Rookery Waters, Pidley, Cambridgeshire, 20th March 2011

I had been watching a Bob Nudd video and at the same time, Mark had heard about Rookery Waters in the village of Pidley.  So we decided to fish Magpie Lake at Rookery Waters.

There are three lakes at Rookery Waters, Rook, Magpie and Jay.  After speaking to the owner the night before we were told there was a small match on Magpie but we could still fish it, so pegs 9 & 10 were selected, again with an island to fish to.

We arrived at first light, paid for our ticket in the honesty box and set off to the pegs.  It was pretty cold and the pegs we had selected were facing the wind, which was not the best omen...

Again, I chose to use the pole as my main line of attack and Mark went for the two rod option, Carp Rod on buzzer and waggler approach.

The going was very slow to start with very little coming on the short pole line.  Infact it took about an hour to get the first fish, a little roach.  Mark wasn't having much luck either... that was until his carp road went off!

Next thing a lovely Barbel came to the net, approx. 5lb and taken on hair rigged Pepparami.

So with that out came the bomb rod and I opted to try white paste on a hair rig set up.

Twice the rod was taken from the rests.  The first take resulted in the hooklength breaking, the second brought a lovely fantail goldfish to the net.

The white paste was certainly the bait of choice as the action was full on for the next 90 minutes.

It was pretty equal between Mark and myself, the fish were coming on a regular basis, although the large barbel had put Mark in the hypothetical lead.

I landed a large ghost carp, beautiful fish both in and out of the water.

The match anglers arrived and fished the opposite side of the lake, they didn't have a lot of action and it seemed that we had the lion share of the fish.

Lunchtime arrived and the fish were off the boil.  Mark was catching regularly on the pellet.  I lost a couple more fish with broken hooklengths, all 4lb.  At the end of the day I gave Mark the point, but he was using two rods at the same time.  That rule will be changing next time matey!!! ;-)

Some pictures of the catches below, including my first Barbel!  Enjoy.



Location: Long Drove, Pidley, Cambridgeshire PE28 3, UK

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