Woodhouse Grange 19.4.25
Dry sunny day John Utting, John Lanelly and myself had decided to pleasure fish Heron Lake at Woodhouse Grange.
Mr Utting and Mr Lanelly had dined in the café and enjoyed the breakfast and were setting up to fish on my arrival. Note café I am told is under new ownership.
I went on peg 48 in a nice flat calm sheltered corner of the lake, Mr Lanelly was on 46 to my left and sat in the breeze which was blowing right to left. Mr Utting was on peg 44 I think and in the full on wind.
Note all nets to be dipped, pellets for sale in café at £3 per bag, it was recommended micros, 4 and 6mm pellets would be required.
Heron is on the left of the main access road to the site
The lake is rectangular with a narrow island down the centre. This holds pegs 1 to 13 on it. The numbers then run around the back side of the lake where access is via a concrete sectional road accessed via a ramp off main entrance road. The pegs along the entrance road side are numbered approx. 33 to 49 with 50 to 52 to the island. There is a fence separating the access road from the lake and 3 breaks in this fence to allow access to the lake.
Please note there is no parking on any grass so you leave your car on the access road or track at back of the lake. At the end of the lake pegs 48 to 52 and the island access is via a grass ramp with cars left on main access road again.
Distance to island is about 30m from each side bank, so 15m chuck to middle of lake if Island is pegged in.
The pegs consist of concrete blocks "laid" on the bank. Some are tipping / leaning in different directions, many forward and would be classed as unfishable. The distance between these pegs can vary from 5m to approx 8m. with the ends pegged in it is very tight and there could be clashes of poles meeting at10m length into the lake.
The bank is reed lined with some pockets in the reeds / margins.
Depths at peg 48 was 4 feet at 2+2, 8 feet peg 44 at 2 + 4. Margins varied on peg 48 from 18inch alongside reeds to 2 ½ feet depending on where you plumbed up. I think Johns were also fishing these margin depths.
All baits were tried, worm, corn, pellets, paste, expanders and all caught fish. Feeder, long poles and margins all gave fish.
Bait restrictions are in place, fishery feed pellets only, and NO Wafters of any sort included.
John U's clicker registered 98lbs and he didn't count his silvers. John L and myself reckon we had around 50ish. You don't know what y9ou are going to catch, Gudgeon, perch, roach, skimmers of various sizes, Tench, F1s and carp. F1s were ranging from 1lb to 3lb, carp also a couple of lbs to about 7lb. the day started slowly but got a lot better as it went along and fish came onto the feed. Bearing in mind there were only 3 of us on the lake, and we had a space between us it will be very different for our match. We will need a lot of neighbouring cooperation if feeders are to be chucked out. Similarly around the ends of the lake when poles are out at length due to angles of pegs and being close together.
For our match we have been given pegs 32 to 52, 20 pegs. Another club is on the lake and giving 1 to32. The bailiff did say that he should be able to give us extra pegs on the day as he does not believe the other club will have 30 anglers and he likes to space pegs out a little. Hopefully this will help us out as 18 confirmed Bashers the state and positioning of pegs it will be "interesting". We are unable to draw until the day as we the need to know pegging numbers so we can drop out pegs where possible.
For the fishery and lakes you seem to be guaranteed bites and action. You never know what fish you will catch from the selection in the lake. With our weights today, the fish came and went in spells however we were busy most of the day and all enjoyed the day. It does offer options for mid week pleasure sessions if we don't have numbers to make a match up.
lake plan and some pictures pf access road bank
peg 49 to 52 and a couple of pegs on island
Thank you Leo. Very helpful. Let's hope we don't have any falling out on Saturday. Think the pegging is going to be interesting 🤔
Thanks for sharing Leo