Carp Fishing - Return to Yateley

Last weekend I finally made a return fishing trip to Yateley Sandhurst. The trip started with a short journey to my mate Steve’s in Runcorn. Once at Steve’s I loaded my carp gear into his motor so we could share the fuel costs and I left my car on his drive. I packed my sat nav too and this incredibly useful device got us to yateley angling centre to collect my day tickets and then onto the lake with no difficulty at all.

Safe arrival courtesy of the sat nav


I knew the fishing was going to be a struggle, the air pressure had been continually rising all week and we were greeted by a flat calm lake that didn’t exactly look inspiring. I spent a fair few hours walking round the lake looking for carp but very little showed. The odd carp I did see were up in front of the car park peg and I had no chance of getting near them as the lake was busy.

Having spent most of the day looking for carp I resigned myself to picking a swim from the best of the rest as it was getting late. The swim I chose was peg 13, I’d fished this swim on my first sandhurst carp trip back in may and caught a thirty from it. The wind was pushing down the lake towards peg 19 so I had a hunch that 13 might be worth a look. I got my rods set up and cast my rigs to the same area I’d caught from last time. On my previous trip I’d witnessed an amazing display from the sandhurst carp as they topped and rolled in this area so it seemed logical to fall back on my limited experience from the last session.

The night passed uneventfully and I was disappointed not to have some kind of action at first light. I left the rods out until 9.00am whilst I had some breakfast then wound in and went for a long walk around. Other anglers would be going home during the day as the lake was exclusively booked for the weekend so I wanted to get an idea of where I was going to fish later on.

After 2 hours of walking round I knew the fish were up at the car park end and if I drew well I’d get on them and be in with a chance. I returned to my swim at 11.00am so I could cast out my rigs again. The previous day only 2 fish had been caught and both came within 10 minutes of each other just after midday. With two carp coming out so close together time wise I thought this might be some kind of small feeding period so I wanted my baits out through this time of day just in case.

I’m so glad I did get the rigs back out. At 11.45am one of my snowman hookbaits was picked up, I was watching the water at the time and hadn’t seen anything when right out of the blue one of my delkims burst into life and the line peeled off the spool at a good rate of knots!. After my initial bemusement I quickly slipped into routine and hit the rod. Sure enough it arched over and after no movement for a few seconds I eventually felt a kick on the end from what felt like a decent fish. The fight was a bit of a stalemate for 5 minutes or so, the carp took no line but neither did I make any back. The fish wasn’t snagged, it was just a heavy weight on the end of the line and eventually the steady pressure had it moving towards me.
I’d hooked the fish about 50 yards out and once I’d managed to get it moving it came into the margins quite quickly, again the carp never took any line and looking at it in the clear water I could see it was a nice fat mirror that looked to be around mid twenties. I was a little nervous when the fish was under the rod tip but I needn’t have worried as the fish was well nailed in the bottom lip and I could clearly see this as the fish slowly rolled into the waiting net.

I must admit I was delighted to see that fish netted, I hadn’t been fishing much over the last few months and when I sat and reflected, I realised it was my first decent fish since I’d caught a 22lb 4oz mirror from a no publicity Cheshire carp water back in mid June!. I left the carp in the water whilst I got on with the business of weighing and photographing my fish. I put the unhooking mat on the road behind my swim and set up the tripod and camera ready for a smooth photographing session. I weighed the mirror at 26lb even, a nice fat fish that was in reasonable condition. My mates Steve and Gino were on hand and with their help I had the weighing and pictures done in no time. I released the fish back to the lake and watched with a big smile on my face as it drifted out of sight.

26lb Mirror from Yateley Sandhurst Lake


The lads were due at the lake just before 2pm and not long after I’d released my carp, the first of them arrived to have a look around the lake. I recounted my capture to them as they arrived and filled them all in on where I thought the fish were. Once everyone was present we had a draw for swims for the rest of the weekend. I was actually relieved to have caught as I came out second to last in the draw. Not only was the car park end of the lake stitched, I’d lost peg 13 as well and I was left with little choice but to pick from a handful of no hoper pegs!.

I opted for peg 19, this peg gave me a big view of the lake and at least 3 swims either side of me were empty. I was hoping the lack of pressure might see a few fish move into the area but they didn’t!. I had to sit and watch carp show up at the car park end and the lads up there managed to catch a few fish over the weekend. For me, my catching was over and I had to make do with the barbeque on Saturday and the fireworks that went on each evening. Despite looking hard I didn’t see a single fish up my end of the lake and I blanked the rest of the trip.

Peg 19, shame the carp were up the other end!


At the end of the day you pay your money and you take your chance, the draw had been unkind to me on this yateley trip and I accepted that I was very lucky to have caught my 26lb mirror when I did!. If I hadn’t insisted on fishing through that potential feeding period in the middle of the day I would certainly have blanked the whole trip.

