Astwood Fishery

Smokie Joe's

The pool nearest to the entrance, Smokey Joe’s is named after a former bailiff who used to love his ciggies. At an acre in size, it offers 20 well-spaced pegs – which means there is plenty of room for anglers.

Water depth at Smokie Joe’s

Deepest at the end nearest the caravan where 12 feet of water can be found, Smokey Joe’s gradually shallows to about seven feet deep at the far end, although it has a three-feet deep ledge which runs down the left hand side of the pool as you look at it from the entrance. This ledge runs out about seven feet from the bank and can provide great fishing in summer once the water has warmed up.

Fish in the pool

As with the other Astwood Fishery waters, Smokey Joe’s holds a nice mix of fish which include Mirror Carp to just over 30lbs with several fish now over 20lbs, Commons to 20lbs and Ghost Carp to over 24lbs.

With roach to 2lbs, rudd to half-a-pound, perch to 3lbs, skimmer bream to 1lb, tench and ide to 3lbs and a few chub to 1lb, this is a nice mixed fish water where you can go for decent nets of silver fish with a decent chance of picking up some of the better carp along the way.

The match record for Smokey Joe’s was set in 2007 by Astwood regular Ashley Walker who pole fished feeder pellets and corn up in the water for a predominantly carp bag which weighed in at 138lbs. Pleasure catches in excess of 100lbs are regular, particularly in the warmer months.

Fishing and bait strategy at the pool

Although the deeper water is most productive in winter when a slider float or feeder are useful additions to the tackle box and catches of 30lbs to 40lbs are not uncommon, there are no particular hot spots in summer.

Then, fishing in the margins, to the island or fairly close in where the banks shelve at about 45 degrees to the bottom are usually best. However, wherever you fish, sweetcorn, luncheon meat, Astwood’s own hook pellets, sinking bread flake, maggots and worms are all good baits.

Because groundbait is not permitted it pays to feed with hook samples and feeder pellets, varying the depth until you find the fish and then keeping them going with loose feed. In summer you can usually afford to be fairly generous with the feed and it is not unusual for anglers to use three or four tins of sweetcorn in a match.

Fishing on the bottom

In winter the bottom is the place to catch fish, and although many anglers regard sweetcorn as a predominantly summer bait it seems equally effective all year round at Astwood. Maggots are another good winter bait, and again anglers should feed little and often – although not as much as in summer when the fish tend to feed more freely.

Most anglers fishing the Astwood pools tend to fish a 4lb line straight through to a 10, 12 or 14s hook. Fish any lighter and you will undoubtedly be broken if one of the medium to larger sized carp comes along.

Bluebell Pool

Anglers looking for the bigger fish at Astwood are probably best advised to head for Bluebell Pool, indeed, the attractiveness of this water and its head of Mirror Carp – which now run to just over 30lbs – are starting to attract the interest of a small number of specimen carp anglers.

Similar in size to Smokey Joe’s at about an acre, Bluebell Pool has 24 pegs and an island at the far end which usually attracts the ‘early birds’ as the carp are often to be found cruising round the island and in the margins. The match record here was set by Peter Bailey who beat the previous match record of 143lbs which he set with a net-busting 156lbs.

Diverse fishing the Bluebell Pool

The commons and ghosties can also give good sport, although at up to 20lbs and 24lbs respectively, they do not run as large as the mirror carp which were introduced when the fishery was first developed and now come in at just over 30lbs.

For the silverfish angler there are bream to between 4lbs and 5lbs; roach to 1lb; rudd between 14oz and 1lb; and plenty of hybrid crucians/goldfish to about 1lb which can be quite prolific when they are on the feed. In addition, there are some Common Carp hybrids that generally range in size from 2lbs 8oz to 4lbs 8oz. These fish, which have spawned naturally in the pool, look like Common Carp but have no barbels.

An added attraction is that there are known to be a good head of large bream to over 8lbs but for some reason, these have not shown over the last couple of years.

Depth of the Bluebell pool.

One reason for this may be that the pool was originally 12 feet deep throughout much of its length with a deeper hole of about 15 feet. However, over the past few seasons a large amount of silt has built up on the bottom and this is known to contain large amounts of bloodworm which may have become the larger breams’ predominant food source.

The result of the silting is that much of Bluebell Pool now runs between five-and-a-half feet deep around the island and about 10 feet deep everywhere. Shallower water can also be found around the sides of the pool which, like Smokey Joe’s, shelve at an angle of about 45 degrees to the bottom.

Those going after the carp – a great many of which are over 20lbs – are advised to use more traditional baits and techniques with good old fashioned float fishing on the bottom in the margins being as successful as anything.

Bait techniques on Bluebell Pool

Interestingly enough, big fish don’t tend to be caught using big baits and although anglers can use up to two rods equally good results are achieved using just one. Packing a selection of feeder pellets and hook samples in a pva bag should help to keep feed concentrated in a small area.

By and large, the techniques and baits which work well on Smokey Joe’s do well on Bluebell with a 12 to 14s elastic and a 12 or 14s hook to a minimum 4lb line being recommended. Again, sweetcorn, luncheon meat, maggots and, especially in winter, worm are all goo baits although floating baits are discouraged.

Buddleia Pool

Ideal all round and winter venue

Rectangular in shape with three central islands, you may be forgiven for thinking that Buddleia Pool is Astwood’s out-and-out match water, but you would be mistaken.

This two-acre, 44-peg water was originally stocked with silver fish and tench, but in 2002 a large number of carp were introduced transforming it into a general all-round water. However, the large stock of silver fish make it an ideal venue for winter anglers.

Six-feet deep all over, the islands are between 14 and 16 metres from the bank and the ground cover, high islands and bankside vegetation means that anglers usually cannot see anyone fishing the opposite side of the pool. Once again the sides drop at a 45 degree angle to the bottom.

Fish available in the pool

Buddleia holds mirrors and commons to about 14lbs, roach to 2lbs with a lot around the 1lb mark, ide to 1lb, perch to 3lbs, bream to 5lbs and Old English Crucian Carp to 12oz with the occasional fish to 1lb plus a good head of crucian hybrids to about 12oz. In addition, there are a good number of tench which now run to 7lbs and 8lbs with plenty of fish in the 4lb to 5lb range.

The match record on Buddleia currently stands at 236lbs, a weight set in 2010 by Peter Bailey fishing corn on a 16 metre pole to the island in one foot of water with an all carp bag comprising mainly fish weighing between 4lbs and 8lbs.

Popular baits at Buddleia

Again the most popular baits tend to be sweetcorn and luncheon meat for those anglers after the carp with maggots, bread, worm and hooker pellets popular for general fishing. Feeding hook samples with feeder pellets is a good means of attracting the fish and the most popular technique is to fish either close into the side, against the islands or in the channels which run between the islands.