Welcome to my fishing blog… April 2026
Saturday 25th April – George’s Lake, Whitehouse Farm – The Desperate Search For Silvers Continues…
It’s been a couple of months since I last fished on George’s Lake and I was expecting so much more. Instead, I got very little for all my efforts. Before I get into that in more detail, I fished another Windmill Costcutter Qualifier last week, and that turned out to be another disappointing day too, despite some very warm and unseasonal weather…
Windmill Fisheries – Thursday 23rd April – Once More Into The Theatre Of Dreams!
We had 16 anglers turn out for this one, including a couple of new faces. The previous two Thursday matches attracted more than 20 competitors, so at least today there would be more space for some people. Not that it actually makes much difference to the fishing. What can make or break you on this lake is the wind direction and today the wind was blowing diagonally up the lake towards peg 1. So, before the match even started, the favoured pegs would be 1,2,3,4 & 20, 22, 23, 25. In other words, you needed to draw above the gap between the islands. Where did I draw? Peg 16… just below the gap. However, I like this peg because there are lots of options, including the edge of the island, an easy reach to the far bank, plenty of open water, 2 nice edge swims, lots of room between pegs 16 and 14, plus there’s hardly ever anyone on peg 17, as was the case today. The last time I drew this peg, I had 60 lbs and could have/should have done better.
My peg today was flat calm and we had bright sunshine from the off, but I still fancied a few fish off the edge of the island and so I set up a method feeder rig as a starting point. I opted for 2 lines out in front, one at 9 metres at 2 o’ clock and one at 11 metres at 10 o’ clock. Also, both edge lines would come into play later. Each was just over 2 feet deep with a nice flat shelf, so they were perfect for bait presentation at this time of year. On the all-in, I cupped out some chopped worm, maggles and Scopex to my 11-metre line and on my 9 metre line, I dropped in some micros and Scopex. I would try paste on this line later. On my method rig, I fished a mix of micros and Scopex groundbait with a yellow wafter on a banded hair rig. My right-hand margin was reserved for fishing corn over hemp and in my left-hand edge, I would be fishing meat over micros later. So, on the all-in shout, out went the method feeder…
It was 3 chucks later that I had my first indication from a liner and a good 40 minutes into the match before I landed my first carp, which went about 7lbs. Despite a few more liners, I didn’t get any further serious enquiries on that line and with over an hour on the clock, it was time to change. I tried a half Dendra on my worm line, but after a further 30 minutes without a bite, I decided to try my paste line. There was no interest in that either. From my vantage point, I could see Simon Shilton on peg 11, Nick Sanders on peg 12 and Kev Winstone on peg 14. None of them had caught a carp and we were more than 3 hours into the match already. I did see a few carp being landed from the higher-number pegs to my left and so the wind theory was playing out exactly as it was written in the script. Another quick look over my paste line produced nothing and I thought maybe it’s still a bit too early for paste… so I gave up on this one.
Next, I primed my edge lines and then went back out onto my worm line at 11 metres with more choppie and then dropped my rig in over the top. I had a carp right away and then another one about 10 minutes later. After that, I couldn’t get any more bites and so I spent a further 20 minutes on the corn over on my right-hand margin, but there were no signs of life there. I changed to meat at 3 metres to my left, but there were no signs or indications and so I went to 9 metres down my left and dropped in some micros and meat. This was still the same depth at just over 2 feet and the bottom was flat, just exactly as it was at 3 metres. I was fishing about a metre short of the platform on peg 17 and just next to a clump of fresh green reeds.
About 10 minutes later, I laid my rig in over the longer meat line and got an instant bite, but missed it. On the next put-in, I had a nice 10-pounder. That was soon followed by 2 more hefty fish before I lost 2 in a row. I felt the swim was just firing up, but unfortunately, it was game over as time had run out. I ended up with 43-15-0 for 6th place. The weigh sheets backed up the wind theory too, as all the best weights came from the top end of the lake… as expected. I’ll do it all again next Thursday.
Saturday Shield, George’s Lake, Whitehouse Farm
There are some really good pegs on this lake, including pegs 18, 19, 1, 17 and 10, with carp usually resident in all of them. I drew peg 13, which is halfway up the lake on the right-hand side. I don’t think I have ever caught a carp from this peg and so silvers would be my target today. I set up 2 longish lines with one at 11 metres for fishing maggles and one at 13 metres for fishing paste, but my plan was to start with fishing the whip close in to my left-hand side in 3 feet of water for the first hour. I love fishing the whip on this lake as there is a good head of silvers, mainly roach and rudd, with the chance of an F1 and maybe a couple of hefty perch. Anyway, the only fish that showed any interest in my single maggle offering were small rudd and they were few and far between. So, it was a very slow start for everyone. Maybe it was too bright, or maybe it was because of a frost first thing, I don’t know, but it was very hard going.
After an hour, I went out onto my 13 metre line with a single maggle on the hook, but absolutely no takers. That’s very strange. So, a look over my 11-metre line next with a small ball of paste on the hook and a 10-ounce skimbo quickly obliged, but not another bite after that. It was back onto the whip for a few more bits before Steve Brown, who was opposite me on peg 5, began catching some quality skimbos on wag and mag. Within minutes, everyone was on the waggler, me included. Steve Sewell, on peg 12, soon had a carp on mag and wag, but I was really struggling for bites despite trying all depths from 18 inches to 6 feet. Steve later caught skimbos and even a chub on the wag. But it was Jon Amato on peg 1 who was running away with it at this point, having landed a couple of carp on the method feeder. Mike Reid on peg 17 also had a carp, but Don Searle and Andy Gard on favoured pegs 18 and 19 didn’t latch onto any carp, which is very unusual.
Well, that was unbelievably tough. The lake didn’t fish at all well, and a carp was really needed to frame as the silvers were just not having it. I was going to chuck back for a DNW, but decided to weigh in just for the record. So, 1-10-0 is the totally insignificant weight I have to beat next time on George’s Lake, which just happens to be next Sunday. Can I do it… FFS! I seriously hope so! Well done to Jon Amato for winning the match with 29-11-0, which included carp and F1s. Also, a very well done to Steve Brown for winning the top silvers pool with 13-8-0.
So, Windmill Match Lake again on Thursday, 30th and George’s Lake again on May 3rd. A Groundhog Day? Keep you posted!
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