Once again this next blog is a retrospective look back at a few trips to one of my favourite venues........
I generally keep a little quiet about certain places I fish (I've seen many great swims ruined forever when they get a mention in the press)
But this little collection of 3 lakes have been well documented in the angling fraternity so many times.
Marsh Farm in beautiful Milford, Surrey...
The home of very large & true pure bred Crucians & some cracking tench as well.
This little carp could very possibly my favourite fish to catch & admire it's buttery gold flanks.
But one of the main reasons I adore this species is they can be extremely tough to catch, dam near impossible as times....
But that magical moment you slip your landing net under a good Crucian is a huge justification of your tactics & skill as a fisherman, because you know the big old girls don't give themselves up easily. It's truly a great feeling.
I have a warm feeling in my heart every time I arrive at the Marsh Farm car park, it's been good to me over the last few years & 2013 has been the best so far, this blog is an amalgamation of 4 or 5 sessions this summer.
I never blanked but, of course different weather conditions of course negate my catches to a degree.
Right down to the nitty gritty of tactics...
A pair of 1.5tc rods loaded with my favourite small Okuma baitrunner reels & 6lb line, worm or sweetcorn are both great choices for a hookbait, maggot can work well but you might find that you can get bitted out by the many small roach & rudd.
Next it's the eureka moment for me via a YouTube video with Duncan Charman...
An small inline flatbed method feeder !
Now don't get me wrong I'm a purest when it comes to catching on the float & often 10 good fish on stick float beats 30 good'uns on the tip.
I'd love to be able to catch these stamp of fish on the float mid way across the lake but with even a small amount of wind it causes major presentation issues & crucians are the fussiest of all course fish.
I'd love to be able to catch these stamp of fish on the float mid way across the lake but with even a small amount of wind it causes major presentation issues & crucians are the fussiest of all course fish.
Having said all that dusk & dawn is a great time to try a float & I always have a my Maver 17ft float rod & Okuma centerpin with 4lb mainline to a pole float with a 2lb hooklink & an 18 hook.
The near side marginal shelf is only 15ft from the bank with bushes & reads almost reaching that distance, thus providing a bit of cover as well. A few times I've picked up a bonus bigger fish & halibut paste has scored well for me in the past.I learnt to fish running a stick float through a nice glide on my local river & this kind of fishing will always have a place my heart. Although I feel it's a dying art really, it's a sad place to be when you see kids learning to fish behind alarms & carp rods, terrible !
I find i rarely miss many bites & lose fish with the method & the semi fixed nature of this feeder. always make sure you use the correct swivel size as I'm sure you wouldn't want to cause the fish any further danger with a fixed lead system. I team it up with a short 4lb hometied fluorocarbon hooklength down to a size 16 korum S3 hook mounted with worm or corn, the groundbait was just dynamite baits betaine green, mixed with a little lake water & no freebees at all, I find you bank many more fish in a session this way, the fish home in on the hookbait as the groundbait cloud doesn't have a large nutritional value. That's the theory anyways.
So swim primed with a few large balls & bait cast, time to wait.....
Baitrunners on the lightest setting & Korda stow bobbins clipped on, I lift into the fish (no need to strike hard) on any indication however small & most of the time the bigger fish hook themselves on the semi fixed rig
The first few hours can be slow but as the shoals home in, the sport can be crazy & it seems the hot weather can really turn get them churning up the lakebed.
Over the 4 or 5 days fishing we regularly had well over 30 fish each (including my girlfriends first ever fishing trip, she had many fish, including tench to 4lb & Crucian to 2lb, I couldn't believe how quickly she picked it all up)
My girlfriend with her new pb tench
This summer I broke 2 pb's
My girlfriend with her new pb tench
Two big tench, the 1 above is my new PB
A Tench 5lb 4oz & a 2lb 10oz Crucian
My pal @dangriff75 had a similar stamp of fish & last year, he even had a 2lb 1oz roach (on my rod while I took a leak I might add)
My pb 2lb 10oz Crucian
Truly great fishing in a beautiful & well run day ticket water. We're all counting down the days & can wait 4 summer 2014 to come around as soon as possible.
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