The Not So Secret Mere

The Not So

Secret Mere PH I L

D AV E Y

Cheshire’s Redesmere Lake has been a breeding ground for some of the northwest’s most successful anglers; Phil Davey gives us a rundown on the time he spent on the lake and the tactics the regulars used to tempt its elusive residents.

R

edesmere lies just off the A34 between Alderley Edge and Congleton in Cheshire, and it’s a lake steeped in fishing history. Anglers such as Frank Warwick, Bernie Loftus, Tony Baskeyfield, Brian Garner, as well as a host of less well-known but equally successful names, have all fished and ultimately fallen in love with the Mere.

The Mere is approximately 38 acres in size, with depths ranging from 3ft in the shallows to around 16ft out from the wood and island swims. There are around 52 swims on the lake, and these are split into several different fishing areas, which are called The Road, The Meadow, The New Bank, The Shallows and The Wood.

There is a yacht club between The Shallows and The Wood, which doesn’t pose too much of a problem midweek, but at weekends any fishing near where the stream enters is made almost impossible for the majority of the daylight hours.

I originally fished the lake for a couple of seasons in the late-’80s and early-’90s, and I can honestly say that it was probably one of the best waters in the country during that time. Due to the quality of the fishing available, it attracted a number of extremely competent and innovative anglers, which coincided with the development of rig methods and items of tackle still in common use today.

During this period the Boilie Rocket was developed; the original home-made version was manufactured from a Steradent tube, cork nose cone, plastic flights and a tube of Araldite. After this it was produced by a local company called The Anglers Workshop, and made in a much more durable moulded plastic form. The Boilie Rocket could be cast a very long way on a rod between 3.5lb and 4lb test curve, further than any other rocket ever made, past or present. In fact, the rods we used were also made by Kevin at The Anglers Workshop.

With the likes of Steve Cooke and Frank Warwick fishing the lake, some weird and wonderful rigs were developed. Frank developed the Short Rig during this period, originally for fishing over deep silt at range without the problem of tangling with a long hooklink. The Anchor Rig, also by Frank, was very successful; this consisted of a piece of stiff mono pushed through the shrink tube above the eye of the hook, which caused the hook to flip over, so making it difficult for the fish to eject it. This particular rig worked very well for me on the Capesthorne Hall estate (which is just over the road from Redesmere), and I caught a succession of quality fish from this tricky venue.

What I’m trying to get across here is that during this period the Mere was the place to be, especially for northern anglers. I also seem to remember that during this time The Male was the secondlargest common in the country for a

“With the likes of Steve Cooke and Frank Warwick fishing the lake, some weird and wonderful rigs were developed”

087-090_Redesmere_CW244.indd 1

The Snub, held by Mark Weedon at its highest weight of 38lb 10oz, probably the most sought after fish in the lake.

while. It was next in line to Sally from Savay, and with numerous other 30lb fish present it really was a very special place indeed. On the lake, the majority of anglers seemed to be fishing over spodded particle, with the areas around the stream and meadow being the most popular areas.

I suppose I was a bit overwhelmed fishing in close proximity to these well known and successful anglers, which led me to fish less pressured areas of the lake. I also planned to use a boilieonly approach, which would cut down on any disturbance in the quieter areas of the lake and perhaps enable me to single out some of the larger fish present. I remember that at the time I was using a fishmeal mix with crayfish and fish feedinducing oil obtained from Geoff Bowers, in which I had total confidence. This is what I was introducing into The Mere.

Rigs were nothing complicated, basically a 10-12ins Berkley Dacron hooklink knotted whipping fashion to a touched-up Maruta Kinrya hook, which was smeared in Vaseline to stop the sharp point blunting too quickly, 18ins of anti-tangle tubing and a semi-fixed 2oz lead.

87

21/12/10 15:15:53

Phil Davey The Not So Secret Mere

Frank Warwick’s Anchor Rig, one of the original anti-eject rigs.

The Male, captured by Andy Flint at a lake record weight of 38lb 12oz. This fish was once one of the largest commons in the country.

Ring Tail – another old warrior from one of the early stockings, this time making Simon Jones’ day.

