It’s a pleasure!

Finding that a commercial venue has been booked by match anglers is a thing of the past thanks to pleasure-only lakes

WHEN I was growing up, I would perch on the edge of a black Shakespeare box and winkle out small silverfish all day using a heavy fibreglass pole. Believe it or not, carp barely featured on my local club waters but, every now and then – usually in school holidays – I was treated to a trip to one of the premier commercials in either Lancashire or Cheshire. The form guide in Angling Times would help us decide on which lake to visit before a fine silverfish elastic was whipped out a top kit and replaced with a much beefier version aimed at taming the hard-fighting carp. A sleepless night before the session was a given, as the excitement grew at the thought of visiting a fishery where my elastic would be given a serious workout. But I vividly remember the numerous occasions when the plan came crashing down upon arrival. Even though it would have probably been a weekday, the lake we had anticipated fishing was booked for a match. Having driven some distance to the venue, we tried to make the most of the day on another less fancied pool but it often ended with fewer bites than initially expected. I doubt I’m alone in having experienced this crushing disappointment but, thankfully, ever more commercials are stepping in to prevent such consequences ever happening again.

Where matches are banned

Manor Farm Leisure in Evesham is the perfect example of a complex that makes a point of treating match and pleasure anglers equally. There are six lakes onsite and Bottom Pool never stages a match. No matter how busy the fishery gets with club and open bookings in the summer, the management never strays from that policy and guarantees its availability to pleasure rods. Historically, fisheries that left a pool free for those who don’t enjoy competitive action often chose one that was out of form, cheekily trying to convince pleasure anglers it was fishing well. The reality though was that the match anglers were the ones getting the much better deal. But times have definitely changed for the better. Pleasure anglers now get the opportunity to experience fantastic sport every day of the year. In fact, it’s the match anglers who have been left glum-faced at Manor Farm as the management flatly refuses them access to Bottom Pool at any point! A real mixed bag is in stall for visitors and it’s anyone’s guess what will end up in the net on the next cast. Carp into double figures, huge shoals of skimmers and large F1s are just part of the varied stocking policy, with each species introduced in generous numbers.

Non-stop action

A full breakfast is the ideal way to start the day at Manor Farm and, with your stomach lined, it’s over to the water’s edge. Parking is available behind plenty of pegs on Bottom Pool, leaving you to simply hoist your box from the back of the car on to the solid concrete platforms. Float and feeder approaches will both score but it is the former that will enable you to catch the big mixed bags, with the pole my first choice of tactic. Light, delicate and well-balanced rigs are important for this style of fishing and enable you to fool a small skimmer one drop and a big carp the next. One aspect that may surprise you is that this

“Pleasure anglers get the opportunity of fantastic sport every day”

is often the best time of year on lakes like this. Match-fished waters have still been fed regularly throughout winter but fewer pleasure anglers during the cold season means waters such as Bottom Pool ool are rarely targeted. With that in mind, it’s been a while since the fish have fed properly and, with the temperatures on the up, they are looking for a decent meal. A cautious attack is still important though, because piling too much bait in at the start of the session could cause problems. Pellets ts are without doubt the best bait on mixed watersaters as they catch almost every species. The only exception is that if roach and perch feature heavily, maggots and casters are better. Whichever route you choose, introduce just 30 or 40 free samples at the start of a session via a pole pot and give it a short while to see what reaction you get.

If the float flies under shortly afterwards then it’s clear you have introduced enough to spark the shoal into life and have also given them little choice but to take your hookbait if they want to feed. Tapping in a few pieces of bait after each fish is likely to keep the bites coming but if you start being plagued by line bites and are foul-hooking fish then a change needs to be made. In this instance, feeding more – maybe a whole pole pot of bait – after every five fish will settle them down. This works because there isn’t a constant rain of bait coming into the swim stirring an excitable reaction as fish rise off the bottom to intercept food. It simply calms the shoal down and concentrates them on the deck. That is exactly what I have had to do in front of the cameras, with a run of foul-hooked fish being resolved by the heavier yet less frequent baiting approach.

Fishing just one line at 13m in around 4ft of water for the duration of the session worked a treat, with over 50lb of quality skimmers, F1s and even a big bonus crucian my reward. At no point did I have to wait any longer than five minutes for a bite and there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that this pool was every bit as good – if not better – than the rest that regularly host matches. It would be hard to defend the fact that pleasure anglers were once treated like second-class citizens at commercial fisheries but venues such as Manor Farm

Leisure are proving that such a mentality has been consigned to angling history – where it belongs.