spiggoted. The first multi

Before starting on my whistle stop tour, I needed to carefully plan my tackle as it had to be very compact whilst still remaining effective. Let’s face it – the average angler has very limited space for tackle when on holiday with the family. It would therefore be unrealistic for me to write an account of fishing a holiday venue whilst enjoying the advantage of unlimited tackle and bait. I must also stress that I was not fishing any prebaited swims.I used only travel rods for all of the fishing in this article. These travel rods are all multi-joints. Basically these are full length rods that have been cut and re-spiggoted. The first multi-joints I used were made by Tony Fordham about nine years and have seen great service. These were 10ft and 11ft, four-joint carp rods that were made to be far more compact than conventional rods without losing their action. They have the advantage of telescopics that they are still fully rung. These rods are so good that anglers fishing near me did not believe that they were travel rods until I packed up and showed them the joints. I understand that Tony is still willing to provide any of his “Sportex” rods as multi-joints by special order.The Tackle Exchange of Walton on Thames also has its own range of travel rods that can be made to order. They also will convert conventional rods into multijoints to customer requirements. Many anglers, myself included have had some of their older rods converted into travel rods. I had an old set of Harrison Balista rods that had seen terrific service converted and rebuilt as travel rods. I do not think that the job could have been bettered and they are still giving a great service.It is also worth remembering that carp tackle can double up as light sea gear. This has proved most useful when I have visited coastal venues.As regards reels, I carry two fixed spool reels with a lot of spools to cover all requirements. This saves space as does my telescopic landing net that collapses down to less than 2.5ft whilst extending to over 8ft. I made this from a cheap hollow glass roach pole that I cut down. I understand that there are now commercially available short landing net poles. I would therefore advise readers to check with their local tackle dealer before proceeding to make their own.I do not carry a rod pod on holiday. Instead I save space by using two short extending bank sticks. Everything is done to reduce bulk. I have even wrapped my gear in bubble pack to give it extra protection and then used the bubble pack as a crude unhooking mat.Unless on a job for a magazine I do not carry a full range of cameras or lenses. Instead I carry a small Olympus camera. I use the mju 11 camera from their range but I expect there are now models in their range of cameras that are just as small but with a zoom lens. It could be worthwhile checking out their web site. It is surprising the number of editors that have accepted work shot on these little cameras thinking that the pictures were taken with a larger single lens reflex camera. All shots in this feature were made on a small Olympus camera that doubled up as the holiday camera.Obviously the quantity of bait that is carried is very limited. However I have a great solution to this problem. I cheat by ordering the bulk feed from a mail order company and having it delivered to the holiday venue rather than home. I also rely heavily on the local corner shop or supermarket for much of my hook bait. Naturally I look for something a little different such as pepperami, garlic sausage meat, strong smelling cheeses, cockles or mussels. The only baits that I often take with me are a few small bags of Richworth boilies.Having sorted out my tackle and bait, I let my wife, Virginia, select the area. We then start to look at accommodation and venues. This is normally self catering to give us the flexibility that we require on holiday. This is often on a fishery as experience has taught us that most fishery owners with accommodation have to make sure that everything is top flight to keep the wives happy. If they do not, then they are very unlikely to get a rebooking for next year.I also check out angling publications for the area to check on other venues as a back up if the fishing does not come up to expectations. We fish a lot in the South West and would recommend to any visitor to get hold of a copy of “Get Hooked” ISBN 0-9527547-4-6 or look at their web site www.gethooked.co.uk. This is a good accurate guide. Alternatively a phone call to the nearest tackle shop can often give you a lot of good advice. I only wish I had done this when I booked up a holiday in Kent with some friends. The local tackle shop knew all about this particular venue and would have told us straight about the problems. However I must stress that incidences like this are rare and the venue concerned does not advertise with us. Fortunately the shop owner soon put us onto some good waters and we enjoyed some good fishing off sight.

