Windmill open

Second week in a row for me at this venue as it's only ten minutes from home. Very handy and it has been fishing well. Got to the carpark and started to get my gear out only to find I'd left my trolley wheels at home, Bugger!!!!. So a draw on the far side would be nice as I could park behind and drag my gear up the slope to the peg. Nope, peg 21 comes out for me. Two thirds down the near bank between the islands. So it was a three times walk with my gear. Still got ready in plenty of time. For company I had Dave "Noddy" Wilmot on my left on 22, and Adie Crawley past him. opposite was last week's winner , Martin Rayet, and Bradley Sowden to my right. with 22 fishing there weren't many empty pegs. I had the end of the right island just in my peg so a bomb rod was set up as when I tried a shallow rig at 16 1/2 metres I was still 3 metres short. But that rig never got used so no more on that. I also set up a .5 slim to fish meat at 2+2 in 6 foot. A .4 to fish caster for any silvers at 2+1. Plus a margin rig for my right side at the bottom of the first slope a metre out. At the start I fed my lines and went out on the bomb. The lake was strange, like glass with barely a ripple all day. Nice change for this place. And it wasn't long before a few fish were showing at the island. Though it took about 20 minutes for my first pull round. And it was a ripper. It dropped back before I got my hands on the rod and it had snapped me off. Next chuck I had my first fish in the net. Martin had one early but after 45 minutes that's all that had been caught. It was very slow. Then I had another break me off on the pull round. Savage bites. Then another in the net. By this time an hour had gone and still only three carp were caught. Most people blanking at this stage. Anyway as it was very hard I stayed in the bomb. I took the odd fish, and as nobody was realy catching I was reluctant to change. After about two hours I had 4. Adie caught a couple around then but Dave was struggling with just a couple of squeakers. Still nobody realy catching. I tried my other lines a few times through the match, but only a couple of bits from the silvers line. Nothing on the meat or margin. So I predominantly used the bomb with a couple of purple patches and pulled out a comfortable lead. Dave started catching a few short on meat in the last 90 minutes and Adie had been steady for the second half but his fish were small. The last half hour my meat line come to life and I put 5 in the net. At the end I had about 25 carp for what I thought was just over a ton. The scales went 95-8 for first on the day. Dave finished well with several lumps to get 60-10 for second. Third was Dave Haines on 26 with 55-0. With the silvers conspicuous by their absence it was a tough match for most as the carp were also a bit touchy. Still, a bit of coin for me.

1st Me, 95-8, peg 21
2nd Dave Wilmot, 60-10, peg 22
3rd Dave Haines, 55-0, peg 24th
4th Chris Gay, 49-14, peg 9

First in silver, John  Clarke, 5-6 ,peg 25