Broom Family Lake, Bedfordshire
Will Reynolds visits a new fishery where a series of videos were filmed that transformed the way we all fish a popular tactic
THERE’S a small number of venues that helped to change the face of fishing forever.
Northamptonshire’s Heyford Fishery set a precedent that hundreds more replicated when it became the first to dig a snake lake in the early 1990s.
Ray Walton’s success with ‘rolled meat’ tactics on The Royalty stretch of the Hampshire Avon helped to inspire countless other barbel anglers to follow suit.
Every angler has a selection of bombs in their terminal tackle and it was the pioneering great Richard Walker who first brought the streamlined leger weights to the fore when he used them to devastating effect for catching big perch at Bedfordshire’s Arlesey Lake.
Venues that have had such a big impact on how the modern angling fraternity go about their business crop up infrequently, but another that can claim to have recently changed the mindset of many has now opened its doors to day-ticket anglers.
Bedfordshire’s Broom Family Lake came under the spotlight earlier this year when Guru stars Matt Godfrey, Adam Rooney and Steve Ringer headed there for an intriguing project. Crystal clear water gave them the perfect conditions to install underwater cameras to gauge how the resident carp responded to angler’s tackle. Four episodes were shared on the company’s YouTube channel, with over a million viewers looking on as much of what we knew about Method and Hybrid feeder fishing was thrown out of the window.
Countless theories that had been taken for granted over the years were shelved, as the footage showed carp slurping up hookbaits before casually spitting them out, all while the rod tip barely budged.
The concept that every encounter between carp and feeder leads to a rod being dragged in was suddenly made redundant, with the behaviour of the fish proving that numerous changes to rig presentation were required to make the most of the tactic.
Since filming finished, the venue has been opened to the public under the Embryo Angling banner, a firm founded by Korda boss Danny Fairbrass back in 2014 to turn waters that were being neglected or were su
