The fishery record for carp, which was taken in late summer 2005, is held by a 36lb 8oz mirror whilst the largest to have come out so far in 2007 weighed in at 32lbs.

In addition, tench over 9lbs can be taken as well as bream to 7lbs and roach 2lbs. The tench favour ledgered luncheon meat, whilst pellets are good for all species.

Pool One is between six and seven feet deep throughout and many anglers fish boilies, luncheon meat or maggots either on the float, method or more traditional ledger tackle. The use of sweetcorn and a feeder is also popular.

A well tried technique is to fish tinned cubed cat or dog food over trout pellets, although once the fish are in the swim and feeding almost anything seems to work well. Popular pegs for carp anglers are near the old oak tree and those near the overhanging willow tree. Anglers tend to prefer to drop their baits near to the islands when fishing these pegs.

As one would expect for any water which holds carp, floating baits are also successful, particularly during the evenings when floating crust, flake and Chum mixers all work a treat.

With Pool One's growing reputation as a carp water, modern carping techniques are increasingly being used for longer-stay anglers who are travelling from as far afield as Leeds to fish the venue.

Modern baits such as Active8, strawberry and other fruit flavours are now working well during the summer with fishmeal based boilies and pellets taking over in the colder months.

Unusually for a fishery, lighting has been provided around parts of Pool One and Two to make fishing easier for night anglers. Whilst they are not football stadium strength, they cast sufficient light for anglers to be able to fish by and do not seem to affect the fishing.

Anglers should note that juniors under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Most of the catfish are caught on legered luncheon meat.

Pool Two is fairly uniform at about five feet deep, although it runs down to about eight feet at its deepest near the outlet end by the electricity pylon.

As with many waters, the most successful techniques for fishing Pool Two change from week to week, although using feeder with sweetcorn or worms for the bream and carp usually provides results. Also, an increasing number of anglers are now using pellets and boilies which are proving effective for the carp, particularly in the warmer months.

Pole fishing with maggot, trout pellets or trout paste is also successful - using a mix of two parts crushed trout pellets to one part fine white crumb groundbait and mixing the blend into a paste. It is advisable to mix the paste thicker for fishing in the middle or thinner for fishing closer in.

Many anglers fish the float close in to the islands, but careful casting is called for - as the mass of floats caught in the fringes testifies. Alternatively, it can be just as productive to fish close in to the side.

It is also worth fishing slightly heavier than you would normally for roach and bream as the large head of decent sized carp give a good scrap for their size and can be decievingly strong.

In the summer, a lot of carp are caught in the margins, whilst Peg 27 - known locally as the 'Canal Peg' because the swim between the bank and the island looks like a stretch of canal - is a well-known hot spot. Here the fish favour the shallow water next to the bullrushes just off the island where the water is about four feet deep.

With 25 pegs, Pool Three was completed in 2002 and was designed specifically with the pole angler in mind averaging 13 metres at its widest. Whilst four hour matches are now generally won with between 40lbs and 60lbs, the match record currently stands at just over 70lbs

The banks go virtually straight down to an even bottom at about seven feet whilst coming out from the islands is a three feet deep shelf about three feet wide which is a popular spot with anglers.

Whilst most anglers fish Pool Three using the pole or whip, it is also a good waggler water - although reaching the far ledge next to the islands can be a bit risky.

As for baits, almost anything goes. Caster and maggots are both probably the most popular baits, sweetcorn is usually effective and an increasing number of anglers are using expander or soft hooking pellets.

Because it is predominantly a silver fish water it pays to use small amount of groundbait mixed with hook samples to attract and hold the fish in the swim.

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