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 Alvechurch Fishery
Bittell Road Barnt Green Birmingham B45 8BW Tel: 0121 445 4274 07973 719549 (m) or E-mail: mark.alvechurch-fisheries@live.co.uk 
A well established and popular fishery which closed down for several years after the previous owners sold the neighbouring house and land, Alvechurch Fishery has re-opened under new ownership and undergone a major refurbishment and restocking which is sure to make the venue better than ever.
The fishery has four pools which have been re-configured to offer a more clearly defined range of sport with Horseshoe Lake, the first water you come to after leaving the car park, being targeted at match and pleasure anglers; House Pool being developed specifically for pleasure anglers; and Arrow Pool being developed as a specimen fish water. The small Harry's Pool is being retained as a practice/childrens' pool. Since taking over the fishery at the end of 2008, Mark, Roger and Jim Olds have spent a great deal of time - not to mention money - improving the fishery in association with fishery management consultant Andrew Ellis.
As part of a five year rolling programme, they have also carried out a lot of 'invisible' improvements such as installing new drainage and a new water supply and sewerage system, paving the way for work to start at the end of November 2009 on the construction of modern toilet facilities and an on-site tackle shop and cafe which will replace the existing temporary shop that currently supplies a limited array of terminal tackle and tinned and packet baits and maggots.
For match anglers, Alvechurch plans to stage regular 20-peg Sunday Open Matches during the summer whilst clubs can book pegs on Horseshoe Lake for their own club matches.
Opened in April 2010, the water had hardly been touched or fished for four or more years and has been landscaped, re-pegged and restocked with mirrors to nearly 30lbs, commons to 25lbs and ghosties to 23lbs. Stocks will be supplemented further with the addition of tench to 7lbs and bream to 8lbs.
In addition, work has been completed on clearing out, restocking and building new pegs on Harry's Pool, the small practice pool next to the bridge leading to House Pool.
Juniors must be accompanied by an adult.
 Horseshoe Lake
The first water you come to when leaving the large car park at Alvechurch Fisheries, Horseshoe Lake is an acre and a half in size and has 36 new purpose-built wooden platform pegs. With flat even banks, it is suitable for disabled anglers. The sides on Horseshoe shelve away giving two feet of water in the margins and an average depth further out of between four and six feet. The lake has a flat even bottom whilst on the banks there are irises, reeds and overhanging trees around much of the lake which provides cover for anglers from the fish and from each other.
At the far end of the lake is an attractive large bay (right) where there is plenty of open water.
For those interested in carp, Horseshoe has been stocked with 600 fish between 4lbs and 10lbs which give exciting sport when taken on light tackle. Although the carp are predominantly mirrors and commons, there are about a dozen ghost carp.
When targeting the carp, most anglers on the pole use an 18 or 20 elastic and size 12 or 14 hook with either soft hooker pellets, paste, luncheon meat or sweetcorn fished over a bed of small feeder pellets. Those after the silver fish opt for a lighter rig of 8 to 10 elastic and 16s hook with double maggot as bait, again fished over a bed of feeder pellets.
Although Horseshoe is classed as an out and out match water because of the size of fish it holds, it is popular with pleasure anglers and offers a variety of attractive swims with the opportunity to catch decent bags of fish at a sitting.
 House Pool
Although just three-quarters of an acre in size with 21 pegs, House Pool is a most attractive water with plenty of bankside vegetation and a small island near the far end. Although much of the water is about six feet deep, it is slightly deeper at the far end where up to seven feet of water can be found and for the most part has banks which slope at 45 degrees to the bottom, although there is a two feet deep shelf out from Pegs 4,5 and 6.
Now home to many of the original Alvechurch carp, stocks have been supplemented with the addition of bream averaging between 3lbs and 4lbs but running to 8lbs; some very nice tench to 7lbs; crucian carp to 1lb 8oz; perch to a similar size,good numbers of rudd, perch and skimmers and some stonking specimen roach which have been caught and witnessed to just over 3lbs.
Most anglers who fish House Pool tend to go for the carp, fishing mainly near the edges or towards the island. However, it seems that most fish are caught by anglers who use relatively light tackle - a Size 12 hook to 4lb line being roughly about right - although those after the bigger carp, which run to 28lbs, should scale up the line strength according to their ability.
Anglers going for the silver fish use either the pole or waggler with maggots accounting for good numbers of fish.
