It’s All Change At Willinghurst
You must be sick of me writing about matches all the time so I thought that I’d tell you about some exciting events at the venue. As from 1st August Terry and Mick who run the cabin and the open matches have taken over running the whole fishery. Paul, who used to try and run the fishery AND the estate is still around but will be involved more with the forestry and general work around the estate.
(Click on the image to see the full sized photo)
Terry (aka “The Cod”) on the left, Paul in the middle and Mick looking very official on the right.
Both Mick and Terry have supposedly got “proper” jobs (hard to believe since they’re always fishing !), so it’s not decided yet just which days the cabin will be manned. They do have some great ideas on improving the fishery and the fishing. Proper swims will be constructed on the revamped Old Lake and they’ll be built on Horseshoe Lake also. John’s Lake is now completely full, in fact it’s a bit TOO full which has uncovered a problem. The lake builders haven’t got the banks quite level and the lake’s leaking in one corner. They’re going to have to lower the water level (it will be pumped into the newly built stock pond and returned later) whilst a bit of rebuilding is done on a section of bank. If you’re over there you’ll notice that there’s a single platform at the far end of the lake. That’s the prototype of the platforms that will be constructed around the lake. Side boards will be added to stop stuff falling off the platform and into the water.
There are some big plans for moving some of the fish around the various lakes. The plan is that all of the very big carp will be moved to Main Lake and Christmas Tree Lake whilst at the same time an equal weight of smaller carp will be taken from those two specimen lakes to replace the big boys in the match lakes. Chatting to a couple of the pleasure anglers the other day they were saying that there are at least three different 20 lb carp in Top Lake. Now I’ve match fished that lake literally hundreds of times and I’ve NEVER seen a 20 pounder weighed in on a match. You’ve got to assume that they only feed at night or when the lakes are very quiet and it’s those fish that will be netted and moved to Main Lake to be replaced by smaller fish that will hopefully feed a bit more frequently. These are projects that just couldn’t be done whilst Paul was trying to do so many different jobs around the estate and I’m convinced that once it’s all completed, everybody will be happier with the quality of the fishing.
Incidentally, I’m always ready to post any news of catches and / or pictures on here from the pleasure anglers. If you do catch a whopper and there’s somebody in the cabin they’ll always be willing to come up and photograph and weigh it for you on our match scales. I’ll get you a number to ring in case you’re fishing on your own and don’t want to leave your gear unattended.