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.