Category: Fishing: Angling And Fisheries

Carpworld Profile For Shearwater And Its Fishing

Monday 6th February 2023

Carpword has the following profile for Shearwater and its fishing:

Longleat Estate offers some of the highest quality coarse fishing available in Britain in its superb lakes and set in beautiful surroundings in the heart of the Wiltshire countryside.

Shearwater Lake is a fabulous 36 acre lake set in stunning scenery near Warminster, Wiltshire and is a fishery very much on the up and caters for all kinds of anglers with its wide variety of fish. Shearwater was drained down for repairs to the dame in the late 1980’s and when the fishery reopened 2 years later Longleat Estate took the fishery back in hand from Warminster Angling Club.

Over the last 29 years the fishery has developed into on the country’s finest mixed fisheries.  The lakes numerous carp consist of wildie common carp pawned from the original Shearwater commons and over the last 15 years a large number of mirrors and commons have been added and the fishery now boasts a good head of 20lb plus carp up to 28lb, an excellent head of upper doubles and a huge head of doubles and in the summer months catches of 30 carp in 24 hour sessions are regularly taken with pop ups over big beds of boilies or trout pellet popular, while huge hauls can also be taken on zig rigs over a spod mix of ground bait. The fishery is rated as a fairly easy carp water and most anglers catch carp on most visits.

The bream fishing on Shearwater is probably some of the best anywhere in the UK with experienced anglers taking bags of up to 200lb of bream averaging 3lb in a single day, while the average angler can expect 30lb to 50lb under favourable conditions.  Sweetcorn, worm or pellet on a ground bait feeder or small method feeder works well as does pole or waggler tactics.

The fishery also has an excellent head of roach to over 2lb with bags to 30lb common place mainly to caster or maggot on the pole or waggler.

As regards other species Shearwater also holds rudd to 2lb and tench to 4lb which make up tremendous mixed bags with the roach, bream and carp.

On the predator front Shearwater holds an excellent head of perch to 3lb and with drop shotting the latest fishing craze Shearwater’s dam wall lends itself ideally to drop, shotting and bags of up to 30 perch in a day are common place in the autumn and winter.  Shearwater also holds a good head of pike, with fish to over 20lb taken to between October and the end of March on sea fish dead baits.

Below the main lake at Shearwater is Little Shearwater that holds an excellent head of ghosties, mirrors and common carp to over 20lb, while in the winter months the fishery comes into its own as a pike fishery.

Whatever you want to fish for and withwhatever the tactics you wish to use Shearwater is an ideal venue for allanglers who can enjoy a real days sport in a wonderful setting.

carpworld.co.uk/fisheries/shearwater-lake/

A Grayling On The Wylye

Sunday 10th November 2013

Danny Howell writes:

In The Countryman’s Weekend Book, published by Seeley service & Co. Ltd., in 1946, Eric Parker features a list of record weights for fish caught in the British Isles. The records for fourteen different fish are given and includes:

“Grayling. Four and a half pounds. On the Wylye, 1885: Dr. T. Sanctuary.”

I wondered if any further details about this fish could be discovered, particularly when in 1885 and where exactly it was caught on the river Wylye, and who was Doctor Sanctuary?

On 22nd December 2013, Peter Hayes, of Shrewton, emailed Danny Howell, to say:

Dear Danny,
Hello -I’ll be a stranger to you. I’ve a copy of your book The Wylye Valley In Old Photographs, and was looking through it for any photos of the river Wylye between Stapleford and Wilton where my club (the Wilton FFC) has had the fishing for 125 years. Found one of “Niagara” at South Newton, and thought I’d ask you if you have :- 1) A good scan of it, &/or 2) any others? The river has changed hugely and we are looking for evidence of those changes!

Meanwhile, I noticed the item on the grayling and Dr. Sanctuary, on your blog, and I have some info on that/ him.

In my book Fly Fishing Outside the Box, Emerging Heresies, published by Coch-y-Bonddu Books this year, I say the following:-

“There’s another reason for us to be cross with Sanctuary. When the grayling record was established by a River Test fish of 4 lbs 8 oz, he went back and falsified his diary to show that he had caught a 4 lb 9 oz grayling (actually 1 lb 9 oz) at Bemerton on the River Nadder (actually on the Wilton FFC waters on the Wylye) but did not change the date.

The Diary Of An All Round Angler (1949) by Patrick Smythe records the details of their fishing day together at Great Wishford on the Wylye on 24 October 1883 and keys precisely to the altered details in Sanctuary’s own diary for that date – a 66-year posthumous conviction for the angler’s lie. You can see it’s been altered.

