Crowsheath Fishing Lake (Downham, Essex)

Monday, 14 May 2012 13:08 Written by admin 0 Comments

Last of the day - 13lb Mirror

On Thursday 10th May my mate Wez called me at around midday to say he was going down to Crowsheath to pre-bait a swim and go back in the evening a do the night. When he phoned he was just driving past my house so he came and grabbed me and we both went down there to see what was going on.

As we arrived at Crowsheath there were three guys fishing in the three nearest swims to the car park. Just as we were walking over one of them was into a nice 11lber. We chatted for a bit and moved on. The next guy we came across was also reeling one in. We stopped and spoke to him and learned that he had had 19 fish over three days which wasn’t bad at all. We walked a bit further round the lake and noticed that the guy on the far side was also just reeling on in so we quickly realised that we needed to get our rods in the water.

We decided to use the two swims just a bit further round from the three guys near the car park which are usually already taken when I’ve been there before. From these two swims you can reach the two islands. On the corner of where we were there was a over hanging tree. Wez went to the left-hand side of the tree and I went right.

Sods law that by the time our rods were in the water the lake had gone a bit quite. For the first couple of ours we both had a few knocks but no real runs. The first of our trip came at 3:20am when I had just briefly woken up and heard my left-hand rod scream off. I jumped up and struck into the fish. As soon as I had I realised that it was about half three in the morning and Wez was asleep. It took me about 5 minutes to wake that lazy sod up! Anyways, without much of a fight I brought in the first fish of the day/night at just over 21lbs.

First of the day - 21lb

We only stayed for 24 hours and decided to leave at midday the next day. Not a bad little session as on my last few visits to Crowsheath I had blanked so I was pleased with my three fish, the biggest being 21lb. Wez also had three fish but I definitely bet him to the biggest of the day, oosh!

I wasn’t looking too forward to doing the night but next time I will definitely be a little more enthusiastic.

Newlands Hall (Chelmsford, Essex)

Saturday, 17 September 2011 11:15 Written by admin 0 Comments

First Carp of the day caught on the float rod.

Yesterday, I went back to Newlands Hall in Roxwell, Chelmsford with Paul to try and better ourselves from our last session there a few weeks ago. Our last session did see us pull out a number of fish but nothing to really to boast about. We did however, have a busy and enjoyable day.

The main reason for this trip was because it was my birthday on Monday and didn’t want the usual piss up, so I went fishing with Paul, and Neil and Rob turned up a bit later. We were hoping to get our spot we managed to get last time which was on the far bank and sticks out a bit into the lake. Unfortunately for us, the spot had already been taken so we opted for a swim which we hadn’t been in before but knew that many other anglers had had some luck in. Down the left-hand side of the swim there is a nice overhanging tree which looked like a perfect spot for me to get a rig into and to the right I was just left with open water as Paul started off float fish in the right of the swim.

Paul's 11lb 6oz Common Carp

My first thought about the swim was that I would have more luck to the left, under or just next to the overhanging tree but my first attempt to getting my rig close to the tree went a little wrong. I say wrong, a manged to cast straight into the tree straight above my head which annoyed me just a little. After re-rigging, I really struggled to get anywhere close to where I wanted to be so ended up leaving it somewhere I knew wasn’t going to be a “hot spot”. My right rod was going straight out in front of me with nothing really to aim at or any previous experience with the swim. It was definitely hit or miss on my behalf as to whether I was in a good spot. The only piece of information I had to work with was what the bailiff had said to me on a previous session. He said that he had never know any of the big ones to come out from the middle of the lake so I opted to cast about a third of the way across the lake.

The day started off fairly slowly with nothing happening with my left rod and my right, I’m sure I kept casting into a cray fish pit as my alarm would beep once then every 30 seconds the spool would click round once. Plus, every time I reeled in half the boilie had been nibbled off. I remembered again what the bailiff said about the big fish patrolling the margins so I decided to cast slightly nearer to the bank, around 10 – 15 yards from the bank.

My best for the day, a 16lb 4oz Mirror

Paul on the other hand, on his float rod was doing his usual tiddler bashing with sweetcorn and managed to hook himself a half decent Roach. After being quite chuffed with probably his biggest Roach to date, he got back in to the water and hooked into something bigger. I don’t think he realised to begin with how big it was but I could see the bend in the rod and knew straight away that it was a Carp. It was good for him to experience a decent sized Carp on his match rod and did a pretty good job with playing the fish. We landed the fish which turned out to be Paul’s PB (personal best), a 11lb 6oz Common Carp but just as I had unhooked it my right-hand rod shot off. Paul’s not very good at handling big fish so we had to call the guy over from the next swim to help us out. We struggled a bit between the two fish but managed to get Paul’s into the carp sack so we could deal with my monster. Straight away I could feel that mine was heavier than Paul’s and I really did struggle with picking him up. He weighed in at a nice 16lb 4oz Mirror Carp which I was pretty chuffed about as it was the first decent sized fish I had caught for a few years.

