Welcome to my fishing blog… June 2026
Sunday 14th June – A 3-Match Round-up Featuring The Woefully Wonderful Windmill Fisheries (LOL) And The Fabulous Fishponds, Bristol Lido
Okay, so let’s start with the Windmill match on Thursday 4th June. We had 14 anglers in attendance and once again the wind was blowing down the lake and so, that’s where everyone wanted to be… me included. Peg 14 is on fire at the mo and I would have been more than happy to kill, well maybe not kill exactly, but certainly maim for sure… just to draw that guaranteed winning peg. Well, I drew peg 25… typical! It was like a millpond compared to the rest of the lake and I wasn’t at all confident of catching much. It’s also getting to the point where you don’t really know what are the best baits to bring with you at Windmill these days. So, I brought meat, corn, paste, hard pellets and expander pellets plus maggles. Surely something would take a fancy to at least one of these baits… right?
So, looking around the peg, I couldn’t see any signs of fish except for in the reeds, right over to my left-hand side. I had no intentions of going anywhere near those reeds. I’ve lost too much kit in them over the past few years but the inside edge at 4 metres looked perfect. And so did the right-hand edge, after I carried out a bit of gardening. So, I set up a rig for both edges, one for out in front at 9 metres and a method feeder for right over to the edge of the island. There was nobody on peg 1 or 23 so I had a large area to work with but I would still have preferred peg 14. Nevermind, I had a job to do. It was raining when I got to my peg and so up went the brolly. It’s so difficult fishing under a brolly as I’m sure you all know but it’s no fun getting wet right from the start either.
On the all-in, I decided to have a little scout around with a 6mm cube of meat. First to my right-hand side, but got no interest there and then to my left-hand side, where the float slid away immediately. Next thing I knew I was in the reed bed and soon after, marked up my first lost fish of the day. Undeterred, I carried on down this edge and managed to get one but he was only about 4lbs. After a further 15 minutes without a bite, I dropped in some loose offerings to both edges and then baited up my 9-metre line with a big ball of Scopex groundbait. Then out went the method feeder, but 30 minutes later, and with no liners or any other indications, that idea was put aside.
A quick look over the 9-metre line with a variety of baits was also fruitless… it was defo gonna be another one of those awful Windmill days! I started adding more loose offerings to both edge lines and finally caught a 6-pounder from my right-hand edge, followed by another from my left side. Then I lost 2 fish in a row from the left-hand side and another from the right-hand side. FFS! I finally netted one from the right-hand side, making 4 altogether but with 90 minutes left on the clock, it was turning out to be a complete lost cause. So, my attention turned to silvers. I dropped in some micros and 4mm expanders over my groundbait on the 9-metre line and made a cuppa…
With my official tea break over, I lowered in a 6mm expander pellet over the ground-baited area at 9-metres and within a few minutes the float slid below the surface. I thought I had hooked a carp but it turned out to be a big skimmer, which unfortunately, shed the hook. It did leave a lot of slime on my line as a calling card. So, I topped up again with a few micros, some groundbait and a few more 4mm expanders. Within minutes, the swim was fizzing like a jacuzzi and so in I went again with a 6mm expander on the hook. As before, the float slid under and I was in again… it was another big skimbo and just like before, I was sure it was a carp. As I was about to slip the landing net under it, I was quite shocked to see a big dark 4lb plus bream in my net… whoopee! About 10 minutes later, I had another but this time it was nearer the 3lb mark.
Well that was it. I didn’t get a another bite in the last 60 minutes, so I had to settle for 2 bream and 4 carp. The carp went 32lb and the bream weighed 8lbs exactly. Those 2 “slabs” saved my day as I won the top silvers pool. That was a nice surprise but as expected the top overall weight came from in-form… peg 14… again.
Thursday 11th June – A Windmill Washout!
Well, here we go again! I didn’t have a match last Sunday so Jason Pitman and I went to Whitehouse Farm for a friendly session on George’s Lake. That cost me a quid! However, it was back to windmill for yet another go at trying to qualify for the Costcutter 500 final… some hope of that LOL. Anyway, I finally managed to draw down the other end of the lake for a change and thought to myself, “well at least I wont be weighing in again.” I have been lumbered with that job 4 weeks running so I was happy to be out of the way of the scales and weigh board this week. Today, I drew peg 11. I actually qualified from this peg the year before last, with 88lbs but it’s not a peg I relish. I’ve lost shed loads of kit on this peg too, mainly in the right-hand reedy margins.
So, it turned out to be a day of mixed fortunes. I was at the other end the lake alright, but the wind and rain were blowing straight at me. I think I spent more time wiping the rain from my glasses than I did fishing. I had Gary Bedford for company on peg 10 and I couldn’t believe that Tim Hadland had once again drawn peg 14, from which he won comfortably the week before. Needless to say, everyone else would be fishing for second place today. I was half tempted to go for silvers but this is not a good silvers peg by any stretch of the imagination, and so it had to be a carp or bust day. In my case, as expected, it turned to be bust.
I won’t bore you with all the details but I lost 7 fish, 2 rigs and had a broken top-kit for my troubles today. I ended up with just 32lbs of carp for a “thanks for coming”… C U N Thursday! Just to make matters worse… the guy who drew peg 25 came all the way down to me and asked if I could help him do ther weighing in. What? FFS! These scales are now following me around the fooking lake like some kind of spooky shadow thing… Anyway, Tim Hadland had another great day on red hot peg 14 with another 100lb plus net! Wow can that man draw!
