Whittlebrook 2024.

July 21^st June, 2024.

 First of all I only went fishing once in 2023, this was down to the deteriorating health of my Mother-in-law who was suffering from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's disease and she could never be left alone. Sadly she passed away on the 21^st of December 2023.

Thank you for so many wonderful memories… Rest in Peace Norah Dean…

 Secondly, I want to remember my Best Friend who passed away on the 4^th April 2024. Paul Welch, also known as Walshy aged 61. If there was ever a mate who I connected with like a Brother, it was Paul. We shared many interests, and Fishing was one of them, years ago we would spend all night making floats, bite indicators and many other things.

 

You’ll always be with me when I go fishing…

Rest in Peace Paul.

Rest in Peace Mate.

 

Ok, now to my fishing blog.

Due to the weather in early 2024 and other jobs that need doing I did not get round to fishing until June 21^st.

I set myself a challenge for this one, I fished a Broughton Anglers water called Whittlebrook, it is in Walkden next to the railway lines and is surrounded by private homes which gives it a very private and exclusive feel. It’s quite a big water, and is feed from a network of reservoirs in the Walkden area. I am told that when the rain is heavy the water turnover in the lake is quite high and puts the fish off for a few days until it settles down.

 

Anyway the lake ws of a total unknown to me, the over experience I had of the place was doing a couple of work parties there.

 

So my plan was to fish a peg which I suspected was maybe not fished often due to the trees around it being over grown. I had opened it up on the last work party I did, so planned to give it a go.

 

I believe most people here fish mostly for the Carp because there are some very nice Carp here. But I wanted to see what the silver fish were like here, i.e. Roach.

 

So I set up my usual set up of one Carp rod fished with Broad Beans and my Match Rod fished with Ground Bait, Maggots and Sweet corn.

 

I expected the match rod to be slow because I knew this water was not teaming with Roach like Bowker Vale and Ashenhurst. So as the panned out, bites wee slow. I missed a few early in the day due to faffing with my setup.

 

Then around 9.30am I had a run on the Carp rod, and eventually reeled in a Mirror Carp of around the 8 to 10lb mark which came in quite easy on my Whisker Kevlar 2Ib test rod, 6Ib live and 4 hook. See the video below using my spy glasses!

Then later at 10.20am I had a bite on my match rod, I had already had a few bites which I had missed, but this one I hit perfectly, just as it was going down, and “Wham” I hit something solid! I was using 4lb line and a 14 hook with double maggot as bait, so I was expecting anything from Roach to Tench, but this thing hugged the bottom for a while before I eventually brought it to the surface where it rolled and shown itself to be a big fat Mirror Carp. AT that moment I was buzzing, my full focus was on landing this fish, because I knew this was going to be my biggest since 1988 when I fished Clifton Marina Paul (Walshy) The video of me playing this fish is below, and it turned out to be around 16 to 17lb mark, I guess this due to my scales not being very accurate and being the first time I had used them.

 

Later on I caught two Roach on my Match Rod which on the face of it sounds insignificant. But both Roach were a descent size, so much so that they were on the edge of what needed netting instead of being lifted out by the Rod.

 

This makes me think that if two Roach can come out at that size, then how big were the other fish in the shoal!!!

 

My next plan is to attack Whittlebrook with a different plan next time, starting with some pre-baiting and a view to attracting a shoal of these fish and hopefully catching some quality Roach!

Some photos from the day... 

 

Stay Tuned!!!