Not much had happened before or after the two fish but about an hour later Paul landed a 14lb Common Carp which was our last of the day. Not the most eventful days fishing I’ve had but probably one of the most satisfying in recent years.

Newlands Hall (Chelmsford, Essex)

Sunday, 31 July 2011 23:54 Written by admin 0 Comments

My swim for the day

Back at Newlands Hall fishery on Friday 29th July 2011 for another stab at some of the bigger fish that I know are there. My last few recent visits didn’t see me catching much but this time I may of just found one of the hotspots! We got there a lot later than planed at around 1:30pm. We had half wondered if we had wasted the days fishing already but we soon realised we hadn’t.

As we had arrived late, quite a few of the better swims had been taken so it didn’t leave us much choice when it came to picking a swim. We had a stroll round to start with, as you do, and decided on one of the far swims on the other side. We ended up in the swim that sticks out on to the lake which is within arms reach of the island. In the picture above, just behind the trees on the right is the island where I had both of my rods set-up. One was on the left point of the island and the other I placed in a little gap in the middle of the island.

A Newlands Hall Common

My rods hadn’t been there long (maybe half hour) when my left-hand rod went flying off. My first of the day (pictured right) was a nice common in fairly good condition apart from a little puncture wound you may of noticed on his top side, which I’ve heard recently may not necessarily be from bad handling of the fish but actually the doings of a water fowl or similar bird attacking fish for food. There were about 4 or 5 similar sized fish that followed that one but I was still hoping for something a little bigger.

Dinner

My diet for the day, not even any chips!

We started getting a bit peckish again at around 5pm, considering we had recently had a burger from the cafe about an hour before. We had planed to have a burger and sausage sarnie but literally seconds after putting the burgers in the rods went off.

It wasn’t a bad days fishing by all accounts and it wasn’t just me catching, it seemed everyone else on the lake that I could see were also pulling out there share. Just as we had thought the day was nearly over for us, my right hand rod went crazy. About 20 minutes before my rod took off, I did have one of my little hunches that my right-hand rod would go off so I set my phone up on record next to the alarms on the off chance that it did go.  After a fairly short fight of about 10 minutes we managed to land the fish which was a nice pregnant common which I was quite chuffed about. Not a bad fish to finish off the day with. As I had managed to catch on film the alarms going off I decided to do a little video, just for you guys, enjoy.

Newlands Hall (Chelmsford, Essex)

Tuesday, 05 July 2011 18:27 Written by admin 0 Comments

The New Newlands Hall

Newlands Hall Fishery is located on Bishops Stortford Rd in Roxwell (Chelmsford), Essex. On the map it’s just northwest of Chelsmford on the way to Bishop’s Stortford.  It’s about 15 minutes away from the A12 and the A414.

Until recently, Newlands Hall was not somewhere to fish for the dedicated fisherman. There were a few reasons why it wasn’t really the place for keen anglers, like the chavs and Polish doing as they pleased. Anyway, the lake now has a new fishing bailiff who has turned things around and has re-done all the swims with wood chips so they now all look like nice and new. A few trees have been cut down and in general looks like it’s turned over a new leaf.

Newlands Hall Common Carp on Halibut Hook Pellet

I have been to the lake a few times recently since it’s been done but haven’t had much luck. I decided to do a 24 hour session from Sunday night to Monday night with a couple of my fishing buddy’s. The weather was still quite mild when we got there on Sunday night and stayed that way till about midnight when the temperature dropped a little. We had two fish Sunday evening, one after the other strangely at around 9:00pm then it went a bit quiet till the night time.

We jumped in to the bivvy around 11 o’clock as it was getting a bit chilly and settled in for the night. At 4am my mates rod went crazy and I was the first up out of bed to grab it for him. It wasn’t anything massive but around the 10lb mark but shortly after he had another run on his other rod. Again, nothing too big but this time about a 13 14lb common. Usually when I get woken up at 4 in the morning on a Moday, even by a fish I’m a little grumpy and tired but today was a lovely morning to be woken up.

Newlands Hall Fishery at 4:30am

It went a bit quite again until around 12 midday when the sun was up and the temperature was about 28 degrees. For a few hours nobody on the lake seemed to be having much luck on the bottom and then we started to notice a few big ones patrolling the surface of the water. I brought in one of my rods to change the rig to a surface rig with a big float on it allowing me to cast further out. My first 10 attempts to catch one off the surface didn’t go to well as they were just swimming straight past my piece of bread.

A nice crusian Carp off the surface using bread.

