It was the last day of Winter and here I was sitting on the bank of Harris lake on the Marsh Farm complex in Surrey. This lake is famous for it's Tench and Crucian fishing but more so in Spring and Summer than a cold day like this! I was fishing with a couple of friends (Giles and Chris) and we knew it was going to be hard work due to the cold North/East wind!
We decided to start on the smallest lake on the complex. Hill pond. Although the smallest lake on the complex it still has Crucians over 3lb in weight and numerous Tench. The pond was well sheltered from the cold wind so we thought a few quick bites would be forthcoming. Unfortunately this was not the case and bites were hard to come by fishing in the shallow margins. I set up my trusty method feeder set up and cast out with an underarm flick. I did this a few times just to get a bit of bait on the spot. I had a quick response and soon had a small but very welcome Tench in the net. Nothing else was interested so Giles and I packed up and headed over to Harris lake to try and tempt the bigger fish to our baited hooks.
The obvious starting point was the sheltered Northern end of the lake. It was flat calm and noticeably warmer. We did have a look further down the lake just in case we saw signs of fish but there were none. I settled for a swim that gave me an island to cast to as well as open water. The first rod was placed at the bottom of the island shelf and the other in the open water. As always I cast the method feeders out several times each to get a bit of bait on the spot before leaving them to snare any hungry fish that come along. The ground bait method mix was a simple crushed hemp mix with a few larger food items such as 6mm low oil pellet, sweetcorn and casters. With the added pulling power of corn steep liquor and pellet betaine liquid. It had the desired affect as the island rod was off to a flier 10 minutes later! With the water still being very cold I was surprised how hard this fish was pulling! It took me all over the place before slipping the net under a fighting fit male Tench. Giles too had a Tench soon after me so it was worth the move already.
Maybe we had just hit the end of a morning feeding spell as we could not tempt another bite for what seemed like ages?! As nothing was happening where we were we moved down the lake to see if we could locate any feeding fish. The problem was the cold wind was pushing down the lake and I doubted there would be much more of a chance of feeding fish here. But rather than sit behind motionless bobbins and silent alarms it was a risk worth taking. I chose a similar swim to the last with island and open water features. The feeders went out in similar areas too. As I feared the fish did not seem to be in this area. We had no action for an hour so had no hesitation in heading back to the previous productive area.
We went straight back to our previous swims. I fished exactly the same spots as before hoping the bait had attracted some fish. It took a bit longer for the bite to come but when it did it was another hard fighting Tench. The Crucians really didn't want to feed today but the Tench were saving the day. Lee the bailiff popped over for a chat. It was great catching up as it had been almost a year since my last visit on the Association of Crucian anglers fish-in. We were rudely interrupted by another screaming take which turned out to be a Tench that thought it was Jack Pike by almost jumping out of the lake a couple of times! Giles was getting in on the action too and had two more Tench.
The day was drawing to an end and the pack up began. Another Tench tore off at a rate of knots and was the final reward on what was far from ideal as far as fishing conditions go. I'm already dreaming of returning in a month or so when the Spring is in full swing and when hopefully the big Crucians that swim along side the Tench will be in full feeding mode.
