Monk Lakes. Puma Lake. December 4th, 2004.

A few weeks back I was lucky enough to receive an Invite from Simon Hughes to visit his new fishery at Monk Lakes with a few friends, so that was the reason that 5 of us arrived at Simon’s house at Riverfield Fish Farm in the pitch black at 7am this morning. Dawn was just breaking as we set off following Simon’s Landcruiser along the private road that passes through the fish farm to the fishery.

This was an eye opener in itself. I’ve seen an ariel photo of the fish farm before, but it’s not until you drive through it that you appreciate the sheer scale of the operation, which would be worthy of an article of it’s own, if Simon ever finds the time to write it.

Assembled in the car park Simon gave us a brief rundown, arranged for our breakfast needs to be seen to, then left us to it giving us carte blanche to fish where we wanted. The five of us decided on a walk around the complex at first to get a feel for things.
Up to the 2 elevated Match Lakes and these are very regular looking, with platforms in every peg but with no visible features. On the same level is the Catfish Lake, which looks very natural with a profusion of features and islands.

On the other side of the car park are the 2 main pleasure fishing lakes, Puma and Bridges, both with totally natural banks and plenty of islands and features, Indeed Bridges takes its name from the bridges that allow you to reach the islands to fish from them.

Running behind these lakes and threading its way through the fishery runs the River Beult offering what promises to be some fine small river fishing, and leads past the Specimen Lake, home to some 40lb Carp.

After walking round that lot, breakfast was definitely the order of the day, so retiring to the canteen behind the lodge 5 Full English Breakfasts were disposed of, all washed down with Tea while we decided on our plan of attack.

The main worry was the weather, It’s turned pretty cold down here in the SE in the last couple of weeks and the fishery is quite exposed, but today there wasn’t a breathe of wind although it was still cold.

Jess & Szabi had their sights set on the Specimen Lake, despite Simon’s earlier warning that it hadn’t been fishing well, so off they went, hoping for a 1st ‘Twenty’. Terry, Andy(The Hat) and Myself plumped for Puma, and within 100 yds of the car park had settled on 3 swims, Terry with an island to fish to .......

while Andy and I faced out into the open water .........

A range of 10mtrs gave me a comfortable 5ft of water, and with flat calm conditions a slim Preston B series 4X12 float with just 4 strung droppers and a size 20 PR23 was the rig of choice to fish single and double red maggot over the fisheries micro pellets.

1st up came a run of Chublets that were more than welcome as they happily feed on even the coldest of days, and as far as I’m concerned are an inspired bit of stocking on Simon’s part ........

Once these have grown on a bit they are going to be well worth going for.

Next came a run of smallish Tench for me, and as I unhooked one I remarked to Andy that rather than the little red eye the are known for these has golden eyes, to which he replied that perhaps they were Golden Tench, but that he’d never seen or caught one.
Well after a statement like that, you can guess what happened next  …… My float dipped, and the next fish I landed was a Golden Tench. Well it was the least I could do, though doubts were voiced by Andy that this capture was down to my sheer blinding skill and tenacity, this did inspire him to concentrate on capturing one for himself, but alas all he could manage were some examples of the wrong coloured (green) ones and a solitary Gudgeon , while I rubbed it in even further during the course of the day by catching another 7 Goldie's amongst the 30 or so Tench that I caught.

While all this was going on Vince appeared for a short visit, and in the way that is so typical, offered all his sympathy to Andy in his hour of need.

Terry meanwhile in his typical way was quietly doing his best to empty his swim of small Chub with a waggler, and by the end of the day must of had close to 100 of them.

During the course of the session a number of the smaller Carp that have been stocked also decided to put in an appearance. I don’t know what strain these fish are, but they are picture perfect deep bodied fish that already give a good account of themselves despite going no more than 1½ lbs on average.

The fish kept coming right till the end, with a couple of Rudd thrown in for good measure, and although Andy hung on to the bitter end in the gathering gloom, he didn’t manage to get his Goldie, though he did get the only Gudgeon of the day.

Jess & Szabi? Well although they had been warned stubbornly sat it out, and didn’t manage to contact any monsters, though they had one screaming run at around midday, but the strike didn’t connect.

