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.

Tanyards Lakes. The Tench Lake. May 1st, 2005.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dave finished up on the inside as well and was actually getting Bream up in the water in the margins, and ended with this nice Perch.

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.

Tanyards Lakes. The Tench Pond. January 3rd, 2005.

First outing of 2005.

I don’t know about you, but the 1st trip out of the New Year is one that I always look forward to, so that when Dave the Fish sent me a PM asking if I would like to join him and Colin for a session at Tanyards Lakes, a water that I hadn’t visited before, I was only to pleased to accept.

Leaving home at 6·30am to meet up I noticed it was quite mild, 8°C according to the car thermometer. However as we got closer the temperature dropped, till on arrival it said only 3°C with a heavy frost on the ground and cat ice in the margins of the lakes.

The decision was made to fish the Tench Pond, as both Dave and Colin had fished it previously, and they reckoned that it didn’t contain any of the large Carp that are present in most of the lakes, and which Tanyards is renowned for.

As we unloaded the kit, the bailiff appeared, so we paid our day tickets and got some info that the end nearest to the car park was fishing the best. We also spoke to a Carp Angler who was just packing up after a 3 day session, who had only had one run (from an 8lb Bream)

Well by the time I got to the pond, Colin and Dave had claimed the 2 swims at the bottom end either side of a dead reed bed, so being the youngest I wandered up to the opposite end where there was another dead reed bed.

With no large Carp and a good head of silvers allegedly, I set up on the pole, finding an even 2½ft of water everywhere, so fed 2 swims, the 1st at 11mtrs straight out into open water, the 2nd into a gap in the reeds to my left. Bait was either single or double maggot and all feeding was with a small T-pot with just a pinch of micro pellet and 4 or 5 maggots each put in.

With such shallow water coupled with the heavy frost, I wasn’t expecting any action to begin with, although Colin was soon of the mark with a couple of fish including a nice Perch weighing 1lb 6ozs.

My first bite came from the open water swim and resulted in a nice Roach of around 12ozs, and was followed around 10mins later by a Bream  of around 2lbs.

1st Fish of 2005

At this point we adjourned to the lodge with its wood burning stove for breakfast and a mug of hot tea.

Suitably fortified we returned and Dave was among the Perch as well, one of them a new P.B. for Dave at 2lbs.

My 1st fish from the reed swim was a small golden Carp of about 2lbs, and by alternating between the 2 swims I managed to keep the fish coming regularly nearly all day. Variety was the catch word, with Roach, Rudd, Bream, a Crucian, various ornamentals, Tench and even a humble Gudgeon making up my catch.

   

   

My best fish of the day was a Tench of 2lbs 15ozs ............

My total bag must have been close to 30lbs, which was a lovely way to get 2005 off the mark .
Thanks to Dave and Colin for the company, It certainly won’t be my last visit to Tanyards.