Thursday 23 March 2017

Thursday 23/03/2017 - Windmill Fishery - Ray's Rip-Off - Match Lake

Geoff Francis if now officially semi-retired so joined me at Windmill Fishery on one of Rays Rip Off’s. But first it was a short wait outside Tim’s place In Kingswood (Wetherspoons). How do they cook it so quick, so good for such a low price?

We were anticipating some forecast wind reaching 9 mph which for Windmill you can easily double. However, for the fourth consecutive match the wind was to limit catches. As it was to prove the wind got progressively worse from 20 mph to 40 mph plus higher gusts.

I was disappointed to hear that peg 20 was in the draw bag especially as peg 13 wasn’t which is a reasonable peg as failing to catchnCarp you can always catch some Silvers, plus the wind would be off the back. Unfortunately Geoff drew peg 20 (the only peg I have DNW'ed from – Again! I drew next peg to him 22.

Terry Smith the Fishery Manager has roped off the swims to limit the impact of the “Black Death” Cormorants’. I must say this is a good idea and appears to be working. Also it stops the lead slayers from casting outside their pegs!!

It was just the one rig, Malman 4x16 F1 in 7 foot of water. I had planned to start at top-set plus two the work put longer later, however, because of the ever increasing wind this didn’t happen, instead staying on the same line all match. With equal payouts for both Silvers and overall (this is how it should be) I chose Silvers and went for 4mm expanders over GB.

The first hour was good catching small Skimmers to 3oz regularly, after which the fishing became gradually difficult mainly due to the ever increasing wind which made presentation difficult especially for soft pellet fishing. I did have three decent skimmers to 1 ½ lb losing one flyer.

I finished the match with 11lb of Silvers (pictured lower right) and one 12oz Carp which put me first in the Silvers. It basically fished crap for Carp. One positive is that the water was really coloured by the end of the match! As I expected Geoff DNW’ed from this crap peg.

The match was won by Tom Baker (pictured upper right) with 28lb 4oz from peg 28. Tom caught a couple of Carp on the pole and some on the straight lead using pellet hook bait. Well done matey.

Geoff and I rounded off the day at the pub, both of us complaining about sore eyes due to the blasting we both had from the wind. 

Full Result:

  1. Tom Baker 28-04-0 peg 28
  2. John Osborne 19-02-0 peg 6
Top Silvers:

  1. Mike Nicholls 11-0-0 peg 22
  2. Steve Dawson 9-08-0 peg 24
Weigh Sheet:


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