Words and photographs by Terry Comerfordwww.midlandanglingnews.comSam Anslow – 21st Century Fishery ManagerSTAFFORD BASED FISHERY MANAGER Sam Anslow is well known amongst the carping fraternity in the midlands, the 23 year old with a HND qualification in Fisheries and Aquatics Management from Rodbaston College, is possibly the youngest fishery manager in the UK.
Under his youthful but expert stewardship are four of the country’s top carp waters, the day ticket Monument Fishery, holiday big carp venues The Avenue and Weston Park, and the ultra exclusive, Acton Burnell syndicate water, all controlled by the Rob Hales owned RH Fisheries. Sam is totally dedicated to the job of keeping these four quality carp waters near the top of the UK’s list of prestigious carp venues, it’s a stressful but extremely rewarding job and one that I thought was worth taking the opportunity to have a look behind the scenes and follow Sam, as he tackles an average day, something that we as anglers would never see, as we sit beside our rods waiting for another run, oblivious to the work and fishery management that takes place around us. The Monument FisheryFor four days a week it’s a 4:30am start at home in Stafford for Sam to make it possible to get to The Monument for its 7am opening time; night fishing is only allowed on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays when Sam either fishes with the anglers or spends the nights in the office, at the fishery. One thing’s for sure, the anglers that have booked in for a day’s carping at The Monument are never late. The fishery holds at least five 40s, forty five 30s, and over two hundred 20lbs plus fish! The prices to fish are £ 30 a day ticket, from March to October and £ 20 a day ticket through the winter. The phenomenal interest in fishing this unique big carp day ticket water is amazing, with the venue often being sold out for months in advance! The first task
Up go the roller shutters doors and the first task is to sort out all the anglers with up to date info on the pegs that they have booked for the day. Sam sees it as a big part of his job to glean masses of info. Despite its phenomenal stocking of big carp, The Monument is not an easy water and successful tackle and bait presentations change regularly. The venue regulars supply Sam with up to the minute tips to pass on and he fishes the lake each week himself, on night and day sessions, so he is always the arriving anglers first target every morning. A large number of anglers buy their bait from the on-site tackle shop that stocks a comprehensive range of bait and tackle. The ever popular SBS M1 boilie is much in demand. With the Quad and trailer loaded, it’s time to take the anglers around to their pegs on the Monument lake. With just 15 pegs on the lake there’s plenty of water to go at from each immaculate bark chipped pitch and Sam makes sure that within minutes of the anglers arriving they are delivered to their pegs and quickly bivvied up.
With the anglers all at their pegs it’s back to the office to sort emails, bookings and post and re-fill the shelves in the tackle shop, then it’s another walk around the lake to take the orders for breakfast in the caf  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.
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