I knew that today would be a windy and wet brute and so The Old Warren Pool seemed like a good place to go. Yes, it’s a bit of a hike through some slippery deep mud and cow pat infested fields, up and down a slippery hill and over two slippery stiles. But the idea was: The Old Warren Pool sits in a nice sheltered bowl and so the wind wouldn’t be much of a factor. Continue reading Wind, Mud, Rain: Fishing at The Old Warren Pool
Monthly Archives: November 2015
OK, Today You Get Funny Fishing videos
I didn’t go fishing today. Among other things I watched Spurs play Chelsea and it was like watching a Man Utd. game, it really was a bone-numbingly snooze-worthy load of rubbish. I really SHOULD have gone fishing today. You’ll just have to put up with some funny videos from YouTube. Continue reading OK, Today You Get Funny Fishing videos
Cymau Pool, A Little Gem In The Hills
Last week I fished Llay A.A.’s main pool, Llay Reservoir and I was impressed. Today was Incredibly Filthy Weather day which meant (a) it had to be a weekend Continue reading Cymau Pool, A Little Gem In The Hills
A Rare Non-Fishing Day – Bleh.
No fishing today. Bleh. Car went in for servicing, by the time I picked it up there were only a couple of hours daylight left plus it started to bucket down. I’m going to try and get out tomorrow for a session even though the weather gurus say it’s going to be Continue reading A Rare Non-Fishing Day – Bleh.
Old Stripey at The Old Warren Pool
The Old Warren Pool just outside Broughton is controlled by the Connah’s Quay A.C. of which I’m a member. This would be my first visit to the venue. Continue reading Old Stripey at The Old Warren Pool
Cheshire Fishing Awesome
I woke up today with the sound of the wind and rain lashing the windows, doors, walls, roof, guttering and any other parts of the house I could think of in order to increase the length of this article. In short it did not look like a Continue reading Cheshire Fishing Awesome
Fishing Rambles
Today I was thinking about venturing out for an afternoon’s fishing but the skies opened up and I succumbed to the allure of a warm living room and my laptop computer. Tomorrow, DEFINITELY going fishing. Two days in a row with no fishing (and three with no fish if you count yesterday’s River Dee Blank) isn’t really an option for This Compleat Idiot Angler. Continue reading Fishing Rambles
River Dee Cold Floodwater Misery
Monday 23rd of November dawned cold and frosty. Not that I actually SAW the dawn…I didn’t get up until 9am as I’d been up working on yesterday’s blog until fairly late. A few errands to run, a quick lunch and it was 2pm before I reached the River Dee at Sandy Lane, Chester.[wpgmza id=”13″] The Bouncing Chub Marks The Spot.
So, how was the fishing, you ask? Here is a photograph of The River Dee at Sandy Lane taken today, 23rd November 2015: Continue reading River Dee Cold Floodwater Misery
Back at Four Oaks Farm Fishery
After yesterdays Death By Freezing Wind at Four Oaks Fishery it seemed like madness to venture out today with the forecast highs set to be similar. The difference was…NO WIND! It was positively Tropical out there. Excellent, time to get up super-early! By 9:30am I was in the shower after a quick cup of tea. A nice breakfast, another cup of tea, finish yesterdays blog, fire out a couple of emails, (“Dear BT, Your Website Is An Awful Piece Of Crap Although Your Football Coverage Is Getting Better, Michael Owen is learning to talk some sense” etc.) another cup of tea, make a flask of tea (in case I forgot to have a cup of tea in the morning) get the gear into the car, cameras, bait, put my warm clothes on and I was fishing at Four Oaks at the crack of dawn, about 11:30am.

Now because the wind was down I decided to give Heron Pit a go. However I noticed a LOT of black, dying weed covering a good fifty percent of the lake but there were a few clear swims and so I chose one. After about 40 minutes of not so much as a nibble I took a wander around the pool with a whip and some maggots. The whole time I was there I didn’t see any sign of fish at all. No fish were jumping, swirling, topping, blowing bubbles or performing Olympic Synchronised Swimming for my viewing pleasure. Very odd. No bites, no nothing. I was the only one at Heron Pit and it appeared this included the fish. The black dying weed might have something to do with it or maybe it was just me?
So, after another 30 minutes of bite-less hell I hied my way over to Pete’s Pool. One angler was there but he had blanked thus far. Mind you, he was after bigger stuff than me. Worms, corn, pellets were his bait, I only had maggots. His quiver tipped rod was firmly set, ready for the Big One, which, sad to say for this nice gentleman, never came on this day. Clearly the sudden chill in the weather and the water had cooled off feeding for some of the bigger species.
That said, compared to Heron Pit, Pete’s Pool was alive with swirling fish. I secretly thought to myself “Perhaps the owners need to rake the rotting black weed out of Heron Pit before it kills the fish” but now my secret thought is longer a secret. I am clearly a Security Risk because you have read my Secret Thought about raking the weed right here. Maybe I’m wrong about the Black Creeping Decomposing Slime Covered Weed, maybe it’s harmless. But, to my untrained eye (that’s the left eye, he’s the wild one; my right eye is tame and opens and closes on request) the fact that I’ve called it “Black Creeping Decomposing Slime Covered Weed” makes it look pretty bad to me. If someone could reassure me otherwise it’d be much appreciated. I noticed a couple of FABULOUS reviews of Heron Pit from a few years ago on the Fishing in the North West website, maybe it was just me being a bloody awful angler?

