Apologies to everybody who is following the site for the latest report, it's been a hectic few weeks for myself and I've been unable to write the article. The latest report is of the two visits that Steve & myself made March & April to Whitmore Fishery.

In March we visited the fishery near Kirkham, Lancashire, it's about a 30 minute run from my house just off the M55 heading towards Blackpool & junction 3 exit.It was a clear day as we drove up, but there was quite a wind, the fishery gates only open at 8am, so we took it steady and arrived just after 8am. We chose to fish the donut pool and having paid our money I drove the van around the pool to our pegs.

With the van parked behind our pegs, we only had a short walk to the bankside, the wind was blowing and we went for pegs that we thought would not be too bad with the wind.Tactics for today would be pole and waggler, there is an island feature but it's out of reach for my 8.5 beastmaster pole.The waggler would give me the option to fish close upto the island later in the day.

I started off at a twelve oclock swim position, fed some micros & maggots with soft pellet for hook bait, it took a while before I had my first bite, a skimmer. More small skimmers and roach were to follow, Steve was catching steady and he was among the barble that are stocked in this pool.He had quite a few in the morning and some were upto 5lbs in weight.The wind was becoming a problem and waves were appearing on the water.I put on a heavier rig but was having difficulty keeping the pole steady.

I struggled in the morning with the conditions, and was glad when the wind died down, this seemed to bring the fish on and I was catching steady for the rest of the session.Tench were now showing and falling to double red maggot, eventually I had a couple of small carp.The waggler was not used due to the wind, Steve ended up having a very good day among the barbel on peg 13

Our second visit to Whitmore was on April17th, conditions were a lot colder than the previous trip, there was a ground frost when we arrived at the bankside,Nelson joined us this time and the trio was complete.We chose to fish the East Lake and went for pegs with the wind on our backs.

I opted for a twelve oclock position at seven metres with about 7 feet of water in front of me, the bottom of the pool appeared to slope with deeper water beyond my pole length.Maggots & micros went in and I was straight into small roach, these became too frequent and it was time for a change of bait.I chose a variety of baits, casters/,pellets,maggots, corn and all produced results.

The swim died and I came into the margins, the swim was slightly shallower, as soon as the bait was on the bottom I was into fish , mainly good sized roach on caster, I managed to catch a couple of small carp biggest around the 3lbs mark.The waggler came out and I was catcing good sized roach on prawn up in the water about 2 foot deep.

Steve & Nelson were also catching well , Steve had a carp around 8lbs while Nelson had a barbel, everybody around the pool was catching ,lots of barbel came out during the day.The wind got up again and was rather cold, I had not put my winter suit on , but it went on just after lunch and stayed on, hopefully the warmer weather will soon be here.

Whitmore Fishery is another pleasant fishery with good facilities, there is a cafe on site so a good breakfast is available, pegs have parking spaces behind them, so there is no problem carrying your gear to the poolside.We have enjoyed both our trips, caught plenty of fish and will be going back again later in the year.

First page pictures of Donut pool, East Lake pictures second page