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Kingsbury Water Park

Warwickshire County Council run fishery near Sutton Coldfield with 12 landscaped lakes offering specimen carp and pleasure fishing on day and season ticket

Facts and feature of Kingsbury Water Park

A large and diverse fishery
12 landscaped lakes in scenic country park
Specimen carp, pleasure and match fishing pools
Good access for disabled anglers
Ideal for family break or day out
Camping and caravan site available
Information Centre, cafe and toilets on site
Pay at ‘Pay and Display’ parking
Prices include parking and fishing
Behind peg parking in many areas

One of the largest and most diverse fisheries in the Midlands with a total of 12 landscaped lakes in a scenic country park setting, Kingsbury Water Park is owned and managed by Warwickshire County Council and offers day-ticket and annual permit fishing plus two match pools. In addition there is free fishing for junior anglers aged 16 and under on Willows Pool. All the lakes can be fished year-round on day ticket with the exception of the Canal Pool specimen carp water which is available only to permit holders. These permits are available for regular anglers.

Excellent access for disabled anglers

It all adds up to a diverse complex that offers everything for anglers and their families from fishing for roach, rudd and perch through to specimen sized carp, pike, bream and tench – as well as a range of other leisure and recreation facilities. Access for the disabled is good – please ring the site for details – and in many areas anglers can park behind their pegs. There are specially constructed pegs suitable for the disabled on Mill Pool, Pine Pool, Causeway Pool, Cliff Pool South and Gibsons Pool.

A good family destination with great facilities

An ideal place for a family break or day out, on-site facilities include an Information Centre where, as well as finding out more about the park and what is going on, visitors can purchase gifts and books. The park also has toilets; a camping and caravan site; a children’s farm, and the ‘Old Barn’ Cafe (right) which serves a range of home-made hot and cold meals including an all-day English breakfast, sandwiches and refreshments.

Lots to do besides Angling

Besides angling, visitors to the park can enjoy picnics, cycling, walking and playing informal sport on some of the many large grassed areas. There is a jet bike centre which provides day launch and season membership. At the quieter end of the scale, study of the parks’ extensive nature and bird life also proves very popular. At 620 acres and with more than 30 pools, the site is large enough to accommodate people, wildlife and activities with little conflict.

The Ranger Service offers an extensive year-round events programme for visitors, including activities as diverse as bird of prey demonstrations and Christmas decoration making. Good relations exist with the National Federation of Anglers and the Environment Agency and a range of angling courses, including some for young anglers, feature as part of the events programme. Specific angling tuition for groups and individuals is available by arrangement.

Contact numbers for Kingsbury Water Park

A list of contacts for Kingsbury Water Park is included at the end of these pages where details of many of the activities at the park can be obtained. With so much going on throughout the year, it is advisable to contact the Information Centre before your visit for further details. The Centre also provides a range of leaflets for many of the facilities and activities.

For more information about any of the Kingsbury Water Park waters or facilities, or for a free copy of the Park’s Angling Guide, please telephone 01827 872660 or e-mail: parks@warwickshire.gov.uk. Alternatively, visitors can contact individual facilities directly on the following numbers:

  • Broomey Croft Childrens’ Farm 01827 873844
  • Caravan/Camping Club Site 01827 874101
  • Youth Camps 01827 872660
  • Jet Bike Centre 01827 826252 or 07968 748734 (m)
  • Old Barn Coffee Shop 01827 874823
  • Power Boat Club 01384 821768
  • Tamworth Sailing Club 01827 872363
  • Echills Wood Railway 07771 511768

Tickets and a rod licence required

A valid day ticket and a current Environment Agency rod licence entitles visitors to fish with two rods from one permanent peg. Please purchase your ticket before occupying a peg as tickets are not sold on the bank. Day tickets are only available using card payments from the cashless Pay and Display machine located in the staff and disabled car park. If you have a three rod EA licence you may purchase two-day tickets of the same value to fish three rods from one permanent peg.

Getting Access to the pools

To access Bodymoor Heath Water, Pine, Swann, Causeway, Mill and Willows anglers should use the main entrance barrier. Anglers fishing Heron, Kingfisher, Gibsons and Cliff Pool South after purchasing your day ticket you will need to exit the park, turn right on to Bodymoor Heath Lane which takes you over the M42, then turn first right into Broomey Croft entrance. Follow the road into the park, past the Camping and Caravanning Club site and onto the entrance barrier.

Annual Permit costs

Regular anglers can purchase an annual permit to fish 1 April – 31st March for the 2020/2021 seasons. A permit includes an annual parking pass. This allows holders to fish three rods when in possession of a current three-rod EA licence. Permits are available from the Information Centre (two passport size photographs are required).

Fishing Season

The Fishing Season at Kingsbury Water Park is year-round with the exception of pike fishing which does not commence until October 1. Annual Permits are available and run for 12 months from April to April.

