Peg 37, Mucky Meadow Pool
I have wanted to fish this complex since I started fishing last year but never quite got around to it until now. It is another of those fisheries that is owned and run by anglers for anglers, the type that I love, and I wish I had gone there earlier. Situated in the Wyre Forest, about 3 or 4 miles west of the town of Bewdley, it really is a little gem of a place. Angling legend and TV presenter Matt Hayes says that it is his favourite commercial venue and has featured in his programmes in the past, and it is not difficult to see why. There are four lakes to fish Furnace, Willow, Mucky Meadow and Mill Pools, which are fed by a nearby brook and the fishery sits in a wonderfully secluded valley with woods around it which are part of the complex and have been turned into ranges for shooting air rifles.
This week's adventures saw me fishing with two young lads that went to school with my son Jake, and one lad that the other two knew from fishing at Furnace Mill previously. Ryan had played football for me when I ran Warley Albion FC and has only been into fishing for about a year or two and is as obsessed with the sport as I am. Ryan, Daniel and Ed had already set up when I arrived and had decided that we were going to go onto the Mucky Meadow pool, despite having told me that they may be on either Willow or Furnace. I pulled up in the car park facing the cafe / bait shop and went to ask which pool was Willow because I had seen Furnace on the way in after dipping my landing net in the disinfectant, and there was no sign of them on there. However before I could get out of the van, the owner Jane had come out of the cafe and was gesturing to me to turn my van around and park correctly. Nice one Stu...Less than two minutes on the site and I've been told off by the owner.
I sheepishly parked the van correctly and went in search of the others, too scared to ask where Willow Pool was, and just mumbled that I was looking for mates who were on Willow. Jane said there were a few on that pool and pointed in the general direction. As I made my way across to the area indicated a little head popped up from behind a bank and I found them, nowhere near where they said they would be. Still, I had found them and it was time to get the rods out.
I had bought a Preston Innovations seat box from ebay in the week, a real bargain for £42, and I was eager to get it set up and try it out so made my way down to the bankside and found a nice looking peg. The pegs are spacious and well constructed with a hardcore base or platform so there wouldn't be any sloshing around in mud but getting to them could prove something of a challenge for someone of the larger frame, like myself. I had to walk along the bank where we were fishing until thebank and path met though this was still quite a precarious descent owing to the wet grass which made things slippy. As I gingerly made my way down the short but steep section I had visions of either slipping on my backside or launching myself head first into the pool.
I made it down without mishap and made my way along to the chosen peg and set up ready for the day ahead. I decided to start with the feeder rod with a running maggot feeder above a snap swivel with two float beads to act as a buffer between the feeder and the swivel with a size 16 hook on a 5 inch hook-length. I put three maggots on the hook and filled the feeder with a mix of casters and maggots and cast out about 30 to 40 yards slightly to my left so there would be a small kick on the quiver tip so I could see any bites. Now regular readers of this blog will know that the majority of my adventures on the bankside involve some sort of calamity or disaster and today was to be no exception. In my haste to get onto the new seat-box and start fishing I hadn't tightened the brackets on the left-hand side of the legs. I had just just watched my rod tip bend around rather forcefully and picked up the rod to strike when everything dropped from underneath me.
I dropped like a stone to my left, rolled over the edge of the seat-box, knocked my bait tub full of maggots off the tray and sat kind of dazed for a few seconds wondering what had happened. It was when I felt the rod jerking in my hand that I came to my senses and realised what had happened but I still had the fish on so the rest could wait until it was safely landed, unhooked and released.I got the fish to the surface but it was putting up a great fight and the swirls coming up from the pool told me it was a decent fish. The water was bubbling and swirling around as we fought it out but it soon tired and I was able to get my landing net, which had got bent in the fall from grace. It was a Common Carp about 3lbs in weight, but my phone had been catapulted just out of reach so no photo this time.
I unhooked the fish and returned it to the water from the landing net and set about sorting my peg out and retrieving as many of my maggots as I could. Luckily they fell into a pile and didn't scatter about so I had the majority back in the box in no time and there were a few dozen in amongst the grass which a Robin helped to clear.
