Linch Hill - in search of monster gravel pit roach

Thursday the 5th to Saturday the 7th of January
There can't be many anglers interested in specimen fish that don't know about Linch Hill's Willow lake, for the last decade or so the water has produced an incredible number of big roach up to a mind boggling 4lbs in weight, a true roach mecca. Last year I was offered a place on the syndicate but couldn't take it up but this time around I decided that I really couldn't say no, each winter the numbers of fish caught has been decreasing and nothing in angling lasts forever, the challenge was on. There has been quite a bit written about the water in various books and magazines over the years and I also count myself fortunate in knowing several people that have fished there in the past who have been good enough to share their experiences and so I had got some idea of what to expect which is always very useful. My last visit to the complex was almost fifteen years ago when I fished Christchurch for carp on a few occaisions but I had never set eyes on Willow.


The plan was to arrive at the water for first light but that didn't entirely go to plan, after the build up of getting everything ready, reading up, talking to mates and generally having roach on the brain I found myself looking at my phone clock at 1.48am, not quite what I had in mind when I planned an early start. I pulled the duvet over my head and did my best to nod back off but it wasn't happening and eventually I bit the bullet and got up well before three o'clock, made myself a brew and loaded up the van. The weather was rank to say the least, gale force winds were buffeting the country and bringing with them plenty of heavy showers leaving standing water on the motorway as I headed south towards Oxford. There was nothing pleasant about the drive whatsoever, the van was being pushed around by an invisible force and my tight grip on the wheel was all that kept my long awaited session from ending before it started, every now and then I would tell myself to stop being daft and relax but the next gust would send me heart into my mouth and whiten my knuckles once more. The sat nav was perfect throughout the trip until I got to within the last crucual ten miles when it decided to lose its signal, why does it always have to be the last leg when it all goes wrong? After a diversion into an industrial estate and back out the same way by some minor miracle I found myself arriving at the fishery and incredibly I was the only one there, I'd been panicking all week about getting a swim!

I was out of the van like a shot, desperate to get loaded up and away, the rain had eased off some time back in the journey and the car park looked like it hadn't seen a drop so instead of wasting time putting on the bib and brace and jacket they got stuffed into bags and thrown onto the barrow. The walk to Willow involves passing Stoneacres first, maybe three or four hundred yards, within 50 yards it had started spitting with rain and in another fifty it came down steadily as I shoved the barrow has quickly as possible towards where I thought the lake might be drawn from a distant memory, in fact I'd gone ten yards past the gate before I realised. I headed straight down the right hand bank to the second swim, I'd been told that this one and the one opposite were a good bet and with two hours of darkness left and in the pouring rain that was plenty good enough for me. With my kit and myself already wet I got the bivvy up sharpish and got under cover, no sooner had I sat down than would you believe it the rain stopped. With time to kill I decided that a lap of the lake was in order for no other reason than to say I'd walked the lake I think, it seemed a good idea at the time anyway. As I walked into a swim at the bottom end of the lake I looked to my right and saw two lights shining at me, I quickly flicked the torch off thinking that I was illuminating someone's rods, then it occured to me that would mean a swim about five yards from the one that I was in and that the car park was empty, I put it down to sleep deprivation! I stuck the torch back on and this time there's four lights in the bush which I really didn't expect, this was all getting too much too early! Walking down the path I got closer, lit them up. and it was a pair of Muntjac deer right! That was quite enough excitement for one far too early morning so I headed back to base camp and made some sense of my kit in preparation for dawn.

A friend had told me of a couple of clear areas out from this swim that had done roach last winter so thats where I started with the marker but after a good look about it was pretty obvious that things had changed quite a bit with most areas being thick with weed and even the one fairly clear spot having odd bits of weed that could easily mess up a maggot rig, with the wind still blowing a gale it was more than likely that some of it was drifting too. I could just about get two rods out onto the area at maybe fifty or so yards and in fact initially squeezed my third rod out there too though later in the day I gave up on that idea and dropped that rod short. The rigs were the pretty standard short helicopter bolt rigs that have become pretty standard for many species nowadays, a hooklink of about three inches tied to a swivel bead which is stopped between a pair of Drennan grippa stops and set about six to eight inches above a forty gram Black cap feeder, due to the amount of weed in the swim I decided to do away with the second hook which could cause problems with a hooked fish getting snagged up, getting a roach in on light tackle through the weed was enough of a concern without adding another factor.

Roaching carp style! So is that Rarping or croaching?

The wind was still blowing strongly though it was coming from behind me and the swim itself was relatively sheltered, the ivy clad tree just to my right did give me some cause for concern at times though I must admit, without the ivy the wind would have whistled straight though without a problem but the extra foliage was catching the wind and causing some creaking that I didn't really want to hear. Mid afternoon I was treated to the sight of a red kite wheeling over the lake, I've only previously seen these brids from the car while driving down the M40 and up close it was an impressive sight, a flock of long tailed tits kept flitting in and out of the tree's around me and a kingfisher made the occaisional trip across the water, there's certainly no shortage of wildlife around the lake.

Stay where you are please Mr tree

Dusk arrived with no sign of a bite, I had seen one roachy splash close in to my left but on investigating the area with the marker rod it was solid with weed, no chance whatsoever of getting a bait down there. From what I had been told the chances of a bite after dark at this time of year were slim and I decided that I would give it until 8pm before winding in and taking the marker rod around to the opposite bank for a feel around, I just wasn't totally happy about the amount of weed where I was. The house point swim was certainly far less weedy, not clear by a long way but an improvement on where I was and so I decided to bite the bullet and move there and then in preparation for a dawn start the next morning, for once the rain was on my side and started just as I had got my temporary home organised by 9.30pm. The rods were left in for the night and I set the alarm for 6.30 before turning in for some much needed kip having been awake for over twenty hours.

Dawn saw the marker rod back out and a couple of reasonably clear areas found, the problem I was finding is that with the marker an area might well feel ok but stick a size 18 hook out there and it was quite possible that it would become fouled with fine blanket weed, although generally there was less thick weed in the swim it still wasn't great, I decided to perservere for the day and if nothing positive occured than I would look at another move after dark. Late afternoon another angler arrived and set up in the swim that I had left the previous day, I had expected the lake to be busy but this was the first angler I had seen since I arrived, was someone telling me something? 

Once again dusk arrived without any sign of fish and by 7pm I was back on the bank that I had started on but a couple of swims further down the bank, this time I decided to fish through the night and by clipping up the marker rod to a clean spot was able to walk out my rods along the bank and mark them accordingly without too much difficulty, and this time I wasn't bringing back any debris on the rigs, result! Dawn saw me up and working the feeders again feeling much more confident without the worry of the rigs being weeded, between 8 and half past I saw maybe half a dozen fish down to my right which was a great improvement on the last two days, I started to feel that gradually things were coming together. Nevertheless by 3.30pm my time had run out without result and it was time to head for home, no fish on the bank which to be honest wasn't a great surprise to me but importantly I had covered some ground and made some headway into understanding the swims.