The pool nearest to the entrance, Smokey Joe's is named after a former bailiff who used to love his ciggies.

At an acre in size, it offers 20 well-spaced pegs - which means there is plenty of room for anglers.

Deepest at the end nearest the caravan where 12 feet of water can be found, Smokey Joe's gradually shallows to about seven feet deep at the far end, although it has a three-feet deep ledge which runs down the left hand side of the pool as you look at it from the entrance.

This ledge runs out about seven feet from the bank and can provide great fishing in summer once the water has warmed up.

As with the other Astwood Fishery waters, Smokey Joe's holds a nice mix of fish which include Mirror Carp to just over 30lbs with several fish now over 20lbs, Commons to 20lbs and Ghost Carp to over 24lbs.

With roach to 2lbs, rudd to half-a-pound, perch to 3lbs, skimmer bream to 1lb, tench and ide to 3lbs and a few chub to 1lb, this is a nice mixed fish water where you can go for decent nets of silver fish with a decent chance of picking up some of the better carp along the way.

The match record for Smokey Joe's was set in 2007 by Astwood regular Ashley Walker who pole fished feeder pellets and corn up in the water for a predominantly carp bag which weighed in at 138lbs.

Pleasure catches in excess of 100lbs are regular, particularly in the warmer months.

Although the deeper water is most productive in winter when a slider float or feeder are useful additions to the tackle box and catches of 30lbs to 40lbs are not uncommon, there are no particular hot spots in summer.

Then, fishing in the margins, to the island or fairly close in where the banks shelve at about 45 degrees to the bottom are usually best.

However, wherever you fish, sweetcorn, luncheon meat, Astwood's own hook pellets, sinking bread flake, maggots and worms are all good baits.

Because groundbait is not permitted it pays to feed with hook samples and feeder pellets, varying the depth until you find the fish and then keeping them going with loose feed.

In summer you can usually afford to be fairly generous with the feed and it is not unusual for anglers to use three or four tins of sweetcorn in a match.

In winter the bottom is the place to catch fish, and although many anglers regard sweetcorn as a predominantly summer bait it seems equally effective all year round at Astwood.

Maggots are another good winter bait, and again anglers should feed little and often - although not as much as in summer when the fish tend to feed more freely.

Most anglers fishing the Astwood pools tend to fish a 4lb line straight through to a 10, 12 or 14s hook.

Fish any lighter and you will undoubtedly be broken if one of the medium to larger sized carp comes along.

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