I managed to get everything sorted and securely fixed the seat-box at the correct height and started fishing again. I had been watching Ryan and where he was fishing and he seemed to have found a shoal of Chub, now I had never caught a Chub so I decided to see if I could get one as well and cast out remembering what I had read in my "Tommy Pickering's Complete Guide to Coarse Fishing" book about casting short of where another angler casts because there is a chance that the fish would be sitting further back in a kind of safe zone. It wasn't long before the rod bent round but this time it was a violent, hard take as the fish grabbed my hook and there wasn't any need to strike. It looked as if the speed and ferocity of the take had done that job for me. I've often heard Richard, Damian and Luke talk about the fight in a fish and because I usually set up for the smaller fish, I don't really get to experience this feeling, but this fish was certainly giving my shoulders and arms a workout. It turned out that I had got it bang on and hooked myself a Chub of about 2.5lbs, my first Chub and therefore a new PB. I was ecstatic.....This was worth the £7.50 entrance money alone...
There is that old phrase often used for buses about wait for hours and then three come along at once, well that could be used for what happened after that first Chub and I landed another 4 over the course of the next 45 minutes, the best being a 3lb beast, so two PB's in under an hour.
As the day wore on the fishery became busier and busier but it was mainly air gun enthusiasts heading off into the woods to the ranges the owners have built there and it looked like there was a competition of sorts going on. I have to admit to having a little giggle at some of them dressed head to foot in camo gear. Gun cases, bags, trousers, hats and just about everything else decked out in camouflage patterns even though they were shooting metal targets which they hardly had to hide from. I'm not knocking them, each to their own, but it did make me smile.
The bites dropped off for everyone for a few hours but then as suddenly as they stopped, they began again and I swapped over to the float rod with a loaded waggler and tried my luck along the margins where a few small roach sacrificed themselves to my hook. Ryan was having some decent fish out with his new pole, Daniel was on the feeder still (mainly in everyone elses swims and not his own....there is always one) and Ed was busy with the float and having some luck.
The rain came and went but it did not spoil the enjoyment of being in the lovely surroundings of the fishery, and it was just a wonderfully relaxing and chilled out day but the excitement didn't end there. Ryan hooked into a real lump of a fish but it snapped him off just as Daniel had the landing net underneath it, Daniel had a fish take his hook as soon as it entered the water, snapping the line instantly but he said that it was a huge fish judging by the shadow that raced away just under the surface and Ed came close to picking up a Carp from the surface but a white duck grabbed his floating bait and hooked itself. The flapping and noise that the bird made in it's panic spooked the fish so after unhooking the bird Ed had missed out.
Ryan had to leave earlier than the rest of us because he had promised his girlfriend an evening out and shortly after he left I felt that familiar snap as the rod bent around and I could feel a decent fish starting to fight. At first I thought I had a Carp or Chub on, but to my surprise it was a Bream and it was a huge thing. Usually Bream just give up as soon as they are hooked, well the small ones do, but this one was darting around, diving for cover, coming back up to the surface and putting up a really good fight. After three or four minutes it finally surfaced, rolled onto its side and I was able to land it. It was like a big saucepan lid and the scales read 4lbs dead on....My previous best Bream had been 8 ounces, so a third PB in one day !!!!!
I had to start thinking about packing away myself but there was one last burst of excitement in store for me when I hooked into a Common Carp of 5lbs and that really tested my float rod as it fought hard. The line was making those strange creaks, the rod was bent almost double as it ran for some roots that lay just under the water. I had noticed the dark shape swimming right in front of my peg for a while and just dropped the waggler in, almost at the rod tip, to see if it would take the bait. There was a splash as the tail broke the surface and it was off, diving down the shelf taking the float with it. I let the clutch run and took my time not wanting to lose the fish, and I let it run where it wanted but had to work hard at times to prevent it reaching the root system. My shoulders and arms had been given a proper workout all day and there was no let up with this fish. When I finally got it into the net I was surprised to see that it was foul hooked in the tail and so considered myself very fortunate to have managed to hang onto it while it fought me.
A few more casts produced nothing more than just a few line bites or nudges and I then had to pack up and make my way home to be at a previously arranged appointment in time, but I had caught my first ever Chub setting one PB, then beat that PB with the next fish and also beat my previous PB for a Bream, so I went home very very happy.
The Furnace Mill Fishery now ranks in joint first position of my favourite fisheries, along with Willow Park in Farnborough, and I have no doubt I will be making the short trip (only 25 miles) over to the Wyre Forest a lot more from now on.
Only the second fishery to ever get five Carp on Stu's Carp Rating -
This week's adventures saw me fishing with two young lads that went to school with my son Jake, and one lad that the other two knew from fishing at Furnace Mill previously. Ryan had played football for me when I ran Warley Albion FC and has only been into fishing for about a year or two and is as obsessed with the sport as I am. Ryan, Daniel and Ed had already set up when I arrived and had decided that we were going to go onto the Mucky Meadow pool, despite having told me that they may be on either Willow or Furnace. I pulled up in the car park facing the cafe / bait shop and went to ask which pool was Willow because I had seen Furnace on the way in after dipping my landing net in the disinfectant, and there was no sign of them on there. However before I could get out of the van, the owner Jane had come out of the cafe and was gesturing to me to turn my van around and park correctly. Nice one Stu...Less than two minutes on the site and I've been told off by the owner.
I sheepishly parked the van correctly and went in search of the others, too scared to ask where Willow Pool was, and just mumbled that I was looking for mates who were on Willow. Jane said there were a few on that pool and pointed in the general direction. As I made my way across to the area indicated a little head popped up from behind a bank and I found them, nowhere near where they said they would be. Still, I had found them and it was time to get the rods out.
I had bought a Preston Innovations seat box from ebay in the week, a real bargain for £42, and I was eager to get it set up and try it out so made my way down to the bankside and found a nice looking peg. The pegs are spacious and well constructed with a hardcore base or platform so there wouldn't be any sloshing around in mud but getting to them could prove something of a challenge for someone of the larger frame, like myself. I had to walk along the bank where we were fishing until thebank and path met though this was still quite a precarious descent owing to the wet grass which made things slippy. As I gingerly made my way down the short but steep section I had visions of either slipping on my backside or launching myself head first into the pool.
I made it down without mishap and made my way along to the chosen peg and set up ready for the day ahead. I decided to start with the feeder rod with a running maggot feeder above a snap swivel with two float beads to act as a buffer between the feeder and the swivel with a size 16 hook on a 5 inch hook-length. I put three maggots on the hook and filled the feeder with a mix of casters and maggots and cast out about 30 to 40 yards slightly to my left so there would be a small kick on the quiver tip so I could see any bites. Now regular readers of this blog will know that the majority of my adventures on the bankside involve some sort of calamity or disaster and today was to be no exception. In my haste to get onto the new seat-box and start fishing I hadn't tightened the brackets on the left-hand side of the legs. I had just just watched my rod tip bend around rather forcefully and picked up the rod to strike when everything dropped from underneath me.
I dropped like a stone to my left, rolled over the edge of the seat-box, knocked my bait tub full of maggots off the tray and sat kind of dazed for a few seconds wondering what had happened. It was when I felt the rod jerking in my hand that I came to my senses and realised what had happened but I still had the fish on so the rest could wait until it was safely landed, unhooked and released.I got the fish to the surface but it was putting up a great fight and the swirls coming up from the pool told me it was a decent fish. The water was bubbling and swirling around as we fought it out but it soon tired and I was able to get my landing net, which had got bent in the fall from grace. It was a Common Carp about 3lbs in weight, but my phone had been catapulted just out of reach so no photo this time.
I unhooked the fish and returned it to the water from the landing net and set about sorting my peg out and retrieving as many of my maggots as I could. Luckily they fell into a pile and didn't scatter about so I had the majority back in the box in no time and there were a few dozen in amongst the grass which a Robin helped to clear.
 |
| Sat waiting patiently for a bonus feed of spilled maggots |
I managed to get everything sorted and securely fixed the seat-box at the correct height and started fishing again. I had been watching Ryan and where he was fishing and he seemed to have found a shoal of Chub, now I had never caught a Chub so I decided to see if I could get one as well and cast out remembering what I had read in my "Tommy Pickering's Complete Guide to Coarse Fishing" book about casting short of where another angler casts because there is a chance that the fish would be sitting further back in a kind of safe zone. It wasn't long before the rod bent round but this time it was a violent, hard take as the fish grabbed my hook and there wasn't any need to strike. It looked as if the speed and ferocity of the take had done that job for me. I've often heard Richard, Damian and Luke talk about the fight in a fish and because I usually set up for the smaller fish, I don't really get to experience this feeling, but this fish was certainly giving my shoulders and arms a workout. It turned out that I had got it bang on and hooked myself a Chub of about 2.5lbs, my first Chub and therefore a new PB. I was ecstatic.....This was worth the £7.50 entrance money alone...
