Linear fisheries - Hardwick/Smiths Pool help!!!!

[andy_s]

Hi all,

Seeing as though my plan of going to france this year has been crippled by the cash flow situation i have decided to take a 3 night session down at Linear's Hardwick/Smiths pool lake to try and tempt a biggie out before the frosts start setting in.

I was wondering if anyone had been down lately and knows what seems to be doing the business on this venue i.e baits, pegs and tactics etc etc....

Any info you can give would make my trip a lot easier and hopefully more enjoyable!

i've heard plastic baits are doing well can anyone second this?

cheers chaps

andy

hiya pal , my mate has just come back from linear ona 3 night session he only baked 2 fish a 15& 18 but no body on the lake was catchin there was only a couple catchin the odd few but everyone was spodding a lot of bai tout now in my opinion this happens quite often people go there spod loads of bait out cast there rods to it n wait well i think the fish are wising up to this and if i was go to and fish there this year i would proberly want to go and use pva bage or a smallish funnel web bag instead of piling all this bait in but this is just my opinion i dont no what you think about this

[andy_s]

cheers mate, its a good place to start. I've heard the same thing myself and instead of fishing for a big hit i wanted to fish for a bite ata time anyway. i was thinking of fishing maggots in the margins, and bags and sticks at moderate range.

Thanks for the help mate

anyone else got anything to add?

[andy_s]

cheers marker, invaluable info there mate, from what you have said and what i already had in mind i have a half decent plan.

after reading the catch reports the margins have been producing well too so i think i have a plan for each rod now.

i'll let you all know how i get on and hopefully be posting a few pics for ya

i'm going down on 18th sept (monday) to thursday morning so like you said i should ahve beat the weekend rush.

thanks mate

[andy_s]

cheers marker i'd heard that myself and quite a few of the catch reports on their website mention the margins so i will definitly be gettin a rod in the side,

cheers mate

[tomo13]

Good advice MarkeR, apart from the bit about going on Braisenose to save the blank .........I'm taking my little tribe on there a week on Friday.....I don't want all the swims taken up by blanking Hardwick anglers

[tomo13]

One thing I have noticed about Hardwick is that if the sun is up and there is not much wind, the fish like to cruise along the top in the Smiths part.They can definately be tempted by floaters.

In the junior fish in on Braisenose, one of the anglers took the 11 year old girl he was fishing with onto Smiths and she pulled the hookbait out of the mouth of one of the lakes biggies after he had spent ages getting it feeding on the top.

[Deano]

A good friend of mine went down two weeks ago with the idea to fish Oxlease, as having never fished the place before he thought that the easier waters would be his best bet for a few and possibly a good un or two. Well he got there Oxlease was rammed(mid week) St Johns had a few on but fishing badly....Hardwick had a few on but again fishing badly....finally probably the hardest lake of the lot Manor Farm...lots of pegs free but again not many coming off....to cut a long story short he saw a few fish on Manor weighed it all up and thought he might as well give Manor a crack as at least he could fish where he had seen fish. He put a lot of particle in and proceeded to have 10 fish over 48hrs upto a new PB of 31lb 4oz including 3 other 20's...he was over the moon to say the least....Sorry can't help with peg nos etc but he was fishing at about 70 yards range to a weed bed in the silt just off it...particle wise he used redband, hemp, maize, pellets and a few maggots but put around 13kilos in.....most of his fish came to fake corn of different varieties and set ups...popped up,critically balanced etc

Hope this helps.....but from what he said to me don't decide where to fish until you get there but be prepared bait wise and take plenty....you may catch on bags etc but this is just what worked for him and it was pretty recent....

[andy_s]

Originally Posted by Deano

A good friend of mine went down two weeks ago with the idea to fish Oxlease, as having never fished the place before he thought that the easier waters would be his best bet for a few and possibly a good un or two. Well he got there Oxlease was rammed(mid week) St Johns had a few on but fishing badly....Hardwick had a few on but again fishing badly....finally probably the hardest lake of the lot Manor Farm...lots of pegs free but again not many coming off....to cut a long story short he saw a few fish on Manor weighed it all up and thought he might as well give Manor a crack as at least he could fish where he had seen fish. He put a lot of particle in and proceeded to have 10 fish over 48hrs upto a new PB of 31lb 4oz including 3 other 20's...he was over the moon to say the least....Sorry can't help with peg nos etc but he was fishing at about 70 yards range to a weed bed in the silt just off it...particle wise he used redband, hemp, maize, pellets and a few maggots but put around 13kilos in.....most of his fish came to fake corn of different varieties and set ups...popped up,critically balanced etc

Hope this helps.....but from what he said to me don't decide where to fish until you get there but be prepared bait wise and take plenty....you may catch on bags etc but this is just what worked for him and it was pretty recent....

i had a similar problem myself the first time i went down. Oxlease, Manor and St Jhon's were all rammed so we went on Hardwick and blanked until the last night when we moved to some showing fish and 4:30 am i landed my new pb! in the form of a 37lb 7oz heavily plated mirror!

thanks for the tips deano,

i think i'm gonna go prepared for stick and bag fishing and keep some extra bait in the van just incase they start having it.

oh and a wide selection of rubber baits as these seem to be doing the business on all the linear lakes at the mo.

thanks again

[bigted]

big well dun on the new pb pal! superb

[andy_s]

cheers ted, on my first session for a few YEARS to boot obviously after that fish i was well and truly back in the game :-)

[bigted]

top stuff pal

[IanB]

Ive had a few trips to linear over the past few years. Mark has given good advise. Hardwick depths can vary greatly over a space of a few yards, there is a big plateau in the middle with 7 feet over it but if you miss it you can land in 27 feet of water! Plumb carefully. The fish also follow the wind in there. Small traps in the margins on the windward bank or where you find the fish would be my approach. If you can get a plateau swim then fish small baited spots on it.