The news that Sway Lakes is to become a syndicate water from next year doesn’t really surprise me. It’s the owner’s choice, and how they run their business is not my concern. But I reckon that the outcry that has followed the news in this week’s Angling Times, and here on Fishingmagic, needs to be looked at in a more calculating manner.
First of all just what is Sway Lakes? It’s two small, narrow lakes joined by a tiny channel. Both are shallow, and fishing is from one bank only giving fifteen swims. The water closes each winter and the stock is carefully managed. Every year or two excess stock is removed, and it is this factor that has enabled it to hold a small stock of big roach (80 2lb fish?), with fish nudging three pounds, plus of course a carefully managed stock of carp with a high proportion of twenty pounders. Left to its own devices, as is the case with most waters of this size, it would quickly fill with small roach and the big ones would be no more. My first point is that the big roach reputation is only because of careful, and excellent, fish management.
To my mind, this makes it one of the most artificial waters in the country. I would rank an eight-ounce fish from the nearby Stour as worthy a capture as one of the two pounders from Sway. Too harsh a judgement? Perhaps, but little skill is needed in swim selection. Tactics are simple fine line float fishing. Secondly, I think that anyone shelling out £ 470 per annum to fish such a limited water needs their bumps felt. Carp fishing in a glorified garden pond? For a quarter of that amount I get 40 waters with nearby Christchurch AC, or not far short with Ringwood DAA. Fifteen swims? I get so many I can’t count them (1000s) on a wide variety of waters from small streams, major rivers, ponds and large gravel pits. So, in the value for money stakes, it’s no contest. And for the record, those two clubs’ waters hold roach to nearly four pounds and carp over forty pounds (and I haven’t mentioned the double figure tench, fifteen pound barbel, fifteen pound bream, three pound perch, eight pound chub, etc, etc…). For those anglers that have never caught a two pound roach, and I know that remains a dream for thousands of anglers, it must be said that Sway was an easy way to realise that dream. Many have done just that. But there are far more big roach around than most realise; hard to find and even harder to catch maybe, but present all the same. And they are in all sorts of waters; not just the obvious chalk streams but lakes, lowland rivers, gravel pits even commercial carp waters. Some of our neglected rivers hold them, waters like the Trent and Thames.
So if you want that big roach you don’t necessarily have to travel all the way from Sheffield to Hampshire, and as John Ledger and Ron Clay will attest you’ll probably find far better roach sport on a water like the Trent or Idle than squeezing in between a row of carpers. Imagine the satisfaction of a two-pounder from Medley on the Thames, or the Idle, or the Severn. They’d be no artificial garden pond fish. I think that the lesson we should learn from Sway is that if you take a small manageable water, with good potential, and ruthlessly control the stock, it is possible to obtain very good roach fishing in circumstances that otherwise would result in a water full of small roach. Plenty of clubs and fishery owners could follow this example. Finally, let’s put the myth of Sway Lakes being the finest roach water in the country to rest. It’s a stock pond, that’s all. Big roach fishing always was meant to be a challenge which is why such true experts as Bill Penney and Dave Howes will continue to be held in high regard (I nearly forgot one of the other all time roach experts – Dick Walker, and not forgetting John Bailey and John Wilson). So get out there and find some undiscovered big roach. All you’ve got to do is catch them! |
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