Sunday 14/10/2019 - Windmill Open - Match Lake

Steady 10 minute drive in the rain to the fishery. First to arrive and early enough to meet up with Brads friend Mark Keet who has a Harris Hawk (pictured right). The Hawk is being used to keep Cormorants away and is apparently very effective, which must be a plus. Nonetheless, a beautiful looking Bird of Prey.

Because of the rain I didn't bother with a walk. Fourteen fishing would have been more had a van not broken down on the way from Swindon. 

I couldn't draw peg 14 as it's currently under water due to all the rain. It was nice to see the water levels right up. Peg 7 drawn as golden peg. With inform peg 8 not in peg 7 and 9 might be the place to draw, so a chance of gold. Last but one onto the draw bag and out comes peg 12. Happy with this because it's a peg I haven't drawn. I have drawn the old peg 11 a few times. Not an area for Silvers at the moment, that said the Silvers have already done there winter disappearing act, hopefully a trick to avoid being eaten by Cormorants. Peg 12 is the longest walk but can be driven to but with the fields sodden I walked.

The nearest company was Junior on peg 10 and Dave Haines on 15. The wind was perfect for the umbrella which could be put up high and what there was, was off my back, making it also perfect for the Ronnie rig. So I set that up and a paste rig for the LH margin top-set only. Simple.

I treated the margin with a pot of wetted micro and the Ronnie rig with GB laced with plenty of DR's. Started on the Ronnie rig with double DR's and immediately started to get indications which I was striking at but not connecting. I knew from this it was Carp so waited for the positive bite which resulted in three quick Common Carp to 4 lb. The Ronnie rig wasn't right for these Carp so set up a 4x14 Winter Titan to fish over the same line at top-set plus two. I had five more in the first hour. The Lake went very still and the bites fell away. So I had a look down the margin with the paste but no indications. The wind then switched 180 degrees into me. Tried the maggot line which I had been topping up and had a couple more and my Silver a 3 lb Skimmer, but it had slowed, so decided to concentrate on the margin with paste for the rest of the match. I started to catch the odd carp but it wasn't manic. The wind gradually increased making the presentation very difficult in fact it was blowing the rig up the margin into the bank. I was surprised I only foul hooked two Carp, One came off the other I spent an age landing it. The fourth hour turned up trumps catching ten very quick Carp to 8 lb. Subsequently I had a bad hour adding the occasional. In the last hour the wind subsided a bit and had two 10 lb Commons. I guess these were in the peg for sometime putting off the smaller Carp - who knows?

I weighed 133 lb 15 oz for second overall. If he winner had put one more Carp in his last net I would have won!!!

The match was won by Ian Barker ( pictured upper right) with 154 lb 7 oz from peg 16. Ian caught on the method fished to the island with banded worm. Ian also loose fed pellet over the top. His last net weighed 78 lb so was 8 lb over the net limit!

The Silvers was won by Dave Britton (pictured right with the match winner) with 4 lb 13 oz from peg 18. Dave caught on double DR's over micro DR's mix. He was going to throw back, lucky he didn't - ALWAYS WEIGH IN I say.

It was back to the Bells with the usual suspects. Nice pint here.

Result:

1. Ian Barker 154-7-0 peg 16
2. Mike Nicholls 133-15-0 peg 12
3. Dave Willmott 127-12-0 peg 9 (nearest you can get to inform empty peg 8)

Silvers:

1. Dave Britton 4-13-0 peg 18

Weigh Sheet: