I have fished a fishery for a couple of years now in congleton and recently the fishing has gone really hard, i suspect this is due to them actually feeding the fish on pellets each night, does anyone agree that feeding the fish is wrong when anglers are paying to catch those fish. They were not very happy with the fact that I actually saw them feeding the fish on the lake, I wonder why

Welcome to fishing....unfortunately these things happen m8, next you will get the cold shoulder from people that feed the ducks with bread.

An old pal of mine rented a couple of pools for years on McCorquodale's ground on the Upper Witham ( HRH used to poach them occasionally when staying with his (then) brother in law . )
The function of those pools was specifically to entertain a Bank Manager or two and they were crammed with 3lb severely dumb stockfish .

One evening I went with him frankly to get a dozen for a gift (payoff) of sorts for one of his pals.

It didn't take long - " A Nut With Every Ball ! "

The interesting bit was the end - those fish got fed pellets every evening - so I asked if I could keep on casting whilst he fed them up . Instantly a churning cauldron erupted in front of me . Could I get a pull on anything - not a snifter - not a twitch - not a tap - absolute zip . Instant preoccupation and no mistakes on the part of the trout not for 20 solid minutes of intense casting and retrieving .

Most interesting and taught me a trick or two .

It felt curiously like fishing an evening hatch of Caenis at Pitsford !

It may be quite a good way of preserving expensive stockfish from the likes of me and you !

Steve Parton

Good point Steve. Although I suspect the reason is to keep the fish alive and in good condition in cold months. Floating corixa, sugar lump suspender, or dog biscuit carp fly anyone???

I must admit it may be a good way of keeping the fish healthy but also they have started stocking smaller fish so im guessing there trying to grow them some more but if thats the case they should lower the day ticket prices after all this lake is supposed to be a non profit fishery and there is plenty of natural food in the lake. Most annoyingly i payed for a full ticket and was told they were closing 3 hours after i started fishing with more than 5 hours left until my ticket expired when if they had said when i started i could have got the cheaper ticket

I once had a similar experience and the guy throwin in the pellets tied on a claret dabbler and cut the tail off and the bronze mallard back level with the bend of the hook with a scissors and they took it for a pellet every time.

Personally I'd prefer to catch skinny natural feeding fish than one that has been fed pellets after being stocked at any water, I also think they taste better. The water your referring to I think I've fished a couple of times with another forum member either side of Christmas and we didn't do to badly, with ice covering the majority of the surface on both visits. To me that venue looks though there would be enough natural supply of food to carry them throughout the winter period although this winter as been a longer, colder for quite a while. Personally I don't see why any fishery should supplement the diet of stocked fish except in rare exceptional circumstances. My local a 27 acre victorian stone reservoir set in a moorland valley as never seen any additional feeding in the last 25 years or so and the quality of over wintered fish is superb. Another fishery quite local did this before christmas and it has put me right off going to be honest, you can't compete with a trout pellet unless it's tied to your hook and that's not how I want to fish.
Just my thoughts...

__________________