Pool One is the furthest of the Weston Lawns lakes from the car park and is now reserved for anglers in the lakeside cabins. Popular with carp anglers, it is known to hold commons and mirrors to 36lbs as well as ghost carp to 23lbs, grass carp to 6lbs and catfish running between 10lbs and 45lbs with a lot of fish in the 25lbs to the 30lbs range.
The fishery record for carp is held by a 36lb 8oz mirror whilst a growing number of carp over 30lbs are now being caught. The largest fish to come out by the end of June 2016 weighed in at 34lbs 7oz and several 20s are now being caught daily.
In addition, perch to 5lbs 10oz and tench into double figures can be taken as well as bream to 12lbs and roach 2lbs. The tench favour ledger luncheon meat whilst pellets are good for all species.
Pool One is between six and seven feet deep throughout and many anglers fish boilies, luncheon meat or maggots either on the float, method or more traditional ledger tackle. The use of sweetcorn and a feeder is also popular whilst Weston Lawns own 'Central Tackle' boilies are becoming increasingly successful.
A well-tried technique is to fish tinned cubed cat or dog food over pellets, although once the fish are in the swim and feeding almost anything seems to work well. Popular pegs for carp anglers are near the old oak tree and those near the overhanging willow tree. Anglers tend to prefer to drop their baits near to the islands when fishing these pegs.
As one would expect for any water which holds carp, floating baits also work well, particularly during the evenings when floating crust, flake and dog mixer all work a treat.
With Pool One's growing reputation as a carp water, modern carping techniques are increasingly being used for longer-stay anglers who are travelling from as far afield as Leeds to fish the venue.
Modern baits such as Active8, strawberry and other fruit flavours are now working well during the summer with fishmeal based boilies and pellets taking over in the colder months.
Unusually for a fishery, lighting has been provided around parts of Pool One and Two to make fishing easier for night anglers. Whilst they are not football stadium-strength, they cast sufficient light for anglers to be able to fish by and do not seem to affect the fishing.
Anglers should note that juniors under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
Pool TWO
Pool Two A popular match venue and mixed fishery, Pool Two is the water nearest the car park at Weston Lawns and holds roach to 2lbs, bream to 7lbs, tench to 6lbs and carp to 25lbs - although at least one fish weighing 31lbs was taken a few years ago. In addition, although there are not many, are caught fairly frequently and are attracting a band of anglers who now fish exclusively for them.
Most of the catfish are caught on legered luncheon meat.
Pool Two is fairly uniform at about five feet deep, although it runs down to about eight feet at its deepest near the outlet end by the electricity pylon.
As with many waters, the most successful techniques for fishing Pool Two change from week to week, although using the feeder with sweetcorn or worms for the bream and carp usually provides results. Also, an increasing number of anglers are now using pellets and boilies which are proving effective for the carp, particularly in the warmer months.
Pole fishing with maggot, pellets or paste is also successful - using a mix of two parts crushed trout pellets to one part fine white crumb ground bait and mixing the blend into a paste. It is advisable to mix the paste thicker for fishing in the middle or thinner for fishing closer in.
Many anglers fish the float close into the islands, but careful casting is called for - as the mass of floats caught in the fringes testifies. Alternatively, it can be just as productive to fish close into the side.
It is also worth fishing slightly heavier than you would normally for roach and bream as the large head of decent sized carp give a good scrap for their size and can be deceivingly strong.
In the summer, a lot of carp are caught in the margins and up against the islands, whilst Peg 27 - known locally as the 'Canal Peg' because the swim between the bank and the island looks like a stretch of the canal - is a well-known hot spot. Here the fish favour the shallow water next to the bullrushes just off the island where the water is about four feet deep.
The match record for Pool Two currently stands at 170lbs which was set in June 2014 and beats the previous record of 136lbs.
Pool THREE
Pool Three A match and pleasure lake which is ideal for either club events or getting away from it all mid-week, Pool Three holds a good mix of carp and silver fish with roach and rudd to 2lbs but averaging 12oz being the predominant species backed up with a good head of crucian carp to 1lb 8oz, plenty of skimmer bream, chub between 8oz and 12oz and a small number of tench between 1lb 8oz and 2lbs. In addition, there is a limited number of common and mirror carp to 12lbs.
Over the winter of 2013 stocks in Pool Three were supplemented with the addition of about 2,000lbs in weight of silver fish from Pool One.
With 24 pegs, Pool Three was completed in 2002 and was designed specifically with the pole angler in mind averaging 13 metres at its widest. Whilst four-hour matches are now generally won with between 40lbs and 60lbs, the match record currently stands at just over 114lbs
The banks go virtually straight down to an even bottom at about seven feet whilst coming out from the islands is three feet deep shelf about three feet wide which is a popular spot for anglers.
Whilst most anglers fish Pool Three using the pole or whip, it is also a good waggler water - although reaching the far ledge next to the islands can be a bit risky.
As for baits, almost anything goes. Caster and maggots are both probably the most popular baits, sweetcorn is usually effective and an increasing number of anglers are using expander or soft hooking pellets.
Because it is predominantly a silver fish water it pays to use the small amount of ground bait mixed with hook samples to attract and hold the fish in the swim.