Overall I had a most enjoyable day. The stock are a testament to Simon’s skills as a fish farmer, and are of the highest quality.
Puma is one of the two pleasure lakes on the complex, and it certainly lived up to its description and it was a Pleasure for me to fish there today.
I’ll certainly be going back in the not to distant future, though next time I fancy travelling light and adopting a roving approach to see what I can tempt from the River.

In closing I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Simon Hughes for his invite, and his staff at MONK LAKES for a most enjoyable day. If you’re ever in the area give it a try, there’s something for almost everyone there.

Monk Lakes. Bridges Lake. November 13th, 2004.

A couple of weeks ago I had made arrangements with a friend of mine, Andy ”The Hat” Spreadbury to visit Monk Lakes. This is a new fishery in Kent and it is the one that was featured in Angling Times a while back as a new “Super Fishery.” We had arranged to meet in the lodge at 7·30am. My initial impression on arrival was “WHERE DO YOU START??????”

To say it’s a big site doesn’t begin to do it justice. The level of investment in the venue is obviously major. Not only is there a good variety of fishing, but the facilities are all there as well – more than ample car parking (closely situated to the lakes), security, quiet, burger bar, bait and tackle from the lodge, Ladies and Gentlemen’s toilets on site as well as toilets for the Disabled located in the car park. In the summer some temporary toilets will also be dotted around the site for convenience.
Oh! nearly forgot, something I had never seen at a fishery before – mains electric and water placed at around twenty points around the site!

The site itself covers over 120 acres, and the plans are that eventually it will be able to cater for 2000 anglers!  The fishery opened on 29th October and at the moment only the 1st part is open as work continues on the rest of the venue.

To give you all some idea of the present layout, I’ve taken the liberty of scanning the fishery pamphlet, which you can see below…………………

It has to be said that for a 1st visit to a new water the weather did us no favours at all, The 1st frost of the year down here and only 3°C on the car thermometer coupled with a biting northerly wind meant that the day was never going to be easy.

I have to be honest here and admit that the swims we selected on Bridges, were for no other reason than comfort, as we didn’t want to fish into the teeth of the wind. This lake is designed so every angler has a feature to fish to with a natural planting of submerged and marginal water plants. Reed and lily beds are just some of the features along with the 5 bridges that allow anglers to fish from the islands.

So after tackling up we got down to business, or rather Andy did!!!
Straight away he was into a Carp of around the 5lb mark followed by a few of the resident Chub.

ME? I couldn’t buy a bite. It was noticeable during the day that the frost had had an effect with the colour noticeably dropping out of the water.
Pellet or maggot, It didn’t matter, after 1½hrs of watching Andy’s grin I nicked a few of his reds as I only had whites and bingo, straight away a bite and a plump fin perfect Chub of around 8ozs to break my duck.

This was the cue for a stroll back to the car park for a ½pint of reds from the lodge, and a ½ lb cheeseburger from the catering wagon on site. Well one has to look after the inner man.

The red maggots made all the difference, and after a bit of playing around with the shoting of the rig so that it would pick up the tow a steady procession of small Chub followed for the rest of the session. By the end of our session I probably had 20lbs+ of them and as Andy said, I’m sure that these will prove to be an inspired bit of stocking as they should provide decent sport in even the coldest conditions, though whether the Carp anglers will share this view as they grow and develop a taste for boilies is another matter.

I’m going back for another visit next Saturday and it will be interesting to see how it fishes if the weather has settled down a bit. 

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir. October 16th, 2004.

Today I had an opportunity to see an Angler suffering from Poleitus.

A good friend of mine, Andy (The Hat) Spreadbury has been a confirmed specimen Carp angler nearly all his life, but last season drifted towards the Dark Side with the purchase of an Zyrium Margin Pole.

This tool of the Evil Empire exerted its full force on this unsuspecting innocent, tempting him away from the comforts of The Bivvy and the matched Harrison Ballista’s, even to the extent of entering 2 matches!!!!!!!!! and purchasing a Seatbox !!!!!!!!! complete with his name on the back.

Now there appears to be no going back, as today he was to be found at the reservoir at Hartleylands playing Light Sabres with his latest piece of kit……13 mtrs of Maver Encounter.

Actually I had promised Andy that if he ever brought a pole I’d spend a day with him, showing him the ropes so to speak, and during the week he had messaged me to ask if I could make it on Saturday.  Now Andy has spent the last 35 years as a serious member of the Bivvy and Boilie brigade, notching up some notable fish including “SHE” from the School Pool at Faversham at 34lbs 12ozs way back in 1977.

