Its Crucian O'Clock at Marsh Farm.

This month we decided to re-visit an old venue, Marsh Farm, famed for its huge 100% true Crucians knocking the British record and huge Tench, I was really looking forward to returning as the last 2 visits have not really gone to plan, the first time we went it was the one of the hottest days on record, then the next time we went it was torrential rain the whole time, so I was hoping for a better day.

I left home just before 6am to pick up Steve then headed for Milford, Surrey. We arrived at Marsh Farm at about 6:45 and the gate was open, result, we know we cant start fishing until we have a shop brought ticket, and as the shop doesn’t open until 7:30 it gave us plenty of time to look around and choose our swims before it got busy.

We decided to fish the windward end of Harris lake, as its known to produce monster Crucians including the lake record which is held by Anglers Mail own Bill Rushmer, who gave us some information and tactics on this lake.

We put a bag in the swims we chose and headed back to the van to wait for the shop to open.

One thing you need to make sure of when fishing Marsh Farm is that you turn up with a completely bone dry landing net, because if you don’t, you cant use it, you can burrow one of there’s for a returnable £10 but then you will have to stop fishing at 5:30pm when the shop closes.

Marsh Farm has a really good and well stocked tackle shop and café on site which means you can just buy your bait there in the morning, I got myself 2 pints of maggots, a pint of pre-ordered casters, some pellet and paste, a Crucian banquet.

Once paid up we headed back to the swims to start setting up, I decided on two lines of attack, on the left side of the swim I would fish double corn on a bolt rig and alarm for the Tench, and on the right I would use a much lighter float set up, a 13ft rod coupled with a centre pin reel with 4lb mainline, a 2lb hook link, size 16 hook and a very light pole float.

I pre-baited both sides of the swim with pellet, maggot, caster and Tanches ground bait, a legend of a ground bait and got settled into the swim.

I began fishing and was soon into the Rudd and Roach, there was loads of them down there and most of the time took on the drop, which I was fine with as action from the off is a great confidence booster. After about an hour the high winds was really getting to me so I decided to take a break and go and grab some breakfast with Steve, another great advantage to Marsh Farm.

With a Bacon burger and brew sorted we headed back, I sat in the swim having a munch thinking how to tackle this wind, the best way would be to move to the other end of the lake, but with this much wind pushing down this end it was bound to bring the fish, so I decided to swap my set ups over and fish the float on the left so at least the wind with push the float towards the rushes rather than away, and bolt rig the other side. Caster on the hook was producing allot of bites so I decided to stay with it, the float just dipped a couple of mil so I struck, and felt a good resistance, at this point I was petrified of loosing it, then up came a big bar of gold, and it was in the net, it looked huge barring mind my previous best was only about 1lb 8oz, this one went 2lb 6oz, I was ecstatic.

The whole time I was fishing I have been feeding a handful of pellet and caster every 2 minutes or so and it seemed to have worked, and now with a massive confidence boost I continued fishing.

The Rudd and Roach where really getting on the feed with fish to over 10oz it was going well and it seemed an age before the next good resistance, and again it came in the form of a Crucian.

When it lay in the net I thought it was smaller than the last one, but it had quite a hunch back to him, and when on the scales it went to 2lb 9oz, another PB, this was turning into a great day.

The constant feeding seemed to be really paying off and they were loving the casters, but with the sun high in the sky I pulled the rods out to give the swim a rest but continued feeding, we decided to have an on site website meeting, so with a brew from the shop we discussed what we can do to better the site, which as its already brilliant not allot, but we spoke about our 4 day fish in August, venues for next year and our 2013 fishing holiday.

With the weather clouding over around 3pm we carried on fishing again, and was soon into more Rudd, Roach and Perch, but soon the float dipped delicately and I was into another Crucian, this one really gave it some but huge fun on a centre pin, once in the net it looked even bigger than the last one, but it was exactly the same size, 2lb 9oz again, but still a specimen Crucian and very happy to catch it.

The wind was getting silly now and was probably missing some Crucian bites, so we decided to move in an hour or so to Mill pond as its more sheltered and a better chance of a Tench, and although this swim had a real chance of a monster Crucian, I don’t think I would see the bite.

But not long before the move I was into another Crucian, this one was about 1lb 8oz or so, still a fantastic fish.

With that Crucian returned I packed up and joined Steve on the Mill pond, it was allot calmer with hardly any ripple in my new swim, and was soon into Rudd again, just on a smaller scale.

It didn’t take long for the Tench to move in, and my god did they fight, although most around the 1lb mark they really went for it, after a few I did eventually bank a 2lb 10oz Tench so was happy with that. Soon after it started to get really cold, its bloody JUNE and its cold, what is going on, so around 7pm we packed up and left.

Today was a real red letter day for me, I beat my Crucian PB twice then matched it again and some nice Tench. Marsh Farm really has it all and I do think that is mainly because of the lack of king Carp, although I love my Carp fishing it can push me to fish for them when I am at any venue with Carp in, which can not happen here as there is next to none, also it really helps having an on site tackle shop and Café.

A really great day and cannot wait to return.