How Oz Holness cracked Dinton's White Swan

Set in the heart of Royal Berkshire and steeped in carp angling history, is the famous Dinton Pastures Country Park. Located in a large swathe of stunning countryside yet only a stone’s throw from the M4, it’s yet another of those gems sitting along that corridor of gravel extraction, possibly dug in the early seventies.

The White Swan Lake nestles down partly parallel to the River Lodden and partly adjacent to a smaller pit at its top end, giving it a ‘welly boot’ shape and is around 24-acres. Stock-wise, when I fished it in 2012, it seemed a few hundred fish were present with a good number of these being over thirty-pounds and a handful of forties. Historically, the lake had produced a large number of big carp and at one point held around a dozen forties and three fifties were amongst all the other scaly residents… a phenomenal stock and testament to the incredible foresight and hard graft from fisheries manager, Simon, who nurtured and progressed the complex for us all to enjoy.

Swans on the weed down the bowl end

My first Dinton forty: Pawprint

Having read a fair bit about the notorious White Swan syndicate and being mesmerised by the many pictures and stories of the glorious carp that resided there, I felt compelled to apply for a ticket around 2007. Knowing full well the wait would be considerable due to the high demand and a long old list of anglers all awaiting a chance to fish for its famous and wily old residents, I put all thoughts of the venue to the back of my mind and got on with other things. Then, one afternoon, sometime in the January of 2012, a letter came confirming a position was available on the syndicate. I was, by now, three years into my campaign on the mighty Burghfield and sort of felt the chance of a ticket couldn’t have come at a worse time, or could it? I thought long and hard at the implications of not joining and felt the chance would be slim, if ever, of getting another shot as I lived outside the local area.

And so I cobbled together the money and the ticket soon appeared on the front doormat. Now, after a considerable amount of thought, I had conjured up a cunning plan of action for the forthcoming year and it featured both Burghfield and Dinton in the equation. Not for the fainthearted, but it was do-able with good time management and a bit of effort and pre-planning.

Case Study 1: Always have a plan but remain open-minded

Dinton followed the old trad-itional close season and as such my ticket would begin at midnight on the 16th June. The idea would be to crack on with Burghfield through the spring months and once the areas had been set-up on that pit for the year I would retreat to Dinton and use it as a base for further visits to Burghfield. This would allow me to keep the spots topped up and I’d be looking on a regular basis through the hotter summer months, only fishing there if I found The Big Common or conditions were ideal for my areas.

This would, of course, require many an early start from home, often leaving in the wee small hours to arrive pre-dawn and walk the banks looking for signs of activity. Anything from bubbling to ripped up weed drifting on the wind would be noted and acted on. But most importantly the areas I knew or had seen The Common frequent would be visited regularly and small handfuls of bait lightly dusted over the spots could be watched and monitored.

Priming these sorts of areas you could make quick decisions: if bait had gone missing or they had been cleaned off, it was often worth a night in the area. Anything further out in the pond was explored with a leading rod to check for subtle changes in the bottom make-up. Having the spots paced out with clips and line markers was crucial to quick and effective location and ease of baiting up. It would, no doubt, be hard work but a proper buzz at the same time and it would rest certain areas for periods of time, hopefully allowing them to become more naturalised after the pressure I had put on them in prior years, and possibly making them more attractive to The Big Common.

Dinton would require a bit more work as it was a new water to me and only time would tell if I would get it right with the spots they were prepared to feed on.

My game plan for fishing Dinton was to remain both mobile and open-minded; I would react to whatever I saw and learn from the outcomes, formulating and adjusting things as events unfolded.

Case Study 2: The weed issues

The few lads I spoke to about White Swan had all told me stories of the horrendous weed and the problems associated with just finding spots let alone landing the fish, so my set-up for fishing Burghfield sounded just perfect – nothing would need to be altered: strong line, bulletproof rigs, minimal kit and a good bait I had confidence in. Standard fare for big carp in weedy gravel pits.

