Sunday 02/06/2019 - Windmill Open - Match Lake

Wetherspoons for Geoff and me which was OK. I was out in Bath on Saturday the temperature was nearing 28 degrees I was particularly hot. Today what a change rain most of the day and with the wind hacking into my peg I was freezing!

I was wondering what happened to the rest of the chair I found in the bin  (pictured right). Mystery solved - pictured below right. Well whittled Shaun Townend!!

Thirteen fishing today I was last but one into the drawbox and peg 23 for me for the next 6 1/4 hours. Can be OK but a bit of a feast or famine peg and a very deep. The payout for Silvers isn't that good on these matches with most of the money going to the three top weights. So I thought I would fish for Carp today with expanders and paste.

For company I had match organiser Dave Haines on peg 22. I initially set-up a 4x14 Winter Titan set to 5 foot - 4 foot up the shelf at top-set plus one and a 0.3 gram paste float set to 3 foot to fish the LH margin up to the sedges. I didn't set up the waggler because the wind forecast was against it.

Started on the 4 mm expander over hard 4's and had an early small Carp. I had been feeding the margin and noticed the sedges moving so dropped the paste in and had an 8 lb Mirror. Other than a speared Ronnie I couldn't get bites on either line. The wind hadn't yet materialised so set up the wagger to fish banded 6's over loose fed 4's. First cast a small Carp - looking good? Not - that was it and was soon abandoned once the wind picked up. Time for the banana walk. Dave Haines was struggling to catch his whitebait, Dave Willmott was catching well on peg 20 on 6mm meat as was John Fuidge on 16. They were also catching opposite on peg 6 so game over for me for Carp then. So back in the saddle and started on double DR's over GB laced with DR's to catch Silvers, low and behold started to catch small Carp. In between I caught the odd Skimmer and after topping up the GB I would try the paste in the margin catching the odd better Carp, but I was only nicking one at a time. At least I had made something work and would have enjoyed it if it wasn't for the rain and wind.

My Silver's weighed 9 lb 1 oz for first in the Silvers defaulted so not all lost. My total weight was 53 b 10 oz was acceptable for the area. The fish appear to have moved down the Lake into the middle pegs on both sides.

As expected Dave Willmott won the match and the Silvers (pictured right with the runner up john Fuidge) with 118 lb 5 oz from peg 20. Dave caught on 6 mm meat fished part way up the shelf down his RH side. His meat feed was introduced via a clip on Kinder pot.

It fished well considering the awful conditions with most catching a few.
Result:

1. Dave Willmott 118-05-0 peg 20 (Meat)
2. John Fuidge 96-07-0 peg 16 (Meat)
3. Mark Summerhayes 89-06-0 peg 6 (Paste)

Silvers:

1. Dave Willmott 18-03-0 peg 20
2. Mike Nicholls 9-01-0 peg 23

Weigh Sheet: