A Proud Moment

I have been waiting quite a long time for my son to show a real interest in the sport I hold so dear, he has been with me a few times but has never shown a real interest...until now.
A real moment happened a couple of days ago when my son asked me to take him fishing, I nearly shed a tear.
Then came the hard decision of where to go, we have a lot of great fishing available around this area and I wanted somewhere my son hasn't been before, we have fished Bishops Green as it suited both of us, Liam fished for the Gudgeon and Roach whilst I fished for the Carp, it worked, but Liam told me he would like to move up the fishing ladder and catch something like a Tench.
We trolled through through various venues to choose one we thought would be appropriate and settled on Marsh Farm in Godalming, a venue with a great reputation and somewhere I have fished a few times and loved it.
So Friday came round and as I was off work we set off for Godalming and arrived at Marsh arm at 7:30am, popped into the brilliant and award winning onsite tackle shop Apollo 2 to get some Maggots and purchase our day tickets.

We decided to fish Hill pond due to its high stock of fish which should guarantee a great days sport.
I set Liam up in the swim next to me to the right of the pond from the entrance, Liam was going to be using a standard waggler type setup with 4lb line to a 3lb hooklink and size 14 hook, I didn't want to set him up quite as light as I was fishing just in case he hooked into a big Tench.
We baited the swims right in the margins either side of the peg with a little ground bait and micro-pellets whilst we setup, I was using 3lb mainline to a 2lb hook link using a very light pole float with a size 18 hook using a single maggot, caster or pellet.

It was soon apparent that the lighter approach was by far catching more fish, Liam was catching the odd Rudd and Roach but I was getting into a few Crucians and Tench too, so with that I swapped Liam over to a pole float and a 2lb hook link like mine and he was soon into a few more fish. My main intention for the day was for Liam to catch his first Tench and Crucian but with sun really beating down the bites were getting harder to come by.

Liam soon hooked into something a bit more serious which I thought was a Tench but as I saw it roll I thought he had a huge Crucian on, he was playing it very well, but his dreams where soon shattered when we realized it was actually a small Common Carp, gutted, but a great fight on light tackle, this was shortly followed by a small Tench of about 9oz which as it was his first so he was over the moon with it. The day was going well I had a fair few fish with Crucian to 1lb 7oz and Tench to 2lb 12oz and I even had a big Gudgeon of nearly 2oz but was still trying to get Liam his first Crucian but we was running out of time so I put some bait in for the last stretch and let him fish in my swim on the right of me where I had a few Crucians throughout the day, and the next fish he hooked was a 1lb 5oz Crucian, JOB DONE.

We packed up and left having had a fantastic days fishing and I had one happy and very hooked boy, Marsh Farm delivered as usual and it makes me even more impatient about joining the Godalming Angling Club in July, cant wait.

Another eve at Ashmoor

With the Wife finishing work at 2pm and me still continuing my week off it was another perfect opportunity for a fish.
Ashmoor again for no other reason really than its fantastic, by far my favorite fishery.
I decided to start on the flat bed feeder method on lake 2 fishing the close margin and the odd cast to the far margin.

Both areas seem to be fishing well and I was having a ton of Carp, Bream and the odd Roach/Bream Hybrid from the off.
The flat bed feeder method is a cracking way to get a bite, I was using a small to medium feeder with a short 5lb hooklink to a size 14 with a plastic Caster on a hair berried under the grounbait, the groundbait itself was part swimstem, part Roach and Part Bream groundbait, basically the left overs from the last few sessions.
Feeder fishing is one of if not my favorite form of fishing, I simply love it, and its a method I feel most confident in so I was really enjoying this session, plus I was doing a bit of filming for a YouTube channel both me and Steve are setting up.

As the sun started to drop it was time to put the feeder gear away and get the floater kit out.
The gear I use for Ashmoor is the same every time, a Barbel rod and medium sized reel, 6lb line straight through to a size 12 hook baited with a lump of crust, I use a bucket bag with all my kit in, a mat and net conclude my gear, simple yet very effective.

As the fishery was now empty, bar me and Steve, its easier to walk around and just drop a few dog biscuits here and there and wait for Carp to turn up, which they did, not quite as explosive as the last evening I fished here but there was still a fair few had off the top up to about 5lb so nothing huge but great fun.
As the sun really dropped we put the banger on for the night and left.
As usual a cracking few hours fishing but where to next....

A Well Deserved Fish.

After a very stressful day at work and now with 9 days off I decided to pop to Ashmoor for an evening's surface fishing with Steve in toe.

I wasn't going to bother to be honest as I was knackered by the time I got home about 6:30pm and was wondering if there was going to be enough time for a fish, but I shouldn't of worried.

We pulled into the car park about 7pm and had the lakes to ourselves, which was nice, tackle could not have been more simple, Barbel rod, medium sized freespool reel and a size 12 hook baited with a bit of crust, no floats or shot etc, simple fishing, just how I like it.

As time was limited we walked around the lakes baiting all the areas we know to produce, after the lap it was time to grab the gear and find some fish, which took about 10 seconds and I had a Mirror on, only a couple of pounds but any fish after the day I've had was very welcome.

The bites came steadily throughout the couple of hours fishing, I had so many I lost count after 10.

As usual Ashmoor provided some cracking sport with Carp to over 8lbish and an unbeatable way to relieve stress.

And with a few days off hopefully I can get a few more days down here as its always been a home from home and the fact its owned by my good friend Steve's Grandparents makes it just perfect.

Family Fishing at Bishops Green

Today was a family fishing day, which can be a right faff.

I had a struggle deciding where to go to cater for all, we needed some small fish for my daughter Ellie as she hasn't done a lot of fishing so starting her off small, my son Liam has done a bit and was progressing through the different styles of fishing and he wanted to try some feeder fishing, and as I was going to be helping the kids most of the time I wanted a venue which catered for me having a couple of rods out on alarms.

We left home at about 8am which for me was very late, but as there was women in toe they needed more beauty sleep.

We popped into Frobury farm and it was rammed and looking very strange with recently astro turfed swims, so we decided to pop further up the road to Bishops Green where we decided to fish.

After a quick walk around the lake I decided to fish the car park end as everyone else was fishing the far end, after paying we set up, Liam on the feeder, Ellie on the float with her little bright pink Princess rod, and my rods set on alarms fishing PVA bags in the margins for Carp.

Ellie was soon in on the Gudgeon and the Carp soon sprung into life with long lean Commons soon on the mat one after the other.

The feeder was producing nothing so I switched Liam to a float so he could get a few Gudgeon and maybe a Roach which he did.

My Carp setups where producing the goods throughout the day fishing solid PVA 2ft from the bank with a handful of pellets every 30 minutes or so with fish to around 10lb, great fun.

I decided to try and catch one off the top just to finish the day off, and after feeding the ducks off I started feeding the Carp little and often with some dog biscuits, after about 15 minutes I had a small Common of about 6lb on the bank.

With that we packed up and left, a cracking day fishing and Bishops Green producing as always, not huge Carp but they go like a train due to the fairly shallow water.

Barbel Bashing at Ashmoor Lakes

At long last it was time for the start of a weekends fishing. First up Saturday was Ashmoor Lakes, lakes stuffed with fish of all sorts of shapes and sizes, I was just going to target all that swims as its been a while and just need a bite or two.

I was not going to delude myself, it was pretty cold so was not expecting a massive amount of action, I decided to start o the feeder, towards the car park corner on Lake 3 using a flatbed feeder and fake caster for bait. I was getting bites but nothing much so I changed over to a maggot, I had a couple of small Bream but nothing else so I moved behind Steve onto Lake 2 with instant results, first fish was a Barbel, which was the last fish I thought would be on the feed, but in the next couple of hours I had 4 Barbel only up to a pound or so but an unbelievable fight for it size.

Sadly the weather soon changed and it got very cold, all it took was a slight wind and it was enough to turn the fish right off.

After an hour or so of the freezing wind and no bites we decided to call it day, we had had a few fish between us so all was good and we left in high spirits.