Coombe Pool Coombe Country Park Brinklow Road Binley near Coventry CV3 2AB Tel: 02476 453720 Fax: 02476 635350 Part of Coventry City Council's Leisure Services Department Coombe Country Park on the outskirts of the city of Coventry has been a popular leisure attraction for many years and is now national recognised as a Green Flag award winning site. Once acclaimed as one of the country's leading big bream match waters, Coombe Pool now concentrates on providing pleasure and specimen angling for day ticket and season ticket anglers on what is still one of the UK's most prolific bream and zander fisheries with bream to 10lbs and double figure zander to 16lbs regularly being banked. In 2007, pleasure anglers often enjoyed impressive bags of bream weighing in at over 100lbs. The buildings which can be seen today were constructed between the 1580s and 1774 whilst the parklands, landscaped by Capability Brown, form part of the extensive 500-acre country park where visitors can enjoy the breathtaking view and wildlife throughout the year. Most of Coombe Country Park is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because it is one of the most important ornithological sites in Warwickshire. As a result, angling has to go hand-in-hand with nature conservation. For this reason, only the half of the lake furthest from the hotel is reserved for angling. However, when you consider Coombe Pool is the second largest expanse of stillwater in Warwickshire after Draycote Reservoir, this still gives anglers more than enough to go at. The fishery also observes the traditional closed season, closing for angling from March 14 to June 16. Angling on the lake is from three banks. The two public banks, known as the Damwall and Woodland, are open all season and offer 100 pegs. The Lindley bank is situated in the West Deer Park and is accessible only to season ticket holders or pre-booked matches. This bank consists of 40 pegs and is open until mid-September. The Lindley bank is closed from September as it is a moulting habitat for rare shoveler ducks prior to their migration to warmer climates during our winter. Coombe has a history of being a challenging water, where in the correct conditions large numbers of fish can be caught. As a result, Coombe Pool is attracting growing numbers of discerning anglers, particularly specialist and pleasure specialists interested in the big carp, zander and bream. Regular visitors to Coombe are often rewarded with outsized fish. This is in part thanks to cormorants which have fed on the smaller fish. To help to redress the balance, the management team at Coombe have developed a five-year plan for the fishery which places the emphasis on habitat creation and fish stock management. The most recent development was in March 2008 when 14,000 young roach were introduced into the lake (right). As part of the continuous programme of fisheries enhancement work now being carried out on the lake, an artificial reef has been created at various sites. Using gabions - metal wire mesh cages used for erosion stabilisation - tyres and wooden structures called kackabunds, the reefs now provide shelter for young fish and invertebrates and provide anglers with additional features to fish to. Coloured buoys have been placed on the artificial reefs to prevent anglers becoming snagged in them. According to Head Ranger Joe Taylor, the emphasis of the fisheries management policy will be to provide traditional estate lake angling at an exceptionally low price. He said: "At the end of the day we are looking to make Coombe Pool an accessible, very cheap, beautiful and productive fishery to visit and although the fishing won't always be easy it will be a venue well worth visiting and a delightful spot to fish." Another feature of Coombe is that it has a policy of responding quickly to anglers' queries about how the lake is fishing. All told, it is a credit to Coventry City Council that it makes a first class water like Coombe Pool available at low cost to day ticket anglers, whilst season tickets are available for those who want to fish the water more frequently or visit for longer stays.

Locating these shoals is the angler's first challenge and they should keep their eyes open for large areas of coloured water which is often caused when a shoal has been stirring up the bottom for food. Another common activity is rolling or 'head and shouldering'. This behaviour, which is more common at dawn and dusk, is associated with feeding in many species and will give away the presence of fish. Because the water is shallow at Coombe - generally only about four feet deep - the larger fish may also give their position away when feeding by having their backs or tails exposed.

Fishing for bream at Coombe can be extremely good, with bags of fish caught regularly to nearly 100lb in weight. However, because of the size of the water, location of the shoals can be very difficult. The key to success at Coombe is firstly to locate the fish and then feed them.

There are no favoured "bream pegs" as the shoals move around the lake depending on conditions. Try and fish a windward bank, or anywhere where the water is coloured and stirred up. Once a shoal is located, it is important to have enough bait to hold the hungry shoal in your swim for as long as possible. If the food source runs out, it is likely that the fish will move on.

