barricorps

I heard that when they opened osiers lake they imported a french forty that when it was first caught had dropped to a scraper thirty due to insufficent food in the newly dug lake.

I think you are probably right in that if the hook did catch it would probably be outside of the fishes mouth which is obviously not a good thing. I was just curious as to whether it had ever been tried on the bank, i may be wrong but did kevin maddocks try it in carp fever in his tank tests???

Has anyone ever experimented with reversing the hair rig so that the hook is tied on and the bait (ie a boilie) is above the hook. My thinking being that the hook may enter the mouth before the bait and have more of a chance of a hook hold?? Are there any rigs like this or would this not be anywhere near as efficent hooking arrangement as a standard hair.(i assume not !)

Personal opinion, you will probably catch but based on it still being anything like it used to be expect the following Obnoxious owner/baliff Noise/kids Rats(lots of) Lots of single figure fish with badly damaged mouths Loads of better places around essex to try, an example being birds green in ongar.

Yes the dreaded clacton, i lived there for about 3 years as it was a cheap place to live, i found out why! According to a mate there are so many carp in holland brook now that if you head up by the sluice gates you can pick up 5-10 fish a day without prebaiting. Quite a few are high doubles and twenties too.

Just wondered if any of you have had any fish from here. I used to fish it myself and if you are in the know it can turn up a few surprises! Clactons best/worst kept secret! I would love to see any pics of fish from here if anyone has any?

im afraid that sounds all too familiar to me. And i thought we were the only ones that didnt rate this place! We also fished it recently and was told exactly the same things by bob the baliff most of which turned out to be a pack of lies. we were also told that there would only be ten anglers on the lake in total when we arrived to find every swim had been booked out. we were also told that all the fish were 20 plus and lake was "fishing its nuts off" but after talking to ther anglers nothing had been out all week . we managed one manky looking common of just under 12lb in 48hrs and that was with 4 of us fishing 2 rods for 48 hrs. The lake itself (marios) is very pretty and reasonably tidy but that is its only redeeming feature. As new people were turning up we could hear him telling lies about fish that had been out recently!! cobbleacre lakes like many others is not there for anglers ,its there to make big money for its owners and will do so anyway it has to even if it means telling blokes from 50 miles away a load of rubbish just to get you down there.