Dinton Pastures

A history of Carp Fishing over the past 30 years at one of carp fishing's hardest and most celebrated venues

Words and Pictures by Andrew 'Jock' Downes

This series of articles looks at nearly 30 years of carp fishing at Dinton Pastures, delving into the memories of some of the anglers who have made the lake so famous, looking at some of the big catches made over the years and trying to discover some of the reasons the lake has gained its almost mystical reputation for hard, weedy carp fishing.

In Episode 1 I described the early stockings and captures of carp at Dinton, and the first days of the WSSG. Now I want to take you through the rise of Dinton to become a true big fish water.

Episode 2 – 1986-1995 DINTON’S RISE

The 1986/87 season was one of the weediest I have ever experienced at Dinton. The Canadian pondweed that had been virtually wiped out by the previous year’s weedkiller application came back with bitter vengeance. Even now 21 years later I have never seen worse weed anywhere than Dinton in 1986, including other well known weedy waters such as Wraysbury. Much of the euphoria of the previous year that resulted from our first legal night fishing rapidly disappeared as everyone struggled to cope with the weed. I can remember hooking and losing 5 fish in the first couple of days of the season. Those fish were all hooked well out in the lake, so Richard and I started fishing close in under the rod tips. In some swims there was a narrow strip of reasonably clear bottom extending about 2 rodlengths out from the bank, and it was along here that we managed to pick up a few good fish at night. After catching you had to wade out and use a torch to re-position the hookbait on tiny clear patches up against the wall of weed.

 22LB DINTON COMMON ZIG RIG 1986

It was in 1986 that I first caught a carp on the Zig rig, although I didn’t call it that at the time. The method was to bake a neutral Richworth boilie till it floated, then soak it in flavour and fish it straight off the lead so the bait sat about 6 inches above the weed. This sometimes needed a 10ft hooklink! Needless to say my hook/land ratio improved when I started tying the lead on with a weak link, but to be honest I was keen to get away from the weed and fish Trilakes and Yateley.

RICHARD BERNIES LINEAR 1986

Richard was spending more and more time with his girlfriend, so for a time I saw little of him. Walking down at Dinton one day I bumped into Brian Parker, one of the other syndicate members, and we got chatting. Like me Brian was fed up with the Dinton weed, and we were both interested in bait development. We got on very well and began to fish together regularly.

Click here for Dinton Diaries Part 2 Page 2