Monday 1 May 2017

23/04/17 - Windmill - Match Lake

Weight - 46lb 12oz
Catch - 10 Carp, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Mostly sunny and light breeze
Match - Open - 5th out of 15

With the Viaduct Spring League today (I couldn't fish because I would miss 2 dates), there was a shortage of alternative matches and decided a trip to Windmill was order. Its only 10mins from home, yet its been 2 years since I was last here. I didn't particularly enjoy my last couple of visits hence the reason why I haven't been back, which is a shame because it would be nice to have a decent venue close to home rather than travelling the normal 45mins+.

Looking at recent results showed some decent weights, although there are definitely certain pegs you wanted to draw mainly because of the way the lakes were dug. Since my last visit, there has been a change in the fishery management and you must also now buy fishery pellet, which are coppens with a few coloured one to distinguish them as fishery brought.



I drew peg 3, which I was told wasn't the best peg, but I should catch. At least I could reach the island with 16m of pole and plumbing up revealed about 2.5ft of water a metre off the island, before it dropped off into 6ft of water. As for the short line it was 6ft deep at 4m, with no shelf, just a sharp slope away.

On the all in, since it was flat calm I decided to start across toss potting meat & hemp and within 5mins had my first carp. Unfortunately the next 2 fell over but managed to add a 2nd by the end of the first hour. By the end of the second hour I was up to 5 carp and looking around not a lot was being caught other than Joe McMahon on p20 and John Osbourne on p18.

By this time the sun was now higher and bites seemed to dry up for everyone. I managed a couple of small carp on meat down the right margin next to the reeds, but it was slow going. 

A switch to pinging 6s across to the island didn't really help, with only 1 carp on the pellet. I even tried the straight lead in case the pole over their heads was the problem, but never had a bite.

With 2 hours to go, it looked like Joe and John would claim 1st & 2nd, but the last framing position was still up for grabs. Unfortunately I only managed a couple more carp, losing 2 as well. The angler to right on p1 DNW'd with only a couple of carp, so on the day I may not have been in the right area, but still disappointed I couldn't catch more down the margins, or short on meat.

1. 93- 9 - Joe McMahon (Bristol) - p22
2. 92- 0 - John Osbourne (Bristol) - p18
3. 57- 7 - Geoff Francis (Bristol) - p8
4. 52- 1 - John Clarke (Bristol) - p6
5. 46-12 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p3
6. 41- 0 - Martin Rayet (Bristol) - p10
Silvers
1. 11- 8 - Dave Wilmott (Bristol) - p13
2. 11- 0 - Mike Nicholls (Silverfox) - p28
3. 4-12 - Dave Haines (Bristol) - p16





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