28th January – Windmill Fisheries – Tales Of Two Contrasting Pegs

I have 2 match reports this week, so I’ll start with the Costcutter on Thursday 25^th. It was a bit of a wet start but thankfully, the drizzle didn’t last very long and we didn’t see any more rain until the end of the day. As only 7 turned out for this one, the organiser, Dave Haines had selected pegs at the top end of the lake. He also announced that there would be 2 payouts, one for the top overall weight and one for top silvers, each receiving a 50-50 split of the pool money. With a stiff but mild breeze blowing down the lake, I couldn’t help but wonder whether all the fish would be down the bottom end of the lake today, but I guess the pegging was fair.

So, into the draw-bag and out comes peg 3. I hadn’t fished this one before so I wasn’t sure about how best to approach it. On the far side, at 16 metres, there were some reed stems and there were a few reeds on the inside to my right. The left-hand inside bank was clear. Plumbing up, I had almost 6 feet of water in front of the reeds to my right and about 7 feet at between 5 and 13 metres out in front. The very far shelf at 16 metres was 3 feet deep. As I was looking around the swim and getting set up, I suddenly decided I was going to go for silvers today. I’m not sure why, it just seemed the right thing to do. For some reason, I didn’t think the carp were going to feed… premonition? Intuition? Brain fog? Who knows!

Well, for whatever reason, my mind was made up. So, I set up a rig for fishing out in front at 9 metres. This line would be my main focus. My rig selection consisted of a 0.5 gram pencil float, 0.15 mainline, a size 20 Guru LWG hook to a 0.8 hooklength. I spaced the shot out so that I could present the bait as naturally as possible. Should the fish back off, I could use the same rig to fish out as far as 13 metres, so this would be my secondary line, wind permitting. I also set up a 0.4 gram rig for fishing in front of the reed bed to my right but this would be my throwaway line. I only expected to spend a few minutes, on and off, checking this line out during the match.

As it can often take a while for the swims to kick into life after the initial feed, I would need something to do for the first hour so I set up a feeder rod with maggle feeder. On the all-in, I cupped out a tangerine-sized ball of Thatchers Green groundbait laced with pinkles to both the 9-metre and 13-metre lines. A few loose-fed maggles went in on the short line. Next, I lobbed out the feeder toward the island. A couple of casts with the feeder to various locations brought nothing and I didn’t get any liners either. With about 40 minutes of the match gone, I decided to have a quick look on the short line with a single red maggle. First at full depth and then at half depth. To round up the hour, I dobbed a single maggle here, there and everywhere but I had no takers.

Well, it was time to look at the 9-metre line. I put about 10 pinkles and a tiny nugget of groundbait into my cadpot and dropped it into the swim. With a single flouro pinkle on the hook, I worked the bait slowly along the bed. There was quite a tow on the lake and if I’m ever fishing for skimmers, I like the bait to ‘go with the tow’ as this often tends to incite a bite. It all sounds very poetic… well, after about 30 minutes of this, I hooked into a nice skimmer of around a pound an’ ‘arf. As I hadn’t seen anything else caught around me at this point it was quite smugly satisfying to know that my silvers plan was paying off already.

I carried on with this, dropping in a nugget of groundbait and 6-10 pinkles at every put-in. I was getting a few unhittable bites from roach, so I put a number 11 stot about 2 inches from the hook. That sorted the problem and a few roach were subsequently netted. I did lose a few too. Well, about halfway through the match, another good skimmer turned up. This one was about 2lbs… lubbley jubbley! Soon after, I hooked into a carp. At one point, my number 5 elastic was stretched to the limit but everything held and soon a feisty little near 4-pound carp was netted. However, I struggled for bites after this so went out long onto the 13-metre line for a while. I did catch a small roach but nothing else and the wind was making it difficult to work this line so I soon gave up.

Back onto the 9-metre line and after about 20 minutes I hooked into another good skimmer. This one was bigger than the last one so must have been over two pounds. For the remaining 30 minutes or so I caught a few more tiny roach to add to my tally of about 6lbs. On a tough day, I was more than happy with this and even more content that I had made the right decision in going for silvers. So, the overall winning weight on the day was 19lb 12oz, which consisted of 3 carp and a skimmer for John Williams on peg 19. My 3 skimmers and a few small roach went 6lb 9oz, which was more than enough to take the top silvers spoils.

