Barton Court Fish-in 13th March

[Chris Plumb]

It's really hard to go wrong - after entering the fishery at the lodge you come to a cross roads - straight on is Barton Court Manor - current home of Sir Terence Conran (who has reindeer sculptures on his front lawn -as you do!). So obviously straight on is not an option. You can turn left - and choose to park up by the brick 'roach' bridge - and save yourself a bit of a walk. However this is a public footpath - so I wouldn't leave tackle in the car if I parked here. (Never heard of any problems but you never know.) Turn right and the track leads round the back of the manor house and then turn left through a yard of workshops. Continue down this track - woods on the left - a carrier on your right until you come to the river. Park up by the bridge under the trees (don't cross over - unless there are instructions to do so). You'll see the hut on the other side of the river. And me near by fishing a weirpool!

 

 

C.

[Chris Plumb]

Ooooo I do like the look of this.....

 

http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/dayfor...wbury&day=2

 

 

C.

[Rusty]

It's really hard to go wrong

 

If you've been before yes. Turning right at the crossroads will take you to the coarse lake so perhaps the best way to describe it is take the second right at crossroads.

[tiddlertamer]

Bringing along both my centrepin loaded with 4lb line (which I can't cast!) and two fixed spool reels with 3.4lb, 4lb, 4.12lb and 6lb line on four different spools.

 

Will be long trotting a float with size 18 hook with two maggots with a steady flow of maggot and hemp going in.

 

What breaking strain line fits the bill for a fishery like Barton's Court?

Edited March 11, 2009 by tiddlertamer

[Anderoo]

Thanks for the directions

 

I'm not doing a really early start, I'll probably get there about 7ish.

 

TT, I'll be using 4.4lb mainline and 3lb (2lb if I really have to) hooklength for trotting maggots.

 

PS the weather looks to be (dare I say it?) perf.... no, better not

Edited March 12, 2009 by Anderoo

[Angly]

I've got 4lb line on my centre pin, hooklengths between 1lb 8oz and 2lb 12oz, with some low diameter 5lb 4oz in reserve.

[ruislipdave]

Hello everyone,

I've just registered on this site to share with you my experiences at Barton Court on the Kennet. I wish all of you there tomorrow a fabulous days fishing and look forward to reading your reports. I have fished here regularly since about 1996 and in common with most fisheries have seen a great deal of change over this time. For about the first 5 years the roach fishing was unbelievable with multiple catches of large roach with dozens over 1lb 8oz and many over the magic 2lb mark (pb 2lb 9oz). I regularly had the venue to myself even at the back end of the season, but it started to get busier particularly after Andy Little & Co started to feature it in the angling press. At that time I concentrated on the roach, but also caught dace (pb 15oz),perch (perch populations seemed to increase each year),bream, grayling and of course trout. Around 2002 the large roach seemed to disappear abruptly but this was compensated for by the big increase in perch (pb 3lb 5oz) discovery of a shoal of big dace ,I spent hours stalking them with very little luck (I always caught the smallest in the shoal!)a koi carp bright orange in colour regularly swam with the shoal -very easy to spot in the crystal clear waters, and a gradual increase in the numbers of bream (my venue best 6lb 2oz)and in common with the rest of the Kennet an explosion in the numbers of crayfish. Up to couple of years ago there appeared to be a couple of pockets of large roach left and again I spent countless hours stalking them and had a few touching 2lb, some seemed to be absolutely massive but fear they may have been hybrids after a nerve racking fight with a 3lb 5oz specimen which only after netting in the evening gloom turned out to be a hybrid. Over the past few seasons I have spent more time fishing for the perch usually with lobs and often had multiple catches of fish between 2-3lb. However, due to the weather and work I have only managed to fish the river 3 times this year, the last session was last tuesday 10th when my son & I booked the fishery for ourselves ( a xmas present from the wife) and fished hard from 6.30am to 7pm and I caught in excess of 25 trout, 2 grayling and 1 dace, and absolutely no roach or perch from my old banker swims, my son caught trout,grayling, small dace and a few small roach. I covered lots of the fishery using bread,casters, maggots,sweetcorn & lobs, the hours still flew by I regret not being able to search out more swims particularly the smaller carriers. I still enjoyed the day and it is a wonderful place to fish, and no doubt those of you on the fish-in are better anglers than me and I hope to hear that you fared better than me but I fear that there are big problems.What is also interesting is I don't recall catching any crayfish this year (2009) despite legering lobs for long periods. Have any other anglers had the same experiences and do you have any ideas whats wrong? Angling pressure, crayfish feasting on fish spawn, cormorants??? Or is it just a cycle all fisheries go through.

