Location:
Carlton Miniott, Nr. Thirsk, North Yorkshire.
Telephone 01845 527099
Easy access and purpose built pegs.
Purchased on the bank.
After a heavy night on the town, the Maggotdrowning team descended on Woodlands slightly later than we originally planned and a bit worse for wear. Woodlands Lakes is a popular fishery even more so on this Bank Holiday Monday but with over 350 pegs there should be enough space for us.
Sure enough, we found three pegs on the 'Dragon Fly' lake, numbers 16, 17 & 18. The sun was shining but there was a cool northerly breeze and a bit of drift. Opposite there was an island about 16m away, one out of three on this lake and a fair bit of colour in the water which was to be expected.
We were off, not having a 16m pole I decided to fish the middle about five foot deep, the other two choosing a small feeder to the island and again pole just over half way. Baits were pellet, luncheon meat and red maggot respectively.
Initially it was quiet all round with the occasional fish coming from the pegs at the top end of the lake but not to be perturbed, being reminded of the previous night by the thumping head-ache, we stuck it out. Then bang, all hell let loose as the tip of the feeder rod swung round, resulting in a nice Carp on it's way to the net. Nope, change of plan, it was off.
Time for a change. A cage feeder with a mix of pellet and crumb and pellet paste on the hook headed out towards the island. A few knocks resulted from presumably small fish and then quiet. Is the paste still on? The answer came soon after; two taps on the tip and bang wehay, I'm in. A nice Common of around 3.5lb reluctantly came to the net.
The middle peg produced another shortly afterwards, but nothing doing at number 18.
Time for breakfast and a walk to the Cafe. There is something about bacon, sausage and tomato rolls and a cup of tea that can't be said for the warm ham sandwiches in the bottom of my tackle-box and these ones certainly did the trick.
Back to the fishing. Mid-day came, the sun was out, the breeze kept dropping and the fish were starting to stir. I was back on the pole drowning two maggots on a size 18, the luncheon meat in peg17 had been swapped for red maggot and peg 18 had resorted to a waggler fished hard over to a cut between our island and the next. Again with two red maggots but only at 18inch depth.
Steady feeding produced a mixed bag of Carp and skimmers with a couple of decent Bream for myself. Carp came steadily to the red maggots on the feeder next to me and in peg 18, the waggler was struggling to stay above the surface with Carp coming steadily. (And some changing their minds half way, tee hee).
All in all it was a pretty good day the only grumbles being that the amply stocked shop didn't sell Paracetamol. Would we go back, certainly.
The favoured bait seemed to be chopped worm, again fished into a cut between two islands by the angler to my left who netted quite a few Carp of varying sizes.