Rookley Park Isle Of Wight

[rob@home]

Just found out we are having a long weekend in May @ Rookley park. I'm really looking forward to it, there's 2 fishing lakes & even stuff to do with the kids cant be bad, finally get a chance @ some golden tench cant wait. Anyone got any info on the place that might help?

Rob.

[Twiddler]

It's a great place to go with children...the main lake holds some nice carp up to about mid 30's, I have not fished the 'pleasure' lake yet. They also have a tackle shop on site, so no need to panic if you forgotten something. All in all a good place for a family weekend out combining with some fishing.

I suggest though to book a swim should you be wanting to fish the main lake for carp...it can get very busy.

[rob@home]

Cheers for the info twiddler na I wont be after any whackers this time but some golden tench will certainly be a nice bonus & maybe a few crucians would be good. Just making contact will be enough for me so i'll probably just stick to the small lake in that case.

Rob.

[rob@home]

Going this weekend any tips on the general coarse lake anyone?

[rob@home]

Well as promised its 8-45pm & before I pass out after a glass of wine & a cracking weekend i'm going to write this report. Picture the scene its friday the weather looks lousey & we're off to the Isle Of Wight for a weekend of fishing , wildlife & exploring on the I-O-W. Heres the pics from the ferry see for yourself :






With a heavy heart after the ferry crossing we head south to ventnor then realise we've got lost & head in every direction untill we discover where our park actually is, heres our 1st glance :



Cracking looking lakes, 1 around 2 acres the other the one in the picture around 3/4 of an acre. Heres a few snaps :

Large Lake



Small Lake Looking back @ the club house




Well thought it rude not to try the bar out so we spent the evening in there testing out all the beers checking for poison. I'm delighted to tell you all that there was no sign of any poison in any of them so we retired for an early night ready for an early start in the morning on the general coarse lake. The big lake was fishing really well from all accounts & the biggest fish I think its name is 'millie' (40lb 15oz)made an appearance twice while we were there but that macho, whose fish is bigger than the next blokes thing does nothing for me so the general coarse lake was my target. I started off @ 8am here :




Only trouble was it was less than a foot deep but I stuck it out, you may notice the shed in the background of the picture. That shed is the onsite tackle shop which is amply stocked with pellets,corn, odds of tackle & everything an angler could need to have a good session, reasonably priced as well! Well I tried meat, corn, ground bait approach & it wasn't working. The weather was closing in & although I had taken numerous rudd up to 1 1/2lb or so & some perch (only small) I had only had 1 tench.










That was quite strange as the chap that was there the day before had taken numerous tench & I could not work out what I was doing wrong, the only thing I could think was the weather was cold which would of probably put the fish down. Well the rains came & they stayed with sporadic showers throughout the day. About 3-4pm I decided that enough was enough if I was ever to catch anything I would have to move to deep water. The swim next to mine went out in the main part of the lake & went from a foot deep to 12 foot deep in a matter of about 12-15ft straight out. I bit the bullet & moved & bang 1st cast with a bigger waggler 3AAA on I hooked something a lot bigger than I had been catching. A nice tench came to the net :



Followed by another ...



& another & another ...
Then out of the blue came this lil beauty ( never caught 1 before & might never catch one again but what a pretty looking fish, yet to catch one prettier! ), 4lb 6oz golden tench....



I had numerous tench after this until the other half bought me fish & chips & I have to say tench & chips would of been tastier! If you ever go to rookley coutry park avoid the fish & chippy with a passion its awful!!! The only other thing I would say is dont use the pool 1st thing in the morning its freezing! otherwise we all loved our stay @ rookley, clean caravans, good recption, nice bar & massoff rookley burgers for £8 bargain!!! We did the exploring & wild life thing the day after & monday morning & came back this afternoon, have to say the weather does need to be nice. Lovely weekend maybe another day on that lake would of been a good crack but mustn't grumble any fishing is good fishing time especially with a few beers thrown in too, cheers to you all







P.P.S - Forget meat & corn approach go over the coop opposite the site & buy yourself some prawns I took all my good fish on them!!!

[cuckoo]

Outstanding report rob , that looks like one cracking weekend and a few fish to boot well done mate

[pingu]

great report well done there

dave

[scottish_and_mental]

Well done Rob...

Some lovely fish - all that lovely sea and you had to fish in a giant puddle lol

[rob@home]

Yeah well someone has too dont they??besides i'd hate to clog up the beaches for you guys now wouldn't I?lol
Cheers guys was a lovely weekend shame about the weather but you cant have everything can you??? plenty of these though so shant complain