Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Nick Speed explains why the challenge of Clumber Park makes it one of his favourite venues
Clumber Park is not the easiest place to get a bite but, when you do, it will probably be the fish of a lifetime, says Dynamite Baits’ Nick Speed
CLUMBER Park was mentioned in the Domesday Book compiled way back in 1086. Contrary to popular belief, I’ve not quite fished it that long, but I have spent many happy days wetting a line there. The lake itself was dug in 1772 by the 2nd Duke of Newcastle, and at 87 acres it is one of the largest venues in the area.
It is a place with such a rich history that I find it almost magical. As a kid, I grew up hearing rumours of huge bream, massive tench and almost uncatchable carp that resided in its depths.
This is why I spent a great deal of time fishing the place in my youth. The thought of latching into one of these near mythical fish was beyond my wildest dreams at the time. Sadly, every single one of those early visits all resulted in a dreaded blank!
Admitting defeat, I took a break from the place for 12 years. The rumours remained, however, and over time like a moth to a flame, Clumber’s magic drew me back for another go. Then one a day, while fishing with a good friend – Greg Owen – everything changed.
I was actually fishing in the very same swim which I’ve set up in today, while Greg was a couple of swims to my left. During the morning, Greg landed an 8lb 8oz tench, a fish that was incomprehensible to two young match anglers like us. As usual, I was blanking!
I was at the point of almost giving up when it happened.
I had a bite. Due to the amount of weed, I had to handline the rig in, bringing with it a small haystack of pondweed. Underneath this mass was my first Clumber Park bream, a deep, bronze- sided slab of 9lb 2oz. I was over the moon with this new personal best, but things had only just begun. I went on to land another three massive slabs and Greg caught another tench.
After this, I enjoyed a real purple patch with my next handful of visits throwing up bream after bream. On one session I had seven fish to 12lb 4oz and while shooting an Angling Times feature, I caught six bream to 10lb 8oz and a tench for the cameras. That day was particularly memorable. After the feature was complete and the lads had left, I stayed on to pleasure fish for a couple of hours. And what a couple of hours it turned out to be.
I caught the biggest bream I had ever seen! The AT boys had taken the scales with them, so I’ll never know the true weight but I reckon it was easily 15lb- 16lb.
This is why I love Clumber Park so much. It’s not somewhere where you can bank on 100lb, or even get a bite for that matter, but it is a place where dreams can be made. If you do hit it right and the fish are up for a feed, the results can be simply mind- blowing.
It is such a unique place and the fish are so old and wise that any encounter with them, regardless of how fleeting, can make your season or even your whole fishing career!
Give yourself an advantage
Being an estate lake, Clumber Park is very weedy and extremely clear. This combination is what makes the fishing so difficult. Not only is it a very rich water, but the fish are easily spooked.
To help, I always prebait the night before. You will never feed enough to hold them, but what you are doing is trying to create an area that the fish will hopefully revisit the next day as there was food there the previous night.
As Clumber is more of a carp water these days, I prebait using a mixture of Dynamite Baits 2mm Robin Red Pellets, Green Swim Stim pellets and Black Swim Stim groundbait. All in all, I feed around three kilos over an area of five yards square. When it comes to prebaiting, I’m looking to trigger that ‘ easy meal memory’ in the fish. So even though I used all Swim Stim products, simple brown crumb and molasses works well too and will get fish used to visiting a certain area for an easy, trouble- free meal.
Like I said, as it is mostly carp fished these days, I find fishmeal is much more effective than the more traditional livebaits and sweet bread crumb approach. So, that’s the way I tend to go.
When it actually comes to the fishing, I look no further
“The rumours remained, and like a moth to a flame, Clumber’s magic drew me back for another go”
than a Hybrid feeder. Being so weedy, I find it gives me a much better presentation. If I used an open- end feeder with a long hooklink, as well as possibly getting snagged up in the green stuff, the fish might not even find the hookbait because it is too far away from the feeder.
On the Hybrid feeder I use 2mm pellets, coated in Swim Stim Betaine Green Pellet Soak with a few handfuls of either Green Swim Stim groundbait or Swim Stim Match Method Mix to add a bit of cloud and extra attraction.
On the hook, I use yellow hookbaits and I tend to alternate between a 7mm Speedy’s Washter or a single grain of fake pop- up corn because they stand out so well over the bed of green pellets.
As you’ll see, the tactics for fishing on Clumber are really very, very simple. It’s getting a bite that’s the difficult and challenging part!
Beating the weed
The spot I’m casting to is around 50 yards out. Generally, when I’m long- range feeder fishing I use a much thin diameter mainline with a 25ft, 10lb shockleader. At Clumber, however, I fish an 8lb mainline straight through without any leader. This is due to the weed which a lighter line may not be able to cope with.
Plus, there is a high risk that the weed could get snagged around the shockleader knot. If I hooked a fish, I wouldn’t then be able to wind the shockleader on to the reel as the weed would get clogged up in the tip ring. This would ultimately lead to me loosing my hard- earned prize. When bites are so hard to come by there’s really no point in using gear that isn’t going to give you best chance of landing everything you hook.
To reach the required distance
I use a large 45g elasticated
Guru Hybrid feeder in conjunction with a fourinch hooklink.