Billy's Fishing Blog » Billys Fishing Blog April 9th

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Welcome to my fishing blog… April 2023

April 9th – Windmill Fisheries Open Match – Something To Be Carping On About

Well, it was Windmill again for me this week, and with last week’s “silvers match” disaster, all but a fading memory, my plan was for an all-out carp attack. There were 21 anglers competing in this one, which is pretty much a full house. Many of these guys are Windmill regulars or “top-class” matchmen. However, I was in good company with Legion and Alcove club mates, Jason Pitman and Glynn Sage as my wingmen. So, I was pretty sure that this match would all be decided by the draw today. With a wind blowing down the lake towards the shallow end, that’s where you would need to be.

I held back at the draw, waiting for all the eager beavers to rush in and grab all the dodgy pegs. However, I thought for a moment that fate had dealt me a deadly blow when I dipped into the draw bag and pulled out 2 numbered discs, which were stuck together. So, I had to redraw, which is always a bad omen. However, Lady Luck came to the rescue and handed me peg 14… at the bottom end of the lake. Jason had somehow managed to pull out peg 12, which later proved to be an absolute “flyer”.

Well, I was more than happy with my draw although I haven’t fished this peg before. In fact, it was the first time I have ever drawn down the bottom end of the lake, having only fished this venue 5 or 6 times in total. On arrival, I could see I had a nice inside reed bed to my right, which would be my main line of attack. The inside line to my left could prove positive too but there was less cover there so I would try this edge when resting the other side. The edge of the island was reachable at 16 metres but a stiff breeze could prove problematic. Apart from that I had to first negotiate the swamp that was at the back of my platform.

I set up a margin rig for both the left and right-hand margins, which was about 3 feet deep just before the snaggy bits of reed. This rig consisted of 0.22 mainline (9lb BS), a 0.15 hooklength (5lb BS) and a 4×12 (.2 gram) Kev Murch float. Kev makes some great floats and I highly recommend them. My hook choice was a Guru size 16 MWG eyed barbless with a speed stop hair. I tie these myself so I only have myself to blame if one fails.

I also set up a rig for fishing on the deck right out in front at 11 metres. This was about 5.5 feet deep here and so the rig was a 4×14 (.4 gram) pencil float to a 0.15 mainline and a 0.11 hooklength. The hook choice was a Guru size 16 LWG. This would be for fishing my “help, I’m not getting any fish down the margins” line. Finally, I set up a bomb rod with a simple 30cm 0.15 hooklength to a size 16 hook for either meat or corn. On standby, I had a “up in the water” rig set up in case the carp started cruising around the surface. On the bait tray, I had meat, corn, 6mm hard pellets and red maggles. Base feed would be micros and method feeder mix groundbait. The latter being quite heavy and full of all sorts of particles.

On the all-in, I cupped out a large pot of groundbait, micros and about 10 pellets of meat to my right-hand margin. I always cut my meat into 6mm and 10mm pellets rather than cubes. There’s just something so unnatural about cubes of meat. Nothing in nature is square… is it? To my left-hand margin, I cupped out a large pot of groundbait, micros and about 10 kernels of sweetcorn. To the 11-metre line, I cupped out a large ball of groundbait and micros only. I didn’t want to add any meat or corn at this early stage as I might not even use this line.

So, I thought I’d let everything settle down while I chucked the straight lead over to the edge of the island. I had baited the hook with meat and as expected, I started getting liners (line bites) straight away. Finally, the tip went right round and I was in. My first fish was a 4 lb carp but I noticed that the guy to my left also caught early, on the method feeder to the island, so I would need to keep an eye on him. Jason, over to my right had opted to fish down his left-hand edge and began catching regularly from the first 20 minutes onwards.

So, another couple of chucks to the island but this only brought more liners and then a foul hooked carp, which came off after about 2 minutes. Now with about 30 minutes gone, I decided to go over to my right-hand edge and drop in a 10mm pellet of meat. A few minutes later, and I was into a nice 8lb fish. It did need some persuading to leave the reed bed but came out and fought all the way to the net and then some. I cupped out some more groundbait and meat but this brought in too many fish and so I ended up foul hooking and losing the next two fish.

I decided to leave the swim alone for a while and go onto my left-hand margin with corn on the hook. I did get some indications at first but nothing materialised from that so back to the other side. I had a fish straight away and another 7 or 8 pounder was eventually netted. I didn’t put any more feed in unless I had to wait more than 5 minutes for a bite. This approach seemed to work better and I had another 3 fish in a row before topping up.

Another look on the left-hand margin and a 10-pounder soon obliged but it took an age to get it in. For the first 10 minutes, it just point-blank refused to come off the bottom. The more pressure I put on, the more determined it was to stay down deep. It ended up as a sheer battle of wills, which I finally won. After that, I topped up the swim with corn and went back over to the right-hand margin. I had a long wait before the next bite came and that fish was lost in the reeds. I had to eventually pull for a break.

So, now for a quick look over the 11-metre line with both corn and meat but there were no takers, so I didn’t want to waste too much time with this. From then on I alternated between both the right and left-hand margins, catching from both although I had to wait for bites. However, at this point, Jason was running away with it as he was catching literally one after the other from his left-hand margin, all on corn. He had 3 keepnets out and then had to walk back to his van for another… (Show off!)

I had a fairly quiet last hour. The fish to my right had obviously wised up and moved away back into the reeds. I only had one more fish from here in the dying stages. However, there seemed to be more activity on my left-hand margin swim as I hooked and lost 2 good fish in a row, before managing to land an 8-pounder just minutes before the “all out”. Well, that was that and I reckoned I had about 70-80 lb in my nets plus a skimmer of about 2lb, who had a keepnet all to himself for the last 5 hours.

Jason had well over a ton and I was sure he had done enough to obliterate the rest of the field. The only other angler in contention was Gerry Welsh, who always seems to do well wherever he is drawn on this lake. In the past, Gerry was a member of the Kingswood RBL angling club and has credited me and Brian Lloyd for getting him into match fishing all those years ago. So way to go Gerry! He’s a very consistent angler these days. So, at the weigh-in, I got away with a total of 92lb 5oz, finishing in third place. Gerry had 103lb 12oz for second and the top corn plonker on the day was my Legion and Alcove clubmate Jason with a very respectable 153lb 14oz. Well done to him.

Look out for the forthcoming video.

My next match is at Ivy House, Royal Wooton Bassett, with the Legion lads or at least half of them. So, we’ve got to do it all over again. Look out for my next report.

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