What do I need to know?

Pitsford fishery has had many guises in the last decade or so, closures, rumoured fish kills, restocks and new owners but it appears to have settled down and the future’s looking good.

A 2 acre lake which is an old quarry and set in a deep hole, it’s absolutely full of features, islands, lilies, rushes, deep holes and shallow bars and bays.

These features make you forget how small the place is, as they divide up the lake nicely so despite its size it can easily house 10/12 anglers without it feeling overly busy.

Though it’s been sometime since we fished it, the ‘carp to 40lb’ headline on the website is false, currently at least.

Realistically the biggest carp you can target is mid 20’s.

That said, there are some big catfish, apparently up to 70lb but I imagine this is rare, in my experience they average around 20/30lb and can be hooked fairly easily if you know how, landing them is a different story though.

Believe it or not, I used to hook 5 or 6 a day in the summer months when I was a nipper, using my basic float gear and 10lb line seemed a ludicrous step up at the time but now I realise it was nowhere near enough.

That said, I’m sure you can still use the same tactics to great success if the cats are your preference.

We used to bag up on cat food, no joke.

Mashed spam mixed in with dozens of tins of cat food in a bucket covered in a beef gravy used to be the order of the day, using a pole cup we used to drop it with our free-lined bit of cat food right in the reeds on the ‘corner’ to the shallow end and catch a carp a chuck, the cats were impossible to hold though.

This used to work a treat all along the margins of the island or anywhere on the shallow end of the lake or the deep hole section to the left as you walk down towards the island.

For whatever reason it was never as productive to the right.

The lake itself is a good looking place, though there are no estate lake features it makes up for it with rushes, lillies and walkways and you will see fish immediately as there’s a great stock of koi roaming.

Margin fishing in the reeds and around the island lillies has always worked well especially using cat or luncheon meat.

Large beds of bait will not bring them in for the majority of the year and you should fish for one at a time and target several areas as the fish move around.

Also, there used to be quite a few crayfish, especially at the shallower bay end but we’re unsure whether these are still present.

Stay away from your modern carp tactics and boilies, go old school, stalking, meat and worms to bag up.

Don’t go to the Pitsford Fishery without these: