The Circus Act: The Water Park

Nestled in the heart of the Cotswold Water Park, we find Stephen Holdsworth - aka ‘Curly’ - a tucked under his 50-inch brolly at the back of a beaten path. A heavy wind and light showers doesn’t stop the hoards of walkers at the Park, a common sight for the ‘circus’ anglers on the Park. We delve into the mind of the young angler, looking at how he has fared on this low stock, tricky venue…

Always watching, always trying to work out their next move

Q. Hi Stephen, first and foremost, what lights your fire to target a particular water and what do you look for in a desirable carp?
A. “Good question to be honest and something that I do pay particular attention to when setting out on a new water for the first time. For me, the fish have to have certain characterful traits about them, something that makes them stand out from the crowd in a certain way. It certainly isn’t about the size, but maybe the uniqueness of a fish or the environment it lives in everyday. I certainly favour the lower stocked, slightly trickier venues where the whole challenge is outwitting the fish in their environment; they set the rules, when they feed, where they rest and the puzzle is down to the angler. I particularly favour clear, weedy waters, the typical style of water you are likely to find in and around the Water Park.”

Q. You are based here in the Cotswolds, have you always fished in and around this area?
A. “Yeah, for a fair few years I have solely fished around this area, I love it! It’s quite a tight community to be honest and the waters are lush, full of naturals and weed, with tap water clear margins and lovely clearings among the weed. I have travelled for my fishing on a few occasions; Oxford isn’t too far from this area so I have had a few trips up there, alongside a yearly trip to Belgium each year. The Water Park has so many different waters to go at, so I can see myself in and around this area for a few years to come. When I was young I moved to this area with my parents and other than moving away for Uni, the Cotswolds has always been close to my heart.”

Q. The Cotswolds are renowned for lovely looking scaly carp and big pristine commons, what is the accessibility to special lakes like around this neck of the woods?
A. “There is a mixture of lakes to be honest, most are well-known within the area but some are extremely hard to gain tickets on, much like anywhere else in the country. The good thing about this area is there are a number of good, reasonably cheap club tickets with low stocks of lovely carp. The problem with these open access Water Park club tickets is the susceptibility to otter attacks, which has been a big threat around this area of the country. I really do like the feel of the open access waters, anyone can come here whether you walk your dog, run round the lakes or fish them; there is always something interesting going on! I guess the whole circus feel just adds to the experience of the place.”

Q. You live in Swindon, so have you fished Coate?
A. “Yes, and for those of you who don’t know Coate, it is a different kind of fishing altogether. This park lake is right in the centre of Swindon, famous for its big concrete diving platform. In all honesty, I really enjoyed the time I did fishing at Coate, despite the ongoing happenings around the lake…”

Nestled among the swaying trees down at the park

Q. Ongoing happenings…?
A. “Yeah, well, as you can imagine, a lake full of big, old carp in the middle of a busy town isn’t your usual syndicate feel for sure. There was always trouble brewing around the lake, gangs of young people, drugs and one occasion I woke to the sound of the golf hut at the back of me being broken into!”

Q. Sounds pretty hectic, why would you want to fish there?
A. “It all stems back to when I was much younger, a good friend at the time managed to catch the one called ‘The Resident’ at the young age of 13. Ever since then, I always said I wanted to set my stall out to catch that fish. No one actually knows what happened to that fish, but it hasn’t been seen in some years now. This concrete jungle of a lake was incredibly rich in naturals, with mountains of silt and crazy swan mussels. It was certainly a great learning curve in my angling and I managed to catch a few nice fish along the way.”

Q. The venue you are targeting today, can you briefly describe it, the stock, size etc.?
A. “Today we are sitting on a famous park lake in the heart of the Water Park. This venue is open to everyone with a beach style bank at one end and a car park for visitors. I guess the venue is around 12- to 15-acres in size, with a long rectangle sort of shape body of water. The water sees plenty of people from walkers, to cyclists and swimmers. Thankfully, you’ve come on a quiet day, as this place can get pretty manic from time-to-time! I guess you are fishing for around 15 to 20 carp here, these fish are from all walks of life, with some old girls and some fairly fresh stocked fish. It’s a good mixture and keeps the fishing interesting.”

Balanced baits did the trick and kept away from the norm

Q. From looking in the edge, this place looks pretty weedy!
A. “Yeah, it gets pretty bad during the height of summer, with huge beds of Canadian up to the surface in places. I guess that’s what makes it a great environment for the fish, with plenty of naturals and snail beds are certain times of year.”

Q. How did you pinpoint the fish, do you believe they have regular haunts on here?
A. “Lots of walking, the more miles I would do, the chances are that I would stumble across a fish at some point. I would always try to get down in the evenings after work, even if it meant not fishing, just to ensure I was keeping the finger on the pulse so to speak. With only 15 to 20 fish, it can be quite tricky to track them down, so I would have a routine of checking all of the climbable trees around the lake to get a good vantage point of some of the likely areas they would be. They do tend to bounce around in here, especially with angling pressure, but I would often find them in a few snags around the lake that they clearly liked.”

Q. How did you approach fishing for such a low stock from the start?
A. “When I first came up here, I tried to fish as many different swims as possible, sort of a mobile approach I guess to try and get on the fish. It wasn’t always easy to be honest and if I had nothing to go on, I would drop in a swim and try to find an area to fish. Obviously this wasn’t ideal on quick overnighters, making disturbance that could potentially ruin my night’s angling. This is generally the approach I adopt on a new water, using small amounts of bait but fishing for the carp in the areas they want to be.”

