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Dave Coster's Fishing Diary - April
A New Dream... I decided to move to the midlands a year ago, after seven long years up north. I enjoyed my time working for Hardy and Greys in Alnwick - famous fishing tackle companies most of you will be familiar with – but coarse fishing is sparse north of Newcastle and I was longing for new places to fish. I settled for the Grantham area because there is just about every type of fishing imaginable around here, including many lakes, rivers, fens, canals, reservoirs and commercial complexes. In fact, within 20 minutes of my new home, there is enough fishing to keep me occupied for years! It took a couple of months to sort my new place out and to overhaul my fishing tackle. In the latter case, I suddenly realised nearly all my pole floats and wagglers had black tips. This is due to many northern venues being so exposed that they leave you faced with ‘white’ water most of the time. Black is about the only colour you can see, which is not so good now I am living in the heartland of angling, so I’m gradually changing all my floats back to bright orange sight tips. The first fishing tackle shop I found in Lincolnshire was Angling Direct, so anything else I need is only a short drive away. It’s even handier now I’m working in the shop every Friday and Saturday!
Early Days... My fishing pal, Andy Griffiths, came to visit Christmas and we spent half a day driving around looking at possible new venues to try. Andy is known as ‘Epicentre’ down on the London match scene, due to his uncanny ability to draw flier pegs with lots of features. He also has the knack of sitting on a shed full of fish when he goes pleasure fishing, so he is the perfect person to explore new places with! We walked miles of the Grantham Canal, noting interesting swims, and also checked out a few day ticket waters and commercial complexes. We agreed to meet up again at Easter, this time armed with all our gear.
A few weeks before this I decided to give the Grantham cut a go. I made my name match fishing canals around London many years ago and haven’t had the chance to fish canals seriously for a very long time. My first visit, after joining the Grantham AA club, saw me trying out the inviting looking turning bay to the east of Casthorpe Road. It was hard going with only small roach, rudd, perch and a solitary skimmer. A local angler joined me late in the session and said there was a decent shoal of bream in the bay the day before and that he had caught two tench previously, but floating rafts of weed finished the proceedings. I moved to the Woolsthorpe section but again the fishing was hard, mainly due to the clear water and cold temperatures.
Easter Bonanza... When Andy (Epicentre) came to visit Easter week, our first trip was to Belvoir Castle Lakes. The main lake was very busy with carp anglers, it was blowing a gale and the water looked painfully clear, so following local advice we fished the small lake. I wasn’t very confident to be honest. The central island has been cleared of all its trees and bushes, but hey, it was a nice day to be out on the bank. I set up a waggler and fished the widest part of the lake, catapulting a few casters out every 10 minutes. I was soon connecting with some cracking bream and big roach. Amazing! Fin perfect roach to 1lb 4oz, along with proper slab sided bream to 7lb 2 oz. You can’t use keepnets here, but Epicentre calculated that the 14 big bream, several large roach, and lots of small to medium sized perch I had caught would have weighed somewhere between 60 and 70lbs. What a great day’s fishing for a £6 day ticket!
Next, we fished the Grantham Canal, a mile or so from Casthorpe Bridge. Thick surface weed is a big problem in this area so you need to pick your swim carefully. We found a clear area close to a bridge and Epicentre sat opposite a big overhanging tree – the sort of swim he always draws in matches! I opted for a featureless, narrow spot – the type of peg I always get in competitions, so there was no point in changing my expectations!
The session provided plenty of small roach, rudd, and skimmers on pinkies, squats, and red maggots. You needed to feed free bait in hard groundbait to get through the tiny rudd and then nail your hook bait hard on the deck to get better quality fish, which were hard to come by. Eventually Epi’s swim started fizzing with bubbles and he lost a good sized tench. A bit later, he landed one of about 3 lbs before another good fish shed the hook. Not brilliant but an interesting day’s fishing.
Our next outing was to Woodland Waters at Ancaster, or Woodies as all the local anglers call the holiday complex. Being Easter weekend it was busy, so we picked swims away from the crowd in the wooded part of the main Specimen Lake. There was a bit of a wind on so we both started on groundbait feeders, fished around 30 metres out. As usual, just about every fish in the lake seemed to be in front of Epi and he absolutely emptied the place, catching loads of bream to 7lbs and odd monster roach, a couple close to 2lbs! He was not far off the magic ton mark I reckon, while everyone else in the area struggled. I managed a brace of decent bream in the end, along with a couple of one-pound roach, the latter taken on the long pole. Another great day ticket water discovered!
Finally, we fished Willows Lakes at Foston, yet another £6 day ticket fishery. We decided on the third lake as Epi had caught well there a few days before, while I was working in Angling Direct. The weather forecast was for wind and rain but it was reasonably sheltered here. In a nutshell, we both enjoyed a pleasant time, getting plenty of bites on maggots or pellets. We had to keep adjusting our pole rigs to connect with the finicky crucians and shy biting skimmers, with odd bigger F1 carp putting in an appearance and giving our pole elastics a good stretching too!
What’s next? Well, my Grantham AA membership gives me access to a reservoir that apparently holds some big tench and bream, but that will have to wait for another time. Tight lines!