Baden Hall Fishery 8th January 2012
The Shaw's Stan and Carl accompanied me on the 120 mile round trip to Baden Hall in Staffordshire. There are better commercial fisheries locally but none of them allow keep nets.
We did of course stop off at Keele services for breakfast as we seem to enjoy paying squillions of pounds for cold food cooked several hours previously. To be fair it was edible for once so perhaps this was a good omen of what was to come.
After a quick walk around the fishery, we settled on the small lodge pool. The customary drawing of straws saw Carl get first choice of pegs and he opted for the near corner, a summer flier due to the adjacent top bank having a continuous line of stick ups which the carp love. I got second choice and chose peg 3 on the opposite bank as pictured. Stan fished on the next peg to Carl and they both promised to give me a battering which to be fair in Stan's case usually happens. (My excuse is that Stan being retired gets out 3 or 4 times a week compared to my twice a month)
For a change I decided to leave the pole in the bag and set up a waggler and a bomb rig to be fished with small PVA bags. After 2 hours not one of us had so much as an indication and a move to the adjacent Donut Pool was looming when miraculously my waggler sunk from view resulting in a lovely 5lb common. Next cast a 2lb mirror followed, at which point my canny knack for feeding correctly kicked in and I changed from feeding 10 maggots and a few micros every chuck to catapulting 2 big pouchfuls of both over my waggler line. Of course this resulted in a continuous stream of fish coming to the net (NOT!) and another hour was spent biteless. At this point Stan and Carl still had nothing to show having picked pegs on the opposite bank that were shaded from the sun and at least 5 degrees colder. They may be better anglers but they are also a bit thick at times!!
By now I had succumbed to temptation and set up the pole and also changed the bomb rig to a small method feeder fished with pellets. By cutting back the feed to 5 or 6 maggots every 2 minutes I eventually managed a further 8 carp, a couple of roach and a skimmer. Interestingly despite trying soft pellet, banded pellet, corn and meat, my only fish on the method came to a bunch of maggots tipped with a rubber version. All float caught fish came to red maggot also.
By the finish Stan had winkled out a dozen roach by scaling down and introducing a bit of choppie whilst Carl (Joy!) had blanked. I don't know why the silver fish didn't show as you can normally guarantee at least double figures of roach and skimmers if the carp are not playing ball.
The final tally for me was 31lb odd, with Stan refusing to weigh his 5lbs of roach. I cannot remember the last time I got the better of Stan so perhaps 2012 will be my year.
I must say that the fish at Baden are in fabulous condition which does make you question the keepnet bans on most other commercials. Why they cant all follow Badens' lead and allow sensible use of nets I do not know. A lot of the enjoyment for me is to weigh your catch at the end and have a bit of friendly competition with your mates. Consequently my trips to commercials are limited to Bannister Farm (where the fish are not in the best condition as a result of the owners stocking policy in my opinion) and Baden. If anyone knows any others which allow sensible use of nets I would appreciate any information.