Kettle on, brew time over the park!

Q. Did this change then?
A. “I did manage a fish or two doing this, but with limited time and only the odd weekend to go at, I don’t think this approach was the best it could have been. I started to realise the routes the fish were taking and made the effort to find a couple of spots close to the areas they were passing in the hope that the bait and wait tactics would pay off.”

Q. Why are there so few carp in the lake?
A. “The lake itself has been a good big fish water for years, especially around this neck of the woods. It is probably the circuit water of the Cotswolds and the fish have always been a huge draw to this park lake. It has always been a challenge, even when there were more fish present, the fact it is gin clear and weedy makes bites few and far between. Unfortunately, the stock isn’t what it was a few years ago, with otter predation and natural deaths, but there are still some equally impressive fish to go after.”

Q. Are you specifically targeting a certain fish over here?
A. “The big girl, the High Back Lin is the one I would dearly love to catch, but equally each and every fish in the lake are very worthy and unique in their own way. It doesn’t do loads of bites each year, so every capture is special in its own right. I saw a photo a few years back of the lake’s biggest resident and instantly knew I had to have a go for her, especially as these fish may not be around forever.”

Q. You mentioned that you were looking to regular fish one spot, what type of spot were you looking for in order to do this?
A. “I think spot choice is vital, especially if you are going to put all your eggs in one basket and target a certain spot. I spent a bit of time thinking about an area to target and in the end had a good lead around in a fairly central swim on the lake. I am always particular about how the lead lands and the feel of the spot, but after having a good lead around after work one night I stumbled across a lovely firm area at the front of a large band of Canadian weed. Perfect!”

Q. Did pre-baiting play an important role? Or were you baiting every session?
A. “It’s tricky on a busy lake to pre-bait and keep everything quiet and under wraps, there are so many individuals who walk this lake which makes it tricky to get something going without anyone knowing. It helps that I fish mainly overnighters midweek when the lake it quiet, so I often find I can bait the spot heavier after finishing to go to work the following day. In the past, I have fished mainly small patches of bait, but the fish seem to have responded well to a good amount of bait in here, a solid mix of particles and boilies. Most anglers are casting out the traditional Hinge style presentation with bright baits, so I have tried to avoid using this, fishing subtle hookbaits over the top of a good varied mix.”

Cluster: a truly unique park carp

Q. Was the spring a success for yourself and what did you learn?
A. “In all honesty, the spring was tough! But what’s to expect on a low stock pit, I think the whole lake only did a small number of bites in the early parts of the year. Around April I had a small stocky common, which was the second or third bite at the lake for the year. That was back when I was trying to keep mobile and fish over a handful of bait at a time.

“I guess the next bite didn’t come till around June, which sounds like a while, but these fish are tricky to say the least. I started to work out where the fish were spending time in comfortably, I might have seen fish on occasions but my instinct was these fish were actually just moving. The best times to be out looking were the sunny spells; I sometimes clocked numerous amounts of fish in certain areas if the weather was bang-on.

“Over time I began to realise that certain fish favoured areas of the lake, which meant I could pinpoint individual feeding spots much easier. One thing I did notice was the amount of time these fish spent in the upper layers, so I was contemplating whether Zigs would be the best route to go down.”

Q. Did you change approach?
A. “I stuck with the guns a bit, opting to fish balanced baits on the firmer areas, what I am confident in doing. The Zigs may well have got me the bites, but landing them would be another question - particularly when fishing for such a small number of carp, I don’t want to be doubting if I will land the fish or not. The firm areas offered solid presentation where I could fish confidently.”

Q. How did you use this information going into the summer?
A. “For the summer I just chose to stick to what I knew best: if I could get a single spot going, it may produce a few bites going through into the back end of the year if I baited well. I caught an awesome common of the spot around June called The Box. The bite came following a big pressure drop and I knew I just had to be at the lake. I managed to get away from work a little earlier and set about getting my rods in situ for the night. A couple of balanced baits, a tiger and a homemade Tuna wafter were carefully rigged up ready to be cast out. A few hours later into the darkness, a rod signalled a short punchy one-toner and I was out of the bag playing what felt like a good fish. Moments later and I had the wary old carp in the net, which turned out to be a lovely 30lb common. It certainly reiterated that the fish were feeding confidently over the firm area I had found.”

Q. Recently, you’ve had some great success, how did this come about?
A. My most recent capture over here has been a fish by the name of Cluster, a real unique mirror and one I wanted to catch from the off. I couldn’t get back down for a few weeks following the capture of The Box and the whole time, the spot was playing on my mind. It is incredible how much thinking time is consumed by carp fishing, but I was fixated that the spot would soon throw up another big fish. Sure enough, I had a free weekend coming up and I was buzzing at the thought of getting back in the same area. Thankfully the swim was free, despite the lake being very busy, with anglers and walkers alike. I had the rods and spod clipped-up ready to go, so getting the two rods out was little hassle.

“I was brimming with confidence going into the night, but much to my surprise it was pretty quiet. On first light I got up to stick the kettle on for a morning brew, when moments later one of the rods was away. A tense fight in the weed followed but eventually I slipped the net under what is know as Cluster, a lovely old Cotswold mirror and things were more than coming together nicely.”

Q. Nice! Will you continue to fish consistently through the autumn?
A. “Without a doubt, I am holding out for the big girl now, with the spot producing a few better fish. I will probably up the baiting levels as
the temperatures drop a little, but fingers crossed all comes good in this area.”