Still here

 Just a short post, after a couple of busy weekends I was booked in to fish at Windmill Lakes Sunday just gone. Unfortunately after working for a few days in Durham I came down with the lurgy and was floored, causing me to cancel my fishing. Typical nice weather and I was sick lol.

Not fishing this weekend as will be celebrating my Wedding anniversary, but hopefully get some fishing in June, and got my annual fishing holiday at Viaduct to look forward to. Just hope the weather holds.

Here’s a picture of the river Wear in Durham, apparently a few hundred yards below this is great barbel fishing.

Windmill Fishery Open

 We finally seem to be experiencing something like spring weather, with a bit of warmth in between the rain. Saw my first swift today and that’s hopefully a sign of improvement in temperatures I hope. This was my fourth recent match at the venue and I was going prepared the same as last week with a full array of rigs and baits to cover silvers and carp. The day didn’t start great as I have been struggling with toilet troubles (side effects of operations some years ago, I’ve been waiting 14?months now for another operation) and I wasn’t going to have time to get to Spoons for breakfast. Luckily my wife told me that McDonalds was back open in Longwell Green and that saved the day.

I got to fishery to find only 11 booked in today, on the plus side that would make some room for the poor areas. I paid my pools and loaded the trolley. Shaun Townsend turned up and then drove off again, I thought he was going back to bed, but turned out he had lost his phone, but it was found later. I was praying for a peg with carp in as I haven’t had any carp action the last three matches. Well my drawing arm returned today as I pulled peg 12 that has won the last couple of matches. No pressure then.

The last two matches this peg produced 150lb+ all caught short in left hand margin. 

John Fuidge last week caught about 5 or 6m along. The sedge reeds were 11m away and I looked for signs of carp in the reeds, there was nothing. Slightly concerned as John said the reeds were knocking like mad. I set up a 4x10 edge float with 16 KKMB to 0.15 powerline for the margin. I had a good plumb up in various places and tried to remove floating vegetation. I set up a 4x12 carp shallow for slapping long, and a 4x14 for the deck. All rigs were with same hook and line for banded hard pellet.

When we started at 10:30 I fed 6mm pellets at 6m down the margin, 4mm and 6mm at 11m for the deck and started here. It wasn’t a great start for me with just one carp and a skimmer on this line. Paul Haines on 14 started in his edge but had nothing, Jon Osbourne on 11 had a couple of carp out long and then I spied Bill Knight on 10 take 3 carp quickly in his margin. It was an hour in and i followed Bill looking in my margin, took about 5 minutes to nail my first carp. However, I couldn’t get another bite and so worked my way along the margin and by feeding 6mm pellets loose I managed to get another 3 carp but then all signs and bite’s stopped.

I went back out on the deck where I caught 2 more carp but again this died, back in the margin and nothing. Three hours in and I certainly didn’t feel like I was going to win anything today. But suddenly a few carp started showing themselves a long way out, so I shipped out to 14.5m and started slapping. Took 10 minutes to hook one, wasn’t on long as the line had gone over the pole and it snapped. The wind had picked up blowing right in my face and it meant I needed to slap a bit harder and into the wind. I took 4 carp and lost a fouler before it died. There were two hours left and it was now margin fishing till the end I decided. No signs short, but found if I fished at 11m right next to the reeds I could now catch. Had a couple of 10 to 12lb carp and I was getting a good smattering of mirrors not just common carp. 

Leighton Palmer came for a walk around (not fishing as he overslept today lol) and I started to catch really well with him there. He said that it was close between myself, Nick Sanders on 1 and Mat Tainton on 9. I could see Mat bagging short on meat. The margin then died and no reeds were moving, I went to 13m down to the green reeds and found the carp again. I had a couple of carp all day go into the reeds, but got them all out. Match over and I thought I had 120 to 130lb but wasn’t sure if that would beat Mat.

Towner was on the scales and he started with me, the final tally was 132lb 4oz.

Either side of me Jon on 11 had 61lb and snapped his number 7 section! Paul on 11 had 56lb. Last week these pegs all had tons, and I think the carp have moved about a bit since then. I watched Mat weigh in and it was looking close, but I got the verdict as he weighed 122lb 10oz. He fished really well and is a very consistent money winner here. Nice for me to finally get a win 😄.

Nick Sanders took 3rd with 109lb, mostly caught shallow. 

The silvers winner was fishery manager Kev Winstone with 30lb 5oz of skimmers mostly on corn. Winners of both prizes pictured below, Kev is just back from his honeymoon in the sun, and was given a new nickname by Leighton of “Peter Andre” lol.

That’s it now for a couple of weeks as I am busy the next two weekends, nice to finally get a decent carp peg and a win. Tight lines.

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!