Tanyards Fishery. The Tench Lake. November 12th, 2005.

Well Saturday at 7·20am found me sitting in my car in the Little Chef car park at South Godstone waiting for Dave the Fish, Colin, Jess (jackcatcher) & Szabi (Tinkerbelle) to arrive for a days fishing at Tanyards Lakes.
Everyone soon arrived and we set off for Tanyards getting there around 8am. As we drove in I noticed that all the lakes had their aerators running, something I hadn’t seen on previous visits. With our gear collected from the cars we all set off for lake4, the Tench Lake.

I settled into the 1st swim by a dying reed bed with Szabi & Jess further round and Dave next to them. Colin had a look round lake 2 but finally settled in a swim with another dying reed bed at the top opposite Dave.

Plumbing up revealed an even 3ft of depth all round my swim even hard up against the reeds but 1st put in revealed a very noticeable flow caused by the aerator. I fed 2 swims, 1 at 11mtrs straight out and another at 11mtrs hard against the reeds with a pot of 4mm hard pellet and a few red maggots fed into each, Hookbait was 6mm expanders.
Szabi soon let out a squeal of delight as she landed a small Pumpkinseed and Jess was soon pressed into service as her photographer with increasing regularity as more species came her way including a nice Perch, while Dave was heard to remark that a stick float would be more appropriate in his swim due to the proximity of the aerator.

I managed a couple of Bream around the 2½lb mark and a male Tench from my open water swim but the flow seemed to be making the fish finicky, so trying the swim against the reeds seemed to be a better option. However around 10am a halt was called as we adjourned to the fishery lodge for a spot of breakfast, suitably fortified we returned and Dave set about instructing Jess in the delights of THE DARKSIDE!!!!!

Jess had spoken to Dave of his interest in trying a spot of pole fishing and Dave had brought an old pole that had been gathering dust for Jess to have a go with.
Soon Obiwan Dave was instructing his paduan Jess in the dark arts………

Soon we were treated to the site of Jess hanging on as his 1st pole caught fish turned out to be a Skimmer of the acrobatic variety trying to do an impression of a Trout.

Colin was having a bit of a hard time of it but was plugging away at it and finally managing to find a few fish through the sheer persistence of his approach………

Meanwhile I was managing to sneak out a few more Bream from my swim hard against the reeds, but my efforts were being hampered by the angler fishing the other side of the reed bed. Every time that I hooked a fish, his response was to ball more groundbait into his swim and despite his getting no response in the way of bites. Unfortunately the only effect was to kill my swim.

By 12 o’clock I had had enough and decided to move, and Colin came round and decided to join me. We moved up to lake 2 but were shocked to find that the depth appeared to be no more than 18 inches in any swim. I set up in a swim with a small island and decided to go for it anyway, while Colin found a bit more depth in a corner peg on the far side.
First put in and a confident bite resulted in a good scrap with a nice Common and things were suddenly looking up………
Next put in and a decent Bream of around 3lbs was soon followed by a couple of identical examples. Dave soon wandered over to see how I was doing, just in time to see another Bream saving me having to unhook it as it shed the hook just as I got it into the net, and wandered off muttering and shaking his head, I’m sure it was something about how skilful I was, teaching fish to unhook themselves.

Jess & Szabi arrived bearing a welcome cup of tea paid for by Dave just as I had pulled out of a lump and soon returned to their swims after commiserating. Sport continued steadily for me all afternoon including a nice Tench that had a slight kink in its tail………
A change to maggot on the hook, produced plenty of Roach, Rudd and Gudgeon…………..



 while the pellet seemed to sort out better Carp and Bream…………

Colin was also getting into some fish in the corner including some decent Perch.

All too soon the sun had dropped out of the sky and the cold descended as the light faded and it was time to pack up. A good day had been had by all and back in the car park farewells were exchanged and plans made to do it all again.