Sapphire and Willesley

[monsieurcox]

Hi im thinking about fishing saphire lakes nottingham or willesley ashby de la zouch i went to willesley to look and there seemed to be alot of bivvies on the far bank by the golf course is this the place to be?and was wondering if any one had any info or tips thanks

[lidoman]

Willesley is good lake mate but like anywhere it can be tricky in the winter.Theres a good head of fish in there and you can still catch when its cold but it slows down a lot.

[tonybranno]

Do a search cos Willesley comes up that many times you may find that no one will want to answer this question yet again.

[kevtaylor]

Willesley would have to be one of the best winter waters in Leics purely due to its large stock and shallow depth, plus the bait will be going in right through the year.

 

Might have a go myself

 

Tony: There's barely any useful info on Willesley if you do a search, much the same as all the other lakes spoken about.

[lidoman]

Willesley would have to be one of the best winter waters in Leics purely due to its large stock and shallow depth, plus the bait will be going in right through the year.

 

 

Willesley is not really that shallow mate on average.The upper part of the lake is quite deep.I wouldnt go on there in winter expecting to slay em as it really can be quite tough

[666carpcatcher]

as it really can be quite tough

 

Dont let Courtz or Kev hear you say that

[kevtaylor]

Willesley would have to be one of the best winter waters in Leics purely due to its large stock and shallow depth, plus the bait will be going in right through the year.

 

 

Willesley is not really that shallow mate on average.The upper part of the lake is quite deep.I wouldnt go on there in winter expecting to slay em as it really can be quite tough

 

I wouldn't expect to be slaying em mate - 1 fish in 12 hours in winter would be a decent result in winter IMO.

 

It says it goes from very shallow to 15ft so I bet the average is below 10ft which is fairly shallow to me - some of the pits I fish go over 50ft.

 

Theres Beedles lake off the A46 which is a bit bigger than willesley and averages about 5-6ft - but far less fish in it. But its still worth a go in winter.

 

Gotta say I would expect some action at willesley thats probably why I've never been - the stock says its a runs water though obviously thats not always going to be the case!

[seleb]

Whenever i've been to Willesley i tend to catch every other trip. All but one of my fish have come from within 10ft from the bank. A couple of them were in water that was just over knee deep in which i placed my rigs by hand but that was in the summer . I haven't fished the place during the colder months though, sorry.

 

I only do maybe one or two trips per year as it is normally rammed during the warmer months. I've found that the regular lads tend to fish the wooded side more than any other though they seem to be a friendly bunch which can't be bad

 

Good luck.

[lidoman]

The first time I fished Willesley I did about 20hrs in a bitterly cold NE wind in early March.I had 2 fish.We then fished it about another 10 times during spring, summer, autumn and winter but couldnt get on the lions share of the fish during the spring and summer which were in the shallows(field and woods pegs).I wouldnt class it as a hard water at all but in winter I would expect you'd blank more than you'd catch.It seems this is the case as well from talking to lads who have fished it hard in winter.

 

Incidentally I wouldnt class it as a shallow water the upper part of the lake must account for 50% of the surface area and its over 8ft deep from memory in most places up there apart from the margins and the top bay.If I was looking for a shallow water for the winter I would be looking at somewhere with no more depth than 6ft, above this from my experience the fish take much longer to respond to any good sunshine.

 

Try Willesley for the winter but I know not many fish come off