lb 3oz, not enough as Nic Saunders had 3 skimmers for 6lb on peg 23. With Gerry and Mat taking top 2 prizes, well done all.

1. G. Welsh peg6   84lb 1oz

2. M. Tainton p1    57lb 2ozs

3. F. Brown p10     46lb 1oz

4. N. Sanders p23 27lb 9ozs

5. Pedro p3            21lb 3ozs

6. G. Francis p14    7lb 7ozs

Silvers

1. N. Sanders p23  6lb 5ozs

2. M. Tainton p1     5lb 12oz

Geoff got me home and kindly helped jump start my van just to get a little life in the battery. I got back in time to see England see their goals, and enjoy the extra hour of daylight, just needs to warm up a tad now!

Lower Avon Champs Bristol Avon Newbridge

 The title of this match could be changed to “bream bingo” as Shaun Townsend said to me when he asked if I was fishing. The end of season matches are more often than not the time when the bream have a feed, I’m sure it’s all about them feeding up before spawning. The clearer the river the bigger the weight generally as they shoal up. Well the Avon is gin clear so maybe a big weight would transpire, or maybe it would be rubbish! I’d received some Sonubaits clothes on Saturday and decided to wear some of it on the match, might be lucky lol.

I’d been nice and sensible the day before and was up bright and early for the draw. However, when I got to the draw I was at the back of the queue. Forty people fishing today. When I finally got to the draw bucket I asked Dean Harvey said all the flyers had gone, disappointed I dipped in, pulled out peg 7 which equaled permanent peg 16. One above my favourite peg at Newbridge peg 18, I saw that fellow blogger Ivan Currie had drawn that. Dean and match organisers Ben Rendall then asked me to draw their pegs. Dean got the trees but I got Ben peg 14 next to me.

I drove to the river and parked up, and as I carried my gear bit by bit to my peg I chatted to the other lads. Derek Coles told me he had fished my peg the week before and had 2 bream in the first hour then not a bite, and eventually couldn’t fish as there were so many boats on the water. Peg 20 had 120lb peg 18 1 bream that day. This made me think about my approach today and I decided to cast just short of the middle and keep the rod tip low, I only set up one rod. My 12ft Preston Supera with 0.15 powerline to a 14 N30 with a 25g open ended feeder. 

The match started at 10:30 and I began trying bread on the feeder. After 30 minutes I hadn’t had a bite, but I had seen Ivan land a bream below me. After 50 minutes Ben rang to say he had his first bream, I was still waiting for a bite. The armada of boats had yet to materialise and so I adjusted my rod tip to higher of the water. The next two casts I saw two small pulls on the tip that made me think liners. Just as the hour passed I had a proper bite on triple red maggot and there was a nice thump on the rod. Finally got my first bream, 3lb. Next cast and a few tiny plucks then nothing but when I reeled in the bait was gone, so took 6 inches off the hook length. About now Darren Gilman was skylining me 😉 and he brought me some luck as gradually I put a few more 3lb bream in the net and then a 6lb lump. I was getting odd little taps on my tip which was obviously liners, and had to sit tight and wait for a positive indication. From 11:30 to 12:30 I put 10 bream in my keepnet all on triple red maggots.

Bites continued for me and also Ivan, Ben was catching bream too but was 4 fish behind. Walkers advised odd bream were coming out in certain areas but nothing like where I was. My third hour started well but slowed up, Darren had been replaced by Dave Micklewright (who had packed up as the trees was awful) and he saw me catch a few and both Ivan and myself put a second keepnet in. Ivan carried on catching whilst i suffered second net syndrome. I was getting obvious indications of bream still in the swim, but couldn’t get a proper bite, then I had a drop back bite and had a bream on but it felt fouled, and it was. I landed the fish which was hooked in the anal fin. I tried different hookbaits but to no avail and so put a bit of chopped worm in and put worm on the hook. I had a drop back, but no fish, next cast another bite and a nice bream.

I thought I had found the key, but after a few more casts with just little plucks all signs stopped. Sadly my last 90+ minutes were a complete non event as the bream decided to go elsewhere. I was sat watching Ivan continue to get bream right up to the whistle and Ben had managed to get the odd one including a last cast one. I was thinking I was gonna be chop shop sausage!!! I thought I had 17 or 18 bream, Ben about the same, Ivan had 32!