It was a hot day so I knew I would just have to be patient and wait for them to start feeding. It probably got to about 2:30 – 3 o’clock when we started getting some interest on the surface. Something which did make it a little bit harder to fish the surface was the Swans and their little ones who obviously liked our bread. I tried not to let the Swans get to me too much and just waited for them to loose interest and swim off. After about two hours of trying the bread on the surface I finally ended up catching a few. Two nice sized fish about 15 to 17lbs I ended up having off the surface which was good enough for me.

Gloucester Park (Basildon, Essex)

Monday, 20 June 2011 23:27 Written by admin 0 Comments
Gloucester Park

Gloucester Park Fishery

Gloucester Park is situated in Basildon, Essex. It’s about 5 minutes away from either the A127 or the A13 and it’s the A176 turn off from both motorways. From either exit you can follow signs to Gloucester Park swimming pool and you need to park in the swimming pool car park as the lake is just behind it.

We decided to go to Gloucester Park for the afternoon as my fishing buddy Paul wanted to bring his girlfriend and little boy over for the afternoon but was near enough that they could walk home when they had had enough. The easiest way to to get to the lake at the minute is from the swimming pool car park entrance and walk over the hill to the lake. I say at the minute as the swimming pool has just closed as they have opened the new pool which will be used as a training pool for the Chinese in the 2012 Olympics.

Gloucester Park Geese

Gloucester Park Geese

Anyway, back to the fishing. There were three of us fishing today and we managed to find a massive swim that we could all use. The purpose of Paul bringing his little one over was to try and get him into fishing. His girlfriend and son only came for about an hour so Paul had to try and catch a few so his son could see his first silver fish or possibly a Carp. Our day didn’t start off great as none of us had had much in the way of bites. After about an hour Paul’s girlfriend and son said that they were going to make a move despite not seeing Paul catch anything. About 5 minutes after they had left we started getting a few bites. I say we the others were but not me! Paul manged, yet again to pull out the first fish, a nice little roach, Paul’s specialty!

Gloucester Park Moorhen

Gloucester Park Moorhen and offspring.

I didn’t have the best of fishing days as the first thing I managed to catch was a duck! Couldn’t believe it. They are usually pretty good at avoiding the fishing line or if they do swim over it they can usually cross it without getting tangled, not this one. There wasn’t too much I could of done about it but the duck obviously didn’t like it and started to roll in the water making things a whole lot worse. The more I tried to pull the duck towards me the more it wanted to take off so I just gave it some line and let it do what it wanted. I really wanted to catch the duck somehow and untangle it leaving it free of any line. It had got to the point were it had taken so much line I couldn’t even see it. I gave my rod to a mate and set off to find the duck. I ended up walking about 5 minutes round the lake till I found the duck which had got up on to the bank. I managed to grab the duck and hold it down and realised that the duck had untangled it’s self so it was just the hook that was left to take out.

Lake Meddows (Billericay, Essex)

Monday, 06 June 2011 02:11 Written by admin 0 Comments

Cracking evening to be fishing.

Lake Meddows in Billericay, Essex which can be found if you follow the signs towards the park or swimming pool.

Although I live about 5 minutes from Lake Meddows it’s never been my idea place to fish. Mainly because I’ve never had much joy over there but I never give up and will keep trying, it’s got to happen one day hasn’t it? It’s still classed as a good fishery for those hardcore anglers willing to wait a week for a bit!

A few years ago the lake changed hands and the previous guy took the fish that were rightfully his out which I believe to be all the smaller silver fish and left most of the Carp in there. Me and my fishing buddy had a quick walk round the lake before we unpacked the car to see if we could see any movement. We didn’t see much movement from the fish on the lake but there were two guys in a boat next to one of the islands doing something but I wasn’t sure what. We grab our stuff and decided to just set-up our match rods to see what was actually left in there. As usual my friend Paul caught the first of the day on a bit of sweetcorn, it was massive! Only joking, it was a roach about 2 inches long but it doesn’t matter as it still adds to the excitement of fishing. After a few hours our catches didn’t really seem to get any bigger but I did catch a Cray Fish!

As I said before, there were two guys in a boat out on the lake. One of them was the bailiff and came round to ask for some cash. I asked what they were doing in the boat

and the guy explained that they had previously set Cray Fish traps next to the islands as they were becoming a bit of a problem in the lake. Just after he had finished explaining his mate who was in the boat with him walked round the corner with two fairly big buckets full to the rafters with Cray Fish! I asked what he was going to do with them and he said that one of his mates eats them. Rather him than me to be honest, it’s not exactly a shrimp or crab!

The geese at Lake Meddows.