Tight Lines
Mark.

Carp Fishing - Petty Pool Memories

If you spend any amount of time online and viewing carp forums you can’t possibly have missed the huge row that blew up after a local north west carp angler was caught out fishing the out of bounds section on Northwich AA’s petty pool. I didn’t offer my own opinion on any of the forums and whilst the forum arguing was going on I kept thinking back to my own time on petty pool, remembering in particular just how hard this water actually is if you fish it legally from the designated pegs.

My own experience of petty pool started in April 2002, at the time I’d already graduated from capesthorne hall and the reputation of petty pool just didn’t frighten me in the slightest. 2002 was the year we had a foot and mouth outbreak and with waters closing down everywhere, Northwich AA took the decision to leave petty pool open in the close season. This was just the opportunity me and my mate Barney had been waiting for, a difficult water made easier by close season fishing for the first time!. We could smell a result on the cards and the second week in April we made a start fishing this tough north west carp water.

The first thing you notice about petty pool is the fly life, the ground around the pool was boggy and getting to some swims involved using wooden walk ways the club had put in. Unfortunately the boggy areas were a breeding ground for very small black flies that just loved biting anglers and right from the start they made my life hell. The carp didn’t help either, despite it being close season they still seemed to live their whole lives over on the far side of the pool a million miles away from any angling pressure.

Me and Barney fished the pool 3 days per week, evenings after work on Friday and every Saturday and Sunday daytime. We never turned up very early but we always stayed to the death at 10pm in the hope of picking up a last minute fish. We kept a moderate amount of bait going in too although it was usually into the poorer producing swims as I just didn’t have the time needed to be at the gates early enough to secure famous pegs like the bus stop although if the going pegs were empty we always dropped in there, as I was the driver Barney was stuck to the hours that I could fish.

April soon turned into May, then into June and still no sign of a run to either me or Barney. By now the flies were a nightmare and I was literally going fishing in a thermal suit to keep them from biting me, I had a hat, mozzie net for my head, gloves and a couple of bottles of jungle formula, I even had bicycle clips for the bottom of my jeans to stop them from biting my legs but somehow they always seemed to get me!.
Whilst suffering getting bitten during the summer I still couldn’t seem to get near the fish, day after day we’d watch through binoculars as huge carp would launch themselves out of the water on the out of bounds bank a mere 250-300 yards away!. Time kept moving on and June turned into July then into August with still no sign of a run to either of us. By now I was already beginning to think that life was too short to fish petty pool. Your confidence just ebbs away when you have to sit and watch carp rolling and jumping on the far side when there’s nothing you can do about it.

September came and the nights were beginning to draw in, 3 days a week since April with no sign of a run was just madness but we both thought that the carp might come over from the far side under cover of darkness so we stubbornly stuck it out and carried on fishing.

It was Saturday 7th September 2002 when the unthinkable happened!. We were on for a day session, Barney had taken the bus stop peg as it was empty but there was a big wind blowing into the car park swims and with a bit of rain in the air I just fancied it up that end so I turned left from the car park and dropped into the second to last peg at the car park end. The big wind made the fishing bearable but I still had the thermal suit to keep from getting bitten. We had to be off the pool at 10.00pm so at 9.40pm I started packing my rucksack and gear ready for another glum walk back to the car. It didn’t take too long to pack away, I'd done the brolly and I was just zipping up the side panel on my rucksack when my left hand rod finally ripped off!.

I was actually quite stunned for a minute, 3 days a week for 6 months and finally my line was peeling off the spool at a rate!. I came to my senses pretty quickly and hit the rod, sure enough it whooped over and I was finally into my first petty pool carp. I find it difficult to explain what was going through my mind as I played that fish in. My heart was in my mouth as I played it, I literally kept stepping out of myself and kept talking to myself as I played it in, you know the sort of thing, keep it steady, don’t blow it, take a deep breath and stay calm!. The fish didn’t have that much to offer thankfully, it did try to make some reeds on my left hand side but my setup is strong and I was easily able to guide it away from any potential danger. Roughly 5 minutes after getting the run I slipped the net under my first petty pool carp. I can’t tell you what a moment that was!, all the driving there and back, baiting, biting insects and demoralising trips were forgotten in that magic moment.

I left the fish in the net and packed my rods away whilst I waited for barney to appear from the bus stop. When he did I told him I had a fish in the net and he was as delighted as I was!. I retrieved the fish from the landing net, weighed her and did a few photographs before returning my prize to the water. How big was my petty pool carp I hear you ask? It was 14lb 12oz, possibly the smallest carp in the pool!.

Petty Pool carp, my one and only success in 6 months hard fishing!


