Correct me if I'm wrong Steve, but I think this is the  sort of place you mean. Not my cup of tea.

Note the difference between the carp holes and the trout ponds.

I've never done it and reckon if I did and got it right I'd probably have a cracking day. No, I probably wouldn't do it regularly. But it would make a refreshing change to blanking on gin clear, low rivers!

I used to believe that barbel only belong in rivers. Then I realised there are infinitely more important issues in angling, like litter, idiot anglers and recruitment of the next generation of enthusiasts. But that's just my opinion. I can understand the passion of the barbel enthusiasts for their species, but only when it's kept in perspective with regards the rest of angling. 

I have said what i think of this venue, there are some nice looking commercial waters, the fish O mania is not one, in my opinion.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and if it is this kind of water, fine, each to there own.

Greg,

I did fish two commercial waters many years ago, a club i was in at the time went to them for their matches, i said then never again, and apart from one fish in, i have not been to one since.

Graham.....yes i would class larford as a commercial,.............i much prefered it when it was a maturing pit on the baa card.

     It could have been something much better....but thats only in my opinion

Greg Whitehead wrote (see)

I used to believe that barbel only belong in rivers. Then I realised there are infinitely more important issues in angling, like litter, idiot anglers and recruitment of the next generation of enthusiasts. But that's just my opinion. I can understand the passion of the barbel enthusiasts for their species, but only when it's kept in perspective with regards the rest of angling. 

Nicely put. Agree with that.

 It's real shame they didn't make use full use of the circular lake. I don't know much about match fishing but what a shame that the draw had such a bearing on the result. Granted, Mick Bull still had to do the job.

Dicky,

I am not taking anything away from the anglers, or how good they may or may not be, i dont think anyone else is either.  It's been said mick still had to win it, and well done to him.

Hi Ray,

Wasn't having a pop at anyone mate. Just wishing Mick well.

Commercials are just that a commercial enterprise, and fish welfare is well down the list on some of them, how can you defend multiple matches in a day, horrific mouth damage and ridicilouse overstocking.

Who cares who can land 150lb of pasties in a crowded puddle, and because "anglers" want to catch barbel and cant be bothered to walk more than 20 yards from their car they put them in to.

Ive seen the floating corpses on the trent after big matches barbel and keepnets dont mix, even in flowing water, never mind oxygen depleted stillwaters.

There are other issues but commercials dont do fishing any favours on the fish welfare front.

The people who mistreat fish, the people who rip the hook out of fish, the people who break off when it is totally unnecessary, the people who leave fish in keepnets for too long, the people who leave litter, the people who throw discarded line on the bank - what do they all have in common?

THEY ARE ANGLERS!  They aren't fishery owners and they aren't the general public they are the very people who make use of fishing facilities and abuse them for one reason or another and then moan about the state of a fishery or the mouths of the fish.  Angling has more than its fair share of idiots I'm afraid and I reckon there are far more now than there has ever been.

I would agree with most of what you say Graham but its not anglers who organise multiple matches in a day, its greedy owners.

Idont fish any type of commercial, its just not my thing, and a sensibly stocked, well bailiffed lake does have a place in modern angling, but for every good one there are probably 2 bad ones, and nobody seems to care, and as far as i know very few owners are made to clean up their act.