Catch - 8 Carp, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Mostly sunny, but windy!
Match - Big Money Qualifier - 7th out of 15
My first visit to Windmill Fishery near Westerleigh (North Bristol). Four lakes were dug a couple of years ago, including a 32 peg match lake which is roughly rectangular in shape with 2 central islands. Depths vary from 3ft to 10ft plus, which to be honest doesn't make it the fairest venue. However the lakes are still developing and weights are improving. Personally, I hope it works out, because the venue is only 10mins from home, which makes a pleasant change from the normal 45mins drives and Bristol is sadly lacking a decent commercial fishery.
Todays match was a qualifier for a Big Money Match in July, where the top 2 from each qualifier will have a chance of grabbing a £1000 top prize. Although I have walked the venue a couple of times, I have yet to fish it, so thanks to Trigger who qualified last week for some information. Since it was the top 2 who qualified, there as no point over complicating matters, so bait was kept simple with meat and pellet.
The area to avoid was p10-20, so a little disappointed to draw p20. However, after a week of warm weather and an island within reach at 14m, I quite fancied it for a few fish. Typically being the weekend the weather changed to much cooler conditions so I wasn't sure how it would go.
It was good to met up with some people I hadn't seen for while, including Barry Richards who made the trip from over the bridge and John Fuidge. I hadn't seen John for years since we both fished for Thornbury AC on the rivers and it was good to catch up after so many years.
Back to my peg and the wind was blowing through the gap between the 2 islands at an angle into my face, but generally it was manageable. Plumbing up revealed a wide shallow area against the island, before it dropped away sharply into 5ft of water. As for a short line, I decided to target the bottom of the slope at 5m with meat. And finally the margins, with no marginal shelf I found an area where the slope wasn't too severe, feeding pellet & meat.
Starting across by the island (SM pellet 0.2g > .12 > 16 B911) with 6mm expander toss potting 4s. After 10mins I had my first carp, soon followed by a second. I had started catapulting 6s, but couldn't get a proper bite, so switched back to toss potting pellet, but the wind was beginning to strengthen, so switched to fishing meat, which resulted in some proper bites.
After 2 hours I was up to 5 carp and a small skimmer, which from those I could see was leading the way. Unfortunately the wheels then fell off as the wind strengthen further and was now blowing down the lake, which meant I couldn't fish the island the way I wanted.The next 4 hours was a struggle. I managed 2 carp over the short meat line and 1 carp on the straight lead by the island. In the meantime I could the anglers in the better area to my left catching, as was John to my right who was making the most of the space fishing down the margin to win the match.
I came away from the match quite frustrated, because I am certain I would have caught much more had I been able to fish the island properly, but when the wind is blowing so hard that holding 5m is difficult I didn't really stand a chance.
On a positive note the fish are in very good condition and fighting fit.
1st 75- 6 - John Fuidge - p18
2nd 54- 8 - Sean Townsend - p27
3rd 50- 6 - Barry Richards - p24
4th 43- 4 - Craig Challsingworth - p26
5th 42-12 - Scott Maunders - p28
6th 38-12 - Luke Pester - p22
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