It had taken so long to finally get a bite on this most demanding of venues and when my time came I got myself a 14lb 12oz mirror. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!. I’d literally bled every week for that fish and at the end of the day I caught a mid double. For a while I was gutted but after sitting and reflecting I had after all caught a carp from petty pool and any carp from there is a massive achievement regardless of its size.

We fished on through the rest of September and October before finally calling it a day for the year. I came to the conclusion that life is far to short to fish petty pool, I like my carp fishing and I enjoy getting runs and catching fish, if I’m honest, despite finally catching a carp from petty pool, I felt like the venue had beaten me into submission. I never did go back after our last October session and neither did my mate Barney. He actually blanked right through and I felt for him as he'd put in the same amount of effort as I had and he deserved something for that. When the 2003 season came round I dropped my Northwich AA membership and moved onto more productive waters to begin the slow process of rebuilding my shattered confidence.

I can’t begin to tell you how hard petty pool is as a carp venue, limited bank space and wise carp that happily live well away from any angling pressure, it’s a lovely place to sit when the flies aren’t biting but slowly it chips away at your confidence until eventually you wonder if the effort is worthwhile and give up. I have a lot of respect for the lads who sit it out on there waiting for their fish of a lifetime, it is without doubt the hardest carp water I have ever fished and probably ever will fish. I kind of feel for the lads who have been making the effort to fish there only to find another angler sneaking into the out of bounds and catching those fish with ease because the water itself is just so much harder than that!.

Tight Lines
Mark.

Carp Venues - Capesthorne Hall Uncovered Pt2

A heron has landed on the bridge, click to watch.


Its been a while since I wrote Capesthorne Hall Uncovered Pt1 I know there has been a few north west carp anglers eagerly awaiting part 2 so here it is. The second instalment deals with the garden pool. For those of you that don’t know, Capesthorne main lake has a bridge crossing it about two thirds the way up the shallows (park pool). The bridge is regarded as the dividing line between the garden pool and the shallows.
The water in the garden pool gets deeper as you move up to the dam wall and at the far end of the lake, in front of the dam wall, you’ll find about 7 feet of water maximum with the average depth being about 3-4 feet for the garden pool as a whole. Walking from the car park towards the bridge, when you reach the bridge and turn right before crossing, the first swim you arrive at is known as the arches. This has always been a tricky peg to catch fish from. Carp pass through this swim in numbers and it took me a while to work out how to catch consistently from it. The arches rates as one of my favourite swims on the entire lake, its one of those swims where 2 rods never seems enough to cover all the options.
Looking at the picture below, this is taken from the arches looking across to the hidey peg known as ‘robinson crusoes’ and the first swim in the field known as ‘the moose’. The areas of interest are the channels in the silt and the brickwork around the bridge. The most common mistake when fishing the arches is to try to get tight under the bridge or to the brickwork of the bridge that can be seen when its full. As you can see, the stone is built up and gradually falls away to meet silt about a rod length away from the bridge, a bait fished were the stones hit the silt is a winner!. The carp use this line to patrol and when I started finding it I found some very good action. The other areas of interest are the silt channels, you may notice that the old stream bed comes through the second arch, this is not a good place to fish, the only action I ever received in the channel was from bream. It was far better to fish the third and fourth arches over against the silt/stonework area as this is where the carp like to move.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool,The Arches

Casting tip for fishing the arches for Capesthorne Hall Carp, click to watch!


There is a smaller channel in the silt that breaks off and heads towards the moose swim and where it stops and turns back to open water in front of the moose is also and excellent area. The silt/stones are about a rod length from the bridge and similarly, the channel in front of the moose is a couple of rod lengths away from the overhanging rodey bush that everyone casts too because its all they can see. Open water in front of both the arches and the moose are also worth a look, this quarter of the lake from the bridge up to the eagle is probably the biggest area of natural food in the lake and you’ll see carp head and shoulder and roll in this area during the evenings. I’ve also included a view looking back from the moose swim, you can clearly see the brick line of the bridge and how that it comes round and under the rodey bush then into the margins of the moose, baits placed anywhere along this line are a potential winner as its a carp patrol route.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool, The Moose


Next up is the ornamental eagle, years ago this swim was an absolute flier of a peg. You can see the old stream bed coming close in right in front of the eagle, you can also see a feature that I spoke about in part 1, the line where sandy margins hit the silt. In front of the eagle they pretty much come together, the sand/silt line and the stream bed are very close at this point and a rod fished a rod length off the eagle is another winner on the right day. Before the drain down, I used to see carp rolling right in front of the eagle and it was only when I saw the lake empty I realised why. Despite the lake turning gin clear, fish can still be caught from this spot if your quiet. They can also be caught further along towards the toilet if you find the sand/silt line the carp use as a patrol route. If any of you have read Paul Selmans Carp Reflections this area of the ornamental eagle gets a mention in the Capesthorne Hall chapter of his book.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool, Ornamental Eagle


