Astbury

[Stig]

Has anybody coarse fished the place Im sure you can all remember naggot drowning ,casters and punched bread etc .Am interested as to what came out if anyone has bothered to small hook and maggot it

[silverbirch]

I'm weighing up the potential of a few SOTAS waters for species other than carp at the mo. Walking Astbury the other day, it is quite a hard one to get to grips with having such a wide range of depths, but as with redes the current non carp stock are getting little or no attention but must be getting a share of the boilies and pellets etc.. I would be confident that they could both throw up a few pleasant suprises by way of big bream, tench, roach and perch. I heard that lots of silvers have been introduced recently to make the carp compete for natural food and wean them onto baits. Someone in the club must have an idea what has gone in and maybe some of the Congleton lads will know more about it's original stock.

When I get a chance I'll drop in and fish it on the feeder or float. If anyone has plumbed it extensivley or seen it dry it would be a help to know a little about it's approx. contours and depths.

If anyone else wants to join me for a couple of exploratory trips after the 'small stuff' drop me a line. Maybe holding a small match on there would give a fair idea of it's potential, quite quickly.

Cheers.

Unfortunately Redes gave up none of it's slimey inhabitants on my first Bream trip last night but you can learn almost as much from a blank as a bag up as match anglers say. Tried a balled in crumb groundbait approach - not even a liner! Well at least i know my opening gambit needs a re-think and i spent the day plumbing depths and finding the pondweed clusters. 'The pines' gets talked up as a bream hot spot but that could be because those who want to catch them get told it's the best place to fish - a sort of self perpetuating cycle. I've found a spot that should produce and no big chucks required - time will tell.

[kevw]

Fished a 3rd rod spraying maggots and waggler fishing trying to draw fish up for a good few hours, never got a touch

[mul]

Don't think there's anywhere near enough smaller sized fish to consider maggott bashing on there yet. Seen a few decent perch, caught the newly stocked tench and bream but never seen silver fish in any sort of quantity.

[silverbirch]

Never mind fella, just like the carp it's right place, right time, right method for all species. Try putting a maggot in feeder regularly keeping the feed tight, recast every 15 mins to tha same spot and sooner or later they will feed or arrive. Fish a 16 hook to 3lb hooklink with double maggot. Or use a method feeder as the third rod all the time, that tends to work instantly on most waters but fish a single grain of corn. May even put some carp on the bank.

Breaks the monotony of the long waits you carp guys have as well. If your getting an irritating or distracting number of tiny fish step up to corn or a worm see if anything bigger is around attracted by the small fish activity.

[silverbirch]

Hi Mul
What can you tell me about the newly stocked Tench and Bream. How many and what sort of size?
Ta

[whogotmelighter]

try on the marsh near the outflow/inlet always loads of silvers about there

[mul]

Originally Posted by silverbirch

Hi Mul
What can you tell me about the newly stocked Tench and Bream. How many and what sort of size?
Ta

I think they've been put in with a view to the future - the club trying to establish a few other speicies in there apart from carp, pike and perch.

12 (I'm told) bream from 6lb to near double figures have been put in from the mere, they started coming out immediately - complete bait monsters as you'd expect from coming from there. If only 12 were stocked, the regularity in which they are being caught is amazing - I've probably had 6 or 7 this year with other people having had a similar number!

Tench have been stocked from taxmere (again so I've been informed) - no idea of the numbers that have gone in - I'd guess somewhere around 30 -I've had about 4 or 5 so far up to about the 8lb mark.

[silverbirch]

Thanx fella...sounds like the tench are the better prospect...are they coming to standard carp tactics? Any areas stand out or depths, margins etc....?

[Rick]

Nearly everyone fishes for carp on Astbury m8, so as far as i'm aware they usually take "carp baits"
I had one at the weekend on a 15mm boilie.
Had bream over the last few weeks on 20mm boilies
Seen some very nice perch on the western bank (thats on the left with the water sports centre behind you) around the 4lb mark.

[silverbirch]

Rick are they just rested up in the margins or sat on the sandbar? or actively feeding, mate. All together in a shoal or a number of individual fish?

[Rick]

Im no expert on this stuff mate, but i can tell you what ive seen and hopefully you can draw some info from that.
The smaller perch seem to be in shoals and the larger ones in 2's and 3's.
They do seem to be very active in the shallows area, but there also a lot of small jack pike in and around the same areas.
They come in and out of the sunken branches regularly, although recently with the water level right down they havent been able to get to them.
The level is rising again now obviously so i would expect them to return there m8.

Hope this helps