Old Bury Hill fisheries

[flightliner]

Steve, my one and only double—

 

[mikench]

Nice Mick. I have never even seen one let alone caught one. I doubt we have them up here.

 

[seth49]

This might help those interested in fishing there, to far away for me.

 

[flightliner]

Steve, my one and only double—View attachment 32226

Nice Mick. I have never even seen one let alone caught one. I doubt we have them up here.

Mine was a Trent fish Mike, are'nt there plenty in the Severn?

 

[@Clive]

Actually the very, very first Zander I caught there was on double red maggot when I was trying for one of the big roach. It was about the size of a gudgeon. I had 3-4 like this which prompted me to go back and fish the main lake with proper bait/gear.

You could always spend your summer holidays in the Marais Poitevin just east of La Rochelle. The fenland drains have lots of zander in them as well as gibels to over 4lb, mullet and rudd. Its a great place for bird watching too. I don't get the zander thing, but the carassins fight, bite and behave just like crucians and I could fish for mullet every day if it was possible.

 

[ian g]

They're in the lower Severn but not up around Shrewsbury yet.

 

[markcw]

Plenty in the Oxford canal . In fact one club is removing pike so the Zander can flourish . The bailiff wasn't impressed when I mentioned wouldn't it be better the other way round and if I caught a Zander it would get knocked on the head as an invasive species .

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

Sorry to hear that Skippy. I knew it had been converted to a sort of club, but has Dave (?) really lost interest in it? Maybe a new owner will restore it and charge a reasonable price to fish it again. Seems a lot are charge £12 a day now, but many will allow two rods for that.
I remember receiving a scam email supposedly from you saying you were in Madrid and had your wallet and passport stolen and needed £200 to get the papers etc. to get back home. Oddly, you had posted just two hours before on here stating that you were off to Old Bury Hill fishing. A few of us received that message and Windy (is he still around) was even going to send some money. Thankfully your earlier post saved the day.
I hope it does re-open sometime next year. It's a valuable fishery.
Edit bit: I believe zander are coming up the Jubilee now. Not had confirmed reports as such, just rumours.

 

[The bad one]

Had a few doubles off the real Fens back in the 90s. Best going 11 3/4 lb. If I can find the photo I'll stick it up.
I have to say I enjoyed my time fishing for zander over 5/6 years I did it. Something different that we don't get in the NW. That said, I'm hearing sound rumours from reliable sources, there's a few turning up in the Ship Canal.
10 years ago, I’d have gone pioneering to test the rumours, but not now, getting to old for it.

 

[Aknib]

Windy (is he still around)

Sadly i've not seen a post from Euan (I hope i've spelt that right) for a long, long time.

Under my previous incarnation I was having issues with my laptop and was having to post from my phone which didn't suit me at all and Windy pm'd me offering to send me a laptop... Remarkable kindness. Then there was his engagement and contribution with the inter-fora paddlers debate where he really showed his prowess, imo.

Was he QC?

I'm pretty sure he was something like that.

Either way an absolute gentleman of the highest order and I hope he's catching the fish of his dreams wherever he is.

 

[@Clive]

I've noticed that he still visits the forum regularly. In fact he visited this afternoon.

 

[Philip]

I remember fishing OBH back when it was just the old lake and before Milton and the rest. Back then it was basically the only realistic place for South Londoners to have a bash at Zander....I remember once blanking while a guy in the next peg was catching them on worms meant for Tench. I hope it stays open as it is a bit of fishing history.

About Zander in general....I started using heavy quivertip rods for Zander fishing a few years ago, the sort you would use for heavy feeder fishing and have not looked back. They are such contrary fish, I still don’t know what I would consider to be a classic swim for them having had them from shallows inches deep to swirling bottomless wier pools....I wish I could work them out !

One memorable night some years back I was fishing well into the night on the river, shining my head torch onto the shallows I noticed dozens of pairs of tiny lights shining back at me moving slowly across the river bed - Zander on the hunt ! … pick a nice still night and a strong torch and it is possible to stalk them after dark…really exciting.

No one believes me but on one river the best conditions by FAR are to fish mid afternoon in summer on the hottest clear blue sky day possible...we are not talking one off fluke captures either...you can get multiple runs in the space of an afternoon.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

I’ve only been a couple of times but Milton and the other small pool seemed a bit contrived - it didn’t seem like proper fishing. i havent really fished commercials apart from one in Surrey and that was the same. Would love to fish the large lake.

 

[S-Kippy]

I think OBH is gone for good tbh. Lottery permitting I’d buy it like a shot and get Russ Evans back to run it. Not going to happen though.

I paid less being an old boy and usually rocked up after 1pm which counted as half a day…. but it was still £9 a rod + an extra £9 if you wanted to fish after dark ( until 9 pm) which some years was the only way to get a run. I always fished two rods so once you add bait and fuel that’s not a cheap day and that’s why I think a lot of people stopped coming.

Jeff : I’d be very interested if they got up the Jubilee in decent numbers.

 

[Steve King]

I first fished OBH in the late 60s when Wimbledon Broadway Angling Club had the far bank on the original lake. I remember taking part in several working parties dredging out swims with a converted half dustbin that was rowed out and then dragged back by ropes!

iI have memories of lovely tench and perch, but I never got into the zander fishing and I then moved to north London and to other venues.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I first fished OBH in the early 70’s usually with my father in law. In those days the bailiff was a large bloke who wandered around with two very large GSD’s.

Typically Tench were the target.

 

[S-Kippy]

The tench fishing dropped right off at OBH as they couldn’t compete with the hordes of bream in the Old Lake. I had one session after them, had a tench on my first and second cast then an endless procession of snotty chair levellers. The owner replanted the lake with lilies a few years back which he allegedly said was to encourage the tench. Don’t know if it worked as by then I was totally obsessed with the zander.

 

[@Clive]

The tench fishing dropped right off at OBH as they couldn’t compete with the hordes of bream in the Old Lake. I had one session after them, had a tench on my first and second cast then an endless procession of snotty chair levellers. The owner replanted the lake with lilies a few years back which he allegedly said was to encourage the tench. Don’t know if it worked as by then I was totally obsessed with the zander.

You had it better than me regards the tench. A 20 hectare lake not too far away has tench illustrated as resident species on the big notice board near to the entrance. I fished for them in a lily lined bay for three or four summers without a single bubble let alone a tench. Plenty of carp and bream though. A few years after giving up on the water they drained it for routine maintenance. Of the 20+ tonnes of fish temorarily removed less than 10 kilos were tincas. When they re-stocked they held back several tonnes of roach and increased the black bass and zander numbers. No mention of the tench.