Sunday March 21st, Steve and myself travelled down to Shatterford Lakes in Worcestershire, this was our third days fishing as our wives were away on holiday, so it was time to get some fishing in.On Friday we had visited a very blustery Whitmore Fishery and on the Saturday we visited a very wet Croft Fishery in Adlington.

Shatterford Lakes are a good 110 mile drive from our house but we have been before and knew it would be worth the drive, we set off about 6.15am and arrived at the fishery for 8.30am.Once we had paid the money we made our way down to Stella Pool, things did not go to plan as overnight rain had soaked the parking area and I got the van bogged down, had to be pulled out later in the day.

There were several anglers already on the pool and I chose a peg with my back to the steep embankment, Steve chose a peg to my right with the sun behind him.This pool is very deep and tactics for today would be to start off on the waggler to try and catch some of the many silver fish in the pool.The pole was being left alone until later when I would be fishing in the margins.

I fired in some maggots and casters towards a sunken island and then set up the waggler. I used .18mm 6lb line tied to a swivel and a .18mm 6lb hooklength.Shotting pattern would be 2 No 8 stotz one 3 inch away from the hook and one about 10 inches from the hook.I had the float set to about 1/2 inch above the water and it was time to go.Steve also started off on the waggler and his second cast produced an 8lb common carp, not a bad start to the day. I had the float set between two bob weights so that it would slide and depth was around 3 foot to start off.

Weather conditions were very good, bright and warm, I kept firing in maggots and catsers and waited for a bite.It was half an hour before I got my first bite and I missed it.I kept feeding and altering the depth to find the fish, at about 4 feet I began to get constant bites and soon I was catching decent sized roach.

I was catching steady all day with good sized skimmers,hybrids and roach coming to the net. Constant feeding was the trick to bring the fish up off the bottom and into the swim.Single caster was doing the damage and the numbers of fish caught was plenty.As the day grew on it was now time to think about the pole.

This pool seems to produce good carp towards the end of the day, it was approaching 4 o'clock when I set up a rig of about 4 feet to fish in the margins, I used a very light float and had prawn on the hook fishing at 5 metres about 2 feet from the banking. In went a handful of maggots and it was time to be patient.Half an hour or so passed and I had my first bite, I missed it and cussed myself under my breath.

In went more maggots and I kept dropping the rig back in slowly, the bank sloped away and sometimes I was on the bottom, othertimes up in the water.Time passed and next thing I was into a fish.The fish had snatched at the bait and was on a run, I had a good elastic in the top two to control the fish.I had waited so long and had to be careful not to lose the fish.I played the fish for a while and next thing it was on the bank.

Steve took my picture but I was hiding most of the fish.I went back to the swim and was soon into another fish about the same size as previous this I landed also. In I went again and was soon into another fish, this one was smaller than previous ones but was on the bank in a few minutes. It was getting on and I said to Steve are we wrapping,Steve shouted over "one more cast" , I started to wrap, Steve was into a fish while I sarted to put my tackle away, he had what looked like a decent sized carp on.

Steve was glad he put his rig back in for the final time, the fish was a common carp of 12lbs plus

Shatterford Lakes is another pleasant fishery and we will be paying another visit later in the year.The road down to the pools is rather steep and needs carfeul driving, but the owners of the fishery will offer to take your tackle down to the waters on their quad bike and trailer