Tench fishing at Whittlesford Pit

So I finally got to fish the Whittlesford Pit or Longmoor Pit to give it its proper name. This water is managed by the Saffron Walden Angling Club and known for decent carp (20lbs+), Tench (8lbs+) and bream (5lbs+). It is fairly shallow in terms of depth, the deepest runs are no more than 7ft I am told and at the margins, the water is very clear and perhaps 2-3ft deep with very weedy bottom.

View of the pit

I went on two occasions, first time; I was there at 5:30am and fished through until 11am. I was working a swim between some lily pads and near some bull-rushes, not fishing very far out, margin fishing really. The tackle was 11ft feeder rod, 8lbs main line with 5lbs hook link (size 12 Kasman barbless hooks with hook link) connected with a swivel. There was a 3BB waggler connected via a float rubber with a couple of large SSG 2 inches from the hook to fish on the lift for Tench. Hook bait was maggots or sweet corn (mix of strawberry and normal). I got a couple of lift bites mainly on the double/treble maggot. The swim was full of small Rudd and these were hitting the bait on the drop. They were less interested in the corn and I hardly got anything on the corn except a couple of quarter pound Rudd. I was really after Tench so was very disappointed to only get Rudd. Actually I got one small quarter pound Perch but that was the only exception. I switched to a standard on the drop rig, a couple of inches over depth (under a loaded waggler – “puddle chucker”) and just got stuck into the Rudd. I must have had about 30+ fish by the end of the day, ranging from 1oz to a max of 6oz. I got chatting to a young chap who was method fishing for carp. He arrived just after me and managed to bag a 16lbs mirror. He said that I should ledger in close to the reeds for Tench. Not being much of a ledger fishing expert, I decided not to try this at 10am given the limited remaining fishing for the day. While I was fishing this area, I did notice a number of carp nosing in about the reeds but none were interested in my float bait.

Not to be beaten, I resolved to focus on ledgering if this was the way to catch fish at this venue. So, I came one more time but only had an hour to fish, starting fishing about 8:30am. I put the most sensitive white tip quiver on the feeder rod with the same reel. I kept the rig very simple, basically the same as for float above but with a 1oz bomb with a rubber bead stop below it. I fished standard double sweet corn with the corn hiding as much of the shank of the size 12 hook as possible. Again, I fished the margins but this time concentrated on the reeds, with perhaps only 4-5 meters of line between the tip and the bomb. I hand fed initially a small handful of corn then kept dropping in 4-5 kernels every 5-10mins. As I was getting my rod settled on the rests for the first time, there was a violent take which I struck into. Whatever it was (and I suspect it was a reasonable carp) took off immediately for the middle of the lake. I was playing with the clutch but just as it shot off, my line snagged another fishing line about 5 meters out. As I was trying to untangle from this, my hook link snapped. My bomb and lots of trailing weed was snagged around the other line which I pulled in. This was a serious carp hair rig with the boillie and 2-3oz lead still attached. I pulled in the entire rig and put in on the bank to wrap up and throw away. A nearby angler (Jake) saw my fight and had come across to see what had happened. He mentioned that he had fished the swim the day before and he had lost his rig so he was pleased that I had pulled it out! He started chatting with me about the water and carp and ledger tactics. He mentioned that it was worth leaving the line slack on the bottom and not tightening up the quiver to avoid spooking the carp. While we were chatting, I put the rig out again (although I stuck with convention and tightened up the quiver to give a slight bend – I suspect a back ledger would help keep the line down so may be worth trying in future). Shortly after, I got a drop back bite and struck into a fish. This was very different to the carp as it went straight for the weeds, it felt more Tench-like. I had to fiddle with the drag to allow the fish to pull off some line and then tightened up and applied side strain to get it away from the reeds. After a minute or so of fighting, I got it to the surface, definitely a Tench and a nice chunky one at that. I was conscious of not shaking the barbless hook so I was keeping constant pressure on. There was some weed around the rig but eventually, probably after another minute of fighting, I got the fish to the surface and Jake helped me get it in my net (which frankly was too small for a fish of this size but was just adequate – memo to self, buy a bigger one!). As Jake went to get his weighing sling, I unhooked the fish, a beautiful chunky olive green male Tench. It was hooked in the corner of the lips and the barbless hook slipped out very easily in my fingers. Weighing the fish, it came to 4-4.5lbs according to Jake, my best ever Tench and actually thinking about it, my heaviest fish to date! After posing for a couple of pictures, I slipped the weighing sling into the water and allowed the fish to recover before releasing it – after about 30 seconds, it righted itself and slipped away into the depths with one swish of its heavy tail. Wow, what a fish, the Tench I had been seeking and one of my first fish on ledger to boot.

4.5lbs Tench (male)

Removing the thick slime on the leader, I fished on for about 20 minutes with no more bites before packing up. This was amazing action for an hour of fishing and good omens for the future of Tench fishing at one of my most proximal waters. Still I am slightly concerned that my rig may attract larger carp and I would need to load up the duty to be able to manage these. Of course this is a ‘good’ problem to have but none-the-less, I need to cogitate on tackle upgrade.

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Fishing in Granchester

So on returning to Cambridge post-holiday, I was on the scout for places to fish, ideally for free. One place that I had been fascinated with for years was the bridge mill pool in Granchester. This is a real tourist hot spot but it is possible to fish from the bridge. On a sunny day you can see the fish milling around in the medium-slow flowing water which is a bit murky once you get below 2 feet. There are plenty of ducks and swans around as well and you have to be careful not to feed them or attract them to the hook bait.

