Richworth Linear Lakes Oxford.

Dave and I recently (May 08) went to the Richworth Linear Lakes in Oxfordshire for a 2 day carp/tench fishing session. We originally planned to leave Bolton at 2.30am Wednesday morning to avoid any traffic congestion but after some consideration we decided to leave at 9am instead, it made more sense LOL! It had forecast rain sometime during in the day but was unsure when it would arrive. Anyway after a 'successful' drive down there (never got lost once) we landed at 12 noon and by judging the colour of the sky I knew we hadn't got long before the heavens opened. Our plan was to have a walk around St Johns then over to the Manor Farm, flick a coin between the two and let fate take its chance but both waters were packed with anglers, we did find 2 swims on the Manor Farm, the only two available, so we grabbed those, it was probably busy due to the school holidays, one factor we never took into consideration when planning the trip.

As soon as we started to unload the car it rained, weren't worth hanging around in the car to keep dry because the rain was there to stay, it had also forecast thunder storms late afternoon and we wanted to get set up before they moved in. It rained most of the afternoon so you can imagine how wet we got, (if you was to look up the word 'wet' in the dictionary you would see a picture of me and Dave drenched LOL).

Baits:
I chose to fish around 60 yards out on a gravel patch with rod 1 and rod 2 was close to the margin in around 9ft of water. Dave was fishing a corner peg on the road side up against a tree and his other rod in a gully he found which had a depth of 8ft. Dave used mini boilies for his baits where I used plastic sweet corn and maggot, we both spoded out bait (hemp/sweet corn and a mixture of pellets) but never over did it.

Ghosts
I've been to the Linear lakes quite a few times in the past and nearly always choose to fish the Manor Farm, I've had some really unlucky experiences on this water (which I explain fully in my forth coming book) but it's those experiences which make the water even more of a challenge than it already is.

Thursday morning at 6, the alarm on the left hand rod was screaming, Mary Poppin's, you can imagine the excitement, my heart was pounding. I hit the run only to realise I'd hooked into a diving duck, after quickly unhooking the offending duck and returning it to the water, I re-baited and cast back out. Shortly after the left hand rod went again only this time it was a tench, a good one too but that come off during play, gutted! My ghosts were definitely back with me. Dave was having no luck over in the corner either but Russ, (a guy fishing in the middle of us) had caught a few tench, one of which was around 9lbs. Around11am my left hand rod went yet again, at first it felt like a small bream but when it came to the surface I saw it was a Rudd but that too come off during play, devastated.

It was at that point I thought it best to bring in the right hand rod and fish that close in too, I took the plastic sweet corn off and switched over to a 15mm boilie. I was quietly confident a fish would come out due to the amount of fish movement around the baited areas. Later that afternoon Dave was stood in my swim chatting when his sounder box lit up, he ran back to his peg to find his right hand bobbin stuck to the underside of his rod, he was in and rewarded with the tench below.

Unfortunately that was the only fish which came out on this occasion however we are planning another trip down there very soon so keep tuned for further updates on the Richworth Linear Lakes. (Check out our fishing forum for free video footage)