Ground bait is usually used with lots of squats, pinkies, maggots, castors, hemp, sweet corn, chopped worm and such like. By using lots of food particles, the bream shoal will stay in the swim for longer as they search through the silt for food.

During winter the fish will shoal more densely and location becomes more difficult. Smaller bream and hybrids often migrate towards the Smite Brooke in late winter and can regularly be seen from the footpath.

A lot of the smaller bream caught in the fishery are usually roach/bream hybrids, although silver bream have also been caught. True silver bream are considered quite rare in England as much of their true genetics have been contaminated by cross hybridisation. At Coombe Pool, several of the large breeding silver bream were used by the Environment Agency to successfully artificially spawn this species for the first time and thus allow stocking in other waters. Due to the rarity of the fish, Coombe Pool is one of the only waters in England that gives the angler a realistic chance of catching a true specimen.

Fishing is often done at long range, usually by swimfeeder using either a swing-tip, quiver-tip or bite alarm. The rigs are simple - a 3lb main line with the feeder on either a four-turn water knot or a standard loop set-up. Experiment with the length of the tail, although three to five feet is standard.

Accurate casting is also a must at Coombe. Casting can be made easier by incorporating a stop knot on your line for reference, or alternatively using the bait clip on the reel as a casting stop - although heavy lines are required for this approach.

Feeding at this range can be tricky and several anglers use either bait boats or bait scoops to get large quantities of ground bait out to the hookbait. Hookbaits can be anything contained in the ground bait mix, though it is usual to use small red worms or maggots.

Care should be taken when using keepnets for big bags of bream, two or more nets should be used for large catches. Also because the lake is quite shallow, care must be taken in the positioning of keepnets. As a rule, try and position keepnets in deep water that is well shaded to avoid stress to the fish and use unhooking mats for large specimens and large catches of fish, especially on the hard ground of the dam wall.

Popular pegs are on the Dam Wall bank are numbers 1 to 7 and on the Woodland bank numbers 1 to 25. However, anglers are advised that fishing the Woodland bank involves a fairly long walk. Whichever bank you choose, they all respond to the same methods.

Although large, Coombe Pool is shallow at little more than four feet at its deepest. However, because of its size there can often be an undertow, so fish over depth but as light as you can. Feed little and often, but be accurate.

If you're after a mixed bag of fish then look no further than pegs in the 40's and 50's on the Dam Wall. There's plenty of variety here and plenty of features to fish to such as lilies or the reedbed at the fishery entrance. It is here where the tench have been showing well in recent years and there's always the chance of one or two decent crucians as well. These pegs can be float fished or you can go for the feeder, but the same rule applies about accurate feeding and casting.

Specimen fishing at Coombe

Specimen zander and pike hunters have been targeting Coombe for many years but have really been reaping rewards in recent seasons. Zander, illegally introduced into Coombe around the mid 70's, have grown at a tremendous rate and the biggest to come out so far was just two ounces short of the British rod caught record. Several other fish in the 16lb range have also been caught in recent years, although the average size is generally around 8lbs with fish to over 10lbs regularly being taken. This makes Coombe Pool the place to go for a realistic chance of catching a truly massive zander.

However, to be successful for zander you normally have to fish at night, which requires a Full Season Ticket. Small fresh water fish baits are commonly used, both live and dead. With regard to rigs, most zander caught at Coombe are taken on simple running rigs. The secret is to minimise resistance to the fish as they are a very shy-biting species and often drop the bait if they feel the resistance of a heavy lead and line.

A lot of the Zander are caught on the Woodland Bank pegs 1 to 44, often at very long range with baits usually being dropped off by bait boat. The lake can be quite shallow and featureless, so the fish can be anywhere, although bank-side overhanging trees are a common fishing feature. The fishing is usually better when the water is coloured with the majority of fish coming out during the early winter months.

Pike are also one of the main species, along with zander, that attract anglers to Coombe Pool. There are several big fish in the lake with a few running to over 25lbs in weight. However, there are also numerous smaller fish, the average size being around 8lb, which gives the angler a good chance of catching whatever the weather conditions with the added bonus of a chance of a really big pike. The Pike Anglers Club often hold junior fish-ins at the venue, teaching young anglers how to safely fish for pike, as it offers easy fishing and a good environment for the young angler.

