Billy's Fishing Blog » Billys Fishing Blog April 2nd

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Welcome to my fishing blog… April 2023

April 2nd – Windmill Fisheries Open Match – A Match of Two Halves

Well, with no club match this weekend, I decided to have a go at the Windmill Open. I must admit, I’m not a big fan of this venue and I often feel like quite the outsider when I fish these matches. On several occasions, I have tried to share pleasantries with one or two of the match regulars only to be blatantly ignored, like I was some kind of leper.

Today, I pulled up in the car park, jumped out of my car and cheerfully said “good morning” to the guy next to me. He just glanced at me and carried on getting his gear out of his car. They don’t come much more ignorant than that. Anyway, that’s why I much prefer the friendly atmosphere you get at club matches, where there are no big egos getting in the way of friendships.

So, today I wasn’t sure how I would fish. I had no set plan and it would very much depend on where I was drawn. I really fancied a day’s fishing for slivers and a £100 bonus up for grabs for the first angler to hit 50lb was a bit of an incentive. Not that I’m driven by money… no honestly… it’s true… Okay, whatever. Now, on the other hand, if I wasn’t drawn in open water then it would be a day’s carping, no ifs or buts. So, into the draw bag and out comes numero uno.

I’ve never fished peg one before but always fancied it. It has the edge of the island out in front, albeit at a full 16 metres, lots of open water and two nice-looking inside edges with reeds. Carp love reeds but I decided I would chance it for the silvers regardless. My only concern was that it was quite deep here at 8 feet and I was thinking that maybe the skimmers would prefer to be in shallower water. They are beginning to spawn and so they would probably shoal up in the shallows, which is at the other end of the lake.

Undeterred, I set up 2 rigs, both at 8 feet deep, one with a number 7 elastic, 0.15 main line, 0.08 hooklength and a size 20 hook. This would be for fishing dead red maggles and pinkles over groundbait. The other was exactly the same only with a 0.11 hooklength and a size 16 hook for fishing bigger baits such as worms, corn or expanders. I also set up a rig for fishing the inside edges, on both sides, at a depth of 4 feet. Anything less and I would be in the reeds.

On the all-in, I dropped a jaffa size ball of groundbait laced with dead red maggles and pinkles on the 12-metre line. The wind was getting up a little so I might not fish this line at all. Although I would probably give it a quick look at some stage. Then I dropped a similar size ball of groundbait to my right, at 8 metres, positioned at around 2 0’clock. I added a few loose micros to this. Next, I dropped another ball of groundbait, which included a few grains of corn, a few expanders and micros to my left, also at 8-metres, and at the 10 o’clock position. Groundbait was Supercrush Milled Expander. On both edge swims, I cupped in a large cup of micros and around 20 grains of sweetcorn.

For the first half hour, while the swims were settling down, I decided to chuck out the bomb and maggot to explore the edge of the island. I had 2 small rudd and a small skimmer on this line. Now, as this was a 6-hour match, my plan was to fish half of the match for skimmers and roach. If they didn’t show then it would be an all-out carp attack. To be in with a shout, realistically, I needed to catch 10lb of silvers an hour. That might sound like a lot but some of the skimmers are around 2lb plus so that’s only 5 big skimmers an hour. So, to kick things off, I went out on the 8-metre line to my left with a single dead red to a size 20 hook.

It was about 15 minutes before I had my first bite here, which yielded a small skimmer of about 3 ounces. I then tried the right-hand swim for 10 minutes but no sign of life there. A quick look on the 12-metre line brought a small roach of around 2 ounces. So it was all going very well… wasn’t it? Well, back onto the 8-metre line to my left and a few minutes later I hooked into a nice skimmer of about a pound and a half. That was more like it. I was thinking that this was the start of something big… it wasn’t.

So, I kept rotating the lines, feeding over the top with a cad pot, to see if I could make something happen. Then on the left-hand line I hooked into a decent skimmer, well over a pound, only for it to come off as I was gently shipping back. FFS! I really needed to start catching them not losing them! Anyway, a few minutes later from the same swim I hooked into a one-pounder but soon after, it all went quiet. To my right, I could see 3 other anglers and they were struggling too. However, to my left, I could see 2 poles shipping in and out and a few carp being caught close to the island.

Then Fishery Manager, Dave Haines, who was to my immediate right, had 2 carp from the edge in quick succession. I ignored all this activity because I was going for silvers… remember? Well, this silvers plan was obviously not working as expected but like the fool that I am, I carried on regardless like a stubborn child until I finally had to concede defeat. More than 3 hours of the match had gone already and all I had in the net at this point was less than 5 lbs of skimmers, roach and rudd. Pathetic! Then I hooked a carp on the light silvers gear. Would my size 20 hook hold? Would my 0.08 hooklength break? Nope, but it did take me 20 minutes to land it and all my swims were totally trashed in the process.

So, now with about 10 pounds in the nets, it was time to quickly work out a damage limitation plan, otherwise, I might end up as a DNW, go home in a sulk, get drunk, cause a fight, get arrested and spend the night in the nick. Well, maybe not quite but I might be just a little upset. I cupped in more micros and corn to both edges and started on the right-hand side, which looked like the best bet. On the first put-in, I managed to get snagged up with the reeds and lost a hook. The exact same thing happened on my second put-in. So, I started burying the hook in the corn and that did the trick.

It was about 10-15 minutes later before I was into my first carp. It made a dash for the reed beds and I had to really keep the pressure on to steer it out and away. Finally, I won the battle of wills and it came out into open water where I was able to boss it into submission. It was probably about 7 lbs. I couldn’t get another bite after that so I turned my attention to the left-hand margin. I didn’t have to wait long before I was in again and another 7-pounder was in the net. With only 90 minutes of the match left, I decided to fully concentrate on this left-hand edge.

I was tempted to go out on the long pole lines for another look but thought better of it as time was of the essence and I wanted to at least finish up with a respectable weight. So, I kept feeding the left-hand margin regularly with corn and micros and caught another 5 carp down that edge. I did lose one, which shot off down the lake at a gazillion miles an hour, probably arriving at the bottom of the lake just seconds later. Well, that was it. In hindsight, I should have maybe only spent an hour going for silvers, having realised they were not going to show up in any numbers.

My initial feelings about the skimmers moving into the shallow water proved right as Kev Winstone had 38lb of them from peg 14. The top weight on the day was 151 lbs of carp, caught on meat, and also from the other end of the lake. I ended up with a total of 57lb 1oz, my silvers tally being just over 4lb, which was a little less than I thought. My carp bag was almost 53lb, mainly caught within the last 2 hours. I finished up 6^th in the 15-peg event so at least it was quite respectable and more importantly, another lesson learned. I’ll be going back next week to tackle the carp, so I expect I’ll get a good net of slivers 🙂

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