Sunday, November 3^rd – Alcove Poppy Match, Whitehouse Farm – A Fizzling Damp Squib

Unfortunately, Sunday’s Alcove Poppy match didn’t produce the expected fireworks display, as the silvers were very reluctant to join in the fun. It was a virtual all-carp catch that dominated, with a few carp featuring in the runner-up positions. More on that in just a moment… Thursday’s Halloween silvers match on the Carp Lake at Windmill wasn’t much better either… here’s the story…

Thursday 31^st October – The Carp Lake, Windmill Fisheries

This was the latest in the silvers “catch n’ move” match at Windmill and once again it was held on the Carp Lake. The first match produced over 115lb of silvers, which were transferred to the Match Lake and the second match returned just 46lb of silvers. I think we had 10 anglers turn up for this one and the main question was… are there any silvers left in this lake? Well, we were all about to find out, or not as the case might be.

I drew peg 2 this time at the bottom end of the lake. Last time, I drew peg 1 so my tactics would be identical except I would go for the skimbos much earlier. I had Steve Mundy for company on peg 1 and he had opted to fish the waggler for most of his match. I selected 2 pole lines, one at 8 metres and one at 10 metres, and both at full depth. My first line was to my left (10 o’clock) at 8 metres and I decided to fish maggles and pinkles here for anything and everything. My second line was over to my right (2 o’clock) and this was for targeting skimbos with worm over worm groundbait. I had 5 good skimbos last time with this method.  

My only other line was short at 4 metres, which is where I started on maggles. After 30 minutes on the short line, I gave up, having not had a single bite. For the rest of the match, I alternated between the other 2 lines. The most noticeable thing today compared to last time, was the lack of bites and skimbos… lol. I had to work really hard for bites and the fish, which were mainly rudd, were tiny. All I had on my worm line was a couple of micro-perch. I noticed that Steve was catching more than me, and a better stamp of fish too. They were coming to waggler and I kept telling myself I should set one up but inertia had set in and I just couldn’t be fooking bothered (lazy git).

Instead, I just flogged away in the hope the skimbos would show up but they didn’t. I wasn’t overjoyed to say the least, especially when I thought I had over 3lbs of ruddlings but the scales said no. I weighed in just 2-8-0 for about 50 fish. It was hopeless! Steve had over 4lbs of fish but neither of us came anywhere near the pools pot. I’m not sure of the rest of the weights as I had to get off home for a “Halloween Party”, and the results didn’t appear on the Windmill FB page. It doesn’t really matter anyway… moving on.

Sunday 3^rd November – Alcove Poppy Match

It was nice to be back at Whitehouse Farm but sadly only 13 turned up for this year’s fund-raising event. With that, match secretary, Jason Pitman, decided to hold the match on Margaret’s Lake only. That was probably the best decision as it made it easier and quicker to get the match wrapped up as at the end the light was fading fast.

The weather today could best be described as dull and dank, which is good conditions for any type of fishing… right? Well, yes you would think so, especially for bream and skimbos. So, there was no reason to think it wouldn’t be a good day for silvers but most of us were caught out on that train of thought. So, into the drawbag of dreams and nightmares we go, and out comes peg 9. Yeah, I was relatively happy with that until I got to my peg. Peg 9 has an island chuck but with an overhead canopy of tree branches, an island chuck was completely out of the question. So, onto plan B.

Chub and carp from the island with a method feeder was my original thinking but now I was limited to fishing pole lines. I had 7 feet of water in front of me at 9 metres so that would be my main line for targeting skimbos with worm. I also set up a slightly longer line at 10 metres over to my right for fishing 4mm expanders. My left-hand edge line didn’t quite look the part due to the lack of bankside cover but I would feed meat here anyway. My right-hand margin did look the part with overhanging branches and so meat would go in here too plus a few maggles to liven it up.

I already had a feeder rod set up with a 20-gram method feeder and so after feeding all my swims, I under-armed the method feeder out to about 18 metres. I made a brew while I contemplated my next move and considered what those around me were doing. To my right on peg 8 was Pete Watkins, who was lobbing a method feeder out toward the island. On my left, I had John Treasure who was also fishing a method feeder, only he was chucking his out into open water at about 18-20 metres. Jon Amato on peg 14 was fishing a 4-metre whip and started catching some quality fish early on while Steve “Mr Crabtree” Brown, Kev Murch and Jason Pitman were fishing on various methods but not catching very much.

I gave the method feeder 30 minutes and didn’t get a squeak so out went the pole onto the 9-metre line with worm. A few weeks ago, I and 3 others had a little silvers-only knock-up on pegs 6,7,8 and 9. I was on peg 8 that day and had over 14bs, which included some quality skimbos, all caught on worm. Today, I was fishing exactly the same way I was then. Well, I had my first skimbo after an hour and followed up with 5 more soon after. However, these fish were much smaller than the last lot I caught. Meanwhile, Pete was now catching carp from the island so I had a look down my edge lines. Nothing was doing there.

At the halfway stage, it was obvious that the fish were not in the mood so I began scaling down. I was now fishing a size 18 to 0.10 on my worm line and a size 20 to 0.08 on my pellet line. The pellet line produced nothing so I eventually abandoned that one and concentrated on the 9-metre line only. I started using small bits of worm and pinkie which brought a few more small skimbos and some roach but it really was hard work. The bites became virtually undistinguishable and I ended up striking at nothing most of the time. There were definitely fish in the swim but nothing was really feeding for some reason.

Then in the last half hour, I hooked and pulled out of 2 good size skimbos. FFS! You really don’t need that when you’re struggling for bites and fish… but sh*t happens. By this time, Pete on peg 8 was obviously running away with it after landing at least 6 or 7 good-sized carp. Even John Treasure had a couple of carp too and Tony Welsby had 3 carp in the last hour. So, it was carp or bust today with very few silvers caught except for Jon Amato who whipped out some good quality fish including a lovely big goldie, which helped him take the top silvers prize.

Well, that was it. I weighed in a total of 6-6-0 for a section win. Well done to Pete Watkins for winning the match with over 46lbs of carp. There were 4 DNWs, which is very unusual for Margaret’s Lake at this time of year. Well, we managed to raise £130 for the Poppy Appeal Fund and the Alcove club has since made a donation taking the total up to £200. I’ll be back at Windmill on Thursday (7^th November) for another silvers-only match, only this time it will be on the Top Lake and then come Sunday 10^th, it’s the Big One! The Bill Milton Memorial and Poppy Appeal Open will be on the Bristol Avon between Chequers at Hanham right through to The Trees at Newbridge. That’s 100 pegs and as far as I know, all the tickets are sold. Keep you posted on that one.

This match has now been running for over 40 years. It was first organised by Brian Lloyd and Bill Milton, who were both Kingswood & Hanham RBL Angling Club members. Brian is still the club secretary today and I have been the club chairman for almost as long as the match has been running, winning it way back in 1985. Since the passing of Bill Milton, the organising work relating to the running of the match and securing sponsorship was taken on by Ray Bazeley and Paul Benson with help from a few others.

Ray has done an amazing job over the years and deserves a medal for helping to raise many thousands of pounds for the Poppy Appeal. The main sponsors are Project Building, which is a building and management company run by Bill Milton’s son, Anthony and DW Smith & Co, which is a well-established Estate Agency run by David Smith and his partners.

The annual Poppy Appeal raises much-needed funds for our service veterans and helps to provide care and assistance to those who have served this country. Our service personnel help keep us and our country safe even if that means making the ultimate sacrifice. So please support the Royal British Legion by buying a Poppy or making a donation.  Thank you!

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