Category: Lower Park Fishery

This was a Brookfields AC match over Swan and Lowland pools at Lower Park Fishery, Redditch.  

Having checked with Fred the Bailiff prior to the match. I should have taken up his advice earlier in the match. I caught well and ended the match in 3rd place, but this was only a pound in weight off winning the match outright! 

I started the match on the pellet feeder casting over to the far bank. It was a slow start but I did catch a couple of good Carp in the first hour, followed by some small F1’s, but the bites weren’t really coming fast enough to build a good weight. So I went on my pole lines early. My first line was at 13 metres fishing soft pellets over micro pellet. This produced a few stockie carp and a couple of Skimmers but again not really weight builders. I came onto my short  pole line next fishing a 6mm hard pellet where I’d been feeding 4mm’s. I was getting more of a return for my efforts here but again the fish I was catching were on the small side. 

My next option was the right hand margin were I’d been loose feeding corn and pellets since the start of the match. This didn’t produce anything on pellet or corn and to be fair I didn’t really fancy it as it was 4 foot deep. I started to rotate these 3 pole lines and the pellet feeder and I was just picking of the odd fish. There was only one more option up my sleeve. Fred the Bailiff’s suggestion.   

So out to 13 metres but shallow this time with pellets. I’d began to catapult in some 4mm’s for 10 minutes prior to fishing shallow and after a bit of slapping I began to hook some F1’s and the odd silver with a 4mm pellet as hook bite. They weren’t big fish but I was now catching steady and at a better rate than the feeder and pole bottom rigs. A strong side wind was making the fishing difficult but I was now catching.

I played around with just slapping and found 5 slaps returned fish more. A quick change to a 6mm pellet attracted a few big F1’s but in general the 4mm’s where better. 

At the weigh in I had 39lb 14oz to beat, with 39lb 5oz in second. My fish came in at 38lb 14lb which put me in 3rd and a framing weight. But the moral of the story is I should be taken up Fred the Bailiff’s advice and fished shallow a lot earlier. I could have easily won the match. Oh well lesson’s learnt for next time I fish the venue.  

Shallow Rig – 0.2g Nick Gilbert inline Gandhi pole float set up on 0.17 N-Guage mainline with 3 no.10 stotz’s above the float and a cut down 4 inch size 18 SLWG Guru banded Ready rig. Set up on white hydro though a White Short Stop kit

This was my first outing this year with Brookfields AC at Lower Park Fishery nr Redditch on peg 57 Abbey pool. 

I’d only been to the venue a couple of times and never fished the Abbey pool so as I’ve known Fred the fishery bailiff for a few years the call for info went in! The message that came back from Fred, was pellet feeder as tight to the far bank as possible, shallow on the pole and the margins.   

So the plan was the fish all these three plus I set up rigs for the bottom at 10 metres and top2+2. I started on a 20g Preston ICS medium Pellet Feeder loaded with micro pellet and a 6mm Chocolate orange wafter as hook bait.  The first hour was great I had 25lb on the clicker, catching 4 carp and some F1’s before it died down. With recent matches been won with 50-60lb I was well on the way for decent weight.

With the far bank pellet feeder line now not producing I tried a 6mm expander over micro on my 10 metres pole line next. This produced a few more small F1’s and the odd small Barbel but it wasn’t prolific so I began cattying out a few 4mm pellets looking to signs of F1’s up in the water and I also began feeding my short line. There were no signs of F1’s up in the water so I went onto my short line with a 6mm hard pellet. I caught straight away but only small Barbel with and odd small F1. So I decided to feed the right margin with 6mm meat and have a look shallow. 

The shallow rig was in the water 5 minutes and my white hydro stretched out with a big fish. This turned out to be a big Common about 12lb !! This was great fun on a short stop kit but after 5 minutes it was safely in the keep net. 

Only one more small F1 followed this shallow and I soon returned to the other pole lines starting on the short top2+2 pellet line. I was getting plenty of bites but these were small Barbel. (god they fight well for there size)

It was time for a look in the margin next where I’d fed 6mm meat and a few pellets but no bites came and I began rotating all my lines picking up the odd fish on the long and short lines. I continued this for the next couple of hours saving the margin for the last hour. 

Going into the last hour the margin wasn’t really producing anything with the meat so I changed to corn and I began to catch some F1’s again. I stayed on the margin line hoping for a big edge dweller but I only caught F1’s. 

I had 60lb on my clicker which at the end of the match and after reading the latest match reports online I knew I had a good weight. This proved the case I weighed in 61lb 0oz for the win. 

I felt I really fished a good match today rotating my lines and picking off the odd fish but it was really the first hour on the pellet feeder that did the business. My intel before the match was right. Cheers Fred.       

Pellet Feeder Rig – Preston ICS 20g Medium pellet feeder with a size 16 Guru MWG hook on a 4 inch 0.19mm N-Gauge hook lenght. baited with a Ringers 6mm Chocolate Orange Wafter. Set up on a 11’6″ Preston mini plus rod with 8lb Daiwa ST mono on a 3012 Daiwa TDR reel   

Best Pole rig – 0.5g Nick Gilbert XT Jordan Power pole float set up on 0.15mm Guru N- Gauge main line with a small bulk of no.8 shot and two no.10 dropper shot above a 0.13mm size 16 Banded Guru SLWG Ready Rig, set up on Nick Gilbert Black Amber core elastic (12-16) (this was probably a little to strong as I bumped a couple of F1’s off)