Fishing for big carp in weedy waters I always keep things simple and for many years I’ve had the same ethos as to how to approach the situation and this would be no different. Pop-ups and drop-off leads for weedy lakes have always been my way. My pop-up rig of choice, the Multi Rig, gives bombproof hook holds and is a lovely, delicate presentation over light weed and firmer bottoms alike, and so this was to be my main line of approach coupled with a drop-off lead.

Being able to vary the length of the link and height of the pop-up off the deck would give me the options required for the various spots and tying the lead on with a light nylon link would ensure most takes would see the lead dropped and the fish surface to be played through any weed with relative ease. If the lead isn’t dropped on the take for some reason usually the weed will see to it during the fight.

So geared-up for the big weed and heavy conditions expected in mid-summer I arrived in the car park for the draw for swims on the 15th June. Typically my name was called out second from last, and forlornly I loaded my barrow in a now virtually empty car park as everyone raced off to the productive areas and favoured swims. Nevertheless, it was opening night and I was glad just to be there, buzzing if I’m honest! Not only was there a great atmosphere amongst the lads, this was Dinton – home to some of the best fish in the land!

Having been pegged out I think for match fishing originally, the swims are quite close to each other, so rather than squeeze in somewhere I chose to pitch up in a swim that not only looked down the full length of the main body of water but allowed a view up into the Car Park Bay as well. This cunning ploy would not only enable me to see exactly how the fish were going to react to the pressure which was about to be unleashed upon them, but also if areas became free I would know about it straight away, ready to react myself if you like.

It’s always a buzz, that first cast into a new lake, but imagine my reaction when the first lead thumped down with rod tip rattling precision – in a lake that was notorious for its lack of spots in the vastness of the weedbeds?! I quickly clipped-up, chuckling to myself and feeling very fortunate, before slowly inching the lead back. It just slid, lovely and smoothly. I slowly pulled some more expecting to hit weed any second, but nothing. I kept retrieving – all the way back to the bank… not a strand of weed to be found!

More casts revealed much of the same and I soon got on the blower to a mate down the other end where the fish had been showing heavily all afternoon. I expected him to say the bowl end was full of weed yet his reply was the opposite. “Nothing much here either, Ozzy!”

I decided to fish both rods in the margins for the night seeing as it was the best feature I had in front of me. I dozed off late into the evening, my head spinning with thoughts of the oncoming dawn and the beginning of the search for any scrap of weed I could find – for this would be the key to success I felt. My reasoning behind this was due to the fact that this stock of fish are entirely natural and haven’t been grown on in stew ponds fed with pellet etc. In fact, even with the fairly high stocking levels, a lot of the carp in there don’t get caught or even seem to react to baiting situations for long periods of time. They seem totally at ease with the natural food sources and will happily show over you en masse for hours, with seemingly no chance of a bite. Even the bigger residents can go on the missing list for years at a time and a good number of the newer stock haven’t even graced the banks yet. Head-banging stuff for large parts of the season I can tell you.

Case Study 3: Remain mobile

That first morning I was up at first light, packed down and just the rods left out, lines hanging limp untouched for the duration of the dark hours. Scanning the water with a quality set of binoculars during the first few hours, the pit was fairly quiet in terms of shows, the barrage of leads and bait had seen to that. A few had been caught in the middle – safe territory they thought I suppose! But seeing a migration of anglers from the bowl end to the middle reaches I decided to at least have a change of scenery and fish a new swim.

The corner area had caught my eye the previous day and I went for an investigation. A few minutes with a lead and I’d found what I was after: low Canadian on a shallow shelf right in the corner on a freshening southwesterly. I couldn’t believe my luck! And then a large, grey back broke the surface in the chop and I knew I’d struck gold. They were here and I’d got an area I thought they would feed in.

