Longleat 14-04-07 Warmit63

Banana Steve · #1 04-15-2007, 08:38 AM

Longleat 14-04-07

I arrived at longleat at around 8am on the Saturday, to find that the lake I wanted to fish was extremely busy. It looked like the good weather had brought every one out. However the bottom lake was fairly empty, but being near the main road way to the House and longleat attractions it can get very busy with the tourists. So I decided to fish the west bank as the tourists tend not to walk around there to much.

My approach was simple to fish for the better roach that live in the bottom lake. So I set up a simple waggler float a Drennan crystal insert 1 and ½ AA with my reel line being maxima 2.5lb line at 0.14mm diameter. With a Preston hook length of 0.15mm 4.5lb with a size 18 B510 barbless hook. I plumbed the depth which was 2&1/2 foot deep. Knowing that the roach tend to be at all the levels, I decided to set the waggler up so that the line would slowly drop through the water, so I could catch on the drop. My setup was simple, 3 bb shots around the float at 2 ½ foot deep with 3 no10 shots, two of them on the hook length the first one being 8” away from the hook and the2nd one just below the join of the main line and the hook length, and finally the 3rd one just above the join.

I started on maggot which produced a bite straight away, as I stuck I felt the familiar knocking of a small roach, but as played the fish in, my rod became extremely heavy and started to tear away. My first thought was that a pike or a huge perch had taken the roach. After an epic battle (well a couple of minutes then

) I saw the roach up the line and I had fouled hooked a carp of 5lb in the dorsal. As I had struck into the roach the carp must have been just behind the roach and the point of the hook just caught it.

As the day continued the maggots just seemed to produce the small roach no more than a once at a time. So I tried a grain of corn, which worked a treat as I was rewarded with a nice roach of 12ozs, this became the pattern for the rest of the day with the roach averaging 4-6ozs. With 4 fish roughly to the pound I caught well over 25lb of roach and with two carp as well one being 5lb and the other being 3lb. I had a great days fishing.

Whilst fishing for the roach I caught a stranger that is very rare in longleat a small Rudd of 4ozs. For which I was well chuffed as I haven’t caught one this year and knew that it would help with the species hunt. Woo-hoo

Whilst fishing longleat a young lad by the name of Adam fished the next peg. The first thing I noticed about him was his fishing skills and water craft. Unlike a lot of the kids that fish longleat. Who just fish for a carp but have no idea what to do to catch the fish.
With in 20mins of Adam starting he hooked into a nice carp of 9lb, and the thing that impressed me was the skill he used to land the fish.

As the day wore on Adam caught a lot more carp the average being 3 ½lb I think he must have had at least 12 or more carp while I was there. Just before I left he landed another good carp of 8 ½ lb.

Hopefully Adam will see this report and join the forum.

Any way if any one fancies fishing longleat there are 3 lakes, the top, middle and the bottom.

The Top Lake is the specimen lake with carp up to 30+ lb. prices for this lake are £10 for the day or £20 for a 24hr ticket with up to 3 rods.

The Middle lake has middle double figure carp, plus a good head of bream up to 5lb and Tench.
£7 for the day 7am to 7pm and same as the top lake £20 for a 24hour ticket.

The bottom lake has plenty of carp from 2lb bracket to the higher singles and the odd double. The lake is stuffed full of roach and skimmers and also has some good Tench.

£7 for the day, however I don’t think that night fishing is allowed on this lake.

There are a few rules and these can be seen on the Longleat web site as well.

The lakes are open from March to the end of October, for which I find better as there less tourists around and I find that the fishing is at its best in October.

http://www.longleat.co.uk/fishing.html

Oh yeah, I think that maybe me in the photo for longleat from a couple of years ago.