46 | 9 JULY anglersmail.comWHERE TO FISH
16 PAGES of the fi nest waters to fi sh around the UK, what they hold and how best to tackle them.
Blown
away by
Breeze’s
ability
W
HEN I first visited Old
Hough, in 2010, it was
still a work in progress, having
only recently opened for
business. Plenty of fish had
been stocked, but it takes
time for all aspects of a new
fishery to bed-in and mature.
Jump forward to the
present day and it was time to
revisit this now hugely popular
commercial venue with my old
pal Lewis Breeze.
When I drove down the
dusty track that adjoins the
pools at Old Hough, I was
gobsmacked by how much the
place had matured. The whole
fishery looked gorgeous in the
sunshine.
Commercial venues come
in various shapes and sizes,
and Old Hough is one of the
biggest in the area, having
200 pegs available across tenwell-stocked waters.
The fish have settled in
well, and many have grown to
a substantial size from when
they were first stocked.
With the original owner
moving on to pastures new,
the present owner decided
to employ new bailiffs with
lots of fishery management
experience, and the place has
really started to thrive since
these changes came about.Boulders’ beauties
Lewis only lives a ten-minute
drive from the venue, and
because he’s got a young
family, it’s a perfect place
for him to ‘disappear’ for a
few hours. He fishes a lot
of matches at Old Hough,
so I went along with his
suggestion, a session on
Boulders Pool.
This 20-peg pool is stockedwith common and mirror carp
to 10 lb, bream and barbel to
3 lb, chub to 3 lb, F1s to 4 lb,
and crucians, roach and tench
to 2 lb.
The pool is 13 m wide and
has a 1 m-deep shelf around
the central island and the
perimeter, and a 1.7 m-deep
central channel.
There’s an endless debate
that rages in angling these
days, and it is all to do withwhat constitutes ‘proper’
fishing. Well, whether a
venue is stocked to the hilt
or contains just one fish, you
have to work out how to catch
them, and working it out on
any given day requires ‘proper’
fishing skills.
On what was a red-hot,
sunny day, I was intrigued
to see how Lewis was going
to tackle his swim. He opted
to fish with pellets, thean’s TOP TIPS
200 pegs available across tenIan’s
1
Dip your feed pellets in the water’s edge
before shipping them out, as it will make
them sink a lot better.2
When fi shing deeper water with a banded
pellet, to induce bites, try lifting the rig
slightly every now and then.3
Two are better than one. There is gravel
on the pathway of Boulders Pool, so
to guard against scratching his pole when
shipping back, Lewis uses two pole rollers.