Sunday 20-01-2019 - Windmill Open - Match Lake

Short drive match today at Windmill Fishery. First breakfast at Wetherspoons - Staple Hill with Geoff Francis. A first today a warm breakfast, must have a new microwaver.

Twelve of us today so well spread out except pegs 6,7,and 8. The air temperature wasn't too bad and luckily the NNW wind was very light. Into the large wooden draw box and out comes peg 7. Happy with this one as it has open water so I could use the waggler sensibly. Geoff drew peg 25 and for the umteen time his peg was golden. Must be a few bob in it by now.

For company I had Mark Summerhayes on peg 6 and Dave Willmott on 8. Dave decided to set up the waggler, it was a 30 years old Daiwa Poker and weighed such that it would need a double handed strike. It was obvious he's not used it for  few years.

I also set up the waggler to fish the open water with maggot over loose fed LR's. The only rig was and a 4x14 Winter Titan to fish DR's at 10 metres over micro and DR's. I fed the pole line with  smidgen of micro and DR's but started on the waggler, but found feeding difficult to judge with the light wind changing continuously. I had the waggler dotted right down and was difficult to see, this was to prove essential due to the shy bites. I was soon playing my first small Carp. The wind and I got to grips with the feeding and I had a great couple of hours catching Carp between 2 and 3 lb. During this time I also had two decent Skimmers. The swim died a bit so I tried the pole to only have one tug which was probably a small Perch. I binned this line and stayed with the waggler for the rest of the match catching small Carp, two better ones and another three decent Skimmers. A great days fishing on the waggler. I fed about 1/2 pint of DR's all day.

My Carp weighed 74 lb 6 oz and my five Skimmers 11 lb 10 oz for top Silvers and my overall weight of 86 lb was good enough for the match win. So another double bubble. My Silvers pictured upper right.

Geoff didn't win the golden peg but picked up first Silvers by double default!!

The Lake fish really well in comparison to a lot of venues. Maggot was the most productive bait.

It was back to the pub with Geoff and Dave W for a cup of tea.

Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 86-0-0 peg 7
2. Keith Builder 65-10-0 peg 22
3. Garry Walsh 58-10-0 peg 18
4. Geoff Francis 54-05-0 peg 25

Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 11-10-0 peg 7
2. Gerry Walsh 3-03-0 peg 18
3. Geoff Francis 2-11-0 peg 25

Weigh Sheet: