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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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