Andy with “SHE”.

On arrival I was pleasantly surprised to find that the weather had relented, and although overcast the incessant rain of the last couple of days had stopped. Andy was already setting up in peg 1 and I dropped into peg 2 next door.

Rather than going for the full monty straight away, I persuaded Andy to start at about 10mtrs, so that he could get a feel for the pole. He has had a Zyrium margin pole for a year but this was his 1st time using a full sized one. Some time was spent going through the basics of the set up, ensuring he was comfortable with shipping in and out and mastering feeding with both catapult and pole cup.
After about half an hour Andy lifted into his 1st Carp on the long pole. His face was a mixture of excitement, anxiety and relief as it slid over the net.

NO1 in the net.

The day as a whole was great fun, with Andy picking my brains throughout, as he attempted to refine his approach. Thankfully the fish co-operated with a number of Carp for both of us in the course of the day………

All in all a fun day, and interesting to watch an angler from a completely different discipline, trying to get to grips with my type of approach.

---

To give you all a bit more insight on the day, this was the report Andy posted on the Maggotdrowning.com forum about our session……….

A day with ‘Polemeister Peter’  


Peter Morton (Peter) had very kindly offered to spend the day with me giving me some pointers on the use of the long pole. As I think I have said on the Forum before, you just cannot beat the hands-on experience of spending time with someone who knows what they are about and today proved to be no exception. It was a day full of hints, tips, and little tricks in setting up and using the long pole and I must thank Peter for giving up his time to come down to Hartleylands for the day.

We had originally agreed to go on Finches Pond; mistakenly, I had thought there would be a match on the Reservoir but it turned out that other lakes were being used for this purpose. I was first on the lake and chose Peg 1 – The Willow tree. This is the peg Peter won the Southern Area MD Knockout Final so I assumed it would be a good place to start. This however proved to be a bad choice as choosing a peg with a margin feature was hardly the best place to try out the long pole! I hadn’t long been set up before Peter arrived and he dropped in beside me at the next peg. I managed to get the pole sections sorted out and used my carryall with a towel over it as a makeshift ‘Pole Roller’ (a tip Dave the Fish had shown me). Peter soon pointed out however that this arrangement was not nearly high enough to support the pole and he came up with the idea of this:

a rod-tube supported on two bank sticks and rod-rests, positioned an appropriate distance to the rear at a point to support the rear end of the pole at the point at which it just starts to feel overbalanced when feeding the pole back. I thought it was a cracking idea and will serve admirably until I can get myself a proper pole roller. I was also interested in Peter’s front pole support system (PUPSS) – a front bar with a roller on it which enables the pole to be fed forward with a full pole cup – but which also enables support of the pole when feeding with a catapult etc. I’m going to need one of these too!

This is not merely copying what other anglers do (being a ‘copycat’) – but a matter of recognising the virtue of the principle embodied in what the kit achieves.

My ‘Pole Roost’, although a little unconventional (and drawing smiles from Peter), did the job of keeping the spare top kits conveniently to hand; it also gets them off the ground where someone as congenitally clumsy as myself is sure to tread on them.

I confess to being a bit worried about hooking a large carp on the long pole; Peter had warned me that it was a completely different experience to hooking them on the margin outfit and so it seemed. There is control of the pole itself for one thing, they are a lot longer (obviously) and heavier than margin ‘wands’ and extremely unwieldy in the hands of the inexperienced and I felt it was as much as I could do to manage the thing on its own. without having a large carp thrashing around on the end of it as well!

Peter was first away with a fish so I had a good opportunity to watch exactly how he played it at first hand;

some thought needs to be given to how to handle large fish – you can’t bully them like you can with the short outfit and it is a matter of following them with the pole tip and letting the elastic do the work for you. I also asked Peter about shipping back when playing a fish – at what point do you start to ship back and try to get the fish nearer the net. This is a matter largely of instinct and a feel for when the fish is ready, there are also considerations of the angle of the pole in relation to where the fish is and the fact that on no account must you ever point the pole at the fish or you could see your top kit flying through the air!

