Sunday - 23/06/2019 - Windmill Fishery Open - Match Lake

Breakfast at Staple Hill Wetherspoons with Bela and Geoff -  microwave getting warmer I think! Weather still weird some light rain, muggy and a light wind (for Windmill Standards) from the NNE.

A reasonable turnout with Nineteen booked in including Anton Page getting some fishing in before he gets married - will we see him again?

Last but two into the draw box and peg 9  was looking at me, not my choice. However, looking for positives it can be good for Skimmers. For company I had Townsend Junior on peg 8 and Gerry Welsh on corner peg 10. I could see Two Pots on end bank peg 11.These pegs can throw up some better Carp late on down the edge so set up a 0.3 gram MH paste float for the LH margin and a 4x14 Winter Titan to fish top-set + three barrels out in front.

MH (Mark Haskins) had arrived on his way home from night shift for a walk around, so I was able to put an order for some more paste floats.

I fed the margin with a large pot of micro and 4's and the Skimmer line with LR's and GB. With single LR on the hook I got indications straight away - but not from the species I sought. It wasn't long before I was landing a 7 lb Mirror Carp. The next bite took awhile to materialise - a 3 oz Skimmer. In the hope of catching better Skimmers I switched to 6 mm meat - a mistake. I did have one Carp on meat and more small Skimmers most were messing about with the hook bait. I was struggling. I had already tried the margin with paste numerous times and had potted quite a lot of bait. I could see the odd fish topping over close to the island, I was hoping they were Skimmers - certainly not large fish. So set up the waggler to fish maggot over maggot, this didn't last long because the wind was dragging it too fast away from the island. The drizzle started to packed it away and got the Ronnie Rig out. I could get a bite every put in from 1 oz Ronnie's but with missed bites and half of them dropping off gave that in. So packed that away. With half hour left and about 5 lb of Silvers I decided to switch back on the meat line with the same  baits I started with - GB and maggots. I was amazed to start catching better Skimmers and one more Carp before the all out. There one thing worse than getting it wrong is getting right then switching to getting it wrong! My impatiens got the better of me today. I didn't have a bite from the margin as did no one our end of the Lake.

My Silver's weighed 9 lb 12 oz and my four Carp 22 lb 1 oz for a total of 31 lb 13 oz. It was a surprise to find I had won the Silvers. So didn't beat myself up too hard about my poor decisions.

The match was won by Paul Elmes (pictured right) with 140 lb 9 oz from peg 1. Paul caught all his fish on hard pellet - either shallow at 14.5 metres or down his margins. Well done to him a good weight today.

Bela got caught red handed rustling Goats - pictured top right. Didn't know Bela liked curry's - or would it be for an Hungarian Kabab?

Result:

1. Paul Elmes 140-09-0 peg 1
2. Chris Davis 128-13-0 peg 18
3. Gary Welsh 123-09-0 peg 10

Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 9-12-0 peg 9
2. Dave Haines 7-05-0 peg 21

Weigh Sheet: