FISHERY OF THE WEEK Lindholme Lakes

You never know what’ll take your bait next

CATCHES by commercial fishery match anglers are often dominated by carp and F1s, but they certainly aren’t the only species on offer at Lindholme Lakes.

Bosses at the Lincolnshire complex have strived to make it one of the UK’s best venues by creating a truly mixed fishery.

Apart from the usual culprits, you stand a chance of catching a multitude of other fish, with bream, tench, barbel, chub and ide all stocked in numbers. Adopt a versatile approach to ‘catch everything that swims’ and you’ll be constantly kept guessing as to what will grace the net next.

Take your pick

There are seven day-ticket lakes to have a crack at and all of them hold a generous head of silvers.

There are a few stand-out performers in this division, though, with Bonsai arguably the pick of the bunch.

Venue manager Alex Dockerty believes this side to the fishery is underrated by many, and he told Angling Times: “The silverfish potential of Lindholme is phenomenal and there’s so much more to the venue than carp and F1s.

“You can easily put together more than 60lb of bream and barbel on Bonsai in a few hours, while Beeches has been redeveloped to include a lot more silvers, with thousands of ide and tench stocked.

“If you fancy trying for a big perch then Strip and Laurels have got some real monsters in them, with fish over 4lb reported.”

Simple tactics

Pellets are best avoided if you want to catch the silvers because they’re a recipe for attracting carp and F1s into your peg.

Instead, rely on maggots and take three or four pints with you. Loosefeeding little and

often is the key, trickling in a dozen grubs on a regular basis.

If you’re fishing for ide then feed this quantity every 30 seconds and fish a rig set 12ins-18ins deep, cutting that down to every few minutes when targeting bream, barbel and tench on the deck.

Rely on balanced tackle in case you do hook a carp and use a No10 hollow elastic and 0.16mm mainline to a 0.13mm hooklength and a size 16 medium wire hook.

Give Lindholme Lakes a visit this week and explore a side to the fishery that many don’t even suspect exists.

Alex Dockerty bagged up on Bonsai Lake.

If the silvers sport is good enough for Alan Scotthorne, it’s good enough for the rest of us!

Lee Kerry fished maggots on the pole on Bonsai for this mixed net of carp, F1s and silvers.

Alex Dockerty with one of Lindholme’s hard-fighting barbel.