12/06/11 - Mill Pool

Weight – 8lb 8oz
Catch – 3 Carp, 2 Ide, 1 Skimmer, 1 Orfe, 1 Roach, 1 Perch
Weather – Very wet & very windy
Match – Club – 5th out of 15

On Saturday whilst buying some bait from Avon Angling, Fabio asked why I fish venues no one has heard about. A fair question. Until recently I had never heard of Mill Pool, however at the moment, I just want to enjoy my fishing after a very difficult 18mths/2yrs. Also work is being increasingly busy, which is good news, but I also need to study to get my diploma in financial services by the end of 2012, so I don’t want to commit to too much, although I’m looking forward to the Lands End winter league.

Mill Pool is just outside Painswick, Gloucestershire and was created following a lottery grant. You can tell the lake was created by a non-angler, because the 37 pegs are only 4-5m apart, around 2 central islands, with a connecting sunken bar. The lake is only 11-13m wide so comfortable fishing, however some of the pegs didn’t have pole anglers in mind, due to high back banks and in 1 peg a tree! Depths are about 5-6ft, with 2-3ft at the top end where a small stream runs in.

15 turned up today, which meant everyone had enough room and I drew peg 1, which was the first peg next the club house. Initially I was quite pleased, because I had plenty of room to my right in front of the clubhouse, however plumbing around, I couldn’t find any shelves, and the lake just sloped into the middle, which scuppered my plans to fish long to my right along the decking of the clubhouse. Also I was on one of the more exposed pegs with the wind either funnelling down the lake or blowing straight into my face. It was a truly disgusting day.

Because there weren’t any shelves, I decided to focus fishing on the deck down the middle, so a small amount of micro & caster went in to my left, a bigger pot including chopped worm went in to my right and I started at 4m feeding caster.

After 15mins and no bites at 4m was a worrying sign. I was concerned the lake wouldn’t fish with 15 anglers, since the venue is mainly pleasure fished and doesn’t see many matches. A further 30mins after trying my 2 other swims and no bites I had to question whether I made the right decision to target fishing down the middle. So I set a shallower rig to fish 3ft up the slope and feed some caster towards the sunken bar. A small roach soon followed, but no more bites and the wind was getting stronger.

After 2 hours I had managed to add a 2lb carp. In the end I caught the rest of my fish, including a 4lb carp down the left hand margin where it didn’t slope away too steeply, catching on single maggot feeding caster. I had set up another swim, fishing long to my right trickling in caster and chopped worm, but I never had a bite.

A very difficult day, where we didn’t see the lakes potential. 13lb 10oz won from the shallow top end with quality roach.