Suggestions for a quick trip

Hi everyone,

I'm heading down to the Lincoln area, Cranwell specifically, the second week of Feb and I have one full day spare in between work commitments. I am driving down and can take some kit so I would like any suggestion on how to fill the day.
I can't travel too far as it's a work car and they will get the hump.
My first thoughts are any good pike fishing, any day ticket canals for dropshotting for perch, any decent rivers for chub.
Never caught a chub before and my perch PB is pityful!! Less than a 1lb.
It's got to be day ticket as I don't want to spend £20-40 on club membership for one day!
There are tons of associations round there but none have much info on what to catch where or day ticket availability.
Any thoughts?

You will be close to the Trent much of it day ticket. PM coming up

john step said:

You will be close to the Trent much of it day ticket. PM coming up

Click to expand...

John, the trent had crossed my mind and I looked at newark piscatorials. Having never fished a big river like that I was a bit unsure where to start really.
Good shout though. It's on the list of possibles. Now a Zander is something I've been thinking about for a long time, I hear the Trent is good for them.

I'm way up in the North of Scotland so no good coarse fishing for miles.

toby843 said:

John, the trent had crossed my mind and I looked at newark piscatorials. Having never fished a big river like that I was a bit unsure where to start really.
Good shout though. It's on the list of possibles. Now a Zander is something I've been thinking about for a long time, I hear the Trent is good for them.

I'm way up in the North of Scotland so no good coarse fishing for miles.

Click to expand...

Plenty of zander there.

There are two nice commercials on your doorstep if you are visiting Cranwell. Fen lakes at Metheringham and Rush Fields at Potterhamworth. (both just South of Lincoln) .Both have day ticket fishing. Good fishing Toby.

I've had a suggestion of the Fossdyke canal outside Lincoln, seems to fit the bill as I've heard there are some cracking perch and decent pike. I reckon a roving dropshotting and float fished deadbait approach. Also taking Mikes advice on commercials I reckon as a bad weather back up I may try my luck at woodland waters on the specimen lake with a chopped worm and maggot feeder quiver tip for perch and anything else that wants it with a sleeper pike rod.

Don't forget you will need a licence for England and Wales a 1 day is £3.75 - 8 day £10.00 you can get them online and print them off
Rod Fishing Licence - Short Term And Full | Post Office

Got it Chris. Me and the missus got our annual ones last year for a summer break in the cotswolds.

So, a quick update on the previous posts. I am now living at Cranwell. I've only been here a few days. I didn't get to make my previous trip though so still have not fished down here.

Now I am here though I should be able to get out possibly this Friday afternoon and also Saturday day.

I've been doing a ton of research and I've even driven out and looked at a few spots but that's as far as I've got.

So I could use any info on the following:

Had a look at Starmers Pit belonging to the LDAA and it looks ok, does it fish well?

I have had a look at Rush Field near Potterhanworth and it looks a bit unsightly to be fair, a bit of a building site but if it fishes well who cares hey?

I have also seen Fen lakes at Metheringham, nice looking small fishery.

I went to Bain Valley Fisheries, looks like a good place to go and bivi up for a couple of days after big carp, I'll be doing that I reckon at some point.

I had a quick look around Woodland Waters Ancaster, I reckon the match and specimen lakes would produce good fish, what about the small carp pond for me and the missus on an afternoon?

Other places I haven't seen yet:

Stillwaters

Priory lakes, Ruskington, looks lovely from the website

Lockeys pit North Kyme

Dykes cottage pond

Moon lakes

Tattershall lakes (Saw it after Bain Valley and looks like a water skiing lake?)

A1 pits

Smeatons (Looks good?)

Belvoir castle? (Looks ace and might even try and join the syndicate)

Revesby estate for the wong to join as a syndicate later on in the year.

Rivers etc

Bobs island?

A1 Pits river stretch

Smeatons river stretch

River Bain Coningsby

River Whitham Lincoln

River Nene

Any canals (Grantham?)

