Avoiding the Blank 22 part 4 (Turners lake Norton Disney, Willow Park an...

This month the focus has changed to carp fishing up and down the country. Turners was a hard blow though as I felt as though anyone in more than 12ft of water had drawn out of the fish and so it proved, and only having 1 zig to move up and down the water column proved fruitless, although I am still sure it was the right plan. Willow park however was a great little session, I drew in open water and the fish were soon giving themselves away. Simple tactics were key and although I was the last person using maggot before the bait changes, I only had 2 pints and some of that went home with me. Turners Lake https://www.embryoangling.org/venue/turners-lake/ Willow Park https://www.willowparkfishery.co.uk/ Salisbury and District Angling club Lakes https://salisburydistrictac.co.uk/steeple-langford-lakes/ https://salisburydistrictac.co.uk/peters-finger-lakes-2/

11/01/2014 Willow Park Open, Middle Lake

This was my first return to Willow park for about six years so it was going to be interesting to see how it had changed, my day started well enough, I was up before the alarm, on the road early, managed to get a brekkie on the way and tipped up with plenty of time to walk around the well-stocked shop and enjoy a coffee from the really nice café, I also ordered my lunch to get delivered to my peg mid match.

The draw took place and I pulled out peg 7, as I walked out I was asked if I had packed a flask? I was hoping that he was joking but I had only heard bad things about the lakes on a whole so we would see.

As you can see from the picture the peg had a number of features to aim at and I set up a pellt rig to fish 14.5m under the tree and in open water, a small feeder, a shallow wag (after the previous days practice with Tony) and an in close rig that I fished meat at 5m to the left and corm at 14.5m into the corner.

Long story short the best bite I got was when my sandwich turned up mid match, I managed to lose a roach on the wag within 5 minutes of the start, then a skimmer on the tip halfway through the match. I did land a roach and small skimmer on dead maggot on the tip but that was my day, 8oz. I only weighed in as they gave me the board.

Peg 6 won it with 12lb mostly taken in 2 fish in the last half hour, it was a shame as the facilities are great but until the fishing improves I do not know if I will return.  Sorry Willow Park, I did see some fish splashing in front of pegs 3-5 but they did not come out.

To cap my day off my phone packed in that evening so I have probably lost all my pictures that I took!! Arrgghhhh