The Venues

This year, like every other year since 1994 we went to Willow Waters, Burnby Lane, Pocklington near York. You will not see many adverts for the small fishery complex as visitors normally re-book as they leave.The complex is owned by Tim and Denise Slights, who make sure all the accommodation and everything on site is first class. There are only 8 bungalows and three smaller lodges on site. The bungalows are all detached with two bed rooms and are either on the water or overlooking one of the lakes. You have your own parking bay next to your bungalow so there is no problem with either unloading or loading. Inside they are finished to a very high standard so that you are staying in luxury accommodation with your own tackle lock up outside. The lodges are smaller, with, in most cases, just one double bedroom. They are ideal for a couple and again finished to the highest standard with their own tackle lock up.One of the lodges was built for disabled anglers. Every year I see the same anglers in wheel chairs catching good mixed bags of fish from Duckwood lake in front of their accommodation. These anglers get into their wheelchairs every morning and free wheel down the slope into their swims. These guys are also very good anglers and I would not want to be drawn against them in a match!We stayed in one of the new lodges at Whitsun and were most impressed with it. I believe we were only the second visitors to use it as it had only just been built. Yes, I did book it for next year – so I know that I am secure!The grounds are very well kept and the lawns are cut to a high standard. The entrance even has an electronic rising barrier for greater security and there is a games room for times you may not want to fish.Having satisfied the other half – now for the important part. The fishing! There are three small lakes with various stocks on sight. Duckwood has six bungalows on one bank and an island with nesting white ducks. This is a maturing man-made lake that I believe was dug about eight years ago. The banks are well landscaped and there are reeds in many swims. There is a good mixture of depths in the lake and it fishes well all the year round. I have even caught fish when there has been a heavy frost with ice forming around the edges. It is a mixed fishery stocked with roach, bream, golden orfe, common and mirror carp with some nice koi present. The best carp must be well into double figures by know but the majority are single figure fish and there are plenty of them. The koi now run to well over six pounds. I saw a cracking black and white koi by my feet one morning that I estimated as being a good six pound plus fish. The roach are really packing on weight with fish now running to over the pound. These, along with the better orfe which must now run to well over two pounds, tend to show better later in the year. Most methods work well on Duckwood lake with trout pellet paste taking more than its fair share of fish in the Summer with hemp and caster scoring well in cooler months.The Middle lake with its well kept banks contains a similar stock to Duckwood but has some much bigger bream present together with some nice tench. I know this for a fact as I stocked them in there. The bigger bream and tench should by now be pushing five pounds if not more.My favourite lake is the main lake. This water dates back over a hundred years and is about three acres. It was an old clay pit and is very deep in parts going down to over twenty feet. The owners have kept the character of the water the same. It is surrounded by trees with a good numbers of swims carefully cut so that it still looks natural. This water holds a good head of carp with a very high proportion of doubles and some twenties. I believe the best mirror in there is just over 281b. I have regularly had over 12 carp in eight hours fishing which together would have weighed well over 1201b.The main lake is not a carp-only water as it has a terrific head of other species particularly roach and bream. I don’t know how big the roach run to but I have seen them caught to well over 1.5lb. There are almost certainly roach in excess of two pounds in the water. The bream and tench also run to a good size. However, it is the still water chub that are the real prize. These run to well over seven pounds but are rarely caught. There could even be a British Record chub in this water.Pike are also present and can give terrific sport late in the year. I have had up to six in an afternoon to low doubles on sea dead baits. Locals have seen them much bigger than this.If you are looking for a fishing holiday up North I would give serious consideration to Willow Waters. I think you will be very lucky to find somewhere to match it.

Kingslake in Devon is another venue that I visited this year. Again the accommodation was first class. The accommodation is situated in two areas, the cottages are in front of the golf coarse and the front lake whilst the newer lodges overlook the other lakes. The original owner, Gordon King, has retired to build his new house on the side of a lake the other side of the wood. He, like Tim Slights, is a builder with great vision. This can be seen in both the accommodation and the surrounding grounds. Gordon’s water gardens between the cottages have got to be seen to be believed. Again the accommodation is of a remarkably high standard and you will have no complaints from the wife.

If you get the chance when you visit Kingslake, go and see Gordon’s new house. That is a real eye opener and a testimony to a top class builder. I was absolutely amazed at what I saw. The new owners, David and Valerie Langdown will make you very welcome and are working very hard to provide you with a top class holiday. We certainly have no complaints and thought it was a lovely venue.However, as I said earlier the fishing is the most important factor for us anglers and I don’t think you will be disappointed with Kingslake’s four lakes. The first lake, called front lake, is well stocked with carp to over 161b with some nice double figured ghost carp present. We found it an easy water and really bagged up using float fished trout pellet paste.To the side are three equally well stocked lakes. The bottom of which is a well stocked carp lake with individual fish running to over twenty pounds. We again bagged up every day on this water with 1001b plus catches. Most of the fish were good singles but we had a fair share of doubles. Again I do not think the actual bait used was that important. Meats of various descriptions all worked well as did all sea-flavour baits that we tried. No doubt cheese, pastes and boilies all work well. We used mainly pastes and meat baits.Above the carp lake is the ‘Mixed’ lake. This holds some big roach, bream, tench, rudd and carp. I would imagine that it fished better for roach after September. I only fished it this time for a few hours and caught mainly carp. However in the past I have had bream to approaching 51b with some good roach but that was earlier in the year when it was cooler.The top lake is a tench lake that is heavily stocked with both ordinary green tench and the ornamental golden tench. This is another bag up water where I would imagine the right man could catch over 1001b of tench in a day. In my trips to Kingslake I never found the time to give this water a real bash as I preferred the other lakes.Kingslake, like Pocklington, is an excellent holiday venue. Both have excellent accommodation and fishing but they are entirely different venues. Neither of them allow day tickets so there is always plenty of room to fish.

In part two, I will concentrate on more venues that I have visited giving readers an honest opinion of both the accommodation and the fishing. If you have not taken a fishing holiday in this country, I would seriously recommend it to you.