After all the excesses of Christmas and New Year, Jim, Connor and I decided to clear our heads and get in an afternoons fishing at Wood Lane Farm Fishery, situated in Iver, Buckinghamshire.
As we turned into the car park it became apparent that no one shared our thoughts on this grey, blustery day. At least we had first pick of swims as no one else had ventured out to try and tempt the match lakes large population of skimmers and carp. We chose our swim for comfort rather than one which may produce better fishing and set up with the wind at our backs in a sheltered corner of the match lake.
We all set up waggler rigs fished slightly over depth with double red maggot as hook bait. Small amounts of loose fed maggots and casters completed our plan of attack. It took quite a while to tempt the fish into feeding but after about an hour we stated to pick up the odd skimmer as bites started to come more frequently. Upping the feed rate a bit tempted the fish into feeding pretty well and amongst the regular skimmers we caught quite a few of the fast growing F1s in the lake.
Wood Lane Farm Fishery only opened to anglers around 6 months ago and already the F1s we caught in the summer have packed on a fair amount of weight. Fish we were catching around the 8oz - 1lb mark are now tipping the scales at around 2-4lb. Talking to Danny the owner (who I think was quite surprosed to see anyone fishing on this dreary winter day) he explained that the carp in the second lake are now nudging the lower double mark.
Around mid-afternoon the leaden skies opened and a steady drizzle soon got the better of Jimmy "Tangles" and Connor who had unfortunately forgotten their umbrella and they were soon heading for the car for some shelter. Bites dried up soon after as we approached dusk and we decided to call it a day. I caught around 20 fish in all including around 4 or 5 carp in under 3 hours which was pretty good. Apparently recent winter matches (one which even included Keith Arthur) have been won with well over 100lb. Not bad at all.
Give Wood Lane a try....I think you'll find its worth it.
Til next time, happy fishing!! Paul @ UK Fisherman
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2009-11-24 12:12:26 | ROGER THORPE - match lake
i can concur with john rhoads that woodlane fishery is an excelent fishery with plenty of potential for the coming season 2010, our club had a match there which was won with 79LBS, second was 74LBS and third was 66LBS mainly on the feeder , if the wind eases off then you can get big weights fishing the pellet waggler up in the water and it can be won from any peg which makes it a very fair venue
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2010-01-21 12:57:41 | fish boy - pellet wag
yer you are right m8 i have fished it maney times and won a lot of matches with the pellet wag i have had my best match weight up here that was with 274ib in 6 hours on the other lake i have also done well fishing 8mm pellet down the track and margins with purple hydro
in winter it is a difrent bull game for both lakes the island lake dosent fish well in winter but you can pick up some nice skimers the other you can still catch carp but i tend to use dead red magots with a half oz bomb on the pvahope this helps
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2010-02-02 15:26:10 | roger - match fishing the match lake
have you any tips on how to approach this lake at this time of the year,fish boy what are you putting in the tbag is it dead maggot or pellet? also does chopped worm work for the skimmers
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2010-02-02 17:16:34 | john rhodes - woodlane last thursday
fished the match lake last thursday with my brother on pegs 14 and 15 and started on the straight lead with maggot half way across the lake took about an hour to start getting liners then after that it was a fish a chuck as the fish are still in the deeper water stayed on the straight lead and finished up with 17 skimmers up to 1.5lb and 5 carp to 4lb so considering the conditions overall it was a very good day regards john rhodes
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2010-02-03 09:07:03 | Anonymous
cheers john much appreciated, i know that you go most thursdays are you going tommorow?, if the weather is fine terry & i will be there
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2010-10-17 13:11:55 | anonymous - hi minnowmaster209 how are you
minnowmaster209209209 minnowmaster209 ding dong ding
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2010-02-03 17:28:09 | john rhodes - woodlane sunday
evening match boy 209 as i said before the water at woodlane is very deep up to 30 ft so im told so with that in mind its going to take some time to warm up went last thursday and only a hand full of fish topped so i would say that they are still in the deeper water so my approach would be start off with a small cage feeder right out in the middle for the first hour to see how it goes if you start to get liners switch to the straight lead with 3 reds on a size 16 give it ten mins and the reel in and re cast be patient and the fish will come sooner rather than later all the best regards john rhodes
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2011-08-22 11:06:22 | mIracle - Come to our air max world you will get more than y
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2011-08-26 18:21:53 | John Durrant
What a day.... arrived just after 0800 packed up at 1430 having caught 15-17 Carp probably with an average weight of about 6lbs. No secret ingredients just good old Spam and Cheese one on a hair the other straight on the hook. Pity the weather did not exactly play along but I can wait to go again.
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2011-09-07 13:35:19 | Chris Millar - Top day out at Wood Lane Farm
Went to Wood Lane on Friday 02/08/2011 with a friend whos never been fishing before and had a great day of avoiding going to work. The staff were all very friendly and helpful, the surroundings were tidy and the water looked clean. Even though it was a week day the match lake was almost packed and in the short time it took us to walk round to a free swim almost everyone we could see was into a fish. We spent the first part of the day dangling maggots in nice and high in the water and bagging loads of small roach and tiny perch until my mate hooked into the biggest roach I have ever seen, didnt get a chance to weigh it but it was at least 2lbs if not nearer 3lb. I switched methods to try and catch my first carp and tried all sorts of methods both on the bottom and mid water, they turned their noses up at 5 maggots on a hook, slices of peperarmi, sweetcorn and bread. As soon as i went and bought some pellets within 30 seconds of casting out with a feeder and ground bait I was straight into a 2.5lb common carp. Very happy but very sun burnt.
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2011-09-07 20:17:21 | Taff Lewis - A soldiers story
I was very surprised today. Myself and a few army friends were advised by a good friend of ours at our work place to go and fish Wood lane in Iver. Immediately that evening we went on the website to have a look at the reviews and was a bit reluctant to fish it as some of the reviews were not good. Anyway we went along today pulled up in the minibus only to be greeted by beutiful tranquil surroundings. We left the kit in the minibus and went to take a look in the shop where the staff were very helpful and polite. whilst walking to the small lake with our gear everyone seemed to be so friendly on giving tips and tactics, when i was set up a young man approched me and asked me if i would like to order any food "this service is fantastic" i will get something on my next session and thank you to that young man. Anyway we all had a great session with myself catching 20 plus carp all of which put up a great fight with no damage whatsoever. On behalf of me and my Army mates thank you very much for a great day.
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2011-11-19 08:43:00 | Adam Howard - Match Lake
Went to Wood Lane a couple of times, once in a match (October 2011) and once for pleasure (November 2011). Both times I fished the match lake and did OK in the match we had, everyone had a good net of fish but I listened to people who said use just pellet. Went again with a friend just for a few hours and did my own thing and caught a 14lb 10oz Carp just in the margin by my peg (peg 14) using a bunch of dead maggot (I freeze them the night before).
Highly recommended fishery
Having only fished Wood Lane a couple of times and hearing good reports on the venue, my brother and I decided to give the match lake a go. We chose pegs 5 and 6 out to the airator with my brother fishing the feeder with hair rigged pellet and feeder with red maggot for me. Within half an hour we were both into carp and quality skimmers on the tip. Only having spent half the day on the match lake it was most enjoyable and we will be going back there very soon.