[Angly]

If you've been before yes. Turning right at the crossroads will take you to the coarse lake so perhaps the best way to describe it is take the second right at crossroads.

 

Or (I knew my Boy Scouts map reading badge would come in useful one day!) you could just imagine there is a roundabout there, and say 3rd exit for the Fish-In.

 

1st exit is down to the publicly accessible car parks

2nd exit is the main house

4th exit is the coarse lake

Edited March 12, 2009 by Angly

[Anderoo]

Hello everyone,

I've just registered on this site to share with you my experiences at Barton Court on the Kennet. I wish all of you there tomorrow a fabulous days fishing and look forward to reading your reports. I have fished here regularly since about 1996 and in common with most fisheries have seen a great deal of change over this time. For about the first 5 years the roach fishing was unbelievable with multiple catches of large roach with dozens over 1lb 8oz and many over the magic 2lb mark (pb 2lb 9oz). I regularly had the venue to myself even at the back end of the season, but it started to get busier particularly after Andy Little & Co started to feature it in the angling press. At that time I concentrated on the roach, but also caught dace (pb 15oz),perch (perch populations seemed to increase each year),bream, grayling and of course trout. Around 2002 the large roach seemed to disappear abruptly but this was compensated for by the big increase in perch (pb 3lb 5oz) discovery of a shoal of big dace ,I spent hours stalking them with very little luck (I always caught the smallest in the shoal!)a koi carp bright orange in colour regularly swam with the shoal -very easy to spot in the crystal clear waters, and a gradual increase in the numbers of bream (my venue best 6lb 2oz)and in common with the rest of the Kennet an explosion in the numbers of crayfish. Up to couple of years ago there appeared to be a couple of pockets of large roach left and again I spent countless hours stalking them and had a few touching 2lb, some seemed to be absolutely massive but fear they may have been hybrids after a nerve racking fight with a 3lb 5oz specimen which only after netting in the evening gloom turned out to be a hybrid. Over the past few seasons I have spent more time fishing for the perch usually with lobs and often had multiple catches of fish between 2-3lb. However, due to the weather and work I have only managed to fish the river 3 times this year, the last session was last tuesday 10th when my son & I booked the fishery for ourselves ( a xmas present from the wife) and fished hard from 6.30am to 7pm and I caught in excess of 25 trout, 2 grayling and 1 dace, and absolutely no roach or perch from my old banker swims, my son caught trout,grayling, small dace and a few small roach. I covered lots of the fishery using bread,casters, maggots,sweetcorn & lobs, the hours still flew by I regret not being able to search out more swims particularly the smaller carriers. I still enjoyed the day and it is a wonderful place to fish, and no doubt those of you on the fish-in are better anglers than me and I hope to hear that you fared better than me but I fear that there are big problems.What is also interesting is I don't recall catching any crayfish this year (2009) despite legering lobs for long periods. Have any other anglers had the same experiences and do you have any ideas whats wrong? Angling pressure, crayfish feasting on fish spawn, cormorants??? Or is it just a cycle all fisheries go through.

 

Thanks for that Dave, very interesting. Those roach sound amazing, I bet you're glad you met them when you did!

[Rusty]

Yes thanks Dave, that's useful to know. My own limited experience of BC suggests that Trout are impossible to avoid but up until now I've never really thought about it because I find the venue such a magical place, I just carry on trotting maggots. Tomorrow though will be a concerted effort to use a different bait, there's a 100 lobworms in the boot of my car itching to go for a swim (two days worth and not all for me).