White Bishop Lake
At three acres in size, White Bishop is the largest and most popular of the Bishops Bowl waters. Constructed in 1985 with 42 pegs, it is used as a match and pleasure fishery and holds a good mix of fish including carp to 18lbs, tench and barbel to 6lbs and some quality roach.
Although White Bishop has a fairly uniform depth of between five and six feet for the most part, it shelves to nine feet at the reed end.
Despite its size, the most popular method for carp fishing White Bishop in summer is under the rod tip in about three feet of water laying on with luncheon meat. Laying on about two rod lengths out with trout pellet paste is also extremely successful with the tench.
For general fishing, use fairly strong line - say 3lbs straight through to the hook - whilst anglers on the pole tend to fish a 12 or 13 elastic about 10m out. When fishing for the roach, maggot and caster are the most popular baits with many fish being taken on the drop. As a rule of thumb, if you have not had a bite within five minutes, check your hookbait and recast.
White Bishop provides good all-round sport for both experience and novice anglers, whilst the promise of catching a double-figure carp greatly adds to its appeal.
Blue Pool
Best known as Bishops Bowl's specimen carp water, this two-and-a-half acre flooded quarry for the most part is about 21ft deep and about 12ft deep immediately out from the bank.
Although the water holds all species, its main attraction is the 30lb-plus Mirror and Common carp. These, combined with the walk from the main car park, past White Bishop and through the tunnel under the road - together with the fact that its sheer sides reduces the number of pegs available - makes it less popular with all but those looking for bigger fish.
However, Blue Pool is well worth the walk. The water fishes well and most techniques from legered boilies to floating crust or dog biscuits yield results.
Most anglers fishing on the bottom use fixed leads up to 2oz on a hair rig. The Method is also popular whilst most effective baits tend to be luncheon meat and Tutti Fruitti boilies.
Because parts of the far bank are inaccessible, long casting to drop the bait against the far wall of the quarry using method feeder and two or more maggots often provides results. Those who prefer to use float will need to take a slider.
With roach to two-and-a-half pounds, tench to 6lbs and perch to 3lbs, those not after the carp should float fish using nothing smaller than a 16s hook with double maggot, caster, bread, sweetcorn or paste baits. Also, because float fishing does not require the use of two or more rod rests, more pegs are available than for legering.
Walworth Lake
Looking more like a small Norfolk Broad, this three-quarter acre 15-peg pool surrounded by reeds is popular with pleasure anglers because of the head of good tench, roach, perch, bream, carp and pike it holds.
Averaging eight feet deep with a clay and silt bottom, it is mainly float fished on the waggler using sweetcorn or luncheon meat hookbait over hemp for the tench, which run to over 7lbs. Whilst there are carp to 14lbs and some nice pike to 17lbs, the majority of anglers fish the water for the roach, perch and bream, the latter which go to over 4lbs.
Pole fishing on Wolworth is also good because baits can be placed accurately next to the reeds against the far bank where the tench tend to hide during the daytime, coming out to the centre from late afternoon onwards.
Fishing is also good in the margins for the roach, bream and perch. Fish mid-water and constantly loose feed with bait.
Again, one of the attractions of Wolworth Lake is the likelyhood of picking up a nice carp when bottom fishing for other species.
Lodge Pool and Dinosaur Dip
At half-an-acre and only three to four feet deep, Lodge Pool (left) and Dinosaur Dip (below right) are popular year-round venues and eing shallow fish particularly well throughout summer.
This makes them particularly suitable for younger anglers and, because they are next to the car park, also well-suited for the disabled and more senior anglers. Although Lodge Pool can get weedy in summer, Rob Kerr is shortly to remove some of it and re-peg the water to make better use of the available bank space.
Because of the size of the pools, the fish tend to be smaller than those in the larger waters, but both pools hold good stocks of roach, perch, bream and skimmers. Lodge also holds carp to 4lbs and a few tench to about 3lbs whilst Dinosaur Dip holds tench to 4lbs, carp to 7lbs and some handy-sized chub which put up a good scrap when hooked.
Dinosaur Dip received its name because it is the site where, in 1912, quarrymen found the fully preserved skeleton of a Plesiosaurus, a great Mesozoic fossil Sauropterygian reptile with a long neck, short tail and four flippers said to be similar to a dolphin. The skeleton is known to thousands of schoolchildren because it is one of the main exhibits in London's Natural History Museum.
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Bishops Bowl Lakes
Bishops Bowl comprises five lakes on a 100 acre complex on the outskirts of Bishops Itchington, near Leamington Spa. The fishery offers match, pleasure and specimen carp angling on waters which differ in characteristics from large and open sheer-faced flooded disused quarries to small, shrub surrounded pools. There is a large main car park for over 100 vehicles and a cafe/coffee shop which offers a choice of hot and cold food from breakfasts and snacks to lasagne and even chilli con carne.