The next picture is taken from just before the eagle and shows the margins of both sides, as you can see its silty and again the areas of sand meeting silt are the ones to have a rod on, One rod on the line and one out in the silt where the carps food collects was always my tactic in these swims, sometimes you can’t get into the peg you want so it pays to know how to get the best and possibly a bonus fish out of the ‘has been’ type pegs that most people don’t fancy.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool, Open Water


Next is the dam wall taken from the field side, again it’s a silty middle and sandy edges, the silt/sand area in the last field peg, just before the swim known as the ‘chicken run’ is another good place to fish. There used to be a fir tree growing in the corner by the toilet and when it was there, the corner was always worth fishing but the tree got chopped down and with little cover, the carp always seemed a bit reluctant to go in there although they do still show up there from time to time.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool, Dam Wall


Last but not least is the plug hole. When I first fished Capesthorne Main Lake in the summer of 1996 this was ‘the’ swim to be in, I remember waiting the best part of 3 months before I ever saw it vacant and even then it was only because the carp angler fishing there went home early for his tea!. It was such a productive peg, the lads used to try to angle a cast under the trees to land tight into a gap in the rodey bushes right back against the bank, if the cast wasn’t right you simply didn’t catch. Things changed after the lake was drained and with gin clear water and weed present the fish deserted the plug hole swim in droves and it fell out of favour. This turned out to be a bonus for me as I managed to stumble across an area that produced in the depths of winter and the swim was rarely or never fished!. In the picture you can see where the lads used to catch tight into the rodey bush, the area I had winter action from is under the big tree with the dead leaves on. It’s the nice flat silt area, there’s nothing much there to attract them, just a nice depth of water over their heads and the security of the big overhanging tree. If you get the right area here, winter carp action during December, January and February is possible. Runs don’t come every time but if you can get in there, its worth fishing and it’s the first peg I’d head for during the depths of winter.

Capesthorne Hall Garden Pool, The Snags/Plughole


Well that’s about it, most of what I learned during the time I spent fishing Capesthorne Hall Main Lake. I found Capesthorne to be a very tricky water, pinpoint location, a good carp bait, an efficient rig and an understanding of carp behaviour were all needed on this lake. Watch the carp closely, seeing these pictures of the lake empty is only part of the jigsaw and you’ll need to get up close and personal with these fish in order to get amongst them consistently. If you can learn how to catch carp consistently on Capesthorne Hall then you’ll leave the place a very accomplished carp angler. The carp fishing is far from easy and if you have any problems with your bait, rigs or location you will suffer an awful lot of blanks!. Best of luck to those of you who decide to fish this tricky and challenging carp water.

Tight Lines
Mark.

Carp Venues North West - River Weaver Pt2

Following on from River Weaver Pt1, I’d had a taster of the river weaver carp but with no night fishing allowed in the winsford area I decided to move my weaver carp campaign downstream and targeted the sections of river belonging to Northwich Angling Association.
Legal night fishing on the river weaver was allowed on Northwich AA stretches so I got myself a night ticket sorted and following the end of my fishing on well known cheshire carp water capesthorne hall, I did a full summer on the river weaver.

The stretch of the weaver I targeted for carp was known as the ‘oak tree’, there was a small stretch of bank that was never pegged for fishing matches and being a bit of a walk from the car park nobody bothered fishing it either. The spot I chose was ideal, upstream lay a few known holding areas, the old river, vale royal locks and the railway arches at the upstream end of the ‘dredger length’. Downstream lay marshals arm, the boatyard and further down lay the crescent and another lock the name of which escapes me. With these holding areas both up and downstream, I was in the perfect place to intercept any carp that travelled the river during the night either looking for food or simply travelling between holding areas.
I adopted the same tactics I used during my first weaver carp sessions at winsford, a big bed of hemp, groats and boilies fished on the marginal shelf. The weaver is a deep river, the centre channel was around 15-16 feet deep and the marginal ledges were an even 4 ft in the area I fished and they extended from the bank outwards for just over a rod length. By baiting the whole width of the shelf heavily with 5kg of particles and several hundred boilies before starting I had a good spread of bait to hold the carp as they passed through my swim. I also had a lot of attraction slowly being carried downstream and it wasn’t uncommon to see carp rolling 30 yards downstream as they latched onto the food signal from my bed of bait.

River Weaver baiting tactics for carp.


