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Capesthorne Hall Uncovered Capesthorne Hall has
long been one of
the north west's top carp waters, its been producing good numbers of
20lb+ carp since the seventies and continues to be a top north west
carp venue today with several carp topping 30lb+ at the right time of
year. For details about capesthorne hall please visit the Sotas
website, there is a link to the Sotas website on the 'links' page of
this site.
During my time on Capesthorne Hall the dam wall sprang a leak and for a time, the lake was drained whilst repairs took place, the following pictures were taken when the lake was all but empty of water. Like most people, I struggled in my first year on Capesthorne Hall, my results were strictly average and I managed 6 carp in my first season, thats not a lot of fish when you're fishing there 2-3 days per week. The following pictures had a massive impact on my results on this lake, once I sat down and studied them I began to relate showing fish to the underwater features in the pictures, the next season produced 24 carp for me as I was able to use the photos to understand the carp movements around the lake. The following pictures relate to the 'park pool' side of the bridge, a long area of the lake known as 'the shallows'. This area of the lake can be very productive as the carp like to cruise round the shallows in the afternoons. Capesthorne Hall
Park Pool - Cattle Drink
 This first picture above is a swim known as 'the cattle drink', it's not a very popular swim due to it's restrictive nature, from the surface it looks very difficult to extract a carp from and it is 'hook and hold' fishing. As you can see from the picture, apart from the trailing branches of the yew tree theres little else for the carp to snag you up on and you can safely extract carp from this swim if your competent at snag fishing. This swim is highly under-rated and allows you to fish much closer to the yew tree than from the popular main pads swim opposite. Fishing close to cover is a big thing on Capesthorne and the closer you can get to it the better. The cattle drink will produce carp regularly and is particularly good if the lake is busy as the carp tend to favour the cover of the yew tree when they are under angling pressure. Capesthorne Hall
Park Pool - Main Pads
 The next picture above begins to deal with the 'stream bed'. Capesthorne hall is an old estate lake, it was created by damming a small stream which runs in from the end of the shallows, the lakes water level is regulated by the 'plug hole' up by the dam wall, what water flows in one end, then flows out via the plug hole and into the syndicated bottom pool. The old stream bed still exists and it didn't take me long to realise that the carp would follow this feature quite a lot. Looking from the main pads swim, the stream bed flows through the second arch of the bridge, it's quite pronounced here and has a fair depth of water, despite looking very good, fishing in the stream bed here has been unproductive for carp, in this particular swim the carp seem to prefer the cover of the yew tree and the pads and usually pass through arches 3,4 and 5 when moving between the park and garden pools and vice versa. Capesthorne Hall
Park Pool - Stream Bed
 Changing the picture angle from the main pads shot you can clearly see the stream bed above meandering its way through the shallows of the park pool, it comes close in to the bank just before the rodey bushes on the hall side before going back out to the middle of the lake. If you can get a bait in the stream bed anywhere down the shallows I think you have a chance of picking up a carp, for this reason I never used to break my neck to get into what are known as the 'popular' swims near the bridge, if you find the stream bed your in with a chance from any swim on the shallows. Capesthorne Hall
Park Pool - Rodeys on the Shallows
 The next shot above looks at the rodey bushes on the hall side, this clump of bushes is just under half way down the shallows from the bridge. As you can see from the photo, the stream bed passes through this swim as it does through every swim on the shallows. Take a look at the far bank on the hall side, if you look carefully along that bank you can see a line were the silt starts. Along this bank the margins are sandy to start off then a couple of rod lengths out the silt starts. If there are carp cruising the hall side then a bait placed precisely on this line is in with a chance of being picked up. You really need to be quiet when fishing Capesthorne Hall, particularly so if fishing the margins. If the fish are there and you can get your bait on the line and avoid being detected by the carp, this sand/silt line can produce. Incidently the remains of the fallen tree in the foreground has been removed. Capesthorne Hall
Park Pool - Looking up the Shallows
 The picture above looking back towards the bridge gives a different angle from rodey picture above, you can see the line of sand/silt along the near margin, its just beyond were the old barbwire fence finishes, or used to finish as the fence is now gone!. You can also see the stream bed and that the far bank has the most cover. I mentioned previously how important bankside cover is to these fish, I can only assume the carp feel safer with cover close to hand, they are more likely to try baits in areas they feel safe in, which I guess is true of all carp in all lakes. When a lake see's as much angling pressure as Capesthorne Hall though, it's crucial if your going to stand a chance of banking one of these tricky carp!. To sum up the park pool, you should always pick a swim based on sightings of fish, don't worry about people running straight for the main pads swim, it's a good swim yes but because of the constant angling pressure it sees it's not as good as it once was. If you start getting obsessed about this, or any other swim then you've fallen into the trap of 'swim chasing' and you'll be in for a hard time. The carp in Capesthorne Hall pretty much follow the same daily pattern, in the morning they begin to pass through the arches from the garden pool into the park pool and up to the shallows. They spend the day cruising the shallows, then, as we get to late afternoon, they begin heading back up towards the bridge and through into the garden pool again. It's worth fishing along the shallows through the daytime then moving to the garden pool early in the evening. The garden pool has slightly deeper water and it's one big natural feeding area so lets tak a look at the lake bed on the other side of the bridge. For those of you that don’t know, Capesthorne main lake has a bridge crossing it about two thirds the way up the shallows (park pool see above). The bridge is regarded as the dividing line between the garden pool and the shallows. The water in the garden pool gets deeper as you move up to the dam wall and at the far end of the lake, in front of the dam wall, you’ll find about 7 feet of water maximum with the average depth being about 3-4 feet for the garden pool as a whole. Walking from the car park towards the bridge, when you reach the bridge and turn right before crossing, the first swim you arrive at is known as the arches. This has always been a tricky peg to catch fish from. Carp pass through this swim in numbers and it took me a while to work out how to catch consistently from it. The arches rates as one of my favourite swims on the entire lake, its one of those swims where 2 rods never seems enough to cover all the options. Capesthrorne Hall