Chris “Gappy” Parr had packed up early and grabbed the scales to weigh us in. Ben first, and he had 85lb 8oz, which I was sure was a lot more than me. But once again I under estimated the size of some of the bream. My final tally was 91lb 9oz. The very last fish in the net was weighed alone and went 6lb 12oz, probably wasn’t the biggest either. Here’s a pic of one weigh.

Down to Ivan on peg 18 and I helped to pull his nets out, Andy Powell did the maths and tallied up 159lb 10oz. Wow a hug weight and his best ever, congrats Ivan. Well it was actually my best ever river weight too, and also my biggest next peg battering 😂😂.

One of Ivan’s nets.

Back at the Globe for the results, and I guess you might know the top three..

1st Ivan Currie 159 10oz

2nd Tim Ford 91lb 9oz

3rd Ben Rendall 85lb 8oz

4th Shane Robinson 43lb (peg below Ivan)

5th Paul Purchase 34lb 10z

6th Andy Britt 34lb

All the weights were bream. Not sure a single roach was caught. Only 2 anglers out of 15 down in the trees caught, with Dave Lewis top with 2lb 7oz.

Well that’s a nice way to probably end my river season, business travel will probably prevent me getting out again.  Bloody shame that the stupid close season still exists 😢.

Lower Avon Teams of 4 - Newbridge

 Originally this league was 6 matches and it seems a very long time ago that we fished round 4 in November.  However, with two rounds cancelled it was decided that there would only be 5 rounds and so today was the final round. If you’ve read any of my previous posts then you’ll know Newbridge has been fishing pants, so today was potentially going to be a bit of a lottery. My team were in second place just behind Bathampton Blue by 1 point, so all to play for.

Mark Harper gave me the team pools and sheet and told me to draw for us, not sure that’s a good idea 😆. To be fair I thought the pegs we got were ok, Lee Trivett on 3,  Mark on 20, Rob Manns 46 and I was on 63 which was end peg. Would the fish feed this time?

Got to my peg and saw I would have to fish about 5 feet off the water. No big deal am used to that.

Set up the usual groundbait feeder with a 14 N30 to 0.15, a 4g bolo and two pole rigs; a 2g pencil float with 20 N10 to 0.08 and a 3g rig with 16 N20 to 0.12.

I had a section of good anglers to compete with, Kev Dicks on 61, Mat Challenger 59, Derek Coles 56 and Lee Gregory on 54.

We started at 10:30 and I spent the first 15 minutes on a bread feeder, didn’t get a bite. I then cupped in 7 balls of Sonubaits black lake and soil which contained some joker and a small amount of pinkie and caster. I went straight in on the 2g rig with a single red maggot on the hook, had a roach first run through and another third run. No more bites so put a pinkie on and caught another roach, and had in total 10 roach here after the first hour but then it died. I got 1 tiny roach on bloodworm but nothing else.

Back on the feeder but now putting some casters in the mix and trying red maggots on the hook. I had a small rattle on the tip first cast, but bait was untouched. About thirty minutes later had another bite but missed it, maggots were nipped, roach i guessed. My section was fishing poor, and I was winning it at this stage.Couldn’t get another sign after this. Kept trying the pole and the bolo but never got another bite here all day. About 80 minutes to go I had a roach on the feeder out of the blue. That was my last bite, but around the same time Mat had a 2lb chub on the feeder. Match over.

I had the scales and had to weigh two sections so started with myself. My roach weighed exactly 2lb.

Kev had 3 roach for 9oz, then Mat’s chub and 3 roach went 2lb 10oz, Derek 3oz and Lee never had a bite. In the next section Craig Pinker had a great last 90 minutes catching 12 bream for 51lb but would he win the match!

It was all very tight on the team front on the day with four teams on 12 points and one on 11. Unfortunately for my team tying on 12 points was not enough for us to catch Bathampton, Mats Chub proved costly. We came second overall, congratulations to Bathampton Blue on winning the league.

On the individual front today Paul Isaacs drew the sexiest peg at Newbridge recently, 18, and he fished a great match on the feeder with bread to catch 59lb of bream and 1 chub. Craig Pinker was second, and Ben Matthews 3rd with 13lb of chub. 

I’ve enjoyed this league, I’d managed two section wins and three seconds, decent enough. Not fishing next weekend, then back up Newbridge week after for the lower Avon champs. Bream or bust!