Peter’s rig was also very interesting and elegant in its simplicity. A Fox Match series Carp hook with just a single No.4 shot a few inches from the hook, this was fished dead depth although I immediately thought ‘Lift Method’ when I saw it. This could be something else to try on the pole rig front – Lift Method style with a shot three inches from the hook, the float set so only a scrap of bristle is showing, the ‘strike’ (although obviously you don’t strike when using a pole) when the float rises in the water and lays flat. Hmmmmmmm…….

All day it was food for thought and little hints and tips.

Don’t bother using bristle grease – use a Chap Stick instead (Chap sticks are the things ladies use for putting on their lips in the cold weather to prevent them getting ‘chapped’); I suppose the more effeminate amongst us might find a use – but it hardly goes with the macho, hairy-arsed image of the hardened angler does it?!

Pellets – keep them in empty plastic milk bottles rather than in their packets; they are easier to pour out and either cup out or put through the pellet pump if that’s your thing.

Be comfortable. Holding a pole all day can be arduous, not helped by poor posture on the seatbox which can cause the upper body to adopt unnatural positions causing muscle strain. Your posture holding the pole must be as near effortless as possible, with all twisting and turning (which is also bad from an ergonomic point of view) kept to a minimum. This sort of thing is studied in the workplace to reduce effort and increase efficiency and there is no reason why the same principles cannot be used for pole fishing which involves very long and unwieldy kit. Not only does it increase efficiency, it can prevent back strain and put more fish on the bank and in the net. As Peter says “If it’s not in the net, you can’t weigh it in”.

There is no doubt in my mind that if you want to learn how to use a pole, go along to a match and watch how it’s done; better still, arrange to have a session with someone like Peter who knows what they are about and can identify what you are doing wrong or what could be done better.

My grateful thanks to Peter for giving up his time to spend the day with me. The weather was kinder than it had been all week and we even managed to catch a few fish.

Thanks mate!
********************

Old Bury Hill Fishery. Milton Lake. August 22nd, 2004.

Hawthorne AC club match.

 Sunday found me making my way down to Dorking for a Hawthorne AC club match on Milton Lake at Old Bury Hill. One of the most popular venues in this part of the country, and the usual suspects turned up along with along with a couple of guests, Omega Mike from TotalFishing.Com and Peter9000uk, both eager to guest and have the chance of getting amongst the Crucians and Tench that the venue is so well known for.

Everything looked lovely at the draw and I found myself with peg 19. (The same as I had drawn in our last club match there)

Peg 19

Shortly after the all in at 9am however, it soon became clear that all was not well, as the fish seemed to have almost entirely switched off. I have never seen this lake fish so badly, whether it was the rainwater that had gone in the previous week, or the couple of cold nights leading up to the match I don’t know, but the half time weigh-in took all of 5 mins as only a couple of anglers had enough to trouble the scalesmen.
Omega Mike decided that the comforts of home were more attractive and left half way through and I can’t say I blamed him. Stiffy, another TotalFishing poster turned up for a short chat as he was fishing the Estate Lake and had a similar tale of woe as all but a couple of pegs on there were struggling too.

I finally managed to extract 4 Crucians and a similar number of Rudd for a grand total of 4lbs 9ozs and 7th place. The winner managing 33lbs 1oz off of peg 4 which is an out and out flyer, but with 3 dry nets and a similar number only weighing in ounces, it was overall a very disappointing day.

Just to add insult to injury walking back to the car park I passed Bonds Lake only to see 7 anglers all playing carp at the same time. How can 2 lakes just 10 yards apart fish so differently on the same day??????

Hartleylands Farm Fishery, Woodside Pond . August 21st, 2004.

It all started with a phone call a couple of weeks ago. “I need to take Fraser fishing, where and when can we go?” 
It was Maria’s brother Chris asking the questions, so Saturday was chosen with the venue being Hartleylands Farm.
Now Chris being Chris, didn’t arrive at my place till just after 9am, so we didn’t arrive at the fishery till just after 10am.

I knew that I could guarantee that they would catch a few fish and with only The Reservoir booked we had our pick of the ponds and lakes. We settled on Woodside Pond which is the smallest of the original ponds on the site with only 5 pegs, it’s tucked away at the back of the fishery and doesn’t get much pressure, but if it didn’t produce the goods it’s only a short hop over to the newer Peartree match lake.