So, onto the main event… 28^th January 2024

It was an absolutely packed house today with 21 anglers in attendance, although 22 had booked in originally. So, with almost every peg on the lake taken, it was going to be a challenging day. A southerly wind had been blowing down the lake all week so everyone, myself included, assumed all the fish would be down the bottom end. Needless to say, that’s where I wanted to draw. When the fish are packed into the bottom section then anglers on pegs 10, 11, 12 and 14 are in for a cracking day. So, into the drawbag I go and out comes peg 19. Hmmm… that was the winning peg last Thursday with 19lb, which consisted of 3 carp and big skimmer and today, I had John Williams for company on peg 20, who actually won from my peg. However, he wasn’t giving much away.

Three of my RBL club mates were also fishing today, with Jason on peg 1 and Kev on peg 5 and I think Glynn was on peg 24. Jason always does well on this venue so I was sure he would do well again today, although the guy fishing on peg 1 on Thursday blanked. Well, the forecast was for dry weather with a few sunny spells today but as ever, the wind, albeit a southerly, would be blowing down the lake from my left. I had a good look at my peg and decided on 2 main lines. One at 7 metres, slightly to my right and one at 11 metres straight out in front. My left-hand margin had some reeds and I would give this a try at some point.

I thought the 2 rigs I had used last Thursday would be ideal but after plumbing up, my 2 swims were a good 6 inches deeper, so I ended up putting extensions on both of them. The edge swim was 4 feet deep just off the edge of the reed bed. Both of my main rigs consisted of a 0.5 gram pencil float and 0.15 (5lb) mainline. I had a size 20 to 0.8 hooklength on the 7-metre line rig, for targetting the silvers and a size 16 to 0.15 hooklength for carp on the 11-metre line. I had brought a variety of baits today including meat, soft pellets, corn, maggles, pinkles and worms. However, pinkles would be the number one choice bait for the shorter line and maggles for carp at 11-metres.

On the all-in, I cupped out some Thatchers Green and dead pinkles to the 7-metre line and about 10 maggles to the 11-metre line. On these matches, I usually spend the first 30 minutes on the maggle feeder or bomb and maggot but today I decided to go straight out onto the short line and work it. As the wind picked up, my swim began to tow from right to left, which was the exact opposite of what was happening on the other side a few days ago. So, from that I deduced that when the wind is blowing from a southerly direction, the lake tows in a circular motion down the left-hand side and up the right-hand side. So what? I hear you say… well, just thought you might like to know.

So, after about an hour, I thought I saw an indication on the float but then realised it was just an illusion… yes, I was becoming delusional and disillusioned all at the same time. That happens when you spend too much time watching a float riding up and down on a constant series of waves and ripples. Looking around the lake, there didn’t appear to be much happening anywhere at this point, so I made a nice cup of tea and ate my delicious Cornish pasty. Now refreshed and invigorated, I cupped out some more groundbait and pinkles, dropped in my rig and caught a 2lb plus skimmer straight away. That’s the way to do it!

So my silvers line had suddenly kicked into life and I had a string of small roach for about 20 minutes, missed several bites and had about 4 roach drop off. That was it for that line as I couldn’t buy another bite after that little flurry. I had just noticed the guy to my right catch and lose a carp and then soon after John to my left landed one. It was now time to go out on the 11-metre line with a red a maggle. It took about 15 minutes before I had my first bite and a carp was on. I reckoned it was about 5lb so I was off the mark and ready to focus. I had to wait about 20 minutes for the next one, which was about the same stamp. Meanwhile, John was catching regularly and the guy to my right had now lost 3.

The wind was making presentation really difficult so I picked up my feeder rod, put on a 25 gram bomb and single red maggle, and then dropped it over the same line I had been feeding. After about 10 minutes the tip shot round and I was into another. This one was a little bigger at about 6lb. I carried on with this method and had another about 10 minutes later then lost one and then nothing. I reckoned the fish had moved out closer to the island so reluctantly, I put on my roller bump bar, set up a new rig at 4 feet deep, baited with a single red and went out the full 16 metres. I only had to wait about 5 minutes before I was in but this one was foul hooked. It took me all over the place before we parted company. Then I lost another, so I changed the depth to just 2 feet deep.

I fired out some loose feed to the far side and went out again. 10 minutes later I had another carp on and then landed 2 more before the final whistle. So, I ended up with 7 carp and a big skimmer plus a few small roach for 38lb 7oz. I think I should have done better as John on peg 20 won the match with 98lb, caught about two-thirds the way across on soft pellet. That said, all those below me hadn’t fared very well at all and the fancied pegs didn’t produce, so it could have been much worse. My club mate, Jason, had a good day finishing third with 71lb 6oz. I was 6^th on the day and picked up section lolly so happy days are here again. That’s it for Windmill for a while. Next Sunday, I’ll be on George’s Lake at Whitehouse Farm, fishing the penultimate round of the Winter League and the Sunday after, fingers crossed, I’ll be back on the river at Bradford-on-Avon. Keep you posted…

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