Garden Pool - The Arches
 Looking at the picture above, this is taken from the arches looking across to the hidey peg known as ‘robinson crusoes’ and the first swim in the field known as ‘the moose’. The areas of interest are the channels in the silt and the brickwork around the bridge. The most common mistake when fishing the arches is to try to get tight under the bridge or to the brickwork of the bridge that can be seen when its full. As you can see, the stone is built up and gradually falls away to meet silt about a rod length away from the bridge, a bait fished were the stones hit the silt is a winner!. The carp use this line to patrol and when I started finding it I found some very good action. The other areas of interest are the silt channels, you may notice that the old stream bed comes through the second arch, this is not a good place to fish, the only action I ever received in the channel was from bream. It was far better to fish the third and fourth arches over against the silt/stonework area as this is where the carp like to move. Capesthorne Hall
Garden Pool - The Moose
 There is a smaller channel in the silt that breaks off and heads towards the moose swim and where it stops and turns back to open water in front of the moose is also and excellent area. The silt/stones are about a rod length from the bridge and similarly, the channel in front of the moose is a couple of rod lengths away from the overhanging rodey bush that everyone casts too because its all they can see. Open water in front of both the arches and the moose are also worth a look, this quarter of the lake from the bridge up to the eagle is probably the biggest area of natural food in the lake and you’ll see carp head and shoulder and roll in this area during the evenings. I’ve also included a view looking back from the moose swim above, you can clearly see the brick line of the bridge and how that it comes round and under the rodey bush then into the margins of the moose, baits placed anywhere along this line are a potential winner as its a carp patrol route. Capesthorne Hall
Garden Pool - Ornamental Eagle
 Next up is the ornamental eagle above, years ago this swim was an absolute flier of a peg. You can see the old stream bed coming close in right in front of the eagle, you can also see a feature that I spoke about in part 1, the line where sandy margins hit the silt. In front of the eagle they pretty much come together, the sand/silt line and the stream bed are very close at this point and a rod fished a rod length off the eagle is another winner on the right day. Before the drain down, I used to see carp rolling right in front of the eagle and it was only when I saw the lake empty I realised why. Despite the lake turning gin clear, fish can still be caught from this spot if your quiet. They can also be caught further along towards the toilet if you find the sand/silt line the carp use as a patrol route. If any of you have read Paul Selmans Carp Reflections Capesthorne Hall
Garden Pool - Open Water
 The next picture above is taken from just before the eagle and shows the margins of both sides, as you can see its silty and again the areas of sand meeting silt are the ones to have a rod on, One rod on the line and one out in the silt where the carps food collects was always my tactic in these swims, sometimes you can’t get into the peg you want so it pays to know how to get the best and possibly a bonus fish out of the ‘has been’ type pegs that most people don’t fancy. Capesthorne Hall
Garden Pool - Dam Wall
 Next is the dam wall taken from the field side, again it’s a silty middle and sandy edges, the silt/sand area in the last field peg, just before the swim known as the ‘chicken run’ is another good place to fish. You can see a fir tree growing in the corner by the toilet, this has now been removed. When it was there, the corner was always worth fishing but since the tree got chopped down the carp always seemed a bit reluctant to go in there although they do still show up there from time to time due to the presence of lily pads in that corner. Capesthorne Hall
Garden Pool - Plug Hole Swim
 Last but not least is the plug hole above. When I first fished Capesthorne Main Lake in the summer of 1996 this was ‘the’ swim to be in, I remember waiting the best part of 3 months before I ever saw it vacant and even then it was only because the carp angler fishing there went home early for his tea!. It was such a productive peg, the lads used to try to angle a cast under the trees to land tight into a gap in the rodey bushes right back against the bank, if the cast wasn’t right you simply didn’t catch. Things changed after the lake was drained and with gin clear water and weed present the fish deserted the plug hole swim in droves and it fell out of favour. This turned out to be a bonus for me as I managed to stumble across an area that produced in the depths of winter and the swim was rarely or never fished!. In the picture you can see where the lads used to catch tight into the rodey bush, the area I had winter action from is under the big tree with the dead leaves on. It’s the nice flat silt area, there’s nothing much there to attract them, just a nice depth of water over their heads and the security of the big overhanging tree. If you get the right area here, winter carp action during December, January and February is possible. Runs don’t come every time but if you can get in there, its worth fishing and it’s the first peg I’d head for during the depths of winter. Well that’s about it, most of what I learned during the time I spent fishing Capesthorne Hall Main Lake. I found Capesthorne to be a very tricky water, pinpoint location, a good carp bait, an efficient rig and an understanding of carp behaviour were all needed on this lake. Watch the carp closely, seeing these pictures of the lake empty is only part of the jigsaw and you’ll need to get up close and personal with these fish in order to get amongst them consistently. If you can learn how to catch carp consistently on Capesthorne Hall then you’ll leave the place a very accomplished carp angler. The carp fishing is far from easy and if you have any problems with your bait, rigs or location you will suffer an awful lot of blanks!. Best of luck to those of you who decide to fish this tricky and challenging carp water. Taken From Capesthorne Hall Uncovered and from Capesthorne Hall Uncovered Pt2 at North West Carp |
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