Sunday 30^th March – Windmill Fisheries Open – Same Old, Same Old…

For a change, and because there was no Windmill Costcutter match, I fished a match on the Doughnut Lake at Harescombe Fisheries last Thursday. This was a ”HobNobs” match organised by Tony Cook and it’s all meant to be a bit of fun. It probably would have been a lot of fun if the fish had played their part but on this occasion, they didn’t get the memo. There were 10 anglers fishing this one, including all the usual suspects. Weather-wise, it turned out to be another sunny day and I think everyone was hopeful the warm sun would spur the fish into feeding… Well, hope springs eternal!

I drew peg 4 and I was told that normally, this would be a very desirable peg as it has some bankside cover. Well, it has 2 very small trees on the far side, but these little trees are without leaves, so I don’t think it would really matter whether they were there or not at this time of year. What I did notice was a couple of pole floats hanging from the tree branches, so I had to be careful I didn’t add any more. My plan was to fish right over at 14 metres with maggles and meat. Also, straight out in front at 10 metres with meat and soft pellet over micros, and to my left at 6 metres, just off the deck with maggles only. I had Tony Welsby for company on my left and Harescombe veteran, Rich Powell, to my right on peg 3, so I needed to keep a close eye on both of them today.

On the all-in, I cupped out some Scopex, micros and meat over the 10-metre line and then I fired out about a dozen maggles across to the edge of the island. I shipped out 14 metres of pole with my rig set at 24 inches deep… and waited. I gave this an hour without so much as a dink on the float and so it was time to try something else. I couldn’t help but notice that not much was being caught anywhere, although Rich to my right had just landed his first fish. I began loose feeding maggles over to my left at around 6-7 metres from the bank, which was just at the bottom of the slope. I carried on loose-feeding here while I tried the 10-metre line with meat. I had an immediate response from a small one and a half pounder but nothing else on this line.

After another look on the long line, I decided to focus entirely on the shorter line with maggles. Carp in the 2-4lb range love maggles and if you keep putting them in then you’ll get a few out. That’s my opinion anyway. Meanwhile, Rich is catching a few here and there but I was finding it very difficult to get bites and Tony was in the same boat. So, I just carried on regardless… throwing in maggles every 2-3 minutes to ensure a steady stream of bait was dropping through the layers.

Finally, I got a bite and carp number 2 was added to my net. I had another in the last hour but that was it for me. I finished up with just 5-11-0. Allan Oram won the day with 28-11-0, which he caught on corn. Well done to him. I’ll be back when the fish start feeding properly… in maybe June or July.

Windmill Sunday Open

So, it was a Windmill open for me last Sunday, which was the first Sunday open at the complex this year. With 21 anglers booked in, it was obviously a popular choice, although TBH, I felt it would be just a little overcrowded. Well, the weather was nice for a change with bright sunshine, but for those drawn on the more sheltered right-hand bank, a cold and quite chilling North-easterly was waiting to greet them. I quite fancied either peg 11 or 12, with the warm sun on my face and the wind off my back. Failing that, I would have been quite happy with pegs 10 and 14. Well, I drew peg 16 for the fourth time this year and there were definitely a lot of worse pegs on the lake today, so no complaints from me. I did, however, have to endure those cold winds I mentioned, but thankfully my hoody came into play and helped keep my lugholes nice and warm.

On my last couple of visits to this peg, I had caught on bomb and maggle just off the edge of the island and so that was to be my starting point. To reach the island straight out in front, I set up a shallow rig for fishing at 15 metres. With lots of anglers on the bank and the fish still out of sorts, I planned to set up a line at 10 metres right over to my right for silvers. This would be my “Get out of jail” card should everything else go pear-shaped, or tits-up. If I had been fishing a Costcutter 500 today, I wouldn’t have set up a dedicated silvers line as I need to qualify and that’s only going to happen with a big net of carp. Today, however, is a bog-standard open and there’s a decent silvers prize, so definitely worth the effort.