The Boston AA drains? (Are they subject to closed season?)

I would really love to get on a river Saturday as it the last day they're open for a while hey. I'm thinking Bobs island as it has lots of different types of swim. I'm thinking 1.75lb rod, bread flake and groundbait in a feeder. Go for chub, barbel or roach. Possibly take a dropshot rod and rove around for perch?

Maybe the other stretches of the Trent around Newark?

What about roving and dropshotting on the Grantham canal? Any decent Perch in there?

I'll leave the pike alone as they are surely starting the spawn now hey.

You can see that I have a ton of places I wanna visit and I reckon I will do them all over the summer. I am here on my own until July when my wife and kids will come down from Scotland to join me so apart from probably one weekend a month I will travel back up to see them I am free to explore. Coming from the North of Scotland which is a coarse fishing desert the choice is overwhelming really, that's why I need a bit of help.

On that note I also love a bit of sea fishing and fly fishing so I suspect it's gonna be Rutland on the boats for fly and Chapel Point and around about for the sea fishing, although I am a huge sea fishing beginner. I expect I may well plan some weekend trips to Wales or the South coast for some sea fishing expeditions as mullett, bass and tope are high on my list or sea priorities!!

Sorry about the big post but I just love fishing so much I want to catch everything at once lol.

I don't know the area very well it's been many years since I fished in that region but I have done a couple of the places you mentioned more recently. Woodland waters at Ancaster, I only tried the biggest specimen lake and I found it hard going and others there didn't seem to be catching either. I was told one of the smaller ponds was pretty much a fish a chuck though.
Tattershall has the ski lake but I don't think you can fish that one, there is another small lake/pond for fishing and the fishing was good but it was a busy place (Summer) so needed to be there early to get a peg.
You'll have to give the trent a go, it would be rude not to
I don't do sea fishing in the uk, it's only a holiday outing for me, but I believe there are tope trips from north norfolk which is a bit closer than the south coast for you.

hyperdrive said:

I don't know the area very well it's been many years since I fished in that region but I have done a couple of the places you mentioned more recently. Woodland waters at Ancaster, I only tried the biggest specimen lake and I found it hard going and others there didn't seem to be catching either. I was told one of the smaller ponds was pretty much a fish a chuck though.
Tattershall has the ski lake but I don't think you can fish that one, there is another small lake/pond for fishing and the fishing was good but it was a busy place (Summer) so needed to be there early to get a peg.
You'll have to give the trent a go, it would be rude not to
I don't do sea fishing in the uk, it's only a holiday outing for me, but I believe there are tope trips from north norfolk which is a bit closer than the south coast for you.

Click to expand...

Cheers,

I do plan on exploring the Trent in a big way. In fact I'm going to head over there this afternoon. I'll post how I get on.

The tope trips from Norfolk sounds like a good idea, found a good charter that does 8 hr trips for tope for £80 which isn't bad at all, with lunch. Although because of the roads I can get to my Parents in Kent quicker than I can get to Lowestoft from here, weird.

I guess I will just try all the places I've asked about. I'll post results here.

If you are looking at the one I'm thinking of they only run out of Lowestoft in Winter they move up to North norfolk when the nights start drawing out which would be a little over an hour and half drive for you.
I have spent quite a lot of time in Lowestoft area and it is weird how it takes longer to get there than somewhere you would initially think to be much further. I remember driving from there to Heathrow and it was almost an hour more than driving from Lincoln to heathrow

It's been a while since I visited woodland waters but when I went it was awesome, the little match lake I was pulling carp out for fun up to 6/7lb the place had only just opened when I went which tells you how long it was when I was there. I have no idea how it fishes now and no idea why I'm writing to tell you this as a lot can, and probably has, changed in the time from then untill now haha
Always wanted to go back down there again and give it a shot so if you do end up there at somepoint let me know how the fishing is please

hyperdrive said:

If you are looking at the one I'm thinking of they only run out of Lowestoft in Winter they move up to North norfolk when the nights start drawing out which would be a little over an hour and half drive for you.
I have spent quite a lot of time in Lowestoft area and it is weird how it takes longer to get there than somewhere you would initially think to be much further. I remember driving from there to Heathrow and it was almost an hour more than driving from Lincoln to heathrow

Click to expand...

