Situated at Brampton on the Sheffield/ Rotherham border, Straight Mile Fisheries has long been a favourite with the club match and pleasure anglers of South Yorkshire. Containing a huge head of roach, chub, barbel and carp, anglers are guaranteed bites at Straight Mile in all but the coldest of weathers, and when the weather warms up weights of 100lb+ are common place.
Boasting a total of 90 pegs, all of which have an island feature to fish to, Straight Mile is one of the largest venues in the Sheffield area as well, and is ideal for hosting competitions as the shape of the lake dictates that the venue is generally pretty fair.
The venues prolific roach stocks, mean that bites are rarely hard to come by at ‘the mile’ which responds particularly well to a maggot approach. The fish will sometimes come close, so it is always worth feeding a line at the bottom of the near shelf, but your banker line should generally be at between 10 and 13 metres. Groundbait is not allowed at Straight Mile, but a ploy often used by regulars is to add copious amounts of tuneric to the maggots, which creates a nice cloud in the water, and attracts fish into the peg.
Another species that almost always feeds well is the venues chub stocks. Chopped worms and caster is the way to go for these, feeding little and often at the bottom of the far shelf. Take your time if you hook one, they run to over 5lb and have a habit of snagging you up under nearside snags.
If you prefer an out and out carp attack, sweet corn fished on the bomb and down the edge is the way to go. The fish will feed in the margins all year round here, and so never be afraid to give them a try.
If you are after a days pleasure fishing, the pegs to head for are the end pegs at the car park side. 1,2,50,51,89 and 90 all seem to produce well, as the wind generally blows down to that end of the lake.
The rules are simple, the only baits allowed are meat, corn maggots casters and worms. You must always fish with a float, and no bolt rigs are allowed.