Timberland Fishery 28-12-2013

I had great difficultly deciding where to fish today. I could have gone back to Finch Farm which always guarantees a few bites, I could have tried Southend Farm (a new venue for me), but for a change I decided to go to Timberland Fishery in Harlow. I’m not sure when I fished there last, but it was a good few years back. What attracted me was the head of F1s which feed well even in the coldest of weather and the chance to see how the fishery had matured.

So on a cold, frosty morning I headed off to shallowest blondest Essex (I used to say deepest and darkest Essex, but apparently that’s not PC anymore). I had decided to stop off for some breakfast on the way to fill the tank up, but when I got to the café it was closed. So a nearby Greggs filled the void.

I was first in the queue at 8am when the gates opened, and having had a look around the place decided to fish peg 14 (ish) on Baggers Lake with my back to the warehouse which would give some shelter if the wind picked up and offered a snag feature to the left and right margins. On balance this wasn’t a bad call, but it did mean I was in the shade almost all day, further up the short arm of the lake might have been a better decision in hindsight.

The right hand margin

I set up light (for me) with two K2s on 0.13mm line to 0.08mm hooklinks and 18 hooks. One 4x12 for the margins (about 3ft deep) and a 4x14 for the 11m line where it was 4ft deep.

By the time I’d tuned the rigs, potted in some maggots and a pinch of 4mm pellets on all three lines (left and right margins 2+2) and 11m it was 0835 – time for some  fishing.

Single white maggot at 11m and within a couple of minutes the float buried and produced a micro-roach. Three more put-ins produced more tiny roach, two of which didn’t stay on during shipping in, so I tried the left margin. Nothing.

Right margin. Bite. Solid resistance and a spirited fight produced a nice little F1 carp that went 3lb 8oz. That was more like it. A few more decent roach followed then another carp of 4lb and I was motoring. And then it all went dead. I fed a little extra and went back to 11m.

Micro roach again. 

I tried a 4mm soft pellet at 11m (partly out of hope and partly out of experience – pellet had got me through the micro fish on my last visit) and waited. It was only 5 mins or so and the float sailed away and a 3lb f1 was my eventual reward – they take a few minutes to land on a no 6 elastic.

10 mins later a repeat and suddenly I had 14lb of fish to my name. I was starting to do the mental arithmetic to see what I might do today – 4 fish an hour for 10lb for 5 hours… you get the idea.

15 mins later and nothing. And before I knew it (having had a look at the inside line) I’d not caught for over 30 minutes.

I played with maggot again at 11m for more micro roach, and one better fish that shed the hook, before  I started to pick up the odd fish through quiet periods. Putting a maggot on the hook helped bites, but they were always small fish (mostly one ounce type fish).

During on these periods I started flicking maggots to the left hand 2+2 line and after 15 minutes I had a look. Straight away a roach – but a nice roach of 6oz or so. I fished this line out for 20 minutes or so, this produced a good selection of quality roach in the 6-12oz bracket, one carp of 4lb and one better roach that shed the hook (I’d love to know how big that was, but it was easy a pound). Then it went quiet. 

One of the better fish - there were several that went 4lb

Out to 11m, small fish and one carp. Back to the left a few fish, and the roach were still better than on the far line and at 2 or 3 fish to the pound they made my estimated weight tick along.

As the left hand line started to die and had a look back at the right (it had been pretty dead since the early start). A quick quality roach followed so it was time to see what would happen if I fed a little more. Well, it turns out it was all about presentation – drop the rig in and you’d get nothing, lay the rig in and just as it settled it’d sail away with a roach or occasionally a fat gudgeon as the culprit.

By this time, I was starting to run low on maggots (a pint doesn’t last long if you’re feeding three lines) so I concentrated on the left until the bait ran out. I gave in ten minutes on pellet and missed one bite and then called it quits. A hard fought 35lb. Not bad for a freezing day in December.  

Some of the walks from your car to your peg at Timberland can be exhausting

Catch List:

Common carp - 2

F1 carp - 7

Rudd - 1

Perch - 3

Gudgeon - 8

Roach - 59

Total weight 35lb

Finch Farm 22-12-2013

Having finished work for the year, I had a chance for a few hours fishing. The weather forecast was dry with some sun (but very windy) so I headed off to Finch Farm for a few bites.

Lech the bailiff was there on my arrival, I paid my tenner and got a free cup of tea (most welcome I might add) and set off with my gear.

You can usually find some shelter there and with larger numbers of small fish present you can usually bag a fish or two, although the average size is a bit small. But hey, it's December and any fish is a good fish. 

I had the intention of fishing a different part of the lake to normal, but there was shelter on my usual island peg (hiding behind two pampas grasses) so that would do. 

The plan was to fish maggot and small pellet and catch what I could. I set up a pole rig with an old favourite, the Tubertini K2 float with the aim to fish light (no.6 elastic on a pulla, to 2.6lb line through to an 18 hook). I started at about 10 m, just where the far slope settles down. The far bank here has collapsed and the bottom is very steep, there's a shallow shelf tight for about 6-12 inches and then it drops off to 4ft or so very quickly - so much so that the plummet usually rolls down towards you if you're not touching the far bank. 

The plan was to fish to the right and left (where there's a bush) and hopefully move onto soft pellet as the day went on.

I settled for the deeper part, potted in a few maggots, added the cad pot to the pole tip and went for it.

 

First put in and the float went under as I brought in a nice roach of about 6oz. A good start. More bites followed as I put in a pinch of maggots via the cad pot each time, a chub, a goldfish, a rudd, an F1 carp of about a pound and a half - I felt like I was making good progress. 

One of the many plump goldfish in the lake

I was missing some bites, but by the time the first hour was up I was on 12 fish. Not bad for this time of year. 

Then, disaster, the hook pulled out of a goldfish under the top 3 and the rig flicked off behind me, never to be seen again. 

I re-rigged and started producing a run of more fish, but somewhat slower. I tried the bush a few fish, up the shelf (a few roach) down the shelf (odd bite) and so it continued. 

It was frustrating, just when you thought it was happening the bites would slow. Or I'd have a patch of bites that I couldn't hit or I'd pull out of a fish under the top 3. And a few times I'd connect with a big fish (probably foul hooked) and lose it as soon as it'd gone a few yards. 

I played with pellet - just the odd knock, but nothing special, so it was back to maggot to catch whatever was present. 

Perseverance kept the fish coming, but the rate was slow and intermittent.

Surprise fish of the session was a nice perch of 1lb 11oz, which is a fair but bigger than I've caught here before and one of only two perch on the day.

1lb 11oz stripey

At 1:15pm I lost my rig to a far bank bramble, so decided to give the pellet a bash on the far shelf on a new rig.

First put in a 4lb F1 - my best fish of the day. Next put in a mirror of about a pound. Then a quiet spell. Then another F1. A couple of small fish added and a few more bites missed. 

Best F1 of the day - 4lb

I was just about to call it quits when the float went under and one of the pools larger residents took the pellet. And shot straight under the bush. It shed the hook and left me tethered to the snag. I pulled for a break and called it quits. It would have been nice to have landed it, but with light gear and so many snags in the peg it was always going to be a challenge. 

Not a bad session for late December. 

Catch List:
F1 carp - 12
Mirror carp - 1
Goldfish - 20
Gudgeon - 1
Perch - 2
Chub - 2
Rudd -1
Bream - 2
Roach - 20

Total weight - 25lb