Thursday 25/06/2020 - Windmill Fishery - Cost Cutter - Match Lake

First match here since the lock down. Ken Morgan announced that he will be not running these matches in the near future due to him looking to move house. A shame really as Ken runs a good match. No one has yet come forward to run them, so today might be the last one for awhile.

The payouts are equal Silvers and overall.

24 booked in including Bob Warren twice! We also had 2 no shows - probably because of the really hot weather 30 degrees plus today. So 21 fishing. I had a walk around the lake and with no wind it was flat calm with no signs of fish - it was going to be a hard match. As there is no aeration I suspected that the oxygen levels would be low.

Plenty of pegs I would like so the ones I wouldn't - pegs 4 to 9, 15 to 18 and 23. First to have my peg called - peg 4 it would be then. Didn't fancy it for Carp on the pole so my focus would be Silvers and planned to fish for them all day. I had plenty of time to set up and found five rigs in the roost but only used one all day - the short Ronnie rig.

So with the umbrella set up to keep the sun off me and with a slight wind in my face it all felt comfortable. So a simple match with live red maggot feed and hook bait. I fed one line out in front with GB and loose fed over the top I found could only catch on the drop, not getting a bite once it settled over the GB - so no more of that fed then, instead concentrating up in the water. I had a good hour catching small Ronnie's and Rudd. I had to swap around the peg to keep them coming but two hours in these fish switched off. I reckon I had 10 lb by then. Even though I had landed one Carp and lost two foul hookers I fought off the  temptation to try the paste, deciding as planned to stay with the Silvers. After a dull hour the Ronnie's returned along with some better Skimmers. I lost another Carp landing two towards the end. I really enjoyed the fishing today - persistence winning over.

My Silvers weighed 21 lb for the Silvers win and my three Carp weighed 14 lb 8 oz for a total of 35 lb 8 oz for 6th overall!

The match was won by John " Cliff" Smith (pictured below) with 103 lb 4 oz from fancied peg 14 (peg 13 is abandoned to not fished). John caught a few Carp long on 6 mm banded pellet but had problems with foul hookers. Finding it hard work in the heat switched to his RH margin fishing paste or corn down to the end of the Sedges. Well done matey.

Result:

1. John Smith 103-04-0 peg 14
2. Gary Bowden 57-04-0 peg 18
3. Tom Baker 55-08-0 peg 21
4. Glenn Bailey 48-12-0 peg 20

Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 21-0-0 peg 4
2. Dave Haines 19-08-0 peg 10
3. Ken Morgan 11-08-0 peg 23
4. Bill Ferris 9-0-0 peg 1

Weigh Sheet: