August 21, 2004

• Hartleylands Farm Fishery & Old Bury Hill Fishery.

  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 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.

  Sunday, August 22, 2004

  Hawthorne AC club match.

  Next up Sunday, and 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 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.
  
  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 1 oz 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??????

  

  

   

  • 11:17 am
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