HomeFishing ArticlesOn The BankBeautiful Brookhouse Pool - Saturday, 13th April 2024

Beautiful Brookhouse Pool – Saturday, 13th April 2024

Beautiful Brookhouse Pool – Saturday, 13th April 2024

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Yesterday, Brian and I decided to fish at Brookhouse Pool in Knutsford, another water from our Bay Malton membership. Unlike our previous On The Bank blogs, the target species for this week’s trip were some of the big bream and tench that the lake holds.

We knew in advance that it wouldn’t be easy. Two weeks ago, when we fished Thornhills, reports came that Brookhouse had been flooded after a nearby dam burst. We had a quick look on the way home that night and saw that the water was about two feet higher than it normally was, and there were signs that it had been higher. Despite that, there were reports that people were still catching, and with the weather getting a bit warmer, we decided to give it a go.

Brookhouse Pool

Brookhouse Pool is another beautifully maintained body of water available through our Bay Malton membership. It’s a fairly large natural venue that offers 30 well-spaced pegs, giving you plenty of room to fish. The lake has a good head of carp, bream, tench, and silvers to be caught. Being a natural water, however, it’s not as highly stocked as you’d find at Border Fisheries. You can normally have a good day fishing for silvers, but if you want to target the bigger fish, 15-20 bites would be a decent day.

It’s approx. 430 feet long and 216 feet wide at its widest point on the side adjacent to the road. The lake narrows at the opposite end to approx. 47 feet. The depth varies depending on where you fish. The car park side of the lake is deeper than the opposite bank and is around five to six feet at about 10 metres out on the pole. Further out on the feeder is a bit of a mystery, but I’d guess around nine to ten feet at its deepest point.

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On the Bay Malton Facebook group, Brookhouse has a reputation for being quite hard to fish. Your patience can be rewarded with large carp, bream, or tench if you put the time in to figure it out. The main difficulty is that there aren’t any visible fish-holding features to fish to, so it’s hard to catch consistently throughout a session. You will need to be accurate with your feeding and hope that you are in the right place when the larger fish arrive at your peg during the day.

How The Day Went

As we arrived at Brookhouse at around 8 am, I wasn’t feeling confident that we’d have a great day. The weather forecast looked good when we decided to fish here early in the week, but as the days went by, the outlook started to look worse and worse. Brookhouse tends to fish better as the weather warms up, and with a high of 11 degrees expected, I wasn’t holding out much hope of seeing many bites.

My history at Brookhouse hasn’t been great. I always enjoy being out fishing and love the challenge, but I don’t seem to do well at this venue. I had a few carp last summer when they were on the surface, and I’ve had a couple of nice bream too, but generally, I come home with one decent fish and a handful of silvers for my efforts. Brian, on the other hand, loves Brookhouse. He always seems to come away from there with a few nice fish, regardless of how hard it’s fishing for everyone else. It’s been a running joke between us that Brian always seems to catch a tench, whereas I’ve never had one out of there despite fishing similar baits and distances every time we’ve been.

We decided to set ourselves up on pegs three and four, which are at the wider end of the lake. There were quite a few signs of fish topping in that area, and it was also close to the car park. Being pretty featureless, we both had a similar cast of around 30-35 metres toward the middle of the lake, which was where we were seeing signs of activity.

We both opted to start with similar methods using a cage feeder, 15″ hook length to a size 16 hook, and corn on the hair rig. One difference I made to my normal cage feeder rig was a Matrix feeder link, which allows you to use a running rig, but with a stiffened boom to keep everything tangle-free. We also had a couple of pints of maggots to use on the hook if bites were slow, and to feed close in if either of us decided to switch to the waggler or pole for some silvers.

With the target of bream and tench, Brian had made up a nice groundbait mix which consisted of Teddy Fisher Dark Bream, with Bream and Tench Crusian added to lighten the colour of the mix up a bit. As we were adding some lake water to the mix, it became clear how dark the water was. It didn’t look much different than normal when we were setting up, but the recent flooding had stirred things up a lot. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the water visibility was around 2-3 inches.

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We started fishing at around 8:45 and both cast around halfway across the lake. I told myself that I needed to be as accurate as possible on every cast and be patient. Normally when bites are slow I get itchy fingers and want to feed more, or even switch tactics completely. Brian on the other hand is the master of setting a trap and sitting on it. Maybe it’s because he’s done some carp fishing in the past, but he’s happy to cast in and sit and wait. On Brookhouse, that normally proves to be successful for him.

After around five or six minutes from casting out for the first time, I started to see indications on my tip. No proper pulls, but I was getting some big line bites and the odd small rattle. They carried on for a few more minutes before stopping completely. I planned to re-cast every 15 minutes for the first 90 minutes and then leave the feeder out there a bit longer once I’d got some bait down. I was about to pick up the rod to reel back in when the liners came back, so I decided to leave it in a bit longer. Within a couple of minutes, the tip pulled around and kept on going. My first bite of the day.

As I lifted the rod, I could feel the fish’s head nodding, but it didn’t feel big. I thought I’d probably caught one of the smaller carp in the lake, and even at close range, the water was too murky to see anything. As I finally scooped the fish up in my landing net I got my first real glimpse of what I’d caught. It was a tench! It wasn’t one of the 7lb tench that the lake holds, but I was happy with it anyway. My first ever tench from Brookhouse. A stunning-looking fish that weighed 2lb 5oz.

