Marsh Farm is a cracking fishery near Godalming in Surrey. It has an on-site tackle shop, which is one of the best around, and the lakes contain some seriously tasty fish. It also does a great cup of tea and a bacon roll, which are not cheap but are still better value than anything in Starbucks.
The fishery has three day-ticket lakes and a club-members only lake. The smallest of the DT lakes is Hills – a kids-can’t-fail bar-of-soap tench pond; the prolific Richardson’s match lake and Harris, the specimen lake. I’ve fished there about a dozen times now in the last few years and have only once fished anywhere other than the Harris lake, which is the specimen crucian lake, and it is for these I fish.
The Harris Lake is not just a crucian water. It also has a good head of tench, roach, perch and rudd. The tench are said to grow to huge size in here, 8lb plus, but I’ve never yet had one much bigger than six-ish. The crucians though, these are the main target fish. They can be surprisingly easy to catch and they can also be a nightmare. I have had thirty fish sessions and I’ve also blanked for them a few times – so don’t think you’ll bag up every session.
Location and conditions are everything and these fish do move around. A swim which produced a bag of 30 fish to 3lb plus last week, might be devoid of them for the next six weeks. So I tend to set up but be ready to move and keep an eye on the rest of the lake. Not an easy job when the slightest movement of the float can mean a fish on the bank or a hook robbed of bait, so keep an ear open too for the slosh of a fish rolling. Fortunately crucians are not shy and will often show themselves by rolling and sloshing. They can be very localised and will not come to you; you’ll have to go to them instead. I’ve had a couple of sessions in the last years where it was a-fish-a-cast in one swim but with anglers blanking in the two adjoining swims, so be prepared to move.
The fish, that is the crucians and tench, in this fishery are the fussiest feeders I know. On odd days they will give you clear sail-away bites but more often than not they are very picky. You can catch them on maggots – but expect to be plagued by small rudd, roach and perch – or on corn – the tinned stuff works better than the frozen for me – or you can use paste or pellets. But even here they can be discriminating. Hard pellets will often remain untouched whilst a soft one will be gobbled down in seconds. It’s all in the texture, or so it seems.
I only fish with one rod on this lake, my trusty Hardy Carbon Match and the old Speedia centre pin. Watching the float takes all my attention, every second of the session, so there is no room for a second, leger rod. I have seen an angler leger a feeder here to great effect, he took a dozen fat tench, but generally most people want to catch these crucians on float tackle and that’s what most use. My usual set up, in perfect conditions, uses an inset waggler set exactly at depth – so use a plummet. I fish with the bulk shot hard under the float, a heavy dropper shot a foot from the hook (to get the bait swiftly through the small fish in mid-water) and a tell-tale tiny shot three or four inches from the hook. The tip of the float has not much more than 1/4 inch (6mm) showing above the surface. A good matchman might sneer at my shotting pattern but it usually works for me and I catch fish on it. Hook size is dependant on the bait size, as ever, with a size 14 hook to nylon being favourite.
Bites are almost always hard to spot and even harder to hit, no matter what shotting pattern, float or bait is used – and that’s when conditions are perfect. This is England however and perfect is a rarely used word when it comes to fishing conditions.
So it was yesterday. It was blowing a hooligan, straight down the length of the lake and gusting rain showers all afternoon. We only had a half day available so couldn’t pick the weather but at least it was cloudy – the fish here don’t seem to like too much sun.
I arrived with my old friend Peter Martinelli and set about walking around the lake. I was aiming for an area at the far end of the fishery but a sudden squall had me drop the tackle and erect a brolly pronto before I got very far. When I saw a fish top I decided to stay in that swim, and it turned out to be a good decision.
Peter went in the next swim and proceeded to set up a pole, his favourite method (good luck to him in that wind!) whilst I pulled out the secret weapon.
“Have you tried Marukyu baits?” This was a question I had been asked three times in as many weeks. It had to be an omen so I asked for some samples to be sent to me to try out. When the parcel arrived I had a look at the company website – and it was just as well that I did. I learned some things on there. That my SOKOZURI was greatly affected by the way my basic UEBARI-TONTON was set up. (Turned out I’d gone to the wrong Marukyu website!) I actually already knew that of course however what I didn’t know was 1) the special and simple mix-up and hooking method and 2) that I was about to fish with a paste that was designed and intended to melt off the hook! Slowly perhaps, but still…this was somewhat alarming at first but I soon got over it when I started fishing. (Check out the Roy Marlow videos on their website – very useful, and a fascinating site.)
I was using the Marukyu APF 310 Ocean Flavour paste mix on the hook and the SDP 2101 Nori pellets as loose feed. Reading the packet ingredients it seemed I was using what appeared to be a sushi-derived seaweed-based feed with some of the famous Marukyu ‘secret’ ingredients. The pellets are tiny 1mm jobs, which probably ought to be wetted before introducing otherwise a percentage could float on the surface film, attracting ducks, which can be a nuisance on this fishery. I made up the paste as per the packet instructions and fished largish marble sized balls on the hook.
Due to the severe wind conditions it was very hard to float-fish effectively. At one point I was eventually fishing a foot over depth to combat drag and moved up to a size 10 hook to hold the paste on. It soon transpired that the paste would not tolerate staying on the hook whilst being dragged around the bottom so I ended up fishing close to the rod tip to present a bait. The waves on the lake made studying the float a now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t operation. When the pattern varied to now-you-see-it, now-you-see-it-again, I struck, as this was an indicator the bait had either dissolved off the hook or that a fish had picked it up. Sometimes I got it right but usually I didn’t. Situation normal for the Harris lake on even the best of days.
It all worked and I caught quite a few fish – just as many as Pete in the next swim who was using soft pellets, though I caught the bigger fish – probably luck but you never know. We both had a few crucian to 2lb 8ozs, tench to 5lb 2ozs and roach to a pound. A very nice result on a horribly windy afternoon.
Geoff Maynard
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