There is that old phrase often used for buses about wait for hours and then three come along at once, well that could be used for what happened after that first Chub and I landed another 4 over the course of the next 45 minutes, the best being a 3lb beast, so two PB's in under an hour.
 |
| 3lb Chub |
As the day wore on the fishery became busier and busier but it was mainly air gun enthusiasts heading off into the woods to the ranges the owners have built there and it looked like there was a competition of sorts going on. I have to admit to having a little giggle at some of them dressed head to foot in camo gear. Gun cases, bags, trousers, hats and just about everything else decked out in camouflage patterns even though they were shooting metal targets which they hardly had to hide from. I'm not knocking them, each to their own, but it did make me smile.
The bites dropped off for everyone for a few hours but then as suddenly as they stopped, they began again and I swapped over to the float rod with a loaded waggler and tried my luck along the margins where a few small roach sacrificed themselves to my hook. Ryan was having some decent fish out with his new pole, Daniel was on the feeder still (mainly in everyone elses swims and not his own....there is always one) and Ed was busy with the float and having some luck.
The rain came and went but it did not spoil the enjoyment of being in the lovely surroundings of the fishery, and it was just a wonderfully relaxing and chilled out day but the excitement didn't end there. Ryan hooked into a real lump of a fish but it snapped him off just as Daniel had the landing net underneath it, Daniel had a fish take his hook as soon as it entered the water, snapping the line instantly but he said that it was a huge fish judging by the shadow that raced away just under the surface and Ed came close to picking up a Carp from the surface but a white duck grabbed his floating bait and hooked itself. The flapping and noise that the bird made in it's panic spooked the fish so after unhooking the bird Ed had missed out.
Ryan had to leave earlier than the rest of us because he had promised his girlfriend an evening out and shortly after he left I felt that familiar snap as the rod bent around and I could feel a decent fish starting to fight. At first I thought I had a Carp or Chub on, but to my surprise it was a Bream and it was a huge thing. Usually Bream just give up as soon as they are hooked, well the small ones do, but this one was darting around, diving for cover, coming back up to the surface and putting up a really good fight. After three or four minutes it finally surfaced, rolled onto its side and I was able to land it. It was like a big saucepan lid and the scales read 4lbs dead on....My previous best Bream had been 8 ounces, so a third PB in one day !!!!!
 |
| 4lbs on the nail....A third PB of the day |
I had to start thinking about packing away myself but there was one last burst of excitement in store for me when I hooked into a Common Carp of 5lbs and that really tested my float rod as it fought hard. The line was making those strange creaks, the rod was bent almost double as it ran for some roots that lay just under the water. I had noticed the dark shape swimming right in front of my peg for a while and just dropped the waggler in, almost at the rod tip, to see if it would take the bait. There was a splash as the tail broke the surface and it was off, diving down the shelf taking the float with it. I let the clutch run and took my time not wanting to lose the fish, and I let it run where it wanted but had to work hard at times to prevent it reaching the root system. My shoulders and arms had been given a proper workout all day and there was no let up with this fish. When I finally got it into the net I was surprised to see that it was foul hooked in the tail and so considered myself very fortunate to have managed to hang onto it while it fought me.
 |
| 5lb of solid muscle |
A few more casts produced nothing more than just a few line bites or nudges and I then had to pack up and make my way home to be at a previously arranged appointment in time, but I had caught my first ever Chub setting one PB, then beat that PB with the next fish and also beat my previous PB for a Bream, so I went home very very happy.
The Furnace Mill Fishery now ranks in joint first position of my favourite fisheries, along with Willow Park in Farnborough, and I have no doubt I will be making the short trip (only 25 miles) over to the Wyre Forest a lot more from now on.
Only the second fishery to ever get five Carp on Stu's Carp Rating -
See you on the bankside.....
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