Opening Times at Kingsbury Water Park

  • January – 8.00am – 4.00pm
  • February – 8.00am – 5.00pm
  • March – 8.00am – 6.00pm
  • April – 8.00am – 7.00pm
  • May – 6.30am – 8.00pm
  • June and July – 5.30am – 8.00pm
  • August – 5.30am – 8.00pm
  • September – 7.00am – 7.00pm
  • October – 8.00am – 6.00pm
  • November and December – 8.00am – 4.00pm

Bodymoor Heath Water

Bodymoor Heath is the largest of the Kingsbury Water Park waters. However, although it covers some 47 acres, this former gravel pit is only six feet at its deepest and in most places is only about three or four feet. This makes it an attractive fishery because the water rapidly acclimatises to the prevailing weather conditions and warms up quickly in summer. Bodymoor Heath is a shared water alternating daily between sailing and powerboats – look out for the sign at the Fishing Lodge saying what’s on.

The predominant species are bream, roach, tench, specimen pike and carp which run to over 20lbs. For the most part the bream average between 3lbs and 4lbs, although it is not uncommon for specimens up to 9lbs to come to the net. Bodymoor Heath also holds quality roach over 2lbs, tench to 6lbs and roach/bream hybrids to over 3lbs with 2lb 8oz fish being fairly standard. There are only a small number of carp.

Being a bream water, it favours the use of open-ended groundbait feeders with many anglers starting their sessions by putting in about eight golf-ball sized balls of groundbait before tackling up. Most successful is a mix of brown crumb and any smelly continental groundbait to which some casters or other free bait offerings have been added.

For the bream it pays to have a selection of hook baits including worm, caster, red maggots and pinkies. Although it is less comfortable, because Bodymoor Heath is a large water, it is better to fish with the wind in your face. Using a swimfeeder is the most common technique, but if the fish are being particular and hard to catch, a long-distance waggler often produces results.

Roach fishing goes particularly well on the pole on selected pegs, whilst the tench tend to be bonus fish when going for the bream. Anglers setting out their stall for tench should fish close to cover, particularly under overhanging willow trees.

Mill Pool

Another good bream water, Mill Pool is 12.5 acres in size and holds similar species and sizes as Bodymoor Heath with plenty of bream between 2-3lbs and specimens running to 6lbs. In addition, there are many roach around the 1lb mark which feed well during the autumn and winter, particularly after heavy rain.

Skimmers and small roach are abundant and again there are bonus tench to 5lbs, pike into the high teens and the occasional carp to 20lbs. The water is ideal for beginners during the summer months.

Up to nine feet deep close in along the road bank where you can park behind pegs, Mill Pool has a gravel bar in the centre where the water runs shallower. In other parts of the pool you can expect to find four or five feet of water.

As with Bodymoor Heath, fishing an open-ended groundbait feeder is an excellent method, although with deep water close in the pole and waggler both work well. In summer, fishing high up in the water close in catches most species including good bream, whilst those after the tench are again recommended to fish under overhanging trees or close to vegetation.

The small pool running off the main water as you apporoach Mill Pool from Swann Pool – known as Mill Pool Cutting – fishes better in winter than summer with pole anglers looking for roach and skimmers and pike anglers after their winter quarry.

Willows Pool

Willows Pool at Kingsbury Water Park in the West Midlands Willows Pool at Kingsbury Water Park

One of the smaller pools at Kingsbury with approximately 12 pegs, Willows Pool is only one-and-a-half acres in size but offers anglers plenty of roach, skimmer bream and bonus larger bream and tench to 3lbs. Since 2010 day ticket fishing on this water has been free of charge for anglers aged 16 and under.

An ideal water for pole fishing, most pegs have only three feet of water whilst at its deepest in the centre it is only four feet deep. However, it is in the fringes where most of the fish are caught.

Because anglers are fishing for smaller fish than on other Kingsbury waters, the trend is to fish light and use only small amounts of groundbait and loose feed. Hook sizes 18 to 20 are the norm, although in winter it is advisable to drop down to even Size 24. The most commonly used baits are single maggot or pinkies.

Causeway Pool

Following the introduction of carp stocks in 2009 and the installation of fencing to prevent fish movement when the park floods, the three-acre Causeway Pool is now a popular day ticket and contest pool.

The change means there is now a second choice of match pool at the fishery, giving angling clubs further options on the number of pegs they can use and the ease with which members can fish. The opening of Causeway Pool as a competition venue gives angling clubs the option of using 20 pegs and the opportunity for easier fishing.

Causeway’s redevelopment has changed the levels of the water and has introduced a gravel bar, running the opposite way to the island, making it a great feature to fish to at about 30 yards from the bank. The pool now varies in depth from three to eight feet and is well stocked with carp to 10lbs, pike to 20lbs, tench to 5lbs, roach, skimmers, perch, and rudd.

A number of new fishing platforms have also been added with four accessible to wheelchair users. These four pegs can be used by able-bodied anglers but must be vacated if a wheelchair angler arrives and wishes to use the peg. On days when there is no match booked, day ticket anglers are able to use the water on a £3.00 day ticket.

Pine Pool

Kingsbury’s acclaimed six-and-a-half acre day-ticket carp water with mirrors and commons to the low 30s and plenty of doubles, Pine Pool is a traditional carp water where modern carp fishing techniques work best.

