It’s been a while since our last On the Bank blog, but we’re back with our latest session. We did venture out on 11th May to fish on Stacey’s Pool at Border Fisheries, but it was pretty uneventful. It was a red hot day, bites were scarce and the only thing we did manage to catch were F1s.

We decided to fish at Goose Green Farm in Mottram St. Andrew for yesterday’s session. It’s a venue we have visited a handful of times in the past couple of years, but we wanted to fish on a different lake for this trip. Recent reports seemed promising, so we decided to give it a go.

Goose Green Farm

Goose Green Farm is a lovely venue set in the picturesque Cheshire countryside. It’s a day ticket venue that charges £7 per rod, however, we get unlimited fishing there through our Bay Malton membership. Goose Green features four lakes that are well stocked with carp, crucians, tench, rudd, bream, roach and ide. On previous visits, we’ve only ever fished one lake, but this time we wanted to fish on the bottom pool. It’s the newest pool at Goose Green and has always looked a bit barren when we’ve been in the past, but recent reports piqued our interest.

Unfortunately, Google Maps hasn’t been updated to include the new lake, so I can’t get an accurate measurement of the size. I’d probably say around football pitch size. The lake, like all the other lakes at Goose Green Farm, doesn’t have any stages or pegging so you can fish anywhere on the bank. The lakebed slopes away quickly from the bank and is around 20ft deep in the middle before sloping back up on the opposite side.

You can view the Goose Green Farm website for more info.

How the Day Went

Goose Green Farm is a venue that Brian and I both enjoy, but we primarily visit in the warmer summer months as we target carp on the surface. We normally fish on the lake to the right as you’re coming down the road and have had some brilliant days catching carp on floating bread and dog biscuits. It’s a place I am particularly fond of, as it is where I caught my PB from two years ago. A 12lb mirror.

When we’ve been previously, the bottom pool never looked appealing. I’m not sure when it was dug, but when we saw it, the grass hadn’t grown around the bank yet. When we arrived yesterday, the lake looked completely different. The grass had grown, and there were reed beds around the edges. The recent reports on the Bay Malton Facebook group indicated it has been fishing well, with lots of tench and carp being caught.

We decided to fish on the bank opposite the road. Mainly because it was quite close to the car park, but also because it was at the wider end of the lake and our main plan of attack was to fish the feeder.

The plan for both of us was quite simple. Fish on the feeder at about 25 metres towards the middle of the lake and feed down the edge for later in the day. The bottom of the lake slopes off quickly from the bank, so we were both going to drop the feeder in the edge rather than plumbing up on the pole. We also had the pellet wagglers if we could get the carp coming up to the surface.

We both started on method feeders. I opted for 2mm pellets around the feeder and a selection of wafters on the hook. I also had some 4mm and 6mm pellets to feed by catapult if the fish came shallow. Brian was targeting bigger fish and used a groundbait and pellet mix on the feeder with his main hook bait being cubes of halibut-flavoured meat and corn.

A Quiet Morning

When we started fishing at around 9 am, the sun was out and a warm breeze was blowing into our faces. The first hour was quiet. We both had a few touches and big liners, but no proper bites. After 45 minutes, I decided to step down the size of my wafter from 8mm to 6mm. The change resulted in some quick fish, but they were not the species we were targetting A small ide of around 4oz at 10 am and a similar-sized roach four minutes later. Shortly afterwards a slightly better-looking ide fell off at the net.

I decided to change back to an 8mm wafter and be patient. I’ve mentioned before that Brian is very good at this. He’d seen plenty of the same small indications that I was getting but stuck to his plan of using meat.

By this time, the weather had changed. It was still quite warm, but the breeze was getting stronger and cooler, and the blue sky made way for grey clouds. I lost count of the times I had to put on my coat and then take it off again each time the sun appeared and vanished again.

For the next few hours, it stayed overcast and windy. As the weather changed, so did the fishing. All the liners and quick bites dried up and nothing happened for another hour. Eventually, at 10:58 am I got my next bite. If I’m being honest, I barely knew if was a bite. I had a couple of touches and then the tip dropped back. I tried to tighten the line several times, but the tip kept dropping back. I decided to reel in and noticed I had another small roach on the hook.

It took another hour for the next action to arrive. Just after noon, I had a better bite, one that pulled the tip around. As soon as I picked the rod up, I knew it wasn’t what we were looking for. Another roach. Slightly better at around 8oz.

Time for a Change

Brian still hadn’t had a proper bite. He was still happy to wait for a bigger fish but wasn’t having any luck. He’d switched about with hook baits a couple of times, even dropping down to a single piece of corn. We had a quick chat about what was going on and decided to come in shorter. The weather over the past couple of weeks has changed a lot. Two weeks ago, we thought summer was here. We had a week to 10 days of sunshine and temperatures pushing 20 degrees. For the past week, we’d had relentless rain and temperatures of 15 degrees. Today was the first warmer day, so maybe the fish had come to the shallower water.