Woodside Pond

Chris and Fraser settled in to peg 5 while I set up on peg 4. Chris set up a small feeder for himself and a light waggler for Fraser, with bait being maggot and corn, while I set up my pole and went with expander pellet as bait.

Father & Son

With a couple of feet in the margins and maybe five feet down the middle it’s nice simple fishing and Chris was soon off the mark with a small Carp. Fraser and I were soon following, me with a Carp and Fraser with his 1st ever Tench.

Chris

Fraser

All day long sport continued with a succession of small Carp and Tench keeping things interesting for both Father and Son. I sneaked over to Peartree for a final couple of hours and found that the bottom must have been carpeted with small Tench, nothing big, with a pounder being a bonus but a fish virtually every put-in.

All to soon, it was time to pack away the gear, and seeing them off from the car park the final site was Fraser’s grinning face looking back and waving. I don’t think it will be to long before they’re back.

Old Bury Hill Fishery. The Estate Lake. August 15th, 2004.

NKHC in the punts at Old Bury Hill.

A most enjoyable day.

Today there's a group of lads from Maggotdrowning.com meeting up at Old Bury Hill fishery just outside Dorking for a social days fishing in the punts on the Old Estate Lake that had been organised by Beebs.

 I was drafted into HMS Pension Book to bring down the average age of the crew, and by the time we set sail it looked more like a naval review moored up in The Jungle so we settled for mooring just off of a reed bed (somewhere around peg 75 where the Island bank meets the edge of The Jungle, for those of you that are familiar with OBH.)

The weather was warm and there was plenty of cloud cover, but recent rain had added a fair bit of cold water to the lake, which didn’t bode well.
Anchored on our port side was HMS Taffy, and Geoff's 1st Perch soon elicited the familiar refrain of “It’s a fish, I haven’t blanked”.

Dave the Fish managed to winkle out a few Skimmers on his jelly pellets, Colin despite ringing the changes bait wise was getting nowhere fast and I resorted to fishing out into open water to snare a couple of better examples of the resident Bream.
The Highlight of the morning however had to be the sight of Jason aboard HMS Bag-up doing battle “Stand up & Fight” fashion with a cracking Carp, A super fish of 26lbs 8ozs at any time, but from a punt, it has to be something special.

With nothing really having it where we were, we upped sticks (in fact the mud weights) and moved across to the island, Dave and Colin fishing towards it and me fishing out into open water again. Colin hit into what was obviously a Carp, and despite doing the hard bit and keeping it out of the undergrowth surrounding the island was unlucky to have the hook pull once the fish was into open water.
I’d managed another couple of Bream when the swim was wrecked by  HMS Bag-up ploughing through bearing a mooning Beebs !! (No photo’s, this is a family blog)

This so traumatised our crew, that at this point we were forced to return to the boathouse for burgers and tea.

Nerves calmed and refreshed we returned to the Island. Sport was slow for myself and Dave, but Colin found a few Perch and silvers while I very briefly connected with a Carp for all of a couple of seconds till the hook pulled.
Almost straight after this Colin connected with another Carp on his double maggot set up and this time despite it putting up a spirited fight, it was in the net. Not up to Jason's standard at 8lbs, but very welcome none the less.

All this commotion having trashed the swim, it was time for one last move round the island, and having settled into a new spot my 1st cast resulted in a positive bite. A brief scrap and a nice Tench which when weighed went 4lbs 4ozs proved to be the final fish for HMS Pension book.

On the row back we passed HMS Taffy who had returned Geoff to port suffering from a bit to much sun.
A final cup of tea and a session feeding the tame Carp under the boathouse (Mr Wilson’s swim?) ended the day. Not the most prolific session, but still a good day out in good company which is what it was really all about.

Yaddlethorpe Ponds. Lincolnshire. August 6th-8th, 2004

Maggotdrowning.com

 Fish-in.

Dave the Fish and I arrived at about 3pm having endured the road to hell that is the A1. (road works & roundabouts) A few of the lads were already fishing, so we decided to set up camp in Maggotville. The 1st challenge was to set up my Defender bivvy that had never been out of its bag, and of course doesn’t come with any instructions!!!!!! Luckily Alan P has a 2 man Defender and was able to supply a few clues as to where everything went.

