Woodington Fishery.
Had a trip to this fishery last Monday and had a great time. The owners, John and Amanda really looked after us well and I’m sure their hospitality extends to all their customers.
Woodington fishery is a mixed fishery which has 4 trout lakes and 3 coarse fishing lakes.
You can choose between C&R and a 2 fish C&K tickets. If you fish want to fish C&R only, then you are limited to 3 lakes, Kingfisher, The Leat and Sheerwater Lake. If you want to keep two fish then you can fish the 3 lakes on a Silver ticket or if you want to catch the bigger fish, then a Gold ticket allows you two fish from Spring Lake. You can then fish C&R for the rest of the day but there is no C&R from Spring Lake. There is also a well priced and well stocked tackle shop.
Prices are reasonable and details can be found here:
http://www.woodingtonfishery.co.uk/4436.html
Back to our day. We went last Monday 14th September and the weather was mostly sunny with a blustery wind. We were welcomed by John with a coffee and he told us how the lakes were fishing and what type of flies to use. We opted for the Silver ticket of 2 fish then C&R which didn’t allow us to fish Spring lake. We had a fairly late start so eventually started fishing around 11.00am and went off to Kingfisher Lake. The water was crystal clear and you could see the fish moving around. I had a few follows on a Daddy Long legs and decided to change to a green weighted Montana. After casting out and letting the fly sink, I caught a nice clean, fully finned rainbow of about 2lb which fought really well. I had a few follows after that but not much else. I think the bright conditions put the fish off. Kevin and Mick managed one each as well.
We stopped around 1pm for lunch which Amanda cooked for us, a toad-in-the-hole with apple pie and ice cream to follow, delicious!
After lunch, Kevin, Mick and Dave carried on with the trout fishing but I wanted to try the fly fishing for carp. I had already asked John if we could try fly fishing for carp and he said no problem at all. We had baited up a few swims with floating dog biscuits earlier on and I could see the carp moving around the lily pads. I set up a 9’ #7 rod with a floating line, 7 foot 7lb leader and tied on an imitation pellet fly which I purchased from John’s well stocked tackle shop. John gave me a few hints. “Don’t strike straight away, the carp will nudge the fly a few times and if they think it’s ok, then they will take it but even then they might spit it out before you can strike. If you hook one, it will go straight to the bottom and you wont see it until you get it to the net” I fired out a few more pellets and waited for the carp to start to feed. It didn’t take long, soon enough, there was the familiar sight of big lips sucking in the pellets. I cast out to the nearest feeding carp, sank my leader and waited. Sure enough, as John said, the carp nudged the fly around, some took it and spat it out and obviously, I struck too early! It’s so hard not to strike when you see a carp sucking in your fly and you think you have it but it’s already spat it out! Truly heart stopping stuff!
I eventually hooked one and it shot off like a train. I had a hard fight with this fish for about 10 minutes until I managed to land it. It was only a 5~6lb’er but it was a beautiful fish, fully finned and in great condition.
I had disturbed the swim so I ventured off around the lake and saw some more carp cruising around and managed another two and lost one. I had loads of near takes and carp spitting out the fly but slowly the fish disappeared from this area so I went back to the lily’s and met up with the rest of the guys who had decided to give the carp a go as well.
Mick and Dave had a imitation bread fly on and Kevin had the same as me. We all had takes and eventually Kevin hooked up but after a long fight, the fish swam under the pontoon he was standing on and swam away again wrapping the line around one on the legs of the pontoon! Needless to say he lost it! He did manage to land one later on though and with the sun-setting, we decided to call it a day.
We all had a fantastic time and will certainly be returning for more fly fishing for carp next summer. If you haven’t had a carp on the fly, I urge you to do so, it’s seriously good fun! We will also be going in the winter as you can also fly fish for pike in Clearwater Lake which is the largest lake at Woodington.
Here’s some pics:
SPRING LAKE
KINGFISHER LAKE
KINGFISHER LAKE
KEVIN AND DAVE ON KINGFISHER
MICK ON KINGFISHER
ME WITH MY FIRST EVER CARP ON THE FLY!
DON'T LET IT GO UNDER THE PONTOON KEVIN!
OOPS, TOO LATE!
KEVIN WITH HIS FIRST EVER CARP ON THE FLY!
Woodington report
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