There's a big commercial complex a few miles out of town. On my (only) visit I saw anglers lined up on the bare mud banks of a recently dug and newly stocked lake. I fished the original, mature lake, found it empty and started to chuck a maggot feeder for chub to the small island in the middle. Others came along, set up nearby and started chucking their feeders within a yard or so of mine - this was normal, I was told. I wouldn't go back if you paid me.
I used to love fishing canals, and the local cut, wherever I was living, was often the first choice - the Shropshire Union, Leeds -Liverpool, Bridgewater, Trent and Mersey. I know I'm missing out, and canals are fishing better than ever these days, but they've changed and I've changed, and the traffic, on the water and on the towpath, is too much for me. (Although I make an exception for the beautiful, semi-disused, tench-filled Grantham canal).
I keep buying the ticket (if you don't you cop for the joining fee again) but I realise I haven't fished the Lower Derwent for nearly two years. It had been a lovely, prolific fishery but when anglers who knew it far better than me could only scratch a few grayling, the contrast made it too depressing to visit, and I can't see myself going back.
:behindsofa:
