Billys Fishing Blog May 7th - Billy's Fishing Blog

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Welcome to my fishing blog… May 2023

May 7th – Windmill Open Match, Westerleigh – Fishing Most Foul (Carp Capers)

So, it was Windmill Fishery again for me, and Jason Pitman and Kev Swanston, who was wearing some awesome shorts, and Clive Hewson… it’s beginning to look like an Alcove AC takeover around here lately. It was nice to see a few familiar and friendly faces among a crowd of sullen-looking desperados. Well, as usual, it was all going to be down to the draw. The in-form pegs and red hot favourites are still pegs 10,11,12 and 14. Now, I’ve already drawn both pegs 10 and 14 in recent weeks so that would very likely count me out and I was right. Into the draw bag goes the hand of fate and out comes peg 25 for me.

Peg 25 is a great winter peg but it can be pretty dire at other times. Today it was going to be all the more difficult to get a decent weight here as we were all asked by the Fishery Manager, Dave Haines, not to target the silvers because they were spawning. Jason had decided to wait and take the last peg in the draw bag. Well, what a cunning move… it was peg 12, which is arguably the best peg on the lake and also the same peg he won from just 2 weeks earlier. Man, this guy can draw! Kev drew well too, pulling out peg 11, on which Gary Bowden had caught 37 carp on the previous day. Clive, like me, hadn’t done so well.

As everyone offered to give Jason the money before a line was cast, I sloped off to my peg to view my options. So, I’ve got a chuck to the island, a left-hand margin swim full of reeds and a non-descript right-hand margin. Everywhere else it’s 8 feet deep pretty much all over. So, I planned to set up a bomb rod for fishing pellets to the island. Then as I plumbed the margins, I had 4 feet on the left and about 5 feet on the right. I decided not to really bother with the right-hand edge but I would still have a look occasionally throughout the day.

So, I had 4 feet in front of the reeds but there was considerably less depth directly to my left, which sloped upward toward the bank. However, at just 3 metres, I considered this was a bit too close and I didn’t think the carp would come in here. Nevertheless, I would drop a few grains of corn here just to see. I set up a shallow rig at 18 inches deep for this one. As for everywhere else, I didn’t fancy it at all but merely as a gesture, I set up a meat rig for fishing short and shallow at 6 metres.

As I was getting set up I could see lots of movement in the reeds, which I assumed were skimmers, doing their business. There were no signs of carp anywhere at this stage. So, on the “all-in”, I cupped out a mix of corn, meat, pellets and micros in front of the reeds at 10 metres and at 8 metres. A few grains of corn went into the short swims at 3 metres to both sides. Finally, I put some meat and micros on the short line in front and I would ping a few pellets of meat over this line throughout the day while looking for signs of life.

As usual, I started with bomb and pellet to the island, pinging in a few pellets with my catty every minute or so. With 30 minutes on the clock, I had no takers on this so it was time to try the pole lines. With meat on the hook, I dropped in over the 8-metre line. Immediately, there were indications as the float dipped and darted, which prompted me to keep lifting and dropping the bait back in. There were obviously a lot of small skimmers just… skimming around I guess. Next, a quick look over the 10-metre line but I had the same scenario to contend with.

I changed to corn on the hook and tried the 8-metre line again but… Liners, liners and more liners… my float just wouldn’t stay still. It slid from one side to the other and dipped and dinked as the little fish were rubbing up against the line. Then a proper “bite”, or at least it looked like it and I had a fish on. At first, I thought it was small carp but it turned out to be a foul-hooked skimmer about a pound and a half, hooked in the belly. Well, at least I was off the mark although nothing seemed right about what was playing out in front of me.

Another drop in and this time my bait was hard pellet. After about 10 minutes I hooked into another skimmer. This one was foul-hooked in the base of the pectoral fin and was about 2 lbs at least. I then decided to rest the 2 lines in front of the reeds while I checked out the shorter lines to my left and right edges. I had a few indications on the left-hand line, similar to what I had been getting further out. There were no signs of anything on the right-hand margin at all. Well, with 2 hours gone, all I had in the net was 2 foul-hooked skimmers. It wasn’t looking good.

I had a cuppa and looked around at what everyone else was doing. The 4 anglers to my right were catching the occasional skimmer, some of which looked foul-hooked and they were hooking into a carp now and then but losing them. To my left, not much was happening at all but what fish were being hooked were also lost. I could see that about halfway down the left-hand bank, someone was netting a few carp (turned out to be Tom Baker), but generally, it didn’t look like anyone was having it off, especially at this top end of the lake.

So, out onto the 8-metre edge line once again with pellet on the hook and after about 10 minutes I hooked into my first carp. It immediately shot deep into the reeds and I couldn’t budge it. Despite my best efforts, I had to finally concede and pull for a break. I lost the complete rig. So, I put on another identical rig and carried on, throwing caution to the wind… then another carp was hooked and although I managed to drag this one out of the reed bed, we soon parted company. However, this one was kind enough to leave me a large fish scale as a momento. Next, a quick look short on meat but nothing going on here.

Now I was beginning to feel a little perturbed, which is a posh word for feeling pissed off, as I hooked another skimmer in the belly from the edge of the reeds. This one was about 2 lbs also. (I wasn’t fishing for them Dave… honest!). So, another look on the bomb and pellet while I had another cuppa with my late breakfast, a lovely Cornish Pasty. Then as expected, the tip wraps round, just as I have taken my first a bite. The clutch screams, the line hits the clip and a good fish is lost with a break on the hooklength. Oh yeah and I almost choked on my pasty too. Could the day get any worse? Oh yes!

Many more looks down the left-hand edge resulted in 1 foul-hooked carp of about 5 lbs, which was netted and 7 or 8 (lost count) more carp, probably all foul-hooked, lost in the reeds, which were now getting livelier and livelier. As the weather warmed up considerably, the carp were now diving in and out of the reeds chasing each other and scaring the “bejesus” out of the skimmers. I then hooked another one of them only to repeat the lost rig scene in the reeds that I mentioned earlier. It was now a complete free for all… absolute madness… mayhem and… pandemonium. So, with an hour to go and nothing interested in feeding, I thought I would do the decent thing and begin packing up early. Others too had had enough with 9 of the 18 anglers, tipping back and packing up before the scalesman could reach them.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the lake, the anglers there were totally oblivious to the pain, suffering and humiliation we had just endured. I grabbed the scales, which were left on the bank by the angler in peg 1, who had upped and gone AWOL. Then I went down to see Jason on peg 12, who finished up with 94 lbs for third… must be losing his touch. Kev on the next peg, despite his dazzling attire, had 63 lbs for fifth, taking the last of the 5 pools payouts. Top honours on the day went to Malcolm Fitzgerald on peg 10 with 172 lbs, with most of his fish caught off the island. Well done to him. Paul Staite had 113 lbs from peg 14, so just goes to prove the best pegs are, once again, at the lower end of the lake.

My next match is on Georges Lake at Whitehouse Farm on Sunday, May 14th, when I am hoping for the return of some kind of normality… keep you posted.

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