Thursday 01/06/2023 - Ray's Rip Off - Windmill Fishery - Match Lake

1st of June and it was bloody freezing, heating was only 1/2 degree from coming on! However, as seems to be the pattern at the moment it was to warm up.

Breakfast in Hungry Horace's with Geoff. Always a good start to the day.

Had a quick look at the lake and it definitely had the look of the post spawning blues. As expected a few casualties from sex in the reeds. The colour looked a bit odd. So decided it was going to be a hard one today. Also most similar venues have turned off.

Into the draw bag and out comes peg 21. Arrived at the peg and the first job was to cut back some on the reeds (pictured) which were covering the margins especially with the wind blowing them over towards the water. At best the margins are at least 3 foot deep a tad too deep for my liking.

Unfortunately the waggler was out of the question due to the wind. Thought the fish would still be in and around the margins so just set up a couple of rigs for that plus the short Ronnie rig which I expected to produce the most with regards to silvers my main target.

Fed a small ball of GB with a few particles and my suspicions were soon founded as the small Perch weren't feeding as well as they initially do, very slow catching a few Cormorant "Mars Bars" - tiny Skimmers and a few Ronnie's and a Rudd before hooking a munter Carp which was played for some time. It tried a few times to get in the reeds but it was too fat. It finally broke me - fair play. As the silvers were slow changed to targeting Carp with either bunches of maggots or paste. The upshot was I didn't catch one until 30 minutes to go quickly followed by another. This meant spending 4 1/2 hours biteless!

My few silvers weighed 1 lb 15 oz and the two Common's 14 lb 11 oz for 16 lb 10 oz which saved some pride. beating 7!!

The match was won by John Osbourne (pictured with the silvers winner) with 41 lb 3 oz from peg 2. John fished long over to the reeds with banded pellet. Well done matey.

The silvers was won by Pete Greenslade (pictured landing one of his decent Skimmers) with 9 lb from peg 25. Pete caught short on worm over GB laced with worm. Well done matey.

It fished as expected - poor. However, looking back a year the weights were very similar with only a pound or two difference - post spawning blues. Be a few weeks before full recovery.

Back to the "Ringer" with the usual suspects for pint outside in the sun.

Result:

1. John Osborne 41-03-0 peg 2

2. Kev Winstone 35-05-0 peg 6

3. Andy Taylor 35-01-0 peg 18

4. Jeff Grant 26-12-0 peg 22

5. Shay Gillman 22-03-0 peg 4

6. Geoff Francis 21-01-0 peg 9

Silvers:

1. Pete Greenslade 9-0-0 peg 25

2. Shay Gillman 8-02-0 peg 4

Weigh Sheets: