Afternoon at Aldin Grange, Durham.

[northern eye]

Arrived just after lunch at this very tidy and fairly new fishery on a beautiful sunny Sunday. The venue has three course lakes in total and two tempting fly lakes to be tried out in the future and although it was busy I managed to get a nice peg on the main lake and as I set up there were a few bubbles and plenty of movement in front of me.
I was testing my new pole today so armed myself with a seatbox instead of my chair which is advisable here as you cant get bank sticks in the stoney ground so rod rest/brolly attachments etc are required if fishing a rod and line.
Only brought with me some maggots and small 6mm cubes of meat and a groundbait mix of Swimstim Green and Crazybait Shrimp. There is a tackle shop onsite where you can buy all the bait you need and also their fishery only pellets.
Started on Maggots at 8 metres and worked two swims and it was not long before the float dipped and then sailed away. I had fitted the pole with Maver competition hollow elastic and it had a nice smooth pull as the chunky roach came to the net. Nice sized roach after roach were now taking my bait and with each fish I trickled in a few more maggots. The roach died off after a good hours fishing so decided to try a bit of meat. I had balled in some groundbait at 11 metres and also been trickling in a few cubes for the past half hour. Set up the next rig with the meat on a hair and shipped out, popping in a few more cubes from the pole cup. Nothing!!
Seemed we had entered the mid afternoon lull and around me, nobody else was catching either. I sat it out, trying the roach swims again and getting the odd bite. I decided not to feed any more meat but occasionally dropped in a small ball of groundbait at 11 metres. Once four o’clock had passed I started to notice people catching again, many of the swims had now been vacated so the pressure on the lake was eased a little. The roach had started to bite again too and this time I was pulling in a better stamp of fish, maybe ¾ of a pound each and mixed with a few small ide too.
I decided to try meat again, the guy to my right had been pulling in carp to around three pounds and some lads to my left had also had a carp and a tench. I shipped out to the 11 metre line and just cupped in two cubes and waited, slightly lifting and dropping my rig every minute or two. The float dipped and then failed to reappear. I gently lifted into the bite and connected with something definitely bigger than the roach I’d been catching. The elastic stretched with control as I guided the fish out of the swim so as not to disturb any others and calmly shipped in letting the hollow elastic do the work, lifting the pole back to apply the breaks every so often. This allowed me to bring her to the surface and yes, a small mirror, about 2 pounds was in the net. I had another 3 fish of similar size over the next hour but the tench unfortunately, did not show for me. All in all, it was a nice afternoon and a promising little venue. Word was, round the lake, that the match lake was producing 50 – 60 pound bags that day and a few of the lads fishing near me ‘hot footed’ it over there after the match had finished. I wonder how they got on? Tickets are £8 a day, there’s a tackle shop, toilets and cafe on site. Good disabled access and a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.