Nine years ago, a local angling club gave up this water in Staffordshire, mainly due to the low water levels and problems with weed growth. It is obvious that the two go hand-in-hand in cases like this. The water was then left to its own devices and it goes without saying that by the summer, it was un-fishable. Being a good friend of the farmer who owns the water, myself and my friend and colleague Rod McGregor undertook the decision to do something with this picturesque piece of countryside. All summer was taken up by the painstaking act of weed killing by hand! By September, a few fishable pags had been cleared, but with the lack of depth, coupled with the clarity of the water, fishing was not easy. Swims were baited with corn, and over the next three sessions, Carp up to 4lbs were caught. The water itself has Carp weighing over 25lbs, Chubb of over 5lbs as well as Rudd and plenty of Gudgeon. I began taking Edward, the eleven year-old son of the farmer, to the pools. After a few sessions, Eddy got the "Fishing bug". Any and every time that I was going to the water to fish, he accompanied me.
Come October, we had made a decision. "Let's get the permission of the Environment Agency to re-route the nearby brook into Damsel Pool and then overspill it into Dragon Pool. We could then build a sluice in Dragon Pool, hopefully raising it to six feet in depth."
The race was now on. E.A. permission granted, get to work! Hopefully, we may receive a bit of rain this winter, swelling the size of the brook, thereby enabling us to fil both pools by spring. Need we have hoped?!
- Owner: Chris Carney - 07814 237211
- Match Bookings: Nick Lyons - 07890 620930