Never stocked with fish less than 5lbs, Pine is best fished with boilies, trout pellets or trout pellet paste, sweetcorn, luncheon meat and bread crust, flake or floating crust – in fact, just about any bait that catches carp. However, anglers who ring the changes tend to have the most consistent sport and heaviest catch weights.

There are two pegs with concrete platforms suitable for wheelchair access. These pegs can be used by able-bodied anglers but must be vacated if a wheelchair angler arrives and wishes to use the peg.

Swann Pool

Swann Pool at Kingsbury Water Park in the West Midlands A winter scene on Swann Pool at Kingsbury Water Park

Swann Pool is available to day-ticket anglers when it is not being used for matches. This enables anglers either to practice for matches or to enjoy a day’s pleasure fishing.

Similar to Bodymoor Heath Water, Swann Pool is an 12.5-acre big bream match water with some tench, roach, carp and skimmers. It responds best to groundbait feeder or distance waggler. Whilst the depth varies in the main from three to five feet, Swann Pool is shallower in parts.

As a bream water, a selection of hook baits is again recommended, and like many shallow gravel pits it is worth catapulting a bed of bait at the beginning of a session to avoid spooking the fish once they are feeding in a swim. Once the bed of groundbait is laid, it can be maintained and topped up by varying the size of the groundbait feeder.

Gibsons Pool - Via Broomey Croft entrance

Gibsons Pool at Kingsbury Water Park in the West Midlands

Formerly Kingsbury Water Park’s renowned specimen carp water, at around two-and-three quarters of an acre in size, Gibsons was becoming too small as the fish grew bigger.

Gibsons is a quality mixed fishery with a variety of species including bream to 8lbs, tench to 5lbs and roach to 2lbs, as well as rudd, perch and pike which can now all be caught in this attractive water, which is considered to be one of the most featured pools of all the specimen waters.

As a result of the improvements, Gibson’s Pool now not only offers beautiful surroundings but also provides challenges for pole, waggler and feeder anglers.

The elongated stretch between the central pathway and the islands offers the deepest water, up to eight feet, although the fish will often be found on the gravel bars which extend from and link the islands.

The part of the pool nearest the motorway tends to be shallower and weedier making feeding fish more visible in this area. In summer there are numerous sets of lily pads which provide shade and these are always a good place to find fish. New disabled access and parking for this water has been part-funded by the Environment Agency.

Cliff Pool South - Via Broomey Croft entrance

Plenty of tench and bream to 6lbs, a good stock of roach plus pike over 20lbs can be had in this largely shallow water where depths are for the most part around three to four feet. Anglers looking for deeper water will find it if they fish with their back to the Children’s Farm, where depths of up to 10ft are available. The pool has disabled fishing pegs.

During hot summer weather it is often worth fishing the pegs shaded by willows in the middle of the day. However, this pool is prone to flooding and as a result stock levels may fluctuate.

As a smaller water at 3.3 acres, it is easily fished with the pole or waggler and a selection of coarse baits including maggot, caster, bread and bread paste usually produces results.

Kingfisher Pool - Via Broomey Croft entrance

Kingfisher is a very attractive 1.6-acre lily covered pool which has a very uneven bottom due to the method of gravel extraction used. Access around the pool has been improved. Depths vary from around eight feet to around two-and-a-half feet and, because of the nature of the bottom, moving your float a yard or so in any direction can change the depth dramatically. This makes plumbing the depth essential on this pool.

With tench to 5lbs, match sized carp and good numbers of roach, perch and skimmers plus the occasional larger bream, Kingfisher is as nice a place as any to spend a pleasant summer’s day or evening. In good weather, jack pike and some large carp can often be seen basking in the lily covered shallower water near the motorway.

Fish stocks were recently boosted with 35 tench weighing between 3lbs and 6lbs and more than 100lbs of quality roach and rudd, the bigger fish being in excess of 2lbs.

Heron Pool - Via Broomey Croft entrance

Heron is another mixed fishery ideal for the pole or waggler, containing plenty of small roach as well as a few larger specimens. The water responds well to continental-style groundbait feed with hempseed or other additives.

In addition to the roach and skimmers, Heron Pool holds crucian carp, bream and tench to 4lbs and has a fairly uniform bottom and steep banks, much of the water being about 5ft deep. The two lily pad swims often prove successful, particularly during warmer weather.

Prices

Warwickshire Country Parks have gone cashless and simplified its day ticket prices which means anglers fishing Kingsbury Water Park now need to visit the nearest Pay and Display machine located in the staff and disabled car park near the main entrance.

Anglers should select the correct tariff for the lake they wish to fish and pay a single fee by card. The fee now incorporates the cost of car parking. Anglers should keep the fishing ticket with them so it can be checked by rangers on the bankside. It is no longer necessary to purchase a separate car parking ticket. Annual permits remain the same.

Ticket Prices

Adults Concessions
Day ticket price for all pools except Pine
7.50
6.50
Day ticket price for all pools except Pine 7.50 6.50
Day ticket price for Pine Pool
9.50
9.50
Day ticket price for Pine Pool 9.50 9.50

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