Single Scale overtook The Male as the lake record when caught by yours truly at a weight of 39lb 2oz.

Ray’s Linear – a very elusive but stunning broken linear making an uncharacteristic mistake for Will McGowan.

When I started fishing at The Mere in the late’80s it was October, and when March 15th arrived, after suffering many a cold night in my Argos sleeping bag, I’d caught a grand total of nothing; in fact I hadn’t had a bite from anything!

The close season seemed to take an age to pass and it felt like months before I was once again standing on The Mere’s hallowed banks. It was about 8.00 a.m. on June 16th when I arrived back, and a quick look on The Meadow Bank told me I wouldn’t be fishing there. In fact, with all the orange marker floats 80yds from the bank, it resembled a waterski course more than a fishing lake. I had a good look round and found nothing, and about an hour later I drove round to the car park at The Shallows end. After arriving at The Shallows I saw a huge mirror clear the water about 50yds from the bank in front of a swim now known as Nightmare. Five minutes later I saw another, and another, and another – the bay was absolutely full of fish. I sprinted back to the

car (yes I could sprint then!) and I couldn’t even get the key in the lock because my hands were shaking that much. Once I got back to the lake, two rods with fishmeal bottom baits were cast out about 40yds and 60yds, with 20 or 30 baits over each one. Half an hour later my dad arrived to do some tench fishing, and he’d just stepped into my swim when the left-hand rod pulled round and I was in. The fish fought hard for about 15 minutes – how my hands didn’t shake the hook out I’ll never know – before my dad lifted the net around it. The beautiful broken linear weighed 27lb 14oz and was a new personal best. We didn’t know at the time, but the fish was to become known as the Capesthorne Linear, and had been transferred from Capesthorne Hall across the road into Redesmere due to it being caught too often. It was also a fish I was to meet again over a decade later.

The action didn’t stop there, and over the next 12 hours I netted another four carp over 20lb, including a fish known as The Original Linear at

“The action didn’t stop there, and over the next 12 hours I netted another four carp over 20lb”

88

087-090_Redesmere_CW244.indd 2

a weight of just over 28lb. My dad even chipped in with a 24lb carp while he was fishing for tench!

Back in the day this was an incredible catch from a truly incredible water, however, 18 months after my catch from The Shallows, I stopped fishing The Mere and didn’t return for over 10 years.

The Mere traditionally had a June 16th start, except for work party participants who had the privilege of starting two weeks early. In the last few years a draw was held and anglers chose their swims a few days before the start. Due to the popularity of The Mere it was soon filled, and some unlucky souls returned home without their name having been called. For the lucky anglers whose names were called, at that time of year the most popular areas were The Shallows and The New Bank, both heavily weeded with depths of between two and six feet.

There was a time limit on the lake, which meant you could only do 48 hours in one swim, and you couldn’t swap swims directly with another angler.

This led to anglers fishing in teams of three because then there were no direct swaps, and if one angler came out early in the draw and picked a top swim, the area could be rotated at 48-hour intervals.

21/12/10 15:16:19

The Not So Secret Mere

The Capesthorne Linear; a boilie-eating machine this one, and a regular visitor to Paul Freeman’s net.

Phil Davey

The Long Common is one of the many lovely commons in the lake, recognisable by the floppy dorsal – expertly captured by Phil Davey.

The Pretty One is currently the largest fish left in the lake, this time taking a liking to Adam Stonier’s boilies.

Fishing The Neck was a bit of a challenge.

As far as baits went, yellow pop-ups worked well, either fished as singles or over a scattering of freebies. After a few weeks this method tended to lose its effectiveness and I personally think that nuts came into their own, especially Brazils, which are very light and rest nicely on the bottom without becoming tainted by the silt (a common occurrence with boilies on Redesmere). Floater fishing was rarely practised on The Mere, mainly due to the abundance of wild fowl and about 30 pairs of swans, which for all their beauty are surely the dumbest birds God ever created. People say the fish don’t take floaters, which is a load of rubbish.

In fact, during the close season, at the road end of the lake where there are parking facilities the public came to feed the birds and carp could The Original Linear, an awesome fish in the hands of the highly talented Mark Weedon.

