A great Wey to Fish.

This trip we decided to try some of the vast River network we have on our Godalming ticket, both me and Steve love our river fishing but prefer it to be a bit colder after a couple of good frosts.

I had just finished my first week in my new job which involves commuting to Kent so I've been doing some long hours, and to be honest as much as I love my early morning fishing sessions I was knackered so decided to pick up Steve up just past 7am, which for us is late.

First stop of the morning was to the Apollo tackle shop to grab some maggots, and a brew.

Apollo is situated on the Marsh Farm grounds and is an award winning tackle shop stocking all you need and the staff are great and very helpful. But enough shopping its time to get fishing.

We headed for Eshing near the start of our Wey section, the original plan was to Barbel fish the morning, static using feeder tactics, but due to heavy rain over the last couple of days we decided against it and opted for fishing the slacker water with trotting tactics, starting on the small backwater next to the car park.

I was using my trusty all-rounder rod, centrepin loaded with 4lb line straight through to a 14 Hook, Dave Harrell Stick float with maggot as bait.

I really rate the Dave Harrell floats as they are very well made and have the brightest tips which makes it easier to see at distance, perfect for trotting.

I fed the back channel briefly before casting in, then second trot through I had my first bite which resulted in a lovely little Chub, fin perfect.

After a few more trots through I moved on, casting a line here and there in likely spots but to no avail, it was like the life had dropped clean out the river,  but then on a trot through on a nice bend I had a bite which was a very substantial fish, very heavy, moved out into the current, kicked a couple of times then came off, I was gutted, I'm pretty sure it was a Barbel.

We walked for quite a while but there was nothing much happening, Steve had a Gudgeon and a Minnow, but that was it.

Although the fishing was poor it was still a great and stunning place to spend a few hours, we decided to move on and see if we could catch a few Perch at Broadwater, the great thing about being a club member is you can just drop onto different waters throughout the day without the worry of multiple day tickets.

We had a good lap of lake and watched some Huge Carp in the out of bounds area feeding on bread thrown in for the Ducks, a spectacular site to see Carp on a busy lake feeding so confidently, they knew they were safe.

We set up near the Car park and decided to share a swim so it could be a bit social. The only reason we chose this swim was a couple of months ago I had a load of Perch and Rudd recently from this area and just hoped they would still be about, only difference is it was now bloody cold, and we had no other signs to go on.

We fished for a couple of hours with only a couple of bobs on the float, although a nice bit of time to have lunch and chill. 

We decided it just wasn't going to happen, so we decided to pop to Bramley Lake up the road. Bramley in a lush looking estate type lake which is edged with lilies. There was one angler on so we had a chat, he had nothing to show for his efforts, which was encouraging. We setup in what I call the lawn swim, Steve was on the float, I was on the feeder. I tried in close, out far and under some trees to my left, but nothing, except a Signal Crayfish. We gave it our best shot but failed.

Next we decided on Busbridge for a bit of lure fishing, but sadly it was just too busy to fling plastic so we gave up and left for home.

One of the great things about being a fisherman is the diverse locations you get to fish, this morning we was fishing a beautiful river where we didn't see another sole for miles, then we fished a very busy open lake where there is dog walkers, runners and cyclists whizzing around, but if I'm near a lake I'm happy, no matter the outcome on the fish front. A brilliant day.

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.