The diagram shows my swim and my baiting tactics. One rod was always fished on the bait, the second was always placed 10 yards upstream on an area where the marginal shelf narrowed considerably, this spot I just baited with 20-30 freebies, a sort of light scattering just off the main bed of bait, a tactic that proved to be extremely effective at picking up the bigger fish, in fact the small patch of boilies just off the main bed of bait accounted for a staggering 80% of my biggest carp!.

The fishing was quite often hectic, I started fishing in mid-june when the river season opened and I fished every Friday night right through until the end of october and not once did I blank!. I did have a couple of sessions when I only caught one fish, the rest of the time it was multiple carp captures with runs coming at all times of the night. Apart from a couple of other carp anglers who fished the first week or two of the season, I never saw another carper all summer!.
The fishing seemed to get better as the season wore on, the more I baited with hemp, groats and boilies the more the carp came, they literally must have got used to finding bait in my swim. October in particular proved to be an amazing month and I caught 20lb+ carp 3 Fridays out of 4 during that period, culminating in a superb common of 23lb 14oz at the very end of the month. That common was just mint, it turned out to be my biggest carp from the river weaver and it gave me a stunning fight in heavy flow following a lot of rain. I remember looking at my watch when the run came and looking again when the carp hit the landing net, an arm aching scrap that lasted 35 minutes, I’m sure the fish had never been hooked before, there wasn’t a mark on it, a truly stunning carp.

My biggest river weaver carp, a stunner of 23lb 14oz


Following an extremely successful summers carp fishing on the river weaver, I wanted to carry on fishing throughout the winter. I wasn’t keen on doing nights and fishing a large bed of bait between holding areas for travelling carp. I decided to just fish days and go looking for them in the spots they spent most of their time instead. One of the most famous lengths on the weaver for catching winter river carp was northwich boat yard, the carp used the boats as cover and it was known as a winter holding area. One swim in particular caught my attention, a peg known as ‘the dock hole’, this was at the end of the boats and was a small arm off the river with no flow. Inside this area was a moored boat which meant more cover and a rest for the fish. The dock hole turned out to be a very good spot indeed and fishing just early morning sessions from around 7am until midday I rarely blanked during the winter months, in fact the dock hole threw up carp in some amazing conditions!.
During the winter months river weaver carp fishing pretty much got turned on its head, during the summer, cloud and rain meant runs but during the winter it meant chocolate brown coloured cold water and a blank. The best winter conditions came during prolonged periods of high pressure when the water began to run slower and clearer, this often coincided with lakes being frozen and I caught quite a few winter river carp when there was a sharp frost on the ground. My best capture came during an extreme cold period when I caught a 15lb mirror from the dock hole swim with 4 inches of snow on the ground!, every lake in Cheshire was frozen over that weekend, even the mighty redesmere was under several inches of ice yet against the odds I caught a lovely mirror which to this day still ranks as one of my very best captures, I remember the daytime high that day was -7 degrees and my gas stove froze solid, an amazing winter carp capture that I can’t see myself ever bettering.

River weaver winter carp complete with snow!


The boatyard wasn’t the only stretch that held winter carp on the river weaver, the old river was a mass of snags and the carp spent lots of time held up there. Rather than fish static I preferred to rove on the old river, there were a couple of spots that proved to be very productive and it was just a case of fishing them for an hour each until the fish were found, if you hadn’t had a run within an hour the carp simply weren’t there and you just moved on to the next area, once located they were easy to tempt and you could usually manage a couple of carp in a few hours during the afternoon.

I really enjoyed my time fishing the river weaver for carp, it always felt like pioneering stuff. There were so few anglers on the bank, most wanted to try but very few actually had the balls to invest the time in fishing there because they thought location would be a nightmare. As it turned out, it was one of the easiest north west carp waters I’ve ever fished. I stuck to one swim, baited heavy and just intercepted the carp as they moved along the marginal shelf, it literally was that easy and I think you could repeat my results from literally any peg on the river!.

Tight Lines
Mark.

Carp Venues North West - River Weaver Pt1

Following on from the end of last weeks diary entry, I was unable to make a decision on which direction my carp fishing would take for the next month or so. Sometimes things happen in life and the fishing has to take a back seat. This week, one of my work mates left for pastures new so Friday night meant a farewell night out with lots of drink!. Depending on what happened I may have squeezed in a short carp session on Saturday but when I crawled into bed at 5am on Saturday morning I knew there would be no carp fishing session, or any other fishing session this weekend!.
With this in mind, and in keeping with the odd river carping session I’ve had on the river dee recently, I thought I’d take a little look back at the time I spent fishing the river weaver for carp a few years back.

