I left my fishing stuff at home when i went to university, so didn't go for 5 years until the other day.
Cleaned all my gear and re-spooled some new line due to my fear of finding tangle after tangle with 6 year old mono-filament mainline. I went down to Willinghurst fisheries to get back into practice. The place has loads of lakes which are incredibly well stocked with carp to 12lb and some lakes which go to 30lb. I figured, it would be nice to go for an easy day catching of small carp to get back into the swing of things. I use to love Willinghurst when i was younger and it was still great fun to fish, however the Carp fishing had become even easier (a little past the sweet spot of fun and toward the point where 2lb-4lb nuisance fish were preventing you from baiting a second rod because of the number of runs).
All in all had an absolutely great day and my addiction to fishing has returned (shame it can be an even more expensive hobby than computer building lol). You could tell that the fishery had become a hardcore match fishing venue due to the action i had throughout the day. My friend and i had no bites in the morning from maggot, luncheon meat, sweetcorn, boilies or dog biscuits. Other people on the lake were catching and had match bags and other match gear. So on a whim, i went to the onsite tackle shop and bought some pellets which i knew were popular amongst the match fishermen in this fishery.
Around the afternoon i switched to double hair rig pellet, fake corn (to pop up and keep the pellets on when wet) as bait. With a method feeder and a mix up of ground bait and all the morning bait. Had a take within 10-15 minutes of casting out almost every time. Caught too many small carp to count, but in the end the keep net weighed 85lb+. Hardly remember having such as successful when i was younger in terms of bag weight. The biggest was only around 8lb, but these pellet pumped up fish sure do fight back.
I would say that the fishery is ideal for people after easy catching to introduce friends or family to carp fishing or for match fishing or if you just want to shake off some dust and build some confidence. I wont be fishing there for a while as it is not a cheap water and considering how overstocked the lakes are, there was not that much sport in pulling out that weight in one afternoon. Due to the great fun i had, I will be joining a few local lake syndicates i use to fish, which i know are great places to waste a day.
