Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir. September 29th, 2011.

Day out at Hartleylands

It’s off down to Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrook in Kent today. I’m meeting Dave, Terry, Simon and Gino for a days fishing on the reservoir. Our club Marsh AC have a match there in a couple of weeks time, and as none of us have fished the reservoir for quite a time it seems like a good idea to have a session before the match to try and suss out what works and what doesn’t.

No point in an early start today as I’d arranged to meet the lads at 9·30am at the fishery, and that was when I arrived to find Terry, Simon and Gino there already and just about to set off to pick their swims. A quick discussion ensued and with a few anglers already ensconced in pegs we decided to fish what I refer to as the ‘Finches Bank’ as it runs parallel to Finches Pond. The lads set off to bag their pegs while I unloaded my kit, and with my trolley loaded set off to claim a peg. It was promising to be scorcher of a day, not a cloud in the sky and the first peg I came to was 24 between two overhanging trees and pleasantly shaded, but I felt that Dave would probably like that one (once he finally got there) so left that one. Next up was Gino on 23 with Simon on 22. Terry had gone further round to Peg 18 as he’d always fancied fishing that one, so I settled on peg 20 to leave Simon a bit of space……

With the sun climbing higher and barely a breathe of wind, the water looked like glass. It definitely was going to be a warm one today. First things first, so the kit was unloaded and as it wasn’t a match I fed a couple of good handfuls of pellet down the left hand margin straight away, then started to set my kit up. One of the things I noticed was that hardly anything was showing on the surface, which I felt was a little strange given the conditions. I knew that Simon was going to try the pellet wag, so left mine in it’s ready sleeve, It wouldn’t take long to set up if I decided to give it a go later.

 Instead I decided to just fish 2 lines, the first at 2 sections and a top 2 straight out where I had around 5 feet of water and the second down the left hand margin.. Rigs were a 4×12 CX pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with a size 14 Guru MWG and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 14 Guru MWG for the margin line. Bait today was simply 6mm pellet for feed and plenty of it with 8mm pellet and some GOT Baits soft hookers for the hook ……

By now Dave had arrived and strolled up to see where we all were, and as I expected he did indeed decide to settle into Peg 24. It was around 10·30am by now so time to get started. I could see that fish were already in the margins over the bait I’d fed, but I was going to ignore them for now and just keep some bait going in and take a look there later in the day. At the start I fed 2 good handfuls of pellet straight out and another down the margin before shipping out a banded 8mm straight out. A couple of lift and drops of the rig and the float sailed away and it was immediately apparent that I was attached to one of the reservoirs hard fighting carp. They give a good account of themselves and make full use of the deep water there, but I soon gained the upper hand and had it sliding over the landing net, a nice chunky Mirror, longer than the width of my 22 inch net and around the 10lbs mark ……

With us not using keepnets today I decided to use my clicker to keep track of what I had today and it soon started to tick over as I started to pick up regular fish. I was feeding a good handful of pellet every put in as well as keeping some bait going into the margins and was soon picking up a mix of Mirrors and Commons on a regular basis, the average size of which seemed to be around the 4-5 lbs mark with the odd better fish.

Around 11·30am Dave called out that the kettle had boiled, so I strolled round for a cup of coffee, to find that Dave was playing what turned out to be his first carp of the day ……

Simon’s mate Gino was also into a fish, he’s quite new to fishing and was taking it easy as the fish gave a good account of itself and refusing to get it’s head up, but steady gentle pressure won the day and he was rewarded with a lovely ghostie ……

With refreshments taken care of it was time to get back to my peg. Unfortunately the pellet wag had failed to produce anything of note for Simon, just a couple of small carp and a skimmer, so he’d reverted to the pole as he’d seen me catching regularly. The fish were still there on my return and it was really just a question of keeping the feed going in to keep the bites coming, The margin was still coloured up as well, so I just kept the feed going in, but still left it for later. Over on Peg 18 however Terry was having a bit of a struggle and getting a few to many skimmers rather than the carp he’d been hoping for, though the odd carp was getting a look in ……..

Dave had come up for a stroll, it seemed that the carp I’d seen him playing had been his only one !!!!! and all he was getting were roach, and although they were of a decent stamp around the 8-12oz mark, they weren’t what he was really after. From where I was sitting I had a pretty good view of what was going on around the reservoir and there must have been around 20 anglers in total, however the majority appeared to be struggling with just the odd fish coming out and despite the heat there was still nothing showing on the top. My peg seemed to be the exception however and I can only put that down to the amount I was feeding. Whatever it was the fish kept coming and by 1pm I had 103lbs on my clicker. So with a ‘Ton by One’ I decided to take a break and go and put the kettle on for another cuppa.

By now Dave had opted to try paste in an effort to try to tempt another carp, but it’s probably not a good idea to try and hit sharp paste bites when you’ve got an audience of piss taking supportive mates watching your every move and they’re ripping it out of you offering you their support. Dave gave it up and joined us for a coffee as we mulled over the mornings sport or lack of it in some cases.

With the inquest over we returned to our respective pegs. More feed onto both lines, but it seemed I’d left it a little to long as my line out in front seemed to be devoid of carp now, though there were plenty of skimmers that seemed only to happy to engulf an 8mm pellet. Time to target the margins. All morning I’d fed where the shelf dropped off and by laying the rig out so that the bait rested on the slope I had a bite straight away. Fishing against the slope the fish tend to dive off for the deeper water which limits any disturbance and once that initial run is contained they can be played out away from the swim. That first fish turned out to be a nice Mirror around the 7lb mark, and once again it was really just a case of steady away and taking fish on a regular basis……

With the water well coloured up there was really very little chance of the fish vanishing on me as long as I kept the feed going in to hold them. Simon had taken another look on the pellet wag but that had proved to be fruitless. He’d had a couple of carp on the paste but had now decided to take a look at his right hand margin, but with an empty peg between us it wasn’t producing nearly as well for him ……

As the afternoon wore on Terry finally managed to start picking up a few more carp among the skimmers that steadfastly refused to go away ……

Gino was still enjoying himself and managing to winkle out the odd carp here and there alternating between fishing the method and the pole ……

and Dave had finally managed to find a few carp from a swim that had frustrated him for a good part of the day, even though he was forced to fish a bit further out than he really wanted to……

For me it was an easy afternoons fishing with just the odd foul hooker upsetting things and breaking the flow as fish came steadily to the net……

….. and by 4pm it was time for one last coffee as I had 201lbs showing on my clicker. Simon had decided to concentrate on one margin spot and up his feed and it was finally starting to pay off for him as he started to take fish on a regular basis ……

My fish were still there and feeding well and just after 5pm I had my best fish of the day, a nice plump Mirror at around 14-15lbs that Simon kindly caught on camera for me.

That was my final fish as the rig parted on the strike on my next bite, but with 265lbs showing on my clicker I was happy enough to leave it at that, and I packed my gear away. Terry, Simon and Gino were going to fish on for a bit and Dave managed a final carp before he to decided to call it a day ……

So what did we learn today? If the fish are there it’s possible to do a really decent weight, It’s possible to struggle in some pegs, even if it holds some obvious feature to fish to, and don’t ignore the margins. Thanks to Dave, Terry, Simon and Gino for their company today, let’s hope it’s a decent day for the match on the 15th, but I somehow feel it may just be a little bit different on the day.