Fisheries.co.uk - Stoppos Pool, Lullington, Staffordshire

Stoppos Pool

Westbrook Farm
Coton in the Elms Road
Lullington
Staffordshire

Tel: 07971 854104
E-mail: marktommo1@hotmail.com

John Stevens with a netful of Stoppos bream

The bream start to show at Stoppos

Stoppos Pool regular John Bradford (above right) has bagged what is thought to be the largest bream to come out of the fishery so far - a 5lb 10oz specimen which rell to double caster.

The fish was one of several decent sized bream to have been taken since they started showing early in the summer. Best catches are coming to anglers pole fishing double caster at six metres who bag up on tench and skimmers before the bigger bream and carp move in.

Also pictured (above left) is John Stevens with another nice all-bream bag which he took at the end of September 2009.

Offering angling on a membership-only basis for just £25.00 a year, Stoppos Pool between Tamworth and Burton-on-Trent on the delightfully-named Coton-in-the-Elms road at Lullington is a two-acre reed-lined former irrigation reservoir full of commons, mirrors and silver fish.
With few rules and its own car park, your £25.00 gets you a key to access a water where you will see few other anglers on a venue where pleasure weights regularly exceed 100lbs in warmer weather and matches are usually won with between 30lbs and 60lbs. Even in winter pleasure angler can now expect to take between 60lbs and 70lbs of fish.
Membership entitles fishing 365 days a year and anglers can fish at night with prior permission. The only bait bans are that catmeat and pellets should not be used and micro-barb hooks are allowed although full barb hooks should not be used. Anglers can use keepnets if they wish but are requested not to overfill them and to return bigger carp to the water immediately after capture.
At first sight Stoppos may seem a fairly open and featureless water, but the reed mace around the banks give anglers plenty of cover and once you nestle down on one of the 32 pegs you are surrounded by the tranquility of the water.
Clubs can hold matches on Stoppos at £4.00 per peg or £100.00 for the whole pool, although matches are only allowed at weekends. Members joining the fishery will be given a full list of proposed match dates when they join and membership runs for 12 months from the date of joining.
Stoppos has been run for the past six years by lifelong angler John Stevens, who has been carrying out regular stockings of the water since he first took it over, raising many of the fish himself in nearby stock ponds so that he can control the quality of the fish.

The result is that the water now carries a healthy head of common and mirror carp, tench, bream, roach, rudd and perch. The commons now run to 14lbs and the mirrors to 6lbs with plenty of fish around the 3lb mark. The biggest silver fish are the bream which go to over 6lbs followed by tench to 3lbs and roach, rudd and perch to about 1lb.

Angling Membership Prices

Adult membership	Junior membership
£25.00	£25.00

Anglers booking or taking part in matches do not have to be members at Stoppos

Stoppos Pool kicks off 2009 in fine form

Stoppos Pool kicked off 2009 with plenty of fish as regulars Mick Smith and Mark Tomlinson can testify. Mick is pictured above with a 4lb 5oz common carp (left) and a 5lb 9oz F1 hybrid (right) whilst Mark is pictured with a 2lb 12oz tench (centre).

Stoppos Pool

Whilst Stoppos Pool is about 20 feet deep in the centre, its banks slope at 45 degrees down to an eight feet deep shelf which runs out from the bank before dropping down again at 45 degrees to the bottom of the pool.

As a result, most anglers fish the pole or waggler on the shelf whilst those wanting to go deeper usually opt to fish more central areas of the water with a cage, open ended or Method feeder on the tip or baitrunner.

Plenty of pegs at Stoppos Pool Unusually for a water of its size, even when fishing the deeper water there is little or no undertow, which makes Stoppos an easy water to fish with the sliding float if anglers want to head for the deeper water on float tackle.

Although there are no monster fish, the water holds plenty of common carp to 14lbs with the average size being about 3lbs. There is also a good head of mirrors to 6lbs with the average slightly heavier than the commons at between 4lbs and 5lbs.

For those who prefer to go for the silver fish, Stoppos is well stocked with bream to a handsome 6lbs, tench to 4lbs, as well as roach, rudd and perch to about 1lb.

The nets at at the left hand end of Stoppos Pool When fishing the pole it is recommended anglers use up to an 11-metre carp pole with a 14 or 16 elastic run through three sections. An 8lb main line connected to a 6lb bottom and a 16 micro-barb hook should handle most eventualities.

Anglers who fish lighter poles and elastic find that bigger hooked carp dive to the deeper water and before they know it they have run out of elastic and loose the fish.

To get the bait down to the fish most anglers bulk their shot under a one or one-and-a-half gram float about three feet from the hook with doppers spaced at one foot intervals from the hook.

Looking back towards the entrance of Stoppos Pool Popular baits on this technique are bread punch or caster and chopped worm, with bread punch being particularly effective for the roach.

Fishing the pole in this manner is particularly effective when accompanied by regular groundbaiting. One of the best forms is to finely chop three loaves of bread in a liquidiser and compress this into tight balls on the bank either dry or with a little water just to moisten it.

If you find you are getting bites on the drop it naturally pays to shallow up gradually until you find the depth at which the fish are feeding.

The nets at at the left hand end of Stoppos Pool Much the same technique goes for anglers fishing the waggler where an 8lb main line and 6lb bottom is again recommended. Plumbing the depth is important to ensure that the bait is just on the bottom and groundbait needs to be mixed fairly stiffly to ensure it gets to the bottom before breaking up.

Anglers who prefer to fish the feeder on the tip or baitrunner are advised to leave only a short hooklength with four inches being the recommended distance between the feeder and hook. Anything longer than this enables the fish to take the bait without the bite registering whilst the short hooklength result in the fish being startled when it feels the weight of the feeder or hook and making a dash.

When fishing the feeder in deeper water it often pays to use a slightly larger hook, say a Size 12 or 14, again with chopped worm or caster as bait.

How to get there...

Stoppos Pool can be found in the countryside between Tamworth and Burton on Trent near the village of Lullington.

From the M42, leave the motorway at its junction with the A444 and then follow the signs for Seckington towards Tamworth. Take the second turning on the right to Clifton Campville and take the right turn immediately after the Green Man in Clifton Campville. On arriving in Lullington villahe take the first left in front of the church and the first right into Coton in the Elms Road with Westbrook Farm on the left. Some 200 yards down this road you will see the gated entrance to Stoppos Pool on the right.

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