On my second cast, I noticed a possible pattern was emerging. No indications on the tip for five to six minutes, and then they started again. Small liners, little pulls and rattles, and then after 15 minutes I got another solid bite. The fish felt like it was bigger. It was fighting hard and had a couple of runs that took some line off the reel. When I netted it, I couldn’t believe it. It was another tench. Very similar in size to the first one weighing just one ounce less at 2lb 4oz. Wow. I wasn’t expecting to start like this.

After the excitement of landing two fish in the space of 20 minutes, things went the way they often do on Brookhouse. Long periods without a bite. I was still seeing plenty of indications and quick pulls, but nothing you’d strike at. Brian on the other hand wasn’t seeing anything. He’d had a small knock on his first cast but hadn’t seen anything since then.

At 11:30, Brian decided to make a change and fish the pole for a bit. There were plenty of small fish showing in front of us on the surface, but they didn’t seem to want to feed shallow. I’d catapulted a small pouch of 15-20 maggots regularly, but there were no signs of anything coming to take them near the surface. He plummed up at around 5 feet, put in a few balls of groundbait and fished dead depth with maggots. Normally, that’s a pretty safe bet to get a bite on Brookhouse when things are slow on the feeder, but nothing happened. No bites, no liners, no signs at all.

By the time 12:30 rolled around, I was still seeing some small touches, but I think they were liners from smaller fish between me and the feeder rather than fish inspecting the bait. Brian went back on the feeder after an hour of no indications on the pole.

By this point, I decided to change things up as well. I’d switched from double corn to single corn and down to maggot thinking that the small touches I’d seen for the past few hours were smaller fish, and still hadn’t had a bite. I’d then come shorter a few times to see if it was fish between me and the feeder and still hadn’t had any luck, so I decided to move a bit further around to my right and closer to some free platforms on the road side of the lake.

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After 10 minutes of changing spots, I was just tucking into one of the wraps that Brian had made for lunch when I got a massive bite. The rod whacked around and I lifted into it whilst trying to put my food down on the side tray. I felt a couple of nods and then the line went slack. When I reeled in I saw that my line had snapped right below the loop-to-loop connection of my main line and the hook length. Gutted. It felt like a decent size fish for the brief time that it was on.

I quickly put another hook length on and cast back out in the same spot. 20 minutes passed and as I started to reel in for another re-cast I felt a thump. There was a fish on, but I was convinced I’d foul-hooked one. Whatever it was, it felt heavy but wasn’t putting up any fight. I knew it was a bream, but was surprised to see that it was hooked in the mouth. My first decent-sized bream from Brookhouse in ages. A 4lb 2oz fish that was presumably one of the fish they stocked in the water last year, as it was silver compared to the dark brown colour that we’d caught in there previously.

I cast back in the same spot again, and got another bream, 25 minutes later. A very similar-looking fish that weighed slightly heavier at 4lb 5oz. Back in I went again and 20 minutes later I had another bite, but one that fought back rather than coming in like a wet bag. This time it had to be a small carp. Nope. It was another tench. One that was very similar in size to the previous 2 that I had caught earlier in the day. It sounds crazy that after five hours of fishing, I was made up with catching just five fish. That’s a red-letter day for me on Brookhouse, especially considering the recent flooding and mild temperature. I’ve had busier days catching silvers off the surface on there, but this was five proper fish.

Just as quickly as things turned on for me after 12:30, they turned off again. Brian was still without a bite despite switching methods and baits, and both my two feeder lines dried up. No liners, no touches, nothing. For nearly two hours we sat there, in the rain, without anything happening.

At just before 4 pm, the long wait ended as Brian got his first bite of the day. Seven hours he’d sat patiently waiting, and then without any signs that there was a fish interested in his bait, his tip pulled around and he was playing a fish. I walked over to see him sitting with his head down and his shoulders slumped. I thought it must have come off. As I got closer I could see the fish safely in his landing net. It was relief, not frustration. A lightly coloured bream that weighed 3lb 8oz.

On his next cast, Brian was finally starting to see the signs that I had been seeing earlier in the day. Line bits, small touches, and then 15 minutes later he got his second bite. Another silvery bream that weighed slightly more at 3lb 9oz.

I thought it might be Brian’s turn to get a few, but after this second fish, things went very quiet. Another angler who came and sat across from Brian at around 11 am packed up at about 6 pm without any fish. It was still light, so we decided to fish on a bit longer.

Another hour passed without much happening, and then Brian got another bite just before 7 o’clock whilst he was on the phone. I heard his phone hit his side tray. “I’LL HAVE TO CALL YOU BACK! I’VE GOT ONE ON!”. I turned around to see him bent into another fish. Another bream. We didn’t weigh it because it was a bit smaller than the ones he’d had previously. Probably around the 3lb mark.

After casting back out and calling his girlfriend back, whack he had another bite. Unfortunately, there was nothing on the end of the line. That was the last bite of the day. Another hour we spent slowly packing our stuff away without any indications at all.

13 hours fishing for eight fish between us and around 12 bites at most. On most of the waters we fish, that would have been a pretty terrible day. On Brookhouse, however, with the mild temperature and state of the water, we came away feeling OK about our day. I’d finally managed to catch a tench from there and had some bonus bream as well. Brian had persevered where many would have packed up and was finally rewarded after seven hours with some nice bream of his own. Despite the fishing being slow, it’s always a great day when you’re out on the bank, having a laugh with a mate and taking in the scenery. Especially at Brookhouse.

We’ll be back at Brookhouse again, but we might leave it a while until the temperature warms up and the water colour settles back down again.

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Baiting The Swim Dave
Baiting The Swim Davehttps://baitingtheswim.co.uk
Just an average angler who loves to write and talk about match and course fishing.
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