Hallcroft Fisheries near Retford

[crofton blade]

Treat myself to a day fishing Hallcroft nr Retford, just over the border into Notts today. I needed to catch something to get a couple of river blanks out of my system.
Fished on the Bridge Pool as far away from the cafe and tackle shop as I could be. Caught well all day fishing soft pellet, banded pellet or worm at about 6 metres over micro and 6ml pellets. Had 30 odd bream, a 2lb tench and an 8lb carp plus a few roach for a conservatively estimated 65 to 70lb. Also lost a bigger carp after playing it for 10 minutes.
Nothing except roach in the margins and nothing at all fishing shallow at 11 metres, which I expected to be the method for the day given how many carp were cruising just below the surface. A ton was on the cards at one point but it went slow about 3pm. Still its the most bream I've caught for a while.
I had the lake pretty much to myself for most of the day until a couple of pairs of anglers came around tea time.
First time I've fished here for a few years (I used to live much closer) and can recommend it to anyone wanting a nice catching day. Well run with cafe that's open until 10am and a well stocked tackle shop. Just avoid the rush at weekends when there are always matches on a few of the lakes.

[Deleted]

Sounds like you had an excellent day. I always fancied fishing hallcroft.

[crofton blade]

Recent rumours that Hallcroft has closed to to them having suspected KHV virus have proved to be unfounded.
Testing by the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science undertaken on a dead carp and a dead koi have proven negative.

[blademanx]

Just a heads up to anyone planning a trip here. Make sure your tackle is beefed up as the carp in here run big and I mean big. Fished a club match Saturday on Moat Inner and won it with 136lb. The carp you get in the margins are something else. After 3 and half hours I'd probably got 25lb of fish in the net catching a couple of carp and a few skimmers short on pellet and dead reds. Baited up with hemp and groundbait down to my right and saw fish on it after 5 minutes. Straight in with double worm and float shot under within 5 seconds. A carp around 12lb graced the net after 5 minutes. Carried on like this for next couple hr landing and losing the odd one.
Must also say that what a piece of kit the new Edge Monster is. Used in conjunction with 14/16 zipp hybrid and .20 line straight to a 911 extra strong. Tight lines

[chunkymonkey]

Nice write up mate. How did you find the zipp elastic on the bigger fish? I've just put the 12-14 in one of my top kits and loved it but it seemed less powerful than I was expecting.

[blademanx]

I love the zipp. Stretches for ever without bottoming out even on double figure carp. I've tried 3 hybrid elastics now and to be honest they all do the job(slik and Nick Gilbert's hybrid).Definitley wont be going back to hollows. I personally think your better with softer and lighter elastics nowdays on big carp in conjunction with side pullas

[chunkymonkey]

I agree, one of the carp I caught in the margins didn't even seem to know it was hooked until I increased the pressure on it.