My other lines included one at 11 metres slightly to my left and the 2 edges. Now, I had decided to fish worm on the 11-metre line, with large pieces of chopped worm, casters and Scopex groundbait as feed. So on the all-in, I cupped out a big cup of “pudding” and dumped it over this line. I would give that a full hour to settle and hopefully attract some attention from any passing carp. For my silvers line, I finely diced some worm, added some dead red maggles, a few casters and mixed it all together in a Sonubaits So Natural Black Bream groundbait. I knocked up 3 very tight balls and dropped one in on the target. Then I chucked out the bomb with 2 maggles on a size 18 hook. I began to get liners after about 10 minutes but no takers, so I eventually gave up and took a look over the long line. Well, nothing and with over an hour gone, I hadn’t seen a single fish caught from anywhere. Oh no! Here we go again!

I began loose feeding casters down both inside lines, while I had a look on the 11-metre line with a whole dendrabena. I gave that about 30 minutes before dropping in another big ball of pudding on the 11-metre line. So, it was time to try the edges, but first, I dropped another ball of groundbait and particles over the silvers line as it was looking increasingly likely that this line would come into play. Well, nothing down both edges, and not a single fish in the net with more than 3 hours gone. FFS! I HATE WINDMILL! I could see Sean Townsend on peg 12 catching regularly from his reedy corner swim, as was Liam Reynolds from peg 11, another reedy carp holding peg.

However, Gerry Welsh on peg 14 to my right still hadn’t had a fish either. So, it was time to go for silvers. I had noticed a few silvers topping in the gap between the islands and so I set up a waggler rod to see if I could snare a couple. Before that, I had a quick look on my silvers line at 10 metres. I put a half dendra on the hook and lowered it in and within 2-3 minutes, I had a bite but missed it. So I went back in and waited, and waited, and waited until the float finally slid away and a very welcome 2lb plus skimbo graced my landing net. Finally, a fish! However, 30 minutes later and no more signs so out went the wag with a single red on the hook.

After a couple of casts, I had a bite and a 1-ounce roach was quickly subdued and netted. Oh yes!.. I netted it. Fish were like gold dust today, so everyone was precious… LOL. It was round about that time when Gerry came over to see how I was getting on. He said he still hadn’t had any bites. Now, for some reason, Gerry, who I like and admire very much, is a bit of a jinx whenever I’m drawn next to him and today was no exception. As he is standing next to me, I cast out my waggler and it landed in the reed bed opposite me. I had managed to avoid this for almost an hour until that point. Well, I pulled for a break and yet another brand new waggler was lost. I had only bought it the day before!

Well, I couldn’t be bothered setting it all up again and so I went back onto my 10-metre silvers line with a single maggle on the hook. I had an instant reaction from a tiny roach, but then nothing else. Wow! This was one heck of a hard day’s fishing. So, we’re now into the last 40 minutes of the match and Gerry lands his first carp. I reckoned I had around 2.5lb of silvers, but it didn’t look like I was going to get any more, so for the last 30 minutes, I went back onto my worm line at 11 metres. Gerry began catching a few and told me he had 4 carp in the last 20 minutes. As it happens, I also had a carp with 15 minutes to go, but it was all too little and way too late. My only hope was a shout at the silvers pool.

On the weigh-in, Gerry also had a big skimbo, which went 2-11-0 and so I was sure that I had been beaten, but… my net of 1 skimbo and 2 roach went 3-2-0 and so I was elated for about a Nano second as I was sure someone, somewhere would top that. Well, John Osborne came close with a tench weighing 2-12-0, which meant I was in top silvers position. FFS! That was close, but happy days as I managed to salvage something from what was one of the hardest days on the match lake this year… for me at least. I suppose the presence of 21 anglers on the bank didn’t help the situation either and I reckon it will be like Groundhog Day next Thursday, as there are 21 booked in for the Costcutter 500 already. FFFFFFS!

Anyway, another consolation was that I got my waggler float back thanks to Gerry. Cheers mate!

Well, at least I will know what to expect next week and the same applies to the following Sunday, when I’ll be back at Windmill again. Phew! The agony continues… Keep you posted!

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