Phil Lambert

Joric, back in the late 60's when I was growing up in Sleaford (Carre's Grammar School) my Dad used to work for the council and one of the jobs was weed cutting on the Slea. This enabled the river flow to run fairly swiftly and was good for the trout (they used to be stocked by Bristol Fisheries, fly fishing permits sold by Slingsby's, and finally poached by me!). I guess the water abstraction which reduced flow and killed off the trout fishing negated the need for regular weed cutting. I well remember the West Banks allotment site being under water during winter floods and the gardens in Electric Station Road being almost flooded. We used to get on the bus from Sleaford to Swineshead Bridge to fish the Forty Foot and it was always crowded with anglers from Doncaster and Sheffield. I suppose the advent of the commercials has killed off the need for the Forty Foot to be looked after properly as anglers deserted the drain.
Sad demise of two local fishing venues.

joric3442

hi phil. nice to see another old carrensian here, although it was the 70's i was there. it as been a shock this year 1st year back after a nine year break and going round all the old venues to find lots are now private or no longer maintained. but pleased to say that dorrington skin yard is still there, which as a younster is where i spent many hours learning the trade. now under new ownership and recently it was the 1st time in over 30 years that i had to pay for a day ticket, but at £3.50 for he day cant complain.

well if this hot weather continues we might be looking to the rivers as have noticed on a few of the comercials that the fish are suffering due to lack of oxygen, easily solved with introduction of aeriators, b4 we start spotting lots of dead fish

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rick

Phil Lambert

Hi joric. Fished a couple of times at Dorrington but my main stomping ground was Kirky La Thorpe pit. Used to cycle there after school and at weekends and catch loads of good tench. Apparently it's not able to be fished these days - sad
When I used to go home on leave from the Navy I spent a lot of time at Swineshead (had a car by then!!), Culverthorpe Lake, and the little ponds at Oasby not far from the Houblon Arms pub. Happy days.

joric3442

know what you mean about happy days phil. but with the closure of all the old haunts and the advent of the commercials its sad to think that the kids of today will not get to experience the joys we did. you must have joined the navy about the same time my brother did, and like you he as settled down that way. must be something in the water and not the fish lol

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rick

D N W

Personally i wouldn't let my kids wander of like we did in the past and so commercials are great i take my 2 to priory and they think its always that easy to catch a fish, one every minute.

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Steve Davies

joric3442

know what you mean about going off on their own. ours are 12 and 4 so always take them. so far have taken them to dorrington waver, free fishing and lots of little stuff, just a bit close to the road. have also taken them to highgates at scredington and chapel hill.....reasonable size fish but nothing that large that as beginners they cant cope with on their whips.

find biggest prob with the youngest is keeping him from getting fed up so try to take him places where there is other things to occupy his mind to give him regular breaks, the marina at chapel works well lol

what is the costs for kids at priory?

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rick

Phil Lambert

Left good old Sleaford to join the Navy in 1971 Joric. Many of us do settle down here once we've finished our active service - our skills seem to be in demand supporting local military and naval bases.
I'm not a great lover of carp pools, but we are lucky here that we have access to the Hants Avon, Stour, a bit of the River Itchen and various other rivers. And the Thames isn't a million miles away. Some days though I think I'd like to wrap it all up, move back to Sleaford buy Kirkby pit off the miserable sod who won't allow it to be fished. And there won't be a single carp in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

joric3442

good one phill.....just stock it with a good head of bream, tench and specimen roach what more could you want..........fishing the way it was

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rick

slwg101

Hello fellow anglers,
wish i had checked this thread before me and a mate went fishing at woodlands last saturday.
Fished the big lake 7 till 7 caught 1 small roach all day, my mate caught two small perch, very dissapointing. However interesting to see an osprey catch more fish than we did, LoL. Phil did you ever fish the Dryad lake??

Rgds

Steve

Phil Lambert

Many, many times Steve and I was up there yesterday morning!!!!! Catching loads of carp to about 8lbs using bits from a 2 year old peperami stick which I had found in my tackle box!! The fish get hammered by lots of matches and opens and can get a little precious which is why we always take a change of bait - right??? Time to switch to maggots soon.
They put a load of mirrors into the lake a couple of years ago and they've really packed on the weight. They absolutely go like stink and you know instantly when you've hooked one.
I go up there every so often to exercise my heavy feeder rods but it's not terribly exciting fishing. I recently won an inter-establishment match up there with 128lb and was absolutely bored witless after a couple of hours!!!!