I first fished the river weaver back in July 1998, I’d chosen to fish the winsford stretch of the river at an area that is now known as the sunken boat, this area of the river weaver was just outside winsford town centre. I well remember my first night on the river, it was a Friday night, I’d been down to the river the night before and put in 5 kilos of hemp/groats and 400 boilies around the sunken boat and down the near margin. When I settled down for that first night I didn’t quite know what to expect, I love that ‘not knowing’ feeling in my fishing, the saying ‘who dares wins’ springs to mind, walking onto a water you have no prior knowledge of and not knowing if your onto a winner or completely wasting your time!. It’s so much more rewarding than sitting on a lake fishing for a named carp that has been caught many times before.
That Friday night I topped up my swim with a little more hemp and a light scattering of boilies, at the time I was using nutrabaits pineapple and banana readymades and these proved to be a real winner on the river weaver. I actually only waited 40 minutes for my first run from a river carp, a blistering take from the rod fished tight to the upstream end of the boat, I remember that particular carp being very stubborn, it seemed to take an age before I finally slipped the net under it. Much to my delight my first river weaver carp actually turned out to be a twenty, 21lb 4oz and a common to boot. That was quite a start to my first river carping campaign, a twenty within the first hour was more than I could have hoped for. I also had another carp that first night, a high single of 9lb+. I was hooked after that and what turned out as a break from my fishing at capesthorne hall eventually turned into my next north west carp venue.

My first weaver carp, 21lb 4oz


I fished the winsford stretch of the river weaver for a few months and caught very well, funnily enough that twenty I had first night actually turned out to be the only twenty I caught from that particular section of river. I believe I had my baiting tactics spot on for the river, I eventually settled on fishing upstream of the boat, which was a good feature. Heavy baiting with hemp, groats and boilies proved to be perfect baiting tactics on the river, the hemp and groats had massive attraction and were superb at holding carp that would travel the river during the night looking for food. The nutrabaits pineapple and banana boilies worked a treat fished over the hemp/groats and carp could literally home in on my heavily baited spot as the attraction leaking off the bait was carried downstream.

Unknown to me at the time, night fishing wasn’t allowed on the winsford stretch of the river weaver and a chance meeting with another angler put me right regarding the fishing in that particular area. I had no intention of continuing to fish this section of river knowing I wasn’t supposed to be night fishing so I called it a day after a couple of months and left the river alone. At the time I was still fishing the stoke on trent anglers water capesthorne hall and I continued on there for another couple of years before accepting my time on there had run it’s course.
I wanted legal night fishing on the river weaver and when the time came I joined northwich angling association and moved my weaver campaign further down river and below hulse’s island. I’ve decided to split this river weaver piece into two parts, moving downstream to fish northwich waters turned out to be a good move and it began a superb summers fishing in which I didn’t see a single blank session, I night fished the northwich sections of the river from June until the very end of October, I never missed a Friday night and I never failed to catch at least one carp on each trip, multiple carp captures where the norm with the odd twenty cropping up too.
There’s also the winter carp fishing on the river, my winter carping on the weaver turned out to be a real eye opener and I found the carp easy to catch especially during periods of high pressure and sharp frosts which you would normally associate with poor fishing conditions.
I’ll talk more of my river weaver carping next time as the northwich sections of the river and the baiting tactics I used on there deserve a page all of their own.

Tight Lines
Mark.

Carp Fishing - Capesthorne Hall Uncovered Pt1

A heron has landed on the bridge, click to watch.


Capesthorne Hall has long been one of the north west's top carp waters, its been producing good numbers of 20lb+ carp since the seventies and continues to be a top north west carp venue today with several carp topping 30lb+ at the right time of year. For details about capesthorne hall please visit the Sotas website, there is a link to the Sotas website on the right hand navigation on this blog under 'North West Angling Clubs'.
During my time on Capesthorne the dam wall sprang a leak and for a time, the lake was drained whilst repairs took place, the following pictures were taken when the lake was all but empty of water. Like most people, I struggled in my first year on capesthorne hall, my results were strictly average and I managed 6 carp in my first season, thats not a lot of fish when you're fishing there 2-3 days per week. The following pictures had a massive impact on my results on this lake, once I sat down and studied them I began to relate showing fish to the underwater features in the pictures, the next season produced 24 carp for me as I was able to use the photos to understand the carp movements around the lake.
The following pictures relate to the 'park pool' side of the bridge, a long area of the lake known as 'the shallows'. This area of the lake can be very productive as the carp like to cruise round the shallows in the afternoons.

This first picture is a swim known as 'the cattle drink', it's not a very popular swim due to it's restrictive nature, from the surface it looks very difficult to extract a carp from and it is 'hook and hold' fishing. As you can see from the picture, apart from the trailing branches of the yew tree theres little else for the carp to snag you up on and you can safely extract carp from this swim if your competent at snag fishing. This swim is highly under-rated and allows you to fish much closer to the yew tree than from the popular main pads swim opposite. Fishing close to cover is a big thing on capesthorne and the closer you can get to it the better. The cattle drink will produce carp regularly and is particularly good if the lake is busy as the carp tend to favour the cover of the yew tree when they are under angling pressure.