Swans in the pool

I estimate the bottom is only 3-4 feet in the whole pool. I fished this a couple of times with basic float fishing tackle, mainly puddle chucker self-cocking waggler and the 8lbs mainline reel with 4-5 lbs hook link onto a variety of hooks ranging from size 18 barbless, 16 barbed (mustard) and 12 barbless spade-end. It did not make much difference which hook I used, they all caught fish. The main difference was whether the bait stayed on or not. I fished this swim with bread flake pinched onto the hook. I had to shot this down to make it sink otherwise the small fish would peck at the bait on the surface but nothing would take it. With a bit of moisture, the flake sank and it was hit by numerous fish. The fish would shoal around the bait with the odd fish taking a swipe at the hook bait. This was all no more than 1-2 feet under the water and it was possible to watch the fish taking the bait.

Small 0.25lbs Dace

A few different fish were caught here, some Dace, Roach and Chub all in the 0.25-0.75 lbs range. There were a couple of larger fish knocking about but they were much more wary.

Fat 0.75lbs Roach caught at dusk

One 1lbs Chub was hooked (it had a noticeable large spot on its back – possibly an infection or attack from a predator etc.) but this was lost as I went for the landing net. This highlights the extreme problem of this swim. I was fishing from the bridge, and this is where you sort of have to fish for the shoal of fish, the water surface is about 4m below the bridge side. My landing net handle was 3m in length and even with this I had to lean dangerously to get the fish in the net. I bought a drop pan net (which was really for sea-fishing) but this had the problem that it only dropped straight down over the edge and it was hard to manoeuvre the fish into it, plus the landing net lines would get tangled and in the way. A longer landing net handle is required here but as it will have to be non-telescopic, it may annoy the tourists on the bridge and be dangerous to haul in with cars mere feet behind.

The time of day seems to have some bearing on whether fish are biting or not. It is not clear if it is temperature related or not but earlier in the morning – 10am and later at night, 8pm (just before dusk) seemed to work best. Also, I tried cheese paste squeezed onto the hook and this worked for the Chub. If you throw in a bit of bread or cheese, this seemed to keep the fish interested and bring the shoal around to the hook bait.

It is clear that the bigger fish hang lower in the water and are much more wary than the little ones. Talking to a couple of anglers who stopped by, it seems ledgering with worm is a good way to get the bigger Chub with reports of 3lbs fish being caught. Also, there are supposed to be some big pike in the pool. It would be interesting to try corn or maggots here although, I suspect the later would bag up on smaller fish if float fished on the drop. This will be an interesting venue to fish ledger from the bank. The proximity of the road on the bridge make it a bit too dangerous in my opinion to fish seriously – still with a short spinning rod and light float, it was fun handing in fish on bread and cheese.

Lean 0.25lbs Chub

I did scout further up the river which loops around to a road bridge further along the road towards Trumpington. There are a couple of places where you might be able to get into a clear swim but it all was both very weedy in the main flow and there were a couple of meters of marshy fringe plants preventing setting up on the bank. A pole and a long landing net would be needed to fish these swims. They are likely never fished so may well be ripe pickings. Judicious use of a swim rake would be interesting. One issue is who owns the fishing rights in the upriver sections, the Cambridge Fish Preservation Society claim rights over certain sides of the river leading up to Byron’s pool and beyond.

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Mill Pond Fakenham - Trout, Roach, Ducks!

So somewhere to try out the new fishing gear was the Mill Pond in Fakenham, Norfolk. This is just outside the Wensum Lodge Hotel. The River Wensum runs under the old Mill and creates a weir pool of sorts next to the bridge into Fakenham. As far as I know this is free fishing.

Wensum Lodge Hotel and Mill Pond

The pool has lots of ducks in it with some deep runs with fast water in the middle (probably about 2-3 feet) and lots of very shallow 1 foot areas around the edges. I could see some fish milling around under the bridge in the shallows and there was a lot of weed in the middle of the faster run.

I fished a 0.5g fat bodied pole float rig that I had from the last time I went fishing. This was held on the line by float rubbers at top and bottom and had a few shot a couple of inches down. I used one of the size-18 barbless hooks to try and alternate between casting to where I saw fish and to trot down the faster flow. Fishing single mixed maggots, it was easy to see the fish hitting the hook under the water. Almost immediately after the first cast, I was in to something in 30cm of water. It gave a good fight and I was surprised when it was in the net to discover that it was a small half pound brown trout. I was expecting it to be a chub from the shadows that I saw under the water.

0.5lbs Brown Trout

I kept throwing in a few maggots each cast as is customary with trotting and I caught a few more small roach and another brown trout all around 0.25lbs or less. It was fun fishing for an hour an a half even with a light drizzle of rain. The ducks kept chasing the float as it hit the water and also the fish as I was trying to land them. This did eventually get annoying and on hooking one of the ducks, which fell off the barb-less hook eventually, I gave up. Still nice fun location and I suspect there were some larger fish in there. I hooked into something better in the faster flowing water but lost it in the fight. I felt that the 8ft rod was making it difficult to pick up the line fast enough to strike some of the fish. Also the barb-less hooks made it more challenging to keep them on during the fight. Perhaps a self-cocking float rig would have been perfect but I would have had to trade-off the stalking of specific fish versus getting the bait down fast enough in the faster flows.

Still nice fun intro back into fishing!

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