FishStrain: Picks Cottage Fishery 18-8-13

http://www.pickscottagefishery.co.uk/

So the quest to try another new venue saw me arrive early at Picks Cottage Fishery near Chingford, a few miles inside the M25. I’m made the decision at the last minute and wasn’t sure what to expect, but the website looked nice, so onwards and downwards.

I arrived early to find I was the only person there and head off to the Top or Match Lake as it I known - a spacious 1 acre pool with a large island (well out of pole range) and 15 or so well-spaced pegs. I headed round to the far side where there were a few lily pads and I set about a light pellet attack on the pole, with a view to feeder across to the pads later on if required.

11mm pellet on the pole line in 5ft of water produced a bite second put-in, a common of 2lb. Then a short wait, and a tench of 4lb. Then a little later a bream of 3lb. Not bad for half an hour or so.

4lb Tench

Then it went quiet (I seem to be saying that a lot lately). I tried the left hand line to the pads (nothing), I messed around with the depth (I suspect there was some weed on the bottom in places) nothing. A couple of knocks came to nothing.

Then a couple small carp - all 3oz of them.

Lots of baby carp

I tried a few different things, but the bites wouldn’t come. The inside line on maggot blanked, which was a surprise, so out again on pellet.

Another angler turned up, but it was his first visit too, so no advice from him. So I swapped back to 6mm soft pellet on a 16 hook. And the knocks turned into bites… from more 3oz carp. I was about to try something else when a 3lb carp appeared, then a few babies, then a 3lb tench, and barring a few quieter patches this became the pattern for the day. Small carp, odd better fish, quiet patch.

After a while I had a chat with the bailiff, apparently the baby carp were spawned on site, and moved up as eggs from the specimen pool – it’s nice to see and in a few seasons they’ll be cracking little fish.

At this point I would have tried the trusty feeder to the island, only I’d left the feeder rod in the quiver. Doh. So I pushed on.

In the end it was a few nice carp to 4lb, 5 tench (4 at 3lb, 1 at 4lb) and 3 bream at 3lb each, plus a load of small carp for 40lb. Not bad for 6 hours on a new venue.

Can’t wait to see what it’ll be like in a few years’ time, or indeed in the winter on light gear and maggots.

There are two other lakes on site - these are more specimen carp waters, but I thought I'd grab a few photos while I was there (see below).