Wading out round the jetty, I flicked the rig up the margin to the shelf before spraying a few pouches of 12millers over the zone. During the night a heavy fish rolled and a few hours later one of the Dinton warriors lay in the folds of my net. What a start and a rare one at that: a big grey mirror at 39lb 2oz was held up for a few shots before being carefully released back home.

First light and one of the smaller, younger, scaly ones slipped up, again a rare opportunity to see one of these on the bank. My plan had come together and I just needed to keep the pressure on; I knew the other lads on the syndicate were razor sharp.

The weed did eventually appear at either end and the fish would do big end-to-end migrations and it was potluck at times as to where the feed would take place. Part and parcel of big carp angling on busy waters, sometimes you just could not get on them.

Of course I was still full-bore on my Burghfield campaign and so I was flitting about with my brain sometimes in monkey mode. After many long nights and hours on the bank over three and a half years, The Big Burghfield Common did eventually come my way and the last two weeks of August were something of a blur. Party hard and live it, and all the boys were up for the celebrations. However, never one to sit on my arse for too long I planned to get back up Dinton and pile on some pressure for the onset of autumn, my favourite season of the year. I had holiday pre-booked for the big moon phases and was on a roll, riding high on the big carp buzz and felt in-tune with everything. You have just got to take advantage of those times.
Many of the country’s big carp fall on the peak times of the moon phase and going that extra mile to research and pick a few ‘extra special’ ones can sometimes be to your advantage. If you look at certain historical captures and events, there is something to be gleaned for most lakes. I for one will always try and coincide at least a few of my annual leave days with what I feel are the best times. It’s all about percentages at the end of the day and if these fall in your favour it can only be a good thing, right?

Case Study 4: Baiting and application

During the warmer months I had been introducing a few kilos of boilies onto the areas whilst angling and would try and top this up on leaving with another couple to freshen everything up ready for my return.

On my first trip back in late August I noticed the abundant snail life in the weed and margins had all but disappeared. This was a good sign and in all probability they were smashing the naturals in a big way by now. I had holiday booked for a few forthcoming trips in September and because I was now concentrating solely on Dinton, I decided to ramp the baiting levels up a notch on the strength of what I saw.

The swim I had concentrated on for the best trips in the summer had a large weedbed central to it and a sweet spot of firmer ground part of the way along its length. Having already plundered a few bites from the area, it gave good reason to apply a hit of quality bait to this area, but not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket so to speak, I found a good area of remaining silkweed on a shelf at the opposite end of the lake. These areas saw two hits of bait that week, ten kilos on each occasion and I was to return for a few day’s angling the following Tuesday. Using that much bait is often a gamble and obviously expensive in terms of boilie, but I was prepared to take the risk on this occasion. After a few elastics and some sore knuckles the work was done.

Moving in to my favoured swim in the bowl end that following Tuesday the casts were academic and the following morning one of the original mirrors made his mistake and my first Dinton forty, Pawprint, lay enveloped in a swathe of weed at the bottom of the net. I returned home plotting my return as soon as was possible, not wanting to lose momentum at this crucial time of year.

A few long days later I was rolling up the motorway Berkshire-bound again. It couldn’t have come round soon enough! The following two days produced two more bites from the spot: the sleek and powerful Two-Tone Mirror at 30lb, plus and the mighty Twin, the highly desirable mirror at 43lb+, one that had been well over 50lb the previous year. She was down in weight but it was of no consequence, for she was fit and healthy again which was all that mattered. She was mine for a moment and I relived the battle that night for the boys over a BBQ and a few beers to celebrate.

A mate, Al, was on fire, fishing the opposite bank but for me autumn fizzled out after that brief spell of incredible action. It was time to move on to ‘pastures’ new and look back on my little affair with Dinton with the respect the fishery and the carp truly deserve. I very rarely re-tread my steps but with such an incredible stock of good-looking, desirable carp, Dinton is one lake I will want to return to one day… If they’ll have me back of course!