Finch Farm, 31/12/11

Having had an unusually mild spell for December, I decided a day's fishing was called for. Plan of action was to have a day out at Wood Lane Fishery in Iver. However this was not to be. Duly sat outside the venue at 0745 (just before dawn) and the gate was locked. A phone call later revealed that they were not open today... so plan B was called for, Finch Farm in Maidenhead matched the bill.

I've only fished this venue once before – earlier in the year (28/4/11) when I got an idea of what was present. Lots of smaller fish and bites, so probably suitable for the winter when I'm pleased if the float goes under a few times.

I arrived about 0830 to be first in the car park, to find a warm breeze blowing from the south west. This could be problematic if it rained (as had been threatening on the drive there) but better to be fishing than not, so I got the gear out. The good news at Finch Farm is that there is a bank between the two pools and this was offering quite some protection from the breeze, so I took the decision to fish peg 39 on the island of main lake. The venue is quite unusual in that there are two rectangular islands on the main lake, and you can fish from one of them to the other and easily reach the island with 11m of pole. This is easy fishing, but it doesn't offer you many options if the fish aren't there.

Whilst setting up the bailiff, Lech, came and had a chat. A thoroughly nice guy. I think he was rather surprised to see anyone fishing at this time and even brought me a cup of tea a little later on. Most welcome!

I was set up and fishing the pole by about 0855. Having plumbed up I fed three lines via pole pot using maggot and a pinch of 4mm pellets – dead ahead 8.5m, left to a bush at 10m and right to the far bank at 10m. The peg was 3-4ft deep most of the way across and then started to shelve up dramatically at 9m with the far side being very shallow, so backing off into the deeper water was preferred. (In a previous visit I'd found the far shallows to be too shallow and therefore unproductive).

Left hand swim:

Right hand swim:

The idea was to start on maggot and try pellet at some point, given the time of year this seemed like a good plan. First put in on maggot dead ahead produced a bite and a good roach of 6oz or so. Next put in another roach (maybe a little smaller). Then a gudgeon. Then it went quiet. The right hand swim produced more roach, all of a good stamp and then died a little. Left hand swim, a couple of quick roach, then back to the right for a few more.

Within half an hour I'd had about 20 nice fish, but nothing amazing so I played around with the presentation. Bites had been coming when the float had fully settled and then some, so I pushed the bulk down. I now had slower bites. I tried coming off bottom, laying on, double maggot, fishing past the maggot feed, fishing nearer. I still got bites but it was slower. I tried a small expander in both far lines. Nothing. Hmm.

At the hour mark I had maybe 25 fish – mostly good roach and I'd lost a small mirror (maybe 6oz) at the net. I re-fed with the pot on the two far lines (maggot and pellet again), the right hand one was the more productive but you needed two good lines to the keep the fish coming and the left hand one was not so good. The feeding seemed to kill the swim for a bit, but slowly the fish came back. Roach continued to come in and the odd other fish showed up. Small carp in the 6-12oz range, little plump goldfish and some carp-type thing that looked like cross between a goldfish and an F1. Changing the presentation made it to 50 fish at two hours.

Plenty of roach like this:

Smaller carp:

Goldfish:

I stopped briefly to have something to drink and decided to try a lighter rig – I was missing a fair few bites so I thought I'd see if I could convert a few more. I pulled a canal rig out of the box (K2 4x12 to 0.11 line to a 0.10 hooklength and size 20 K611 barbless) shotted with styls for a slow fall and went across. The rate of bites increased and so did the confidence and hooking rate. More roach and a few gudgeon followed as did the small carp and goldfish and a few other things as well – a few nice rudd and dace added to the haul as I kept the lines ticking over.

At about 1300 I'd had 100 fish and decided to have some food and try the 6mm pellet while I did so (I find this is a good way to try things that might not work for a few minutes). It had failed earlier but why not give it a go? Half way through my roll and the float dived under and an 8oz common came in. Hmm. Re-bait and try again. Another bite, this time a plump goldfish. I persevered on pellet, feeding a pinch of 4mm pellets on each line and switching between produced a steady line of carp and goldfish, nothing amazing but good fish up to 1lb came in from both lines. Sometimes it would slow and I pulled out of a couple of foul-hooked fish, but all-in-all it was enjoyable.

After an hour of so (and 15 more fish) I hit a better ghostie of 1lb or so and a common that was an easy 1lb 8oz (I'd forgotten the scales) which turned out to be the best fish of the day and made it to 1500 with 130 fish. I then experimented for the last 30 minutes to see what else might work. Maggot on the top 3 produced a few quick roach, laying on heavy got a few fish off the far side, but it was slow. So at 1530 I packed up, 138 fish later for an estimated 36lb or so. Not bad for December 31^st.

Catch list:

Common Carp – 30

Mirror Carp – 2

Ghost Carp – 2

Goldfish – 10

Goldfish/F1 - 15

Rudd – 4

Dace – 3

Gudgeon - 13

Roach - 58