The next picture begins to deal with the 'stream bed'. Capesthorne hall is an old estate lake, it was created by damming a small stream which runs in from the end of the shallows, the lakes water level is regulated by the 'plug hole' up by the dam wall, what water flows in one end, then flows out via the plug hole and into the syndicated bottom pool. The old stream bed still exists and it didn't take me long to realise that the carp would follow this feature quite a lot. Looking from the main pads swim, the stream bed flows through the second arch of the bridge, it's quite pronounced here and has a fair depth of water, despite looking very good, fishing in the stream bed here has been unproductive for carp, in this particular swim the carp seem to prefer the cover of the yew tree and the pads and usually pass through arches 3,4 and 5 when moving between the park and garden pools and vice versa.



Changing the picture angle from the above shot you can clearly see the stream bed meandering its way through the shallows of the park pool, it comes close in to the bank just before the rodey bushes on the hall side before going back out to the middle of the lake. If you can get a bait in the stream bed anywhere down the shallows I think you have a chance of picking up a carp, for this reason I never used to break my neck to get into what are known as the 'popular' swims near the bridge, if you find the stream bed your in with a chance from any swim on the shallows.



The next shot below looks at the rodey bushes on the hall side, this clump of bushes is just under half way down the shallows from the bridge. As you can see from the photo, the stream bed passes through this swim as it does through every swim on the shallows. Take a look at the far bank on the hall side, if you look carefully along that bank you can see a line were the silt starts. Along this bank the margins are sandy to start off then a couple of rod lengths out the silt starts. If there are carp cruising the hall side then a bait placed precisely on this line is in with a chance of being picked up. You really need to be quiet when fishing capesthorne hall, particularly so if fishing the margins. If the fish are there and you can get your bait on the line and avoid being detected by the carp, this sand/silt line can produce a carp. Incidently the remains of the fallen tree were removed!.



The picture below looking back towards the bridge gives a different angle from above, you can see the line of sand/silt along the near margin, its just beyond were the old barbwire fence finishes, or used to finish as the fence is now gone!. You can also see the stream bed and that the far bank has the most cover. I mentioned above how important bankside cover is to these fish, I can only assume the carp feel safer with cover close to hand, they are more likely to try baits in areas they feel safe in, which I guess is true of all carp in all lakes. When a lake see's as much angling pressure as capesthorne though, it's crucial if your going to stand a chance of banking one of these tricky carp!.



To sum up the park pool, you should always pick a swim based on sightings of fish, don't worry about people running straight for the main pads swim, it's a good swim yes but because of the constant angling pressure it sees it's not as good as it once was. If you start getting obsessed about this, or any other swim then you've fallen into the trap of 'swim chasing' and you'll be in for a hard time.
The carp in capesthorne hall pretty much follow the same daily pattern, in the morning they begin to pass through the arches from the garden pool into the park pool and up to the shallows. They spend the day cruising the shallows, then, as we get to late afternoon, they begin heading back up towards the bridge and through into the garden pool again. It's worth fishing along the shallows through the daytime then moving to the garden pool early in the evening. The garden pool has slightly deeper water and it's one big natural feeding area, in part two I'll go through the pictures of the garden pool when its empty.

Tight Lines
Mark.

Carp Fishing - Linear Fisheries

I've been travelling down to Linear Fisheries Oxfordshire waters since 1996,making sure to pay at least a couple of visits every year. Back in the late 90's there was no Brasenose or Oxlease, for me, these overstocked waters are strictly for the 'Argos Carpers' and they are not waters I'd visit myself.
Its Manor, Hardwick and St Johns that hold my interest, all contain the kind of fish you travel all that way for in the first place so I concentrate on these three waters and forget about the rest.

St Johns mirror caught one Sunday afternoon, nearly everyone has gone home and the nearest angler is on the road bank at the opposite end of the lake!.


The first thing I would recommend when going to Linear, is to fish midweek, as it gets really busy at the weekends, I reckon the perfect arrival time is about 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, this is because most people have left, or are just packing up. I've lost count of the number of times I have arrived to find both Manor and Hardwick empty at this time!.
My approach on arriving at Linear, is to spend some time walking around the lakes. Naturally, I'll start on Manor first, this is because it contains the most 30's and the largest fish so finding fish on here is first priority. If I fail to locate any fish, rather than just guessing, I will look at the next best option, which is Hardwick, this contains the next largest/most 30's. If a good walk around those two lakes doesn't reveal any carp then I will move onto St Johns and carry on looking. It's very rare to get around all three of these lakes without finding some carp tucked away in a corner somewhere. If I find fish on Manor, I will set up straightaway, however, if I locate fish on Hardwick or St johns, I will make a note of where they are, then leave them be for a while, this is so I can re-trace my steps back to Manor, and see if there is anything that's been missed. Basically, I'm looking for the largest fish I can find on any of the three waters.
Should I get on the fish and they move then I'll move with them, if this isn't possible then I'll take a look at the other lakes to try and locate some more fish. This tactic has paid dividends a few times when I've moved from one lake to another in mid session and had a result. It pays to keep an open mind about which lake to fish, by deciding on the day, based on where the fish are, you will find more success than picking a particular lake/area before you even arrive.


