A very good friend of mine, Dave Collier retired on Friday so I had invited him to join me today for his 1st days fishing as a man of leisure.
The chosen venue was Tanyards Lakes at Furners Green, Danehill (Near Uckfield) with 7 lakes to choose from, and on arrival at 7·30am it was obvious that we weren’t the only ones with the same idea in mind!
Driving down it appeared that virtually every swim on the top three lakes were occupied, but a quick look confirmed that there was some space on the Tench Lake (which is the only one not stocked with Carp apart from a few ornamentals) so it was a case of get the gear out of the cars and bag a couple of pegs quick.
I ended up with the same peg that I had fished when we visited back in early January, with a bay full of stick ups to my left, while Dave set up opposite me with the bay to his right.
The chosen venue was Tanyards Lakes at Furners Green, Danehill (Near Uckfield) with 7 lakes to choose from, and on arrival at 7·30am it was obvious that we weren’t the only ones with the same idea in mind!
Driving down it appeared that virtually every swim on the top three lakes were occupied, but a quick look confirmed that there was some space on the Tench Lake (which is the only one not stocked with Carp apart from a few ornamentals) so it was a case of get the gear out of the cars and bag a couple of pegs quick.
I ended up with the same peg that I had fished when we visited back in early January, with a bay full of stick ups to my left, while Dave set up opposite me with the bay to his right.
Bait wise, I’d brought a pint of reds, sweetcorn and 6mm & 3mm pellet. The pellets were VDE RS Elite marine expanders, which I hadn’t used before and having pumped them I have to say that I was impressed with them, good shape and consistency and just that bit different to the usual pellet that I use.
I had a fairly uniform 3ft of depth all over my peg, so started at 11mtrs in open water having potted in 2 large pots of 3mm pellet, maggot and corn. A 6mm on the hook and 1st put in the float buried and a plump fin perfect Roach was the 1st fish of the day.
I had a fairly uniform 3ft of depth all over my peg, so started at 11mtrs in open water having potted in 2 large pots of 3mm pellet, maggot and corn. A 6mm on the hook and 1st put in the float buried and a plump fin perfect Roach was the 1st fish of the day.
Soon Bream and Tench were getting in on the act for both myself and Dave, and while Dave was potting in his feed I was just catapulting a pouch of 3mm’s after every fish. With the day warming up, we decided to adjourn for Breakfast as the on site café was a mere 20yds from where we were. Bacon, egg, sausage, fried slice, hash browns and beans all washed down with a mug of tea filled the void and set us up to get stuck in on our return.
Now I would like to say that we worked very hard for the fish all day, but the reality was that as long as we kept the feed going in, the fish kept coming. Bream up to about 2½lbs and Tench to a maximum of 3½lbs though nearer a pound on average kept coming virtually all day with some nice Roach thrown in for good measure.
Now I would like to say that we worked very hard for the fish all day, but the reality was that as long as we kept the feed going in, the fish kept coming. Bream up to about 2½lbs and Tench to a maximum of 3½lbs though nearer a pound on average kept coming virtually all day with some nice Roach thrown in for good measure.
All the while I had been loose feeding into the edge of the stick ups and around 1·30pm after a quick break for a cheeseburger I started on that line.
No change though, with more Bream and Tench, but also a nice Crucian (or was it a Brown Goldfish?) and a small Koi that managed to tangle my rig on some discarded line in the stick ups that was extracted with the aid of Dave’s long landing net handle.
No change though, with more Bream and Tench, but also a nice Crucian (or was it a Brown Goldfish?) and a small Koi that managed to tangle my rig on some discarded line in the stick ups that was extracted with the aid of Dave’s long landing net handle.
With about an hour to go I decided to use up the maggots, so shallowing the rig up and using just the top 2, I started flicking in a pinch of maggot every 30secs. This soon had the fish boiling and resulted in a fish a chuck. The colours of the Rudd were so vivid that they looked almost freshly minted, but mixed in with those Roach and Rudd was the icing on the cake in the shape of the most colourful little fish I’ve ever caught, and for which the venue holds the British Record.
A Pumpkinseed.
So a cracking day from beginning to end, Good weather, plenty of fish caught and the usual banter that is ever present when we fish together. Thanks for joining me Dave, I don’t think it’ll be to long before we do it again.
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