Aston Park Fisheries - Monday 21st September

Me and James returned to our favourite near-by fishery Aston Park, on Monday 21st September, and all though we lost the battle with the weather, we certainly won the war with the fish!
We arrived mid morning around 10am, and quickly set up our two rods each, one out on the bite alarm and one free-lining a single floating dog biscuit. As usual we fished from our usual spot, down in the far right corner of the specimen 'Lilly Lake', on pegs 16 and 17. Both James and I were using similar rigs and baits on the bite alarm, only differing in our choice of boilies. James went for a solitary white scopex boilie on a hair rig, with a piece of corn, whereas I decided to go for two yellow pineapple boilies.

The weather was very unkind to us, with heavy persistent rain throughout the morning, with the rare period of calm overcast conditions. Due to this inclement and windy weather, we were having no luck on the fish front. After lunch conditions improved slightly, and around 2pm we got our first fish, with myself and James both pulling in a small Carp (approx 6lb) and a decent Chubb (1lb) respectively. These were both caught off the bite alarms, ledgering in the edge of the nearby reed and lilies.

Following our first two fish, around 2:30pm, conditions continued to improve, with the wind dying down and leaving us with excellent free-lining conditions. Following visiting a couple of times now and trying a number of different dog biscuits, the biscuits we now use appear to be incredibly successful, causing a large number of fish to turn and feed on our biscuits. We had approximately 10/15 fish feeding across our two pegs, with a number of decent sized heads popping up and taking our bait. At just before 3pm I managed to hook a beauty, I could tell from the initial pull, and the amount of line screaming off my reel, that it was not the usual 8lb Carp we usually catch at Aston, and was in fact one of the many larger fish in the specimen lake. After a good fight of around 4-5 minutes, I managed to land this beautiful 17lb 5 Common Carp, with not a scale damaged. Fantastically, this was a new PB for me, smashing my previous best by over 2lb!
(As you can see, we didn't manage to avoid the rain!)

    

Unbelievably, under an hour later, James managed to catch himself a personal best as well! James' fish initially didn't put up much of a fight, leading James to think it was only a 'tiddler', however after seeing the bank, the fish shot off, pulling a good length of line from James' reel with it. After a well fought battle, I stuck out the landing net and managed to land the beauty and get it onto the unhooking mat. We dug out the scales once more, and this lovely Mirror weighed just over 16lb 7, a new PB for James, beating his previous best caught down in Dorset. 

As you can see from the pictures, two very happy fishermen, and two beautiful fish!

I have recently spoken to some fellow fishermen who were setting up just a few pegs further up from our usual spot, and told them of our conquests and said I would definitely recommend fishing Peg 17 and said I was packing away and would happily vacate it for them as they set up. I have since been informed that throughout their 24 hour session, the pair of them caught 4 carp over 12lb and totalled 14 fish over the period. James and I wouldn't be able to comment on Aston Park as a whole, as we have always fished on the specimen Lilly lake, however judging by this lake, there is an excellent chance of catching, with a large number of very big fish present, all in great condition. 

As previously mentioned, we would highly, highly recommend dog biscuits, 90% of our Carp have been caught on our chosen chicken dog biscuits, and even a large Chubb last time out.

Stay tuned for more updates and posts, we are currently in the process of planning a night fish, with a number of possible destinations in the pipeline!

A1 Pits - Newark

On Wednesday the 2nd of September, both myself and James travelled down to the well thought of A1 pits. We had heard many positive things about this fishery, with rumours of a great number of 30lb and even 40lb carp.
We arrived around Wednesday morning after around an hours drive from Sheffield. There are 6 pits to choose from at A1 pits, Pits 1 to 3 are the smallest on the complex, with pits 4, 5 and 6 covering over 8 acres each. Pits 4, 5 and 6 have the biggest fish at the fishery, with carp over the 40lb mark. We settled on Pit 4, and found a nice spot in a secluded corner with a number of over hanging trees, bushes and lilly-pads.

After setting up our rods, bait-mix, bite alarms etc we were greeted by a fellow fisherman who had been night fishing on Pit 4 since Friday evening. He informed us that throughout the 5 nights he had camped on the pit,  he hadn't a single bite. Obviously, this wasn't an ideal start to our quest, however we proceeded regardless. We had heard from a number of regular visitors to A1 that white boilies, corn and method feeders were all effective, therefore we set our rods up accordingly. Our mix within the method feeder consisted of chilli hemp, high leakage pellets, sweetcorn, and a number of crushed bright boilies.

Throughout the morning and afternoon we gradually dispersed bait into our swims, and tried a number of areas across the swim, including secluded corners, margins, and against a number of trees and reed banks. Unfortunately, in accordance with our fellow fisherman who greeted us earlier in the day, we too had no sign at all of a bite, and had seen very little sign of life over the course of the day.

I have no doubt that this place is an excellent place to fish, however we must have caught it on a bad day, or even week perhaps. We will perhaps visit A1 again in the near future, perhaps for a longer period of time.

The pegs are very accessible, with a track going round the complex making it easy for you to drive directly to your chosen peg. Night fishing is easily available, with plenty of room to erect your bivvies and tents.

Aston Park Fisheries - M1 Junction 31

One of our original regular haunts starting out carp fishing and being based in the South Yorkshire area, was Aston Park Fisheries. This was formerly known as KJs I believe, and constitutes 7 lakes and over 240 pegs over a 25 acre site.

Aston Park is a haven for pleasure and match anglers with nearly all of the 7 lakes offering a good head of double figure carp. Aston is very to easy access, just off Junction 31 of the M1, and has a superb shop and cafe on site. The shop offers a vast array of items, bait, tackle and more expensive items such as rods and seat-boxes. 

Lilly lake is the largest and most sought after of the seven lakes with large stocks of fish, including various Carp to 30lb plus, Tench to 3lb, Bream to 4lb, Roach, Perch and Barbel. We have fished this venue probably 5-6 times and have caught over 50 fish between us over the course of these visits. The lake is packed with good carp, with the average we netted being around 8-10lbs. There are a large number of bigger fish in the margins, with the majority of the carp taking dog biscuits and pop up boilies. Just recently we pulled out two mid doubles simply using a solitary dog biscuit and dropping it in front of one of the many lilly pads in close. 

I would highly recommend Aston to all fishermen, whether starting out or experienced, I would almost guarentee you will catch in a session of 5 hours or longer. I would recommend peg 17 down in the right corner of the Lilly lake, as it has a number of over hanging trees, as well as two large padded areas. 

Please see below a couple of the fish we managed on our last visit, you will notice the fish are in excellent condition, as are all of the fish at Aston Park. All the staff present at Aston are incredibly polite and helpful, including the bailiffs who patrol the lakes. The prices are reasonable at £6 per day ticket and £20 for 24 hours. If you fancy a day ticket, make sure to leave the park by 9:45 as there is an automatic electric gate which locks shut at 10pm.