What’s the bottom like in Willow Lake at Mas Bas

Craig Lea-hair wrote:

What type of bottom is Lotus at Mas Bas? I’ve been thinking about what type and colour hook link to use.

Gareth Watkins replies:

Willow cottage 02First off you’ll love Mas Bas, I went to Lotus with my family last summer when I shot the video. We had a great time; if you look at the DVD, you can see my kids having fun and William catching a fish. We did not fish very seriously as it was a family holiday, with borrowed equipment.

Anyway in regards to your query, the lake has a fairly firm bed, but bearing in mind that it was previously chocker with the lotus lilies there is a fair amount of silt, not deep enough to pose you any real problem.

We found the best tactics were to fish close to the far margins, and lily beds to the far end of the lake. There is a fair amount of cover there for the carp so you can bet that they’ll all be up there once people are around the terrace area.


We fished mostly with PVA bags cast to the spots and baited up by walking round and using a catapult or by hand. This produced takes on the few days we did fish.

A word of warning: don’t stray far from your rods, as the fish will find cover very quickly on this lake. My son lost a few by not covering his rods properly and got a telling off for it too. There are few big fish in this lake so it pays to fish well to have a chance of landing one.

Finally regarding hooklink choice and colour… My preference goes for snakebite as it is dark in colour, strong 25lb BS and versatile. We fished it combi-link style with Quest Baits Smokey Fish snowman presentation. This gives the hook bait a certain buoyancy, which is useful over softer lake beds. I would perhaps try a brighter bait too like a pineapple bait on one rod as a contrast to the dark bottom.

Enjoy your stay in this magical place!

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