The geese at Lake Meddows

One thing I did notice during the days fishing here. The adult geese with their young for hours were just going round and round the perimeter of the larger island. I’m not 100% sure why they were doing this but we were sitting right opposite one end of the island and it was like watching a kids train set go round and round. The only real downside with Lake Meddows is that it is situated in the local park which means if it is a nice day then you are guaranteed to be interrupted every now and then by passers by. We had two major interruptions this time. The first was a women who decided to feed the ducks in our swim while there were plenty of free swims next to us! The other was a little boy who thought it would be hilarious top throw a stick into our swim too. Thanks guys!

Rockells Farm (Saffron Walden, Essex)

Tuesday, 31 May 2011 11:59 Written by admin 0 Comments

Rockells Farm (Saffron Walden, Essex)

Rockells Farm match fishing lake can be found in Duddenhoe End approximately 10 miles north of Stansted Airport, UK.

Rockells Farm is a match fishing lake on Sundays which is full to the rafters of small carp up to about the 8lb mark. It’s a 3 acre lake mainly stocked with small carp averaging 3lbs but you may find some bigger Carp up to 26lb and Tench up to 4.5lb. Rockells Farm also have lodges available for anyone who wants to stay for the weekend as there is no night fishing available.

Myself and my two mates left our house at 7:30am to get to Rockells Farm early as we had heard it gets fairly busy on the weekends. We arrived just before 9:00am and found ourselves 3 swims right next to each other. We usually use our ledger rods and reels when carp fishing for the big ones but today we decided to do a bit of tiddler bashing for a fun packed day fishing. I set one of my mates up with a float rod as he needs just a little more practice at doing it himself so he was the first one in the water. Within about 20 seconds he was in to his first fish of the day. It didn’t take very long at all for the fish to realize we were there. From then on it was pretty intense fishing for the rest of the day. I think this was mainly down to a pre-mix of ground bait which we had made the night before consisting of maize, worm cast, tiger pellets, sweet corn, and a curry flavoring. I think the main attracting in the mix was the worm cast which seemed like it was carp ecstasy for the fish as they came straight up to the surface for it within seconds.

Carp Frenzy!

We stayed till 9:00pm as it was a dusk to dawn lake with no night fishing. During the course of the day we caught about 60 to 70 fish between us. To begin with we were counting how many fish we had caught but after our catch went into double figures we all lost count as it was hard to keep track. We did have a few visitors during the day. The first was a cheeky chicken after our maggots and a dog who i nicknamed Rufus (as in Rufus Hound) who seemed to be after more food and was particularly interested in our hot dogs. Our most popular bait for the fish seemed to be the sweetcorn. We had two different types of corn, the first was normal yellow corn and a tin of red strawberry flavored corn which both seemed to work as well as each other. For anyone looking for a fun packed day of fishing I can recommend Rockells Farm for all anglers but mainly for those just starting out.

Crowsheath Fishery (Downham, Essex)

Friday, 06 May 2011 18:26 Written by admin 0 Comments

A lovely April evening

Crowsheath Fishery in Downham, is located right next to Hanningfield Reservoir in Essex, UK.

The fishery consists of four separate lakes. A 3.5 acre specimen lake (carp & catfish), a 4.5 acre coarse lake (carp & silver fish), a 2 acre canal lake (silver fish) and a 1/2 acre lagoon lake (silver fish). Crowsheath has recently taken on a new bailiff, who just so happens to be a friend of mine. His first two jobs he was given to do by the owner were to remove a fishing rig from a swans neck and to fish the lagoon lake to see what he could find as it had not been fished for nearly 10 years but used to be an old match lake.

My personal best for the day!

We weren’t sure how to tackle the swan with our bear hands so we decided to fish the lagoon lake. We had no idea what was in there if anything at all. It’s only 1/2 an acre and probably no more than 5ft deep so we guessed that the chances of hooking a monster were quite slim. Any how, it was still quite exciting as we just didn’t know what was in there. We set-up a two float rods, two bottom feeders and waited. We waited and watched for about two hours but no signs of any fish. Shortly after I got a bit and my float quickly went down and up again but I missed it. The float remained still so I thought I lost the fish and the bait so I reeled in and found that I was actually in luck, I was in! After a few seconds I lifted the rod up to discover that my catch probably weighed nothing on the scales. We came to the conclusion that there wasn’t much left in the lagoon lake 10 years after it’s match fishing days, so we decided to move on to the specimen lake.

49lb Catfish

By the time we had got to the specimen lake a few of our other fishing buddies had joined us so we spread ourselves along one side of the bank. Before nightfall we had only had one bite between us but was missed so some of us pitched up for the night. At about 1:00am one of the alarms started going crazy and we were in again. This time it was a true monster, a huge catfish. It took about 25 to 30 minutes to play the monster in but we finally netted it. We were told that any catfish caught had to be moved into the canal lake as they were starting to take over the specimen lake.

Welcome to Darrens Fishing World

Thursday, 05 May 2011 23:43 Written by admin 0 Comments

Welcome…