Sunday 14th June – A Lovely Day At The Lido
To be honest, the Fishponds Lido is not one of my favourite haunts although I used to fish it regularly many, many years ago when I was an Alcove Angling Club bailiff. I think maybe it has lost favour with many other members too as only 7 turned out for this club match despite the temptation of some tremendous tench fishing. The Lido has a good head of Tench, Carp, F1s, Crucians, Pike, Perch, Roach & Rudd, some old bream and a few skimbos. There’s something for everyone at the Lido, but it is most popular with the carp anglers due to a few distinguished old but very big carp. And with so many lily pads around the lake, you really do need some exceptionally strong gear to get them out… which is just as well I had my very strong margin pole with me.
So, I drew peg 7, which is at the bottom of the sloping path to the right of the car park. I had a clear view of pegs 1,2,5 and 6 with Steve Brown on 6 and Jason Pitman on peg 5, both hot pegs and both capable of producing big weights of tench… and carp if you are lucky enough to be able to get them out. Overall, I guess I was quite happy with my draw. I had a large bed of lilies to my right and a smaller bed of lilies to my left, with a 3-metre open space in between. My plan today was to fish corn over micros at 4 metres to my left, meat over micros at 4 metres to my right, corn over micros at 8 metres to my left and then a whip with maggles in the open space for roach and rudd.
I did set up a waggler rod too for fishing shallow at distance but that didn’t see much action. On the all-in, I fed all lines and then started with a 4.5-metre whip, which was set up with a 0.2 Chianti float, a 20 hook and 0.08 hooklength. I varied the depth from 2 feet to 4 feet and caught fairly consistently for the fist hour, before the fish backed off completely. I reckoned I had close to 3 lbs of small silvers, which is not bad for an hour’s whip fishing. Then it was time to take on something a bit bigger. On my margin pole, I had a rig that consisted of a 0.2-gram dibber to 0.22 (9lb BS) main line and a size 12 Kaizen hook to 0.22 hooklength. The elastic in my margin pole is a 26 hollow Xtreme from Middy. It’s the dog’s b*llocks!
A look down my left-hand edge didn’t produce anything and so I topped up this line with more corn and micros before moving onto the 8-metre line, again with corn. There was nothing there either so I changed to meat and dropped it in on the right-hand margin, where it was intercepted immediately. I had hooked into a huge carp that parted the lilies like they were duckweed. It just kept going and going until the hooklength snapped at the knot. This was to be expected at some point during the day. After that I had 10 minutes on the waggler but the cruising carp just moved out of range. So back to the left-hand margin and within 5 minutes I had a tench on. Turned out to be a feisty 3-pounder. Meanwhile, Jason had already caught a tench and so had Tony Welsby over on peg 1.
I stayed on the left-hand edge line for a while and had another tench of around 2lbs. Jason then caught and landed a 12lb carp, which propelled him into the lead, much to his delight and he was already staking claim to our quid side bet. Tony had another tench but I could hear Don Searle on Smithy’s swim complaining about losing something, which was a big carp, I presumed. I kept probing the left-hand margin and the 8-metre swim with corn, missing a few tentative bites… due to being a little too trigger happy. Now Jason had landed a big bream. FFS! He was running away with it now and Tony had yet another tench on peg 1, quickly followed by Steve Brown on peg 6, who had also lost a carp earlier. At this stage of the match, I knew needed a carp if I was to be in contention and so… “Who Dares Wins”…
I laid in my rig with a meat baited hook at 8 metres to my right-hand side, where I had previously seen the lily pads moving. The float hadn’t even settled when it shot out of sight and I was in. Fook me! This was a real unit and lucky for me it went straight out into open water instead of making a dive for the lilies on either side. My elastic was at full stretch and I had my pole straight up in the air, leaning one way and then the other to counteract the fish’s sudden twists and turns. Just one false move and it could bury itself into the lily pads and then it would be game over for sure. I managed to keep the fish under control and out in the open water long enough to sense it was beginning to tire. All I had to do now was guide it through the open gap. That was easier said than done!
As the fish gradually came toward me, I had to put maximum side strain on the pole to stop it from getting anywhere near the pads. Then it made a crazy dash toward my left-hand bank and then surfaced amongst the lilies. I could see it was a 20lb plus mirror and I had a real tussle trying to net it with a 20-inch spoon net, but I did finally manage to get most of it in the net. I quickly shipped my pole behind me, bent right down and lifted the net out of the water by holding the frame, which promptly snapped. At that moment, I had a horrible vision of the fish slipping out of the net and back into the water but thankfully that didn’t happen. I managed to get it onto my spare keepnet, where I slipped my quite small-looking carp mat under it. I then unhooked it, unscrewed the landing net handle and took it over to Jon on peg 8 for weighing, as he had a set of scales.
I had to weigh the fish and the landing net together as the fish was too big to manoeuvre when it was placed in the weigh bag. After weighing, I managed to get it out of the bag and the net then slip it back into the water. After deducting the weight of the net, the fish had weighed 21lbs 4oz. A match winner! At that point, I’m sure I could hear Jason crying uncontrollably over on peg 5… LOL! So, now I was feeling a bit chipper and within 10 minutes of sitting back on my box, I had caught another tench too… Oh happy days! But, Tony had also caught another tench and then Steve Brown got in on the action right at the end, landing a 10lb plus carp. Well, that was it… match over! I ended up winning with a total of 33-02-0 (the weigh sheet shows 36-02-0, but that was incorrect). Jason finished in second place with 22-07-0 and Tony took the top silvers honours with 5 tench for 20-01-0. The best part of the day was relieving Jason of another quid… sweet!
Next time…
I’ll be back on the river on Sunday 21st for a Father’s Day treat with the Kingswood RBL club and then it’s back to woeful Windmill on the 25th. I’m so looking forward to the river match… keep you posted!
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