[wpgmza id=”12″]A tribute to the Roach at Four Oaks…the Bouncing Roach marks the spot.
But, on to the fishing at Pete’s Pool. It was fun! Some nice fat early Winter roach were obligingly taking my red single maggot. They were in great condition (the roach, that is. The maggots were in critical shape having been impaled by a hook and then chomped at by the roach). The tactics were, 4 meter whip, fishing 6 meters out on a long line, light pole float, size 18 hook, 2lb hook length. I had to fish right on the bottom, the fish were not interested in mid or top water presentation. Bites were quite tricky to spot at times but I bumped just two fish and caught bunches which is pretty good for The Man Who Was Born With No Reflexes.
No other species turned up for my catching pleasure which just goes to show what bad sports bream, carp, tench and all the other coarse fish species were at Four Oaks on this day. Here’s something interesting: I mixed up a few maggots with cinnamon powder and hemp oil, just enough to use as hook bait. It worked! Bites on the Cinnamon and Hemp Oil flavoured maggots definitely attracted bites much better than the Maggot flavoured maggots. So, informally, we can definitely cement Hemp Oil and Cinnamon Powder as the two best bait additives thus far. Still, there is much more testing to be done and much betting and speculation before I can make an announcement to the Fishing World as to the best stuff to dip your maggots into in order to catch fish when fishing. (Put your money on “The Water”).
I should give another mention to the SJCAM SJ4000 WIFI Action Camera I’ve been using these last couple of trips. As well as the video below, all of the roach still photos you see in this article were taken by the same camera. They’re actually video “captures” from moving video. I’m really getting into this great little miracle bit of gear. It’s a “Miracle” because for £65 I don’t think you can beat the Value For Money it offers. Mind you, you have to beware, there are fakes out there with the same name and for less money… thankfully the SJCAM Official Website has a Serial Number checker so if you buy your camera through Amazon and it turns out to be a fake be assured that Amazon will stick up for you and you’ll be refunded. So far, I’ve no complaints, I haven’t been able to find any fault with it. I’ll keep using it in the coming days and weeks. Hopefully it’ll record some bigger fish!
Yes, this is 7 minutes of me catching fat early Winter roach at Four Oaks today, but admit it, as anglers you all love this stuff! I have to say I’m addicted to YouTube videos showing Coarse Fishing Persons catching Coarse Fish. Watching them always makes me want to get onto the bank at the earliest opportunity.
Don’t forget, if you enjoy reading this blog don’t keep it to yourself! Tell your Fishing Friends about The Compleat Angler Website and make their lives a misery too!
Four Oaks Farm, Small and Very Cold
Saturday 21st November 2015 was quite cold. At least it would have been “Quite Cold” had there not been a 25mph freezing blast of a wind blowing from the North. It was one of those days where the actual temperature was “Five Degrees Celsius” but the “Feels Like” temperature was “A Lot Colder Degrees Celsius.” Nevertheless, I had a 2 hour window where I could allow myself to fish and so off I went to Four Oaks Fishery somewhere between Deeside and Ellesmere Port. [wpgmza id=”11″]
The photo above gives some indication of how cold it felt in the wind. No-one is fishing. I was the only one at the fishery. Now, Four Oaks Farm seems to be a very equestrian minded farm in that there are lots of horses there. There WERE quite a few people attending the horses, getting them ready for a dressage competition due to be held there later that day (and long after I’d left). THOSE people didn’t seem to be particularly cold. They were well wrapped up but they also had the advantage of being able to run around with their horses plus of course if things got a little chilly even for them they could give their Equine Storage Heaters a big hug and stay warm that way. As for me, all I had to “Run Around With and Hug” was a half pint of red maggots and whatever fish I could catch in the 120 minutes I’d allowed myself to fish. It was going to be cold.

There are two fishing ponds at Four Oaks. Heron Pit is the biggest but it was horribly windswept. I walked around Heron and the wind showed no mercy. There was also a thick covering of dying weed left over from what little summer we had. So, I elected to fish Pete’s Pool, the smaller of the two waters. Now, when I say “Smaller” I mean really, REALLY tiny. Pete’s Pool is so small every time I caught a small roach the water level dropped by half an inch. I HAD to put the fish back otherwise there would have been no water left after about 1 hour. And, yes, Your Humble Correspondent did manage to catch a few fish, all roach.
I have fished Four Oaks before. There are some nice carp and bream in there but today was a day for tangles, numb ears and runny noses. Plus a few roach. Still, it was a chance for me to give my new SJCAM SJ4000 WIFI Action Cam another go. Now that I’ve edited the following video I realise that I had not set the date and time and so it appears that yesterday was in fact 2014 when, by carefully researching the facts in front of me, I found out that “Yesterday” was late 2015. I have (a) adjusted the date and time of the camera so that it won’t happen again and (b) mentally scowled at you, The Compleat Angler’s faithful readers, for not spotting the error yesterday when I released the first SJCAM video. As I said yesterday, please pay attention, I might learn something.
Right, I’m off to get my gear ready for another session of fishing today. I’ve no idea where I’m going! I’ll let you know afterwards.