Ahh, you're right they do move north in the summer. And it's 1hr 46 according to google maps. Nice one.

Sounds like a winner.

---------- Post added at 18:03 ---------- Previous post was at 18:02 ----------

DJTash2009 said:

It's been a while since I visited woodland waters but when I went it was awesome, the little match lake I was pulling carp out for fun up to 6/7lb the place had only just opened when I went which tells you how long it was when I was there. I have no idea how it fishes now and no idea why I'm writing to tell you this as a lot can, and probably has, changed in the time from then untill now haha
Always wanted to go back down there again and give it a shot so if you do end up there at somepoint let me know how the fishing is please

Click to expand...

I will post on here as soon as I've fished it. Possibly tomorrow.

---------- Post added at 18:10 ---------- Previous post was at 18:03 ----------

So I've just got back from fishing at Bob's Island Newark. I only had the afternoon to fish there and I went with the intention of catching chub.

First impressions were that it is a little scruffy and but the vehicle access is excellent and I could park at the swim I was fishing and move around easily with the car so it was very convenient. There is quite a bit of rubbish around some of the swims but I'm not fussy to be honest. There was only a few other people there and the swims offer a decent amount of the river and I also tried the backwater bit which was full of small roach but had potential.

I didn't catch a chub which was a shame and I only caught one small roach and hooked a decent Perch on the dropshot set up but lost it at the net, probably 12oz or so. I lost 3 dropshot set ups to snags weights as well, gutted as they're not cheap. Hey ho. Its a good technique though, that was my first go at it.

I definitely will go back in the summer as it has tons of potential. I'm sure there are tons of other parts of the Trent that I will visit too. A1 pits stretch next I think.

So tomorrow I'm off to either Woodland waters or Priory lakes. I'll decide in the morning and post here how I get on. Gonna go for Perch on a margin pole I think.

Go to utube and look up" Mick Brown and Jan Porter in Session -River Trent Barbel"
To give you some idea...I have met anglers from Norfolk,Hertfordshire etc who make the journey.

Unfortunately a lot of the litter on the Trent is stuff that comes down on a flood and is left on the "tide line" even on the non tidal. You can see how high it gets sometimes by the line of debris.

john step said:

Go to utube and look up" Mick Brown and Jan Porter in Session -River Trent Barbel"
To give you some idea...I have met anglers from Norfolk,Hertfordshire etc who make the journey.

Unfortunately a lot of the litter on the Trent is stuff that comes down on a flood and is left on the "tide line" even on the non tidal. You can see how high it gets sometimes by the line of debris.

Click to expand...

I'd seen that video on youtube, it was one of the ones that got me interested in fishing it. As far as I can see it's a well respected river, one of the UK's best. I've fished the Wye and it looks very different but that's part of the challenge and appeal. I'm looking forward to spending a summer exploring it and getting some good winter predator action.

So I had a day at Priory Lakes Ruskington yesterday. The weather was changing every few minutes which probably didn't help but i still managed a fairly good session. Didn't manage anything big but caught Chub, Perch, Roach, Carp and Bream. Got a run of about 5 bream midway through the day on micro pellets on a flat method feeder and had the rest on the pole close in on maggot. I was hoping for a decent perch on maggot and chopped prawn but it never came. Still, I had a nice day and I am sure it'd fish better once it warms up.
The main bonus of the day was chatting to another guy who gave me some local pointers on a few places so that was good.
I will definitely go back once it gets a bit warmer. I fished on peg 1 by the house, I can't remember if thats lake one or two. There was a match on the other lake.
Anyway, I think I will be trying Haverholme next saturday, comes highly recommended, then maybe woodland waters or a place called peacock waters on sunday.
I'm considering driving to Grantham on the Friday afternoon to try dropshotting for perch on the canal, worth it??