Other popular baits include soft hooker pellets, sweetcorn, bread and luncheon meat with floating dog biscuits and bread accounting for good numbners of carp, particularly later in the evening when the fish feed more readily on the surface and in the margins.
 Arrow Specimen Pool
Largely ignored by everyone for about four years until the new owners took over Alvechurch Fisheries, Arrow Specimen Pool had been left to its own devices and had become overgrown with bankside trees and vegetation. It has now been restored with the construction of decent sized bark-chip pegs and the opening of swims to make the water fishable once again. A long thin linear lake, fishing is only allowed from one bank to provide an atmosphere of seclusion.
Although stocking has yet to be finalised, it is currently expected that Arrow will be stocked with commons to 24lbs, mirrors to 28lbs and ghosties to 23 lbs. The average size of carp will be between 17lbs and 20lbs. In addition, the owners are considering supplementing the carp stocks with tench up to 7llbs and bream to 8lbs.
Although Arrow Pool has a flat bottom, its depth varies from between two to six feet at the entrance end dropping to 10 feet at the far end.
 Harry's Pool
By far the smallest of the Alvechurch Fisheries waters, Harry's Pool has always been used as a children's starter pool having only nine pegs and being about five feet deep throughout with a flat even bottom which makes it easy to fish. All the pegs on Harry's have been replaced and once cleared of silt the pool will be refilled and stocked with a mix of smaller fish including commons, mirrors and koi carp averaging 3lbs to 4lbs but running to 7lbs; some brown fantail goldfish to about 1lb which are interesting to catch; tench to about 2lbs 8oz and roach, rudd and perch around the 8oz mark.
Surrounded by trees and shrubs, Harry's has always been an attractive little water which will be further enhanced by the current restoration programme. It is expected to re-open for angling in late summer 2009.
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Typical of the improvements which have been made was the completion in summer 2010 of a new clubhouse and tackle shop for anglers (left). Serving a variety of hot and cold food and drinks, the clubhouse is also equipped with a large screen digital television whilst the takleshop is stocking a growing range of tackle, clothing and baits. 
This has included emptying all the pools, clearing out years of silt, removing intrusive bankside trees and shrubs, widening and improving the banks, building new pathways and bridges to House and Arrow pools, installing new pegs, landscaping the site and re-stocking the pools with new and existing fish.
The shop also offers a tackle hire service where, for £10.00 non-anglers or those new to the sport can hire everything they need for a day's fishing - including half a pint of maggots!
As part of the improvement programme, work is currently underway developing Arrow Pool into a specimen fish water.
One of the main features of Horseshoe Lake is the long central island. This was formerly a long wide penninsula jutting out into the lake which provided several pegs from which anglers could fish. The penninsula was made thinner and severed from the car park bank to turn it into a smaller island. Although this has resulted in the number of available pegs being reduced, it has increased the amount of water available to fish and greatly improved the look of the lake.
Because it is Alvechurch's main match water, Horseshoe is stocked with a good range of mid-sized fish including roach, rudd and crucians to about 1lb; skimmers to 2lbs; bream averaging between 3lbs and 4lbs but running to 7lbs; tench to 4lbs but averaging about 1lb 8oz; and a small head of hard fighting barbel between 4lbs and 6lbs which are well worth catching.
The most popular method for fishing Horseshoe Lake seems to be on the pole in the margins.
The waggler also accounts for a lot of fish both in the margins and up against the island whilst those going to the island also use the open ended feeder packed with maggots, blocking the end of the feeder with paste and fishing two or three magoots on the hook.
Developed as a pleasure and small club match water, it has a similar range of fish to those in Horseshoe Lake but the House Pool fish are generally bigger.
Indeed, the biggest Alvechurch roach was taken from House Pool and weighing in at an impressive 3lbs 1oz, although there is a good head of slightly smaller roach weighing around 2lbs which are regularly taken on bread flake.
Because there are good numbers of decent sized carp in the water - the mirrors go to nearly 30lbs, the commons to 18lbs and ghosties to just under 10lbs - it is not advisable to use the pole.Because of this most fish fall to the waggler when combined with pellet, paste, luncheon meat or sweetcorn, again fished over a bed of pellets.
Although the water is about an acre and a half in size, only 10 pegs have been constructed. Following extensive improvement work it opened in April 2010.
Becase of its size and depth, Harry's will be both a waggler and pole water which is expected to appeal to younger anglers taking up the sport who want experience of catching plenty of fish. It will also be used by Alvechurch Fisheries staff for tuition as a practice pool for inexperienced anglers.