Hardwick 30 caught after a night on Manor, the fish moved off on Manor and I found fish close in on Hardwick and moved lakes, this 31lb 2oz mirror was the reward for my effort.


On the location theme, Linear fish are known to follow the wind, if they are not directly on the end of it, they will almost certainly be in the windward half of the lake somewhere. It's basic good practice to check out the windy end of the lakes first, yet so many people just don't seem to bother!.
Once found, the carp are not too hard to catch if you use a cautious approach and be a little bit different. My favorite tactic is the single hookbait or a very light scattering of bait fished to showing fish. By not baiting up heavily, or using a spod, I don't risk spooking the fish and I get my bait right amongst fish that are feeding. Believe me, it doesn't take them long to find a single hookbait. Should the fish decide to move, its just a matter of moving with them, if you have a large bed of bait down you can be reluctant to move off it, even if the fish are showing somewhere else. Theres also the fact that most Linear anglers turn up and spod for England, often ruining their chances of a fish before they've got their hookbaits out!, I personally only give them a lot of bait if they actually look like they are up for a big feed and thats not very often.


Stunning 22+ Fully Scaled Mirror, I went round all 3 lakes twice before I found the fish on Hardwick!.


On the bait side of things, it seems that most people seem to spod a mixture of particles and pellets, then fish boilies or maize over the top. I'm not a fan of spodding on top of pressured fish so I just fish either maize, a tiger nut or a boilie over a light scattering of bait, or use a single hookbait if I can't bait up quietly with a catty.
The old saying 'it's better to spend one hour in the right spot than a whole day in the wrong one' is the theory behind my approach, not just on Linear's waters, but everywhere else too. The key to catching on Linear's waters is to keep your eyes open and be prepared to move when it's necessary, don't put all your eggs in one basket regarding which lake you fish and how much bait you put in. If you just turn up and go through the motions, you're more than likely going to be sitting there watching somebody else catch, work at it and stay on the fish and sooner or later they'll make a mistake and it's usually sooner!.


A big Hardwick 20 that came as part of a six fish catch after moving twice to keep on them.


Tight Lines
Mark.

Carp Fishing - Walton Hall Park

Located in Walton Hall Park in Walton, Liverpool.

Fishing is controlled by Liverpool City Council and is FREE!

There are no bait bans or restrictions on rods, being controlled by the Council, anything goes.

The lake itself is around 3 acres in size, and has two large islands, one at each end of lake. There is a fence and a tarmac path running all the way around the lake, this makes the use of a rod pod a must. Nobody is sure about the stock of carp in the lake, from my own observations of carp on the surface when its sunny, I would say that there are about 50 carp present, of which 10-12 of these are 20lb+. Most of the fish are commons, with there being only four known mirrors present. One of the mirrors is 20+, the rest of the 20's are commons. Biggest fish is a common of 27lb+, which comes out regularly. Most of the rest of the fish are doubles, averaging around the 16lb mark.

Walton Hall Park biggie at 27lb 4oz


Walton Hall Park is not the easiest of carp venues, however there is virtually nowhere in Merseyside were you can catch a 27+ common!. This is definitely one of the top venues around for the scouse carper. The fish are most active 2-3 hours before and 2-3 hours after sunrise. This is the quietest time of day in the park, and you'll probably find yourself alone at this time. One tip I can give is to keep all your gear were you can see it. The park is surrounded by housing estates, and the kids are thieving little so and so's. Having said that, a lot of them have got pb commons over 20lb!!. Should you wish to find out more about 'Wally Park', just ask for info in Johnson's Tackle in Rice Lane, its only a mile or so up the road, just past Walton Prison.

Update.
It's been many years since i did any carp fishing on Walton Hall Park. Although the fishing is still free you now need a 'parks fishing licence' which can be obtained from any of the one stop council shops.
The big common pictured above finally reached 30lb+ which is great news for liverpool carp anglers. I understand things have changed a bit and I'm not sure if the council allow night fishing these days?. As I mentioned above, drop into Johnson's Tackle in Rice Lane and they'll give you some up to date advice regarding the carp fishing in the park.

Tight Lines
Mark.