So all set up and settled in, it was time for a stroll around to see what was on offer. It’s quite strange to find a fishery like this which is essentially set on the edge of an Industrial Estate, but with the heavily wooded surroundings you would never know it. Paths through the woods lead to lots of small ponds and lakes dotted all over the complex, and sitting on the Tench pond I came across Norm and his young son Chris who were busy getting amongst the small Carp & Tench which inhabit it…………………

Carrying on round the complex it was becoming apparent that all the ponds and lakes contained not a lot of colour, in fact the water was amazingly clear, also the lilies had been allowed to run riot and could do with some serious attention. Marginal shelves appeared to be almost non existent, and most of the anglers fishing appeared to have at least 5ft of water just a rod length out.

The Match Lake.

Looking across the Match Lake which is the largest lake on the complex, lots of Carp could be seen cruising around and topping everywhere, although they didn’t seem to be all that interested in feeding. On the way back, I bumped into Dave (Red Leader) who was trying to tempt one of the Carp on a mixer. To say that these Carp were wise to the method would be a bit of an understatement, as they proved to be very well practiced at mopping up the freebies and ignoring the one with a hook in it. Finally dapping a bait in the lilies resulted in a take, but the action proved to be short lived as the hook parted from the line, due it appeared to a poorly tied knot.
The frustrated Stalker.
At this point Beebs finally arrived having also endured the road to hell, and a few of us decided to retire to the local pub (The Mallard) and partake of the carvery and a couple of pints. Returning fully refreshed I couldn’t resist having an hours dabble on the match lake, but with not a single bite and the light fading fast, it was back to base camp to christen the barrel of beer and a bit of banter before turning in for the night.

7am saw myself and Red Leader setting up for a feederfan match on the match lake. To say that sport was fast and furious would be a total lie. A heavy mist that covered the lake at first soon burnt off and we were obviously in for another scorching day.
My 1st bite resulted in an obvious foulhooker that set off for the other side of the lake before the hook pulled. It would be nice to say that everyone bagged up, but a combination of gin clear water, scorching sun and mostly flat calm conditions meant that most struggled on the day. Dave and I ended our session with honours even with 3 Carp each!
My Catch.
Dave the Fish who had spent the day in the swim to my right finished with 6 Carp, all taken on dapped pellet for a total bag that must have approached 30lb.

Graham further up the lake had managed 4 with the best being a nice Common, estimated at around the 15lb mark, while bigladwigan managed to get amongst a few late on fishing casters.
A wander around the lakes during the day found Jeff and Dave Scouse fishing the Scummy pond next to the Tench pond, and merrily baggin up on the stockies, but getting sorted out by some of the larger samples that weren’t meant to be in there!

Saturday night was Barbecue night with hot dogs and burgers all round and another attempt at emptying the beer barrel.
“Deckchair Pants” made sure that the raffle ran smoothly, Well done Haydn.
Then once more it was banter time with discussions ranging from leg length, to gratitude, female attendance at fish-ins, Hovis and various other subjects till midnight.

Sunday morning, and a chance of a final couple of hours before packing up and heading home saw me and Dave the Fish on the scummy pond.

A few small Carp and Tench, with a few better examples to Dave and his dapped pellets made for a pleasant morning.
A chat with me, no I wasn’t talking to myself but me (Simon) and another with bigladwigan as he got himself amongst a few of the small Carp was interrupted when Chris decided to plunge into the pond head first, while Norm to his credit got his priorities right by saving the pole before helping Chris out.
Simon and a small stockie.
Strolling back past the match lake to pack up and Craig (Bashy) was into one on the corner peg and despite a few nervous moments soon had it in the net.

Dave, a couple of swims along was also putting a few into the net, but for us it was time to pack up and get going, Via the M1 this time rather than face the A1.

So there it is for another year, impressions of Yaddlethorpe? Hard to truly judge given the heat wave conditions, but I would say that it needs some serious management to get to grips with the lilies that appear to have run riot and make life very difficult in most swims on all the lakes. A lovely looking venue though that really brings a touch of the countryside to an urban area.

To Dave and Stu, thanks for all your efforts over the course of the weekend once again, and to all those that attended, Thanks for your support. It was great as usual to meet some new faces and catch up with others met at previous Fish-ins once again.
The fishing itself may not have been up to much, but the company and banter was superb as usual.