This year has been highly disrupted, and it's only now that I could think about new places and one place that was on the to do list was Tyler's Common near Brentwood, Essex. A quick phone call on the Saturday confirmed there were pegs available for pleasure fishing and the Horseshoe lake was recommended. A little homework ensured, checking blogs and match reports to find a list of better pegs and the usual pole and pellet approach was prepared.
I arrived at the venue just before 7am, loaded the trolley and headed on down the various slopes to the Horseshoe Lake, it's not a long walk, but not insignificant either, but I could tell the slope on the way back might be a little tiring - hopefully my kit would be lighter on the way back.
I settled in on peg 4 - one of the form pegs on the lake, it was not hard to see why with an overhanging tree on the left that screamed margin fish, and catching in the margin was a known tactic on the venue.
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| The margins and a source of much frustration |
Unusually for me, I decided to fish the margin as an opening gambit having fed the line as I set up. Even at that time in the morning there were odd swirls, it was looking promising. But then reality set in.
Firstly, my lovingly prepared expanders either floated or fell apart (this is the second week I've had problems and these pellets were new from a different source) and when I did get the rig in the water the bites were typical iffy things that knocked the bait clean off the hook. I set up a lighter rig with smaller hook for corn an 8mm banded pellet, but this fared no better.
Over the course of the first two hours I hooked at least half a dozen carp and watched even more bow wave away from the pole, but I didn't land a single one. I'm happy to admit the odd one or two was foul hooked, but by no means was that the case for every one.
Eventually I managed a small carp of about a pound. This seemed scant return, especially given the reputation of the venue and the excellent peg. I tried a few different approach, tighter feeding, further along the bank, but nothing really worked. So I rested the line and went out on the pole down the track with 4mm expanders (I meant to put the 6mm in my bag and picked these up in error). The track produced skimmers and one carp to small expanders, corn got nothing and sonubaits 8mm was duly ignored too.
Up in the water failed as well, so it was all about chopping a changing for lots of frustration and not many fish.
Just after midday I decided enough was enough and set up a method feeder out towards the island where there were fish moving. This didn't produce any bites either, but whilst a sat there watching the tip do nothing, I fed the inside again, but this time much closer than I'd been fishing - probably just past the top 3 line. Interestingly, within a few minutes there were fish all over the bait. It was time to have another dangle.
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| The island run all the way along the lake and are a natural fish holding area |
Sure enough by feeding close and offering either 2 4mm expanders or a grain of corn on the hook, I started to pick up some fish. Not rapid and not massive, but the fish were there and despite one or two foulhookers, the fish began to flow. Mostly small, but with a few bigger fish up to 8lb 8oz, over the next hour or so I started to put a little run together.
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| Finally! Some carp action |
I packed up just before 3pm as the rain eased off and had to drag the gear back up the slopes to the car (and yes it did seem a long way on the way back). It had been a frustrating day, I had managed a few, but just wish that I'd been a bit more prepared and had tried the line a bit earlier and then I might have had a real day to remember. Next time I would try punched meat on the pellet line, make sure the expanders were fit for purpose and hope to pick up more bites that way.
Catch List:
Mirrors:3
Commons:12
Skimmers:10
Perch: 1
Total weight:50lb
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