087-090_Redesmere_CW244.indd 3

be seen happily taking bread while cruising up and down the margins. Interestingly, this soon stopped when the fishing season began, and after a few initial captures the fish became very wary in this area of the lake. Nuts and scatterings of boilies, etc. were often used up until about the end of July, and then anglers started to introduce large amounts of hemp into the lake. Speaking of hemp, placing a Belachan block inside a small air-dry bag (or one of those bags you put in a washing machine) and putting it in with the hemp for a couple of minutes while it’s boiling gives the hemp something different and provides a real edge.

On The Meadow bank there are three swims

next to one another, called The Oak, The High Bank and The Right-hand Holly, and it was these swims that saw the hemp bombardment. Each swim very often had about 5-10 kilos of hemp each day for about six weeks, and this heavy baiting completely changed the way in which the fish behaved. For the next six weeks it wasn’t uncommon for 90% of the lake’s captures to come from these swims. I have personally seen carp travel in a very direct route to these heavily baited areas from other parts of the lake on more than one occasion. You may ask why the baiting started at the end of July and finished in the middle of September, and the answer is that the fish didn’t really visit this area of the lake until around the middle of July, and until that time they were very nomadic. Come the middle of September, when the water began to cool, they showed a marked preference for a boilie. Also, anglers preferred to introduce boilies for a couple of months to get the fish in good condition for the cold months ahead.

Quality baits from Mainline, Premier, MB Baits, Essential and CC Moore have all accounted for numbers of fish in The Mere.

89

21/12/10 15:16:56

Phil Davey The Not So Secret Mere

“The Prince Albert Angling Society now runs the fishing, and let’s hope that an effective stocking policy is instigated to protect the precious strain of fish”

Little Tail – a once-a-year fish this one, making its annual trip, this time in the arms of Ashley Waddington.

Come the middle of October, the fish seemed to congregate in specific areas of the lake in front of The Oak, Dug Out, Nessy and The Pines, all located at the southern end of the lake, and from all of which it is possible to hit the same piece of water, a kind of triangular-shaped hot area toward the centre of the lake. I personally think that the bloodworm beds came into fruition in this part of the lake. Mark Weedon, an outstanding angler and Mere regular for a number of years, seemed to know the exact location and time to fish these ripe bloodworm beds, and he had a succession of big fish during November, culminating in The Snub at its highest weight of 38lb 10oz.

As far as rigs were concerned, braided hooklinks and bottom baits scored very highly, obviously due to the silt bottom and the way the fish fed in the silt. This rig was also used when

A cold winter’s day in The Oak Swim.

90

087-090_Redesmere_CW244.indd 4

‘C’ Scale – two sides to the wonderful ‘C’ Scale: held proudly by Mark Weedon, and then found dead after the low oxygen levels in 2009.

fishing over the hemp, with a short hooklink and just a couple of inches lying on top of the silt. I think the way the fish fed in the silt is why they showed so well – they were actually cleaning the silt particles from their gills by crashing out of the water. Stiff Rigs fished on Helicopter Rigs with a high set top bead caught a lot of fish when first used, and The Snub (so-called due to the shape of its mouth) continually tripped up to this method after going missing for 18 months before the introduction of this rig.

When I last fished The Mere in 2007, I would say that the stock was, at most, 100 fish, and several competent anglers who fished the lake at the time confirmed that this estimate was roughly correct. As already mentioned, the fish were all stunning Leneys, proper old-looking English carp.

The odd specimen was stocked into The Mere from the small Fanshawe Pool, which is located

only a couple of hundred yards away from the main lake.

These fish were brought on until they reached 9-12lb in weight, and then the best-looking ones were introduced into The Mere.

In 2009, due to an algae bloom and low oxygen levels, several of the large, old carp perished, and it’s a sad fact that there are no fish coming through to replace these old warriors. No one knows exactly how many casualties there actually were, but I have it on good authority (from anglers fishing the water at the time) that there were as few as 60 carp left in this historical lake.

The Prince Albert Angling Society now runs the fishing, and let’s hope that an effective stocking policy is instigated to protect the precious strain of fish, and hopefully restore Redesmere back to its former glory. PD

21/12/10 15:17:32