Tony Hayter is the person who discovered this, and he tells me that Sanctuary’s weasel-claim was made in The Fishing Gazette, 26 July 1913. In referring to the Wiltshire Avon he wrote: “In the latter stream, or rather in one of its tributaries, I once caught with a small dry fly a perfectly shaped and conditioned fish which weighed just over 4 1/2 lbs.’ The claim was accepted, and the picture postcard below shows that the lie persisted even after Smythe’s book was published.”

(postcard printed 1953).

Don’t think it was actually claimed as 1885, as it was the date that caught him out, but I might be wrong. I have seen a photocopy of his altered diary entry and he is, I’m afraid, bang to rights, with 1 lb 9oz altered to 4 lb 9oz. It wasn’t his first misleading record grayling claim. However he was a leading light in the Dry Fly Revolution masterminded by F.M. Halford, and a close friend of G.S. Marryatt to whom many fly fishing developments were credited. Just went a bit off the rails in later life. (I might too!)

I’m not too bothered about publicising a 120-year-old lie to the general public, though it’s important for anglers to know that two of the claimed grayling records were false! I guess I just didn’t care for the wrong claim to go on being handed down.

Hope this is useful; and that you might have some river pictures?
Yours, with best wishes, Peter.

Fishing In And Around Warminster

Monday 11 March 2013

Notes by Danny Howell:

The River Wylye, to the south and east of Warminster, is one of the finest chalk streams in Wiltshire, and offers good trout fishing (remember to get your licence). The Warminster and District Angling Club, telephone 07990 552612, was founded in 1961 and has over 400 members. The club uses Crockerton Lake, Hinton Lakes, Berkley Lake and the River Frome, as well as the waters of neighbouring clubs.

Results Of Wilts Angling Open

The results of the Wilts Angling Open, held at Eden Vale, Westbury, on Sunday 29th April 2012, are as follows (top placings):

1st, Dave Baker, Trowbridge, 28lb (carp and skimmer).
2nd, Roland Lucas, Frome, 21lb 12 oz.
3rd, Pete Neate, Holt, 17lb 12oz.
4th, Andy Pritchard, Westbury, 12lb 8oz.
5th, Mick Withey, Westbury, 10lb 10oz.
6th, Mick Martin, Trowbridge, 8lb 2oz.

Live System Bait At J. & K. Burton, Warminster

An A-board advertising C.C. Moore’s Live System bait for anglers, outside J. & K. Burton,
the animal feed merchants,
at The Old Warehouse, 13 Weymouth Street,
Warminster, BA12 9NP.

The photograph was taken by Danny Howell
on the afternoon of Friday 27th April 2012.

J. &. K. Burton, telephone number: 01985 219602.

C.C. Moore, telephone: 01963 362234
www.ccmoore.com/

mail@ccmoore.net

Near Henford Farm, Warminster ~ Fallowdown Fisheries And Hunter’s Moon

Friday 27th October 1989

Danny Howell in a lecture “Changing Faces Of Warminster” which he gave at the Athenaeum, Warminster, during October 1989, said:

“Near Henford Farm, Warminster, anglers have the facilities  of Fallowdown Fisheries and the Hunter’s Moon lodges.”

Where To Fish ~ River Wylye, 1978-1979

From Where To Fish 1978-1979, The Field Guide To The Fishing In Rivers And Lakes, edited by D.A. Orton. 77th Edition. Published by The Harmsworth Press Ltd.:

Avon (Hampshire) tributary
River Wylye: Trout, grayling.

Wishford (Wilts). – Preserved by Wilton Fly Fishing Club.

Stapleford (Wilts). – Salisbury AC has fishing here; members only.

Codford St. Mary and Bapton (Wilts). – Piscatorial Society water; members only.

Warminster (Wilts). -Warminster AC has water on Wylye, and coarse fishing on lakes and ponds; members only (membership restricted to rural area).

Longleat Estate owns just over 2 m of upper river; wild trout. Enquiries regarding st to Estate Office, Longleat, Warminster. Trout and coarse fishing on the lakes in Longleat Park for which dt are issued from Longleat House. No information on prices as we go to press.

Major J.C. Walker, Sutton Veny House, lets rods (£150) and half-rods (£100/£110) on 3¼ m of Wylye. Enquiries to Estate Office.

Heytesbury (Wilts). – Piscatorial Society has water; strictly members only.

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