Sunday 10/02/2019 - Windmill Open

I have started to take the weather forecasting with a large pinch of salt. There is definitely evidence of the forecasters stating a worse case scenario. As was the case today. Lovely day to be out in the country.

Met up with Geoff Francis at the Staple Hill Wetherspoons for breakfast - again warmish, so not too bad.

It was nice to Tim Ford and Glenn Bailey joining us today both quality angles, didn't expect the paste to work. This took as to 12 fishing today, so plenty of room for some!

Into the large wooden draw box to draw the golden peg, which was peg 10 - a chance here for someone. In again and out comes peg 3 mine for the day. Not that good a peg especially for Carp, but you never know.

The water level is right up, in fact the highest i've seen it, and lapping at my feet!

The wind was blowing off my RH shoulder so would be great to fish the waggler over to the island which was about 20 metres. So I started to ring up the rod for the midsection to break in my hand with little to no load on it. This is the second time this rod has broken, noticeably in the exact same place in the midsection which is the section that should take most load. Umm. In 50 years of waggler fishing I have only broke a rod twice - THIS ONE!

Next was a black top 4x14 Winter Titan to fish at top-set plus four for anything that swims. I started with single LR on the hook fished over LR's and wetted micro. I had an indication right away, then a missed bite followed quickly by a foul hooked Carp which came off. That was it for any signs of Carp, but started to get bites from small Ronnies. So I decided to fish for them, so set up the Ronnie rig and with Pinkie in the GB and single Pinkie on the hook I had a run of very small Ronnies. Unfortunately, every time the sun appeard the fish disappeared! So I started another Silver line over the longer line by feeding a big ball of GB. So by switching long in the sun and short in the gloom I kept athe Ronnies and the rare small 4 oz Skimmers coming until half hour to go when all lines died.

My Silvers weighed 7 lb 14 oz for first in the Silvers. Most of the Carp came from the high peg numbers.

The match was won by Keith Bilder (pictured upper right with the Silvers winner) with 77 lb 10 oz from inform peg 22. Keith caught mostly at 11.5 metres using corn hook bait fished over hard fours. Keith fed about one pint of 4's and a smidgen of corn.

Considering recent weather conditions and the poor results from other fisheries the lake fished OK.

Result:

1. Keith Bilder 77-10-0 peg 22

2. Dave Willmott 47-11-0 peg 18

3. Nick Saunders 35-0-0 peg 1

4. Tim Ford 31-07-0 peg 16

Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 7-12-0 peg 3

2. Bill Ferries 6-08-0 peg 23

Weigh Sheet: