Westwoodside Coarse Fishery - Angling Star Review

By Martin Reed

I have so many excellent waters available to fish that it’s not often I get the chance to check out a new one, but Mozella Westwoodside was an exception. A pal of mine, Gary Hartley had been to visit the water and come back full of enthusiasm saying that it was ‘full of fish’. And so Gary took three of us, myself, Steve Guy and the Wombwell rabbit catcher Arthur Powell to investigate. Now I’m the first to admit that I’m not a big carp catcher, 18 elastics, margin poles and the like aren’t my sort of fun and so I was pleased to hear that if I fished the whip to hand I’d soon be fed up of catching. Not that the water doesn’t hold many carp it does, along with some pretty hefty bream too, but a few pints of maggots and four metres to hand sounded much more fun to me and so that was my kit for the day.

The fishery itself is located about 4 miles from Wroot, near Sandtoft, and just a short drive for me to the other side of Doncaster. The entrance is situated on a long straight road, across a narrow dyke bridge, just after Bull Hassocks Farm, down a track and on the left-hand side. I must admit to going straight past the first time a but a new sign soon to be erected will stop that in future.

The pond itself is reed lined with a large island running down the middle and was already well established when the new owner Dave Taylor acquired it. Dave has already put in a lot of work however building 32, (soon to be 40), study wooden platforms which are ideally situated in the water’s edge with lots of room between them and ample reed cover so that anglers fishing nearby can’t see every bait change! Stocking has been a priority too and I’m pleased to say that the plan is to run it as a complete mixed fishery although from what I saw there are plenty of carp to go at among the 13 different species.

I met Gary and the lads at 9.30 while Steve and Arthur opted for the low peg numbers Gary and I fished the high 20’s, not that it mattered on the day for there was only one other angler on the water which gave us plenty of choice. The attraction of catching lots of small fish not only appealed to me for both Gary and Steve also set up to fish close in while Arthur sat it out at 10m in 5 to 6 feet of water. Steve was to vary baits while Gary fished sweetcorn and me maggots. Fishing 1.7lbs straight through the last thing I wanted was the attentions of any monsters while both Gary and Steve were equipped to deal with almost anything.

My first drop in set the scene, a small stockie of just a few ounces. Adding another maggot to the hook on top of the skin I soon had another one of a similar size, and soon after that I lost count. But stockies weren’t the only species who’s attention I caught. At one point I was getting a perch a throw as they boiled at the surface to take my loose fed maggots. And when the perch eased off I had an excellent spell with some beautiful rudd, most over 8ozs and some making 1lb plus, really wonderful fish to catch with their golden flanks and bright red fins.

Late morning I stopped fishing to have some food and ventured along the bank to see how Gary was going on. Bites on the sweetcorn weren’t as fast as with the maggot but the fish generally were bigger and the corn avoided most of the perch. Steve and Arthur were having a good time too. Arthur had spent most of the time fishing small cubes of luncheon meat and had a number of carp to 4 or 5lbs to show for it. Steve like me had arms going like a bee’s wings on a variety of baits and had set his stall on ‘50lbs of bits’.

At midday, fishery owner Dave came to see how we were going on, anxious that we were having a good day. He needn’t have worried, for everyone was catching furiously. Dave explained that his intention was to begin running open matches, both in the afternoon/evening and during the day, in addition to taking club match bookings. He also has plans to build a café and toilet block. Walking around the fishery with Dave, he certainly has the space, and could well look in future at extending the venue with another adjoining lake.

We had to finish fishing early afternoon because of other commitments and although we didn’t weigh our catches I was confident of around 30lbs in my net, a good catch of small fish. After returning these Gary and I made our way round the lake to see how Steve and Arthur had got on. Both did exceptionally well with Steve making a big dint in his bid for 50lbs, and Arthur adding some decent carp to his.

Although nets are normally only allowed for matches Dave had given permission for their use and provided a super large landing net to allow a photograph to be taken of Steve and Arthur’s catch. All in all a very enjoyable day and just what’s needed when normal methods don’t work, or a series of bad draws result in things generally not  going too well. It’s also an ideal venue to take a youngster who knows how to fish but wants to get a netfull.

As with all commercial fisheries there are rules but nothing too onerous and anglers don’t have to buy their pellets on site! Full details or match bookings from Dave Taylor on 01709 872220 or 07816 832551