Spring at last! Crucian and Tench fishing at Marsh Farm.

With nice Spring weather here at last I knew exactly where I wanted to be fishing. Marsh Farm in Surrey for a days Crucian and Tench fishing! I was up bright and early packing my car for the 2 hour drive to the venue. I was joined for this trip by my mate Giles who shares this addiction we call Angling!

We pulled into the car park and was greeted by a sea of cars! My heart sunk as I thought the 2 hour drive may be totally wasted if we could not get a swim on Harris lake. I unloaded the car while Giles bought the day tickets. Tickets bought Giles came back and asked if I wanted the good news or bad news? I said bad news first and was told the Tench fishers group had the whole railway bank booked! I asked what the good news was and the reply was "at least we will be fishing". And that's always good news!

With the railway bank was out of the mix so we took a look at was left. I talked to a guy who had only had 1 Tench so far on the float. He also told me the Crucians had been spawning the day before and the lake is not fishing well. So who's knows what they would be doing today?! As he had not caught much on the float I decided to go straight in with a small Drennan inline method feeder and a single hair rigged Drennan bouyant caster. I found a free swim which I knew had some variation of depth. It had a shallow area falling away from the island into deeper water. This way I could cover the warmer shallower water for fish enjoying the bright warm conditions and a deeper area if the fish wanted to get some cover from the bright sun.

Within minutes of the feeder settling on the lake bed I was away with a strong fish which tuned out to be a lovely Tench. Another Tench soon made off with my feeder in tow. A typically hard fight ensued and it didn't stop even when it was in the net! The fishing certainly didn't seem as slow in this area as it was elsewhere. I was beginning to think the Crucians may not be in the feeding mood but I was soon playing a fish that was fighting very different to the Tench. With characteristically short but strong lunges I knew this was a Crucian. Sure enough it's golden flanks were shining in the sun near the waters surface ready for the net. At around 1lb 8oz in weight I was very happy to get at least 1 Crucian in the net. But I need not have worried because this was just the beginning!

I noticed the odd Crucian jumping out of the water a couple of swims away. The guy sat in the swim had not caught anything so I thought they must be moving through his swim. When he packed up Giles noticed a shoal of Crucians right where the guy had been float fishing. It was Crucian soup! How he did not catch anything I don't know?! As Giles noticed the shoal he had 1st dibs on having a go for them. He dropped his feeder bang on the money. A minute later his rod tip banged over indicating a take. Not long after it unfortunately fell off! The fish understandably drifted away which gave me my chance to drop my feeder on the spot. The fish started to drift in again and it was not long until my rod tip was banging away! This time there was no drama and a lovely Crucian was netted. At 2lb 3oz I was very happy to make the most out of this situation.

The fish scattered after that returning occasionally for a mooch around. We could not tempt them again so we went back to our own baited spots. The action continued in our own swims with the occasional Tench and Crucian until mid afternoon when it kicked off big time in my swim! A succession of mostly Crucians succumbed to my feeder tactics (see earlier blog for rig details) over the next 3 or 4 hours. One spot in particular was rocking and that was in the shallower water that drops away from the island. I even had a double take at one point and had a brace of 2lbers in the net! Giles had a fish at the same time too which made for a great photo opportunity.

The activity dropped off as the evening drew in. Which was the opposite to what we expected. It was mostly Tench that were feeding now and we decided to call it a day. But not before I tempted another hard fighting Tench as my rods lay on the ground. I always leave my rods and net as the last things to be packed away as I often bag a bonus fish doing this. I ended up with 14 Crucians up to 2lb 3oz and just as many Tench Giles did great too and was not far behind on numbers and had the biggest Crucian at 2lb 7oz. We were told the lake had been fishing hard. I feel this made us put in the extra effort and reaped the rewards.