Ok, a quick update then.

Friday afternoon I went off and tried my luck dropshotting on the Grantham Canal. I parked at the Mucky Duck?? Rutland arms?? Whichever it goes by. I walked the towpath down through some locks and tried along the way. Got one take under a moored barge but it dropped it, that was it for the afternoon. The canal is pretty weedy, think I'll try a different canal next time which might take some driving!!

Saturday I went to Haverholme Park and fished peg 4. Was cold and windy and no one did great, there were a couple of lads next to me with match kit and they were doing alright on bream. I caught a couple of bream and roach and that was it, didn't see any carp come out. A group of guys opposite me had one pike while I was there. I was fishing a carp rod on a bite alarm with an 8mm halibut pellet topped with fake corn with a pva mesh bag of pellets. Then I tried solid bags as well and had a couple of bream. I also fished a maggot feeder on my quiver tip rod and had some small roach. I'd go back in warmer weather I reckon and try again but I don't know what's in there really as there is not much online about it. I've heard it has some big fish in and fishes well in good weather.

Today I went to Peacock Waters. Again, fished pellet and corn with pva bags on the carp rod, then tried zigs, then tried hair rigging 3 pieces of corn with a 4th buoyant peice but none of it worked. Fished a float as well and caught skimmers and tiny roach and perch.Saw some big fish cruising so tried staling with corn but it's so deep and they were up in the water I couldn't wok out how to tempt them. I'm taking floaters next time. I liked the place and the owners were really nice and it'll be stunning in the summer. My missus fishes too and it's the sort of place she'd love. It's so bloody deep though I don't know how to fish it. I fished a sort of float ledger set up for a bit and enjoyed it but don't know if I was doing it right.

I've not had much luck at all lately. I don't know if it's the variable weather or just me being rubbish. I saw a lot of big fish jumping and splashing down today and that sometimes means they're spawning and trying to get rid of eggs I think, maybe that??
Think I maybe will just pick one place and fish it til I get some results. Surely I can't be doing that much wrong can I??

Goals for this year, 20lb+ Carp, 1lb+ Perch, Roach, Rudd (No idea where to catch big rudd), Any river chub and barbel, 20lb Pike. I think I just need to pick carefully venues that make this list possible and work at them. I really want to get into the river fishing and specimen carp fishing.

While I'm on my wish list might as well add: Any Zander, Pike on the fly, Wild brown trout, Grayling, Tope, Bass on a plug, 5lb+ Pollock, 2lb+ Wrasse, Mullet (Really badly). So I have some travelling to do to get these. Luckily I ca tie it in with mountain bike trips to wales or touring on the Harley with the missus and some travel rods I reckon. I also have an inflatable Kayak that I want to make more use of, I think the River Nene for that.

Bit of a list hey.

So I tried Woodland waters last Friday afternoon. It was a nice place. I set up on the match lake on peg 46 I think, maybe 45. Next to a snaggy sunken branch which produced a nice tench of about 2lb to corn for me. That was it though, lots of nibbles but no decent takes. Tried fishing about 3 rod lengths out too with a cage feeder with groundbait, pellet and corn mixed through and corn hookbaits, tried the same about 30yard out in to the middle too but nothing, lots of liners though.
Moved to the small carp lake and fished the pole in about 2ft of water with corn fed by cup and hookbait and had a couple of nice strong carp around the 2lb mark too.
When it warms up a bit I reckon it'll be really nice and if you find the fish it should be good fishing too.
Thinking about the specimen lake as well but my bed chair is still in Scotland so I'd be in my bivi on a roll mat, hardcore!! I think I'll do it though because it looks nice. Anyone got any tips for the specimen lake?

I'm off to woodland lakes in a couple of weeks, for the weekend, I'd be interested in any tips for the match lake, pegs to go for etc