Sunday 22^nd – A Double Helping Of Windmill Equals Twice The Amount Of Pain, Suffering And Humiliation

Who said fishing is fun? Whoever it was hasn’t spent 11 hours fishing the Windmill Match Lake near Westerleigh in the cold, wind and rain. This place can be soul-destroying, especially at this time of year, with many anglers not getting a single bite all day on some sessions. It messes with your head and it fooks up your life… well, maybe not quite that bad, but it’s one hell of a difficult fishery where extreme patience is paramount. So, I fished a Costcutter Qualifier on Thursday 19^th and then a quickly arranged open on Sunday 22^nd… here’s how it all went for me…

Thursday 19^th

We had 11 hardy souls turn out for this one on a day where rain predominated the event from start to finish. The wind was a bit of a pain at times, too, especially if trying to fish long, and so for me it was mostly a bomb and bread day. I drew peg 17, which is right between the 2 islands. I should have fished the waggler for a while, but hey presto, I left my waggler rod out of my holdall. I remembered that I had taken it out before the Whitehouse Farm match, the Sunday before and I didn’t put it back… Duh! I could have really done with it too. Nevermind, I was sure the bomb would produce something. I also set up 2 lines out in front at 9 metres. One to my left and one to my right at the usual angles of 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock. I had the same depth on both, which was handy. Now, as this was a Costcutter 500 qualifier, carp were my only target species today.

I plumbed both edges, but only the left-hand edge was worth a look at 3 feet deep. The right-hand edge had a shelf that was just 12 inches deep, so maybe a nice swim for the summer months, but not today. As not much is currently being caught down the edges, the left-hand line would only get a fleeting glimpse at some point during the day, anyway. On my bait tray I had Scopex groundbait, bread, maggles, pinkles and 4mm expander pellets. My plan was to fish pellets over groundbait to my left 9-metre line and maggles and pinkles to my right 9-metre line. During the warmer months, I often see carp rolling off the edge of the right-hand island and so that was to be my main focus for the bomb and bread attack.

I had Liam Reynolds to my right on peg 14 and Lionel Legge to my left on peg 21. I caught a couple of hefty carp and a 2lb skimbo from peg 20 the week before and fancied being up the deeper end today, but I had plenty of options where I was… except for waggler fishing of course. Pete Greenslade was drawn on peg 25 again and I was sure he would do much better than last time when he fished wag and mag as he had the wind off his back today. Opposite me, on peg 6, was Steve Mundy and on peg 8 was Rising Star, Kev Murch. On the all-in, I started on bomb and bread before putting any feed on my pole lines. Within 30 minutes, I had my first carp in the net and was wondering whether I should go back to the car and get another net… LOL! Well, catching in the first hour doesn’t happen very often.

So, 2 hours later and the initial excitement had turned to despair, but then right out of the blue, I had 2 more carp within 10 minutes… and then nothing. So, it was time to try the pole lines, which was a waste of time as there were no signs of life there. Meanwhile, I could see Liam getting amongst a few carp from the other edge of the island at 14.5 metres. I had a quid bet on with him before the start and so that was now lost. I was tempted to have a go for silvers, but that wasn’t going to help me today as I needed a big weight to qualify. Well, it just wasn’t going to happen… not today. And so I had to settle for 3 carp and 6^th place with 16lbs. The top man was Lionel on peg 21 with 50lbs and Pete was second from peg 25 with 43lbs. Liam worked hard for 34lbs which included a 2lb plus skimbo, giving him the top silvers pay out. Kev had a busy last hour to finish in 4^th place, taking the section with 21lbs. I’ll do it all again next Thursday!

Sunday 22^nd Open

With no club matches this weekend, I was happy to help arrange an open match at Windmill. However, we only had 8 anglers turn up for one reason or another. The weather was surprisingly dry all day, although the banks are still very wet, muddy and slippery, as one of our “guests” later found out. We used peg 24 down to peg 12 so as to avoid some of the muddiest pegs, which are becoming swamp-like, especially peg 14. Someone said they thought they saw a hand sticking up out of the mud on peg 14. Sounds like that person might have been hallucinating after forgetting to take their medication that day. Anyway, fancied pegs today for me were 24, 25 and peg 1. So, when I drew peg 1, I was well happy… sort of.

Well, today’s plan was to fish bomb and bread out toward the edge of the island. If that didn’t work, then wag and mag to roughly the same area. I also set up 2 pole lines. One directly out in front at 11 metres and one for over to my right (3 o’clock) at 9 metres. Now, in the past, I have caught carp down the left-hand edge on this peg and so I set up a margin rig for this one. Drawn on peg 24 was Kev Murch and on peg 25 was Clive Hewson, who is relatively new to this venue. I couldn’t see anyone to my left as the next occupied peg was peg 6, on which John Williams was drawn. Jason Pitman was residing in peg 8 and I was sure he would find a few carp today if anyone could. So, on the all-in, I chucked out the bomb with two 8mm discs of bread, hair-rigged to a size 16 hook. I noticed Kev had started the same way.

It must have been 30-40 minutes in when Kev had his first fish, but up to that point, I hadn’t had any indications whatsoever. When the first hour was up, I went onto the wag and mag for an hour. Kev did the same and landed another carp and skimbo. I still hadn’t had any indications and so I tried both of the 11-metre pole lines. Sweet FA doing there as well and so I went back on the wag with a single pinkle on a size 20 hook to 0.10 hooklength, hoping for a silver fish. Finally, I caught a little perch and although I was getting a few bites on pinkle, many small fish kept falling off on the retrieve. I got a little fed up with that and so went down my right-hand edge for a look. There was nothing doing there, but I noticed some movement in the reeds to my left-hand edge and so I popped on some bread and dropped my rig in for a look.

I waited about 10-15 minutes and wham! A nice, near 8-pounder was finally hooked and netted. Meanwhile, Kev had already caught another carp and so was 3-1 up. I went back out on the wag and pinkle for a while and had 2 small roach to add to my silvers net before I noticed more movements in the reeds to my left. So, on went some bread and in went the rig again… bang! Fook me… the float shot under, the carp darted out from the reeds and then sped back into the reeds next to the pallet on peg 2, where it left my rig tangled in the reeds. I couldn’t free it up from my side of the reeds and so I had to go into the next peg with a reed cutter to free it. I had no doubt it was a big double-figure carp. Well, that was pretty much it for me. I didn’t catch anything else and ended up with just 1 carp and 3 silvers. Kev caught 2 more carp and with his near 3lb skimbo, he was guaranteed a first-place pick-up. (Results not posted on FB so no pic).

Kev finished up with a total of 35-14-0 for the win. In second place was John Williams with 24-00-0 and third was Swindonian Alan Grierson with 23-00-0. Now, technically, I won the top silvers prize with 1.5 ounces, but… Steve Mundy on peg 12 had 2 silvers, which didn’t register on the scales. However, the set of scales we were using was analogue and in my opinion, not 100% accurate for such small weights. I’m sure if they had been digital, then our 2 weights would have… could have… might have been the same and so I did what any gentleman would do… I said tough sh*t… LOL! Actually, I split the silvers pot with Steve and so all’s well that ends well. Oh! and Jason won a quid… from me 🙁 – Those of us who have toughed it out all through this winter just won’t know ourselves when the fishing improves… should that ever happen.

Well, that’s my roundup for the week. Those who couldn’t fish didn’t miss anything and those who did are now back on therapy, until the next match at least. So, Thursday 26^th is the date for the next Windmill Qualifier and I’ll be there… in body and spirit, if not in mind. Look out for my next blog to find out how it all pans out. Keep you posted!