Fishery of the Week
Lavender Hall
NOT many venues cater for both match and specimen anglers, but Lavender Hall Fishery does!
The West Midlands complex virtually guarantees success for its visitors, whether an angler wants to bag up with mixed nets on its four match and pleasure pools or go for the specimen carp on the Station Lake.
One of the most in-form pleasure pools at the moment, and a lake where you can catch some proper lumps too, is the 30-peg Oak Pool. A 100lb net is nothing out of the ordinary on this water, with the commons and mirrors now averaging an elastic-stretching 8lb.
The lake is rectangular, surrounded by woodland, and has great access, including a disabled peg. Anglers can catch quite easily from any swim on this pool by fishing a variety of tactics, from feeder well out to pole in the margins, so you’re not limited to certain pegs or methods as at some fisheries.
Although relatively featureless on the surface, Oak has four gravel bars running across its main length. These house plenty of fish all year round. A few deeper holes are dotted around the pool but the depth averages out at 4ft-5ft.
With this in mind, plumbing up accurately is important as these wary fish often like to feed at a certain depth. On a warm day, fishing a 6mm hard pellet or a grain of corn over groundbait over one of the gravel bars can prove highly successful.
If bites do dry up, fishing down the slope and into the trough may pay off, as the fish will follow any loose particles down. Alternatively, a small pellet waggler with 6mm banded pellets will catch shallow if the weather and wind allow.
The margins have also been producing fish now the weather has warmed again, and here you can fish the pole or waggler with corn, pellets or meat.
Oak also features some impressive tench to over 5lb and some monster perch to 3lb, all of which can readily be caught right throughout the winter months. PRICES: £8 a day, £6 concessions, Specimen Lake from £15 a day CONTACT: 01676 530299, www.lavenderhallfishery.co.uk LOCATION: Lavender Hall Fishery, Lavender Hall Lane, Berkswell, Coventry, West Mids, CV7 7BN
RULES: Barbless hooks only, no rods to be left unattended, no braid, no baggin’ wagglers, no surface
baits, no trout pellets, no bait boats FACILITIES: Café, tackle shop, disabled pegs and good access, lakeside parking