MAP's Graham West takes us to a venue that is rapidly becoming a favourite on the match scene, Albans Lakes. Unique, exciting and massively varied, this place has it all!
I have been fishing for more years than I care to remember, but not many venues excite me more than when I have a match or feature coming up at Albans Lakes!
Nestled in woodland just off the A414 near St Albans in Hertfordshire, this venue is incredible offering something for anglers of all types.
The venue has three lakes all of which are former gravel pits, Willows and Farm which are big waters which were originally set up as specimen venues with big carp and catfish a big attraction (more on that soon), and the Match Lake which offers big weights of carp and bream in depths up to 20ft making it quite unique.
With all your modern facilities available onsite including a fully stocked tackle shop, café, toilets and multiple parking points around the site, this place has it all.
Over the last few years, venue owner, Ben Tucker and fishery manager Lance have been working hard to develop the interest in match fishing not only on the match lake, but also on Willows Lake too.
With Feedermasters qualifiers now held here yearly, and the venue hosting the Feedermasters Super League Final, the fishing on this lake is truly incredible with demand to fish on the venue growing rapidly.
Huge shoals of big bream abound, carp up to 30lb are possible in matches, the lake also gives match anglers the chance of catching catfish on match tackle too, with many landed in competitions every year which offers something totally different.
Today though, we’re heading over to the match lake! This lake fishes well right throughout the year, with deep water helping to keep the temperatures up during the colder months the fishing is brilliant.
With thousands of carp swimming around to 20lb and lots of bream which were stocked from willows many years ago, the lake has all the hallmarks of a big weight mecca and with weights over 300lb caught in recent weeks, I couldn’t wait to get fishing.
Tactics
With sloping banks around the lake, it’s one of those lakes where selecting the right method and depth to fish in on the day is all important.
With a slight dip in temperatures leading up to our feature, I wasn’t too concerned at all and with big weights being caught down the edge recently, I was going to fish a tactic that I have great faith in on venues like this one – the method feeder down the edge.
With deep margins all around me, feeding and fishing conventionally with the pole could prove problematic but by fishing a feeder I can keep my liners to a minimum and most importantly, land virtually every fish that drags my tip round. I’ve set up an 11ft Generation Pro Feeder rod, teamed up with a 3500x Parabolix reel loaded with 8lb line, no messing around required here!
The slope is quite sharp in places, and there’s a few tree roots to my right where I’m going to concentrate my efforts today so strength is key.
A 32g large Embed Method Feeder with a 4’ hook length of 0.21mm Optimum Power and a size 12 hook would hopefully be man enough for the job in hand…
You might be wondering why I’ve selected such a one-pronged attack; the answer is simple and it’s all about the depth.
Any fish that are beyond 13 metres here will naturally be off the bottom as it’ll be a minimum of 11ft deep, so unless you’re fishing a pellet waggler or feeding heavily on the bomb or fishing a method over some 8mm pellets, you’re not likely to pull the fish down until later in the day.
By plumbing the depth of the margin just off the tree with a lead, I’ve found 6ft of water just a couple of metres off the bank where it feels clean on the slope. In this depth, with the water still being warm there will always be carp nearby and by feeding aggressively, getting quick bites is possible from the off.
Bait
As with all my method feeder fishing, I keep bait choices simple! Around the feeder I’m going to use 2mm fishery micros, to prepare these I’ve put an F1 landing net mesh inside my groundbait bowl, covered in water and soaked for 90 seconds.
After soaking the pellets, I just take the landing net out, ring out some of the water and leave them hung up to dry.
I’m going to feed groundbait initially today too, and a mix of Method & Paste Green and Power Scopex is the ideal mix to draw fish in quickly. This is mixed heavy I draw in as few small fish as possible, to start with I’m going to feed 5 big balls of groundbait by hand and then to keep everything tidy any topping up will be done with a bait up feeder.
Because of the depth, I’m also going to feed some pellets with a catapult from time-to-time, but they’ll be bigger 8mm pellets which are better suited to the depth and the size of fish I’m hoping to catch today.
For hook baits I’ve got a selection of wafters with me which are a great choice here, but I’m also going to match the hatch with the loose feed with an 8mm pellet on the band too, which can be a great alternative to a brightly coloured wafter when the fishing gets harder.
The Session
With everything set up it was time to get going! Five big balls of groundbait were deposited into the right-hand margin just off the tree and still being early, I thought I may have to wait a while for bites… Well, that wasn’t strictly true, as after just four minutes my tip pulled round as a fish found my pink wafter, it didn’t feel like a carp either and this was confirmed when a 4lb bream popped up!
That bream was the first in an amazing run of bream caught from this margin line, and at between 2 and 4lb a piece, they would certainly be welcome in any match.
What it also goes to show is that if you have a good depth in a margin, you are not limited to just catching carp. Fish like bream, roach and perch always like a bit of cover so never be put off by fishing close to the bank no matter what you’re fishing for.
After catching 12 decent bream, I felt that a lot of the bait I’d fed had now been eaten and with a drop in the number of bites I was getting it was time to feed again.
Four bait up feeders of groundbait and a couple of big pouches of 8mm’s over the top would be plenty to kick things off again and I’d now feed more often having discovered the amount of fish wanting to feed close to the bank.
The top up worked well, but the next bite really wrenched the rod round… this was no bream! After a tussle close to the tree roots and neighbouring platform, a 6lb carp was netted, fairly typical of the stamp you’ll catch here at Albans!
From this point onwards the session could only be described as carnage! The carp had moved in and were dragging my rod in on every single cast, amazing fishing given that we were now into the autumn.
Swapping between hook bait colours was all important especially when you felt you were waiting a bit too long. Pink is always a banker on this venue but white had been really good today too at times, maybe due to the clearer water.
With the bites still coming, I kept feeding 8mms heavily with the catapult double pouching to keep the fish concentrated on the bottom as much as possible.
Now the carp were there in numbers, I didn’t feel the need to introduce any groundbait unless bites completely dried up and I needed to spark some activity in the peg.
How you set your rod when waiting for a bite in the margin on a feeder is so important, after dropping the feeder in, I like to bury the tip as far as I can under the water to get the line lay as good as I possibly can.
The last thing you want is line to go directly through the swim, this will only pull the feeder out of position, spook the fish and see you frustrated with liners.
Once the line is sunk, I completely slacken the line off before putting it on the rest, this again is to avoid as many liners as possible but also to take the sting out of the bite, if I had everything tight, I may even get broken on the bite.
To deal with the savage bites, I like to slacken the drag right off on the reel to ensure something can give before I pick the rod up, failing to do this can mean broken hook lengths or even a lost rod if you’re not careful…
The action continued to be blistering, with lots of carp falling to my tactics and a sure sign to up the bait was when I caught another bream. At the end of our five-hour session I’d managed to catch 40 carp plus 17 bream, for over 250lb!
Fishing the feeder down the edge is a tactic that you have to try if you haven’t already, if you fish a venue where the fish are big or they run hard and bottom out your elastics this is the way to put more fish in your net.
Feeding according to the depth and the size and species of fish you’re faced with can also be a vital consideration to enable you to get more from your fishing.
Even though the temperatures are dropping – don’t ignore this tactic, if you have enough depth in your margin the last two hours can change your match and put you in the frame.
Like I said at the beginning of this feature, I always look forward to coming to Albans Lakes and today has been amazing once again.
There are matches on this venue mid-week and also on Sundays throughout the year so keep an eye out on the venues ‘Albans Lakes Matches’ Facebook page if you fancy a go yourself, maybe I’ll see you there?
