Mill Road Fishery, Stokesby

I have been carp fishing at the Mill Road Fishery before, but not for some years. The fishery is found off the A1064 on the left when travelling towards Acle from the north (postcode NR29 3EY). I went there on Tuesday of this week when it was a very warm 23 or 24C. There is one main lake/pond with nicely spaced pegs and a couple of small islands. Price is £6 for the day or £4 for the evening (from 4.30pm in summer).

I knew before that this fishery can be difficult from past experience. I remember the first time I came I was new to carp fishing and I don't think I caught a carp all day! I had been advised into buying some expensive carp ledgering gear and bait by a local tackle shop and it had been a complete waste of money. The tackle has been largely unused ever since. Another time I had come in the past I had caught some nice roach and one single carp at the end of the day. I had been float fishing with maggots mainly and the carp took this bait.

Well on Tuesday I thought I was well prepared having fished for carp successfully at a number of other locations. I intended to float fish in the margins again with three sorts of bait; two of which I have had plenty of success before (sweetcorn and luncheon meat) and a new one - cheese. The latter had been suggested by going again to Golden Ponds in Hickling where I had a less successful day than the last time. At the end of the day I talked to the fisherman next to me what bait he was using because he had had a fantastic time. Turned out he had been wrapping his hook bait with bits of Kraft cheese slice. He kindly gave me some and it was deadly! I had some cubed cheddar and some Kraft cheese with me.

Because it was quite windy and because I had lost my latest favourite carp pole float, I started with a quite a heavy waggler and a 14 hook on 5lb line. I started in the margins because this is where previously it all seemed to happen. However, after a number of hours all I was catching were rudd and roach. I tried all combinations of baits and fed the bait into the water to attract the fish. Mind you some of the roach (or perhaps roach/rudd hybrids) were of a very good size:-

This fish is 11.5 inches in length and was big enough to encourage me to weigh it but it was only about 1lb. About 3pm I decided to switch to another older and lighter carp pole float that I had and to try the middle of the water:-

I was still catching roach and rudd but I felt that things were looking up as bites were coming more frequently. I was also concentrating on using the cubed cheddar cheese and eventually at nearly 4pm I was rewarded by catching this lovely 6.5 lb common:-

This fish was nearly as big as my previous personal best of 7lb that I had had at Holly Farm. Encouraged I carried on. An hour later at about 5pm I hooked into another large fish and I caught part of my struggle on video:-

This fish remained stubbornly close to the bottom and just went round in circles in front of me but it turned out to be a 7.5lb 22inch whopper:-

Broads fishing. All text and pictures copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2017.