Sundown Valley Camping and Fishing

Bob's Pool

Developed more than five years ago, Bob’s Pool at Sundown Valley Camping and Fishing Park has a combination of 24 gravel and natural grass pegs which offer plenty of room for anglers. With a central island which runs along the spine of the water, the pool has a gently sloping bottom along the left hand bank as you enter the fishery from the main car park whilst the opposite bank is cut at about 45 degrees leading to a six feet deep bottom about a rod length out.

Well stocked with common and mirror carp

Stocked predominantly with common and mirror carp which have been caught to 12lbs, the pool holds a good head of mid-sized fish of both types. There is also a handful of koi ghost carp. Because the bigger fish have spawned successfully over the past few years there are also good numbers of smaller mirrors and commons.

There are also some bream, eels and a smattering of crucians together with some small tench to just under 1lb which were stocked in Spring 2010 and are growing quickly. Fish stocks were supplemented earlier in 2011 with bigger tench between 3lbs and 4lbs, bream bream between 2lbs and 3lbs and some lovely golden rudd around the 8oz mark. In addition, a quantity of skimmer bream were transferred to a nearby stock pond.

The majority of the bream are self-bred from fish which were inadvertently introduced to the pool with the initial stocking of carp. The mature fish weighed about 1lb 8oz at the time and have grown in size since then, although those which resulted from subsequent spawnings are obviously much smaller but coming on nicely.

The eels have been caught to about 1lb 8oz but rarely show – although one angler a couple of years ago had four in one session. These are believed to have found their way into the pool from neighbouring streams but are a welcome addition in view of the recent rapid decline of the eel population in the UK.

Catches of 100lb or more

Whilst Bob’s Pool is not large it regularly produces notable catches with several recent small club matches having been won with more than 100lbs of fish. Pleasure catches of 40 or more of carp at a sitting are not uncommon.

Good fishing techniques on Bob’s Pool

Whether fishing for pleasure or fishing a match, Bob’s Pool is easy to fish because of its even and fairly shallow bottom. This makes both pole and waggler techniques straightforward with fishing in the margins, down the track or towards the island all producing results. Because of the good head of carp in the water, the most popular pleasure technique so far seems to be fishing either floating bread or dog biscuit either in open water or towards the island.

Swimfeeder works well

Alternatives are to fish a swimfeeder packed with feeder pellets using luncheon meat or sweetcorn on the hook or, if you want to catch a lot of fish and are not worried about what size they are, to fish a similar technique with maggots as hookbait. The only problem with fishing maggots, as when fishing any water, is that you are likely to attract a lot of small fish before the bigger fish move in and force them out.

Luncheon meat, sweetcorn, breadflake and maggots all work well when fishing the float either on pole or waggler, although it is worth noting that so far boilies have proved ineffective. The reason for this may be that Bob’s Pool is a quiet water which has been little fished and that the carp may not yet be used to boilies.

Surface fishing dog biscuits

A more unusual technique which has proved very successful so far is to adopt fly fishing techniques and fish a Deer Hair Muddler trimmed to look like a dog biscuit and to fish this amid some free offerings of dog biscuits when the fish can be seen cruising under the surface or feeding on the top.

On several occassions when this has been done by more adventurous anglers it has proved very successful at picking out the bigger fish in the swim and is said to be a delightful way of taking carp, particularly when using lighter rods and lines than are normally used for carp fishing.

All pegs perform well

One of the nice things about Bob’s Pool is that there are no particular hot spots which regularly produce decent catches of fish. This means anglers have an equal chance of catching whichever peg and swim they choose. Fishing in the margins or up against the island, however, is usually the most productive.

Although the water has few features to fish to at present, it is planned over the coming months to introduce some beds of water lilies around the island which will create bays into which anglers can fish. And with more landscaping work and tree planting to be carried out over the coming autumn and winter, Bob’s Pool will become an increasingly attractive water to fish, making it an ideal base from which to combine an angling holiday or break with the opportunity to explore some of Wales’ finest beaches and mountains.