Marsh Farm, the report

Greenheart · #1 05-07-2011, 06:35 PM

Arranged to meet up with an old college friend "Martin" who i'd not seen since 1976 & who i'd got back in contact with again via Facebook. Turned out he's a bailiff at Marsh Farm in Surrey, one of the countrys top Crucian carp waters that i'd been meaning to fish for a while. We'd planned on meeting up on the day of the royal wedding, but the lake was booked for an Army match so we arranged to meet up on the bank holiday Monday instead. I called round for Bananna Steve at 5.30 to find him waiting outside his house with all his gear. He will probably tell you that I was late & actually picked him up at 6am. Don't believe him. i'm sure his watch was wrong

Set the sat nav & arrived at Marsh farm about 8am to find Martin waiting by the on site Tackle shop. He'd not changed much in three & a half decades & still had his long red hair. Mine has turned somewhat grey since we last met. After a quick catchup chat Martin took us for a walk around the lakes which looked really well kept & very inviting.

We then popped into the tackle shop to get our day tickets & some bait. It was here that we had another suprise meeting with another Forum member, Catfish Virgin "Neil" who i'd also not seen for a while.
Martin suggested we fish pegs 30 & 31 on Harris lake that had some nice fishy looking Lily pads, so this is where we set up. Steve set up a pole, a float rod & feeder rod. I decided to concentrate on using only the pole. I mixed up some groundbait consisting of liquidised sweetcorn, hemp, micro pellet, chopped worm, caster & Van Den Eynde Secret. & baited the edge of the lily pad. By now the wind was getting really strong & I was beginning to wonder if the pole was the right choice.

As I only planned on fishing at 6m I decided to persevere... As the wind was now verging on gale force, this was probably not the ideal method. I needed a large pole float with about 5 swan shot just to keep the bait in the water. Not really the type of delicate presentation required for crucians. First cast I had a tiny perch on a small piece of worm on a size 16 hook. Not wanting to be pestered by these I changed to sweetcorn. This produced a good bite that I think may have been one of the lakes large tench. Sadly we soon parted company when the hook pulled out. I stuck with sweetcorn for another hour or so, but had no more bites, so I changed to caster. There then followed a series of fast bites that were really hard to hit in the strong wind, but I did manage to connect with quite a few small rudd & roach....

I also hooked three more decent fish & managed to lose them all. One I saw was a good crucian. The other two took me into the lilys before I could get a look (Probably tench)
The day wore on & the wind got stronger. Martin & Neil decided to call it a day & head home. Steve decided to have a rest from catching small roach & do some sun bathing...

I decided to continue battling the wind for a while longer & was eventually rewarded with my target fish & a new PB, a good looking Crucian of exactly 3lb.....

Although the wind had made the fishing very difficult, it had still been great to meet up with some old friends & to chat about our days at college. I'm really looking forward to meeting up with Martin again & fishing Marsh Farm when the conditions are more favourable....