What is the largest pike to come out of Coombe? Well, several 20lb fish come out each year and as one well-known pike angler once said, "If Coombe can produce zander to nearly 20lbs, think how big the pike could go!"

Pike angling starts in earnest in October, with many bream and carp anglers turning their attention to the species. The first few weeks in tend to be the most productive, however, as we all know pike don't like pressure, and often after the initial success of the early winter, the pike migrate up the lake or become a lot harder to catch.

Favourite swims are the first few pegs near the reedbed, small fish are often herded by the Pike and Zander into this area in the winter, and if the small fish are there, the Pike and Zander are often there as well. The Pike in Coombe tend to be very nomadic, maybe due to the featureless lake bed, therefore, when fishing, the roving approach is advisable, swim hopping until the fish are found.

Obviously before fishing for Pike, anglers should be aware of how to properly hold and unhook the species, if in doubt ask another experienced angler, or alternatively book on one of the many Pike fish-ins that are held in conjunction with the Pike Anglers Club.

Anglers should also have the correct fishing gear for the species, especially a large 42" landing net minimum, a long unhooking mat, a pair of forceps and a pair of wire cutters. When Pike fishing it is vitally important to use a wire trace, this stops the pike's teeth from cutting through the line. The trace should be a minimum of 18in long and made of 20lb wire.

Most baits will catch pike from Coombe with spinners and plugs working well as the water is relatively shallow. Dead baits also often work well with large pieces of smelly fish like mackerel or sardines taking a large number of the bigger pike. As the water is large, it is important to attract the fish to your swim. Some anglers do this by 'glugging' or injecting their baits with various types of fish oil or amino acid dips before casting out. Float fishing for pike is rarely used as most anglers, when using dead baits, use running ledger rigs with light leads on the lead link, allowing it to rest in the silt and not pull the bait in to it.

Big carp fishing at Coombe

When it comes to carp, Coombe carp can be difficult to catch. However, because the stocking rate is relatively low at about 150 fish, most are large with the majority weighing over 25lbs and several, including commons, over 30lbs in weight. Although stocking levels have been increased the aim has been to provide challenging traditional estate lake carp fishing.

Because of the low density rate, few anglers actively fish for carp at Coombe and the fish that are caught each year tends to come to the same few season ticket holders. Most of the carp are caught at night, due to the clarity of the water, with the majority coming to large beds of bait over a period of nights. Stalking is also a successful method, especially around the tree branches and margins along the Lindley bank when this is open for fishing.

Beds of hemp seed, chopped boilies, particles and trout pellets all help to stop the nomadic carp in their tracks. Due to the silty nature of many areas, pop-ups that are critically balanced should be used. If your bait comes back smelling of silt this is a good indication that you are fishing in the wrong area. By careful plumbing and leading around, hard areas of clay can be found and these are the spots to fish. In the summer a large proportion of the lake is covered in lily beds and obviously these are often a good area to fish to or to fish on in the winter when they have died back. Hookbaits should be large - over 25mm to avoid bream and tench.

As part of the pool's management plan, stocking levels were increased in 2005/06 and these fish have now grown with some reaching the mid-20lb mark and the top weight by late August 2007 was just under 30lbs.

Crucians, tench and silver fish

When it comes to other species, there's more to Coombe Pool than bream, zander, pike and carp. Float anglers also catch well and many season ticket holders do nothing else, choosing to fish the waggler with hemp and casters.

Although large, Coombe Pool is shallow at little more than four feet at its deepest. However, because of its size there can often be an undertow, so fish over depth but as light as you can. Feed little and often, but be accurate.

If you're after a mixed bag of fish then look no further than the Woodland bank pegs in the 40's and 50's. There's plenty of variety here and plenty of features to fish to such as lilies or the reedbed at the fishery entrance. It is here where the tench are often caught and there's always the chance of one or two decent crucians as well. Roach and skimmer bream are often caught in the margins using simple float techniques, maggots or bread being the best bait.

Coombe Pool is a noted match fishery. The Lindley bank has 40 pegs and can be booked for £200 per match but is limited to four bookings a season - two for Coventry clubs and two Coventry open matches. The Public Bank can be booked by all angling clubs at £4.00 per peg. To book an event please telephone 02476 453720 or e-mail: coombe.countrypark@coventry.gov.uk.

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