To Brian’s right, he had a bit of cove that was a bit more sheltered from the wind. He cast in and quickly had a proper bite that pulled his tip around. He picked up and felt the fish briefly before the line went slack. It was an encouraging sign. He cast back in and shortly afterwards he had his first fish. The bite came on a large chunk of meat, but we knew it wasn’t a massive fish. After a brief fight, Brian landed a nice ide weighing around 1lb.

I’d been loose feeding close to the bank on my left, so came in short as well. I missed a bite immediately, but that was the last action I saw for a couple of hours. Shortly after landing his first fish, Brian had another bite. Unfortunately, it came off at the net before he could land it. From what we saw briefly, it was another similar-sized ide.

As we sat eating some of Brian’s finest sandwiches at 1 pm, the sun came out again and the wind speed slowed. As the ripple in the water calmed down, Brian catapulted a few floating baits in to see if he got any reaction. Nothing happened immediately, but 10 minutes later I heard the familiar sucking noise of a carp feeding on the surface to my left. Then another a few seconds later. We both looked down the lake and saw a carp feeding on the surface. The bait that Brian had pinged in earlier had drifted into the edge and at least one carp was on it

Shortly after, Brian noticed one coming up to a leaf in front of him. I decided to ping in four or five pellets every 30 seconds to see if they were coming to the noise. After a few minutes of repeatedly firing in some pellets, there were more signs of fish feeding.

Surface Fishing

Brian went to his car to get a bag of dog biscuits and then we both quickly set up a pellet waggler in the hope of finally catching some carp. As we got our gear ready, we pinged in some biscuits in front of us and watched as more carp came to the surface.

If you’ve ever surface-fished for carp, you will know exactly how exciting it can be. We cast in our banded dog biscuit and watched as carp kept coming to the surface to take some of the free offerings we’d catapulted in. We kept at it for 30 minutes and then bang. I watched a carp come up behind my float and nail the dog biscuit bobbing along behind it.

The clutch on my reel screamed as the fish swam deeper into the water and across the lake. For a couple of minutes, all I could do was hang on and try to take back some line when it gave me the chance. After a few more minutes of fighting, I thought the battle was nearly over as I brought it closer to the bank, but it darted off again. Eventually, I got the fish under control and we saw it on the surface for the first time. We realised it was big. Brian came over and helped with the net, and as he lifted it on the bank he suggested it may be a new PB, but I wasn’t sure. I thought I’ve done it a few times previously only to miss out by a few ounces.

We carefully unhooked the fish and put it in the weigh sling. I couldn’t see the numbers on the scales, but as Brian read the reading, he looked at me and smiled. 12lb 6oz. Finally a new PB! Buzzing! As we prepared to take some pictures, Brian filled a bait tub with water. I presumed it was to wet the fish. Nope, time for a soaking. Thank god we only had a small bait tub to hand and he didn’t use a bucket.

As we got ready to cast in again, the wind had picked up and the relatively calm water was starting to get quite choppy again. We kept going for another hour, but as the wind picked up, there were fewer signs of carp coming to the surface. Unfortunately for Brian, the direction of the wind meant any biscuits he catapulted in quickly floated out of his swim and in front of me before settling in the edge to my left.

After 30 minutes without seeing anything feeding on the surface any more, I decided to give it a couple more casts before giving up and changing to the feeder rod. I cast out in front of me, and let the float and bait drift into the bank on my left. After five minutes without any signs, I had just picked up my rod to recast, when I watched a carp grab the bait. I lifted and held on tight again as the fish swam down the edge taking line quickly.

It was another great fight as I tried to reel in line after each little run, only for the fish to take the line back again a few seconds later. I kept my fingers crossed that my tackle would hold as I watched the rod bend over and my line heading towards the reeds. Eventually, after a couple of minutes, the fish turned into the lake and I felt like I was starting to gain the advantage. After a couple more minutes, I had the fish at my feet and Brian kindly obliged with netting duties again. It was another cracking-looking fish. It wasn’t as long as the mirror from early, but it was a lot fatter.

We put her in the weighing sling and Brian asked what my PB was again. “12lb 6oz” I replied. “Damn”. This was 12lb 4oz, so there was no soaking due this time, much to Brian’s disappointment. I was more than happy, however. My biggest common carp to date.

A Quiet End

I carried on surface fishing for another 30 minutes, but the signs of carp feeding had completely dried up. Brian gave it a little longer but without any luck. As we both went back on the feeders, I don’t think either of us expected to catch many more. I’d not had any decent bites on the bottom all day, and Brian had only felt one briefly.

The final decent bite of the day came at around 4:15 pm. Completely out of the blue, I got a proper pull-around that kept on going. I knew it wasn’t huge, but it was nodding a bit and putting up a bit of a fight. Brian called it straight away. A tench. A tunning fish that had a couple of big scars near its tail. It weighed in at 2lb 14oz. It wasn’t massive, but I will never complain about catching a tench.

After we packed up to go home, we reflected on what a strange day it had been. We’d not done as well as we’d hoped and we never got a good run of fishing going between us. The big temperature changes over the past couple of weeks haven’t helped, and the changing wind on the day made it difficult to do anything other than feeder fish. Surface fishing will be fun as the weather improves, but we also need to go a few times to try and figure the place out properly.