Where To Fish – Marsh Farm Fisheries
Alex Clements heads to deepest Surrey to visit a venue with a great reputation, Marsh Farm Fisheries, where big weights of silvers are the target!
Some fisheries are just totally different from the norm, and Marsh Farm Fishery near Godalming in Surrey, is one of those venues.
Far removed from your average commercial stocked with carp and f1s, Marsh Farm prides itself on its stocks of Crucian Carp and Tench, backed up with lots of quality bream, skimmers and roach.
The venue is owned and run by Godalming Angling Society and is available on a day ticket basis with weekly open matches held on Richardsons Lake – these are very well attended, and booking in early is advised!
Marsh Farm also features another star attraction in the form of Apollo Angling Centre, which is packed with all leading brands meaning anything you need with regards to bait and tackle to fish the venue, is available on arrival.
There are two other lakes on the site too – Hill Pond which is mainly used for coaching sessions and Harris Lake which is famous for its huge crucian carp which grow to almost record proportions, so there is something for everyone at this venue.
Today though, I’ll be fishing on the 55 peg Richardsons Lake which is the main lake which features in matches at Marsh Farm, it’s a lake I have fished quite a lot over the years and when looking for another venue to feature in Venue Detective, I just had to bring the cameras here.
The fishing is totally different to what you’ll find on most commercial venues as your target species are big silver fish such as crucians, Tench and bream which means that your approach has to be slightly different, with almost a cross between natural and commercial tactics combined which I’ll be able to demonstrate today.
Baits
The lakebed here on Richardsons Lake is extremely soft, and for that reason your bait selection needs some thought. Bearing in mind the fish we’re fishing for which is virtually all silver fish I’ve bought a typical array of baits including worms, maggots, casters a few dead reds.
To accompany these, I’ve got a bag of Ringers Coco groundbait which will be mixed 50:50 with some Champion Feed wonder yellow, a sweet mix to create a sweet fishmeal groundbait that is perfect for venues like this one.
The amount you feed is vital too, it’s quite easy to feed plenty of bait but on silty venues like this you can be doing more harm than good in most cases.
Today I’m going to feed my lines frugally but regularly, feeding just a small amount of maggots and casters at 6 metres, then some neat chopped worms and casters on my left hand 13 metre line, and the same with some groundbait mixed in to the right.
By doing this, I can work out what is best and top up accordingly, but the aim is always to bounce between these lines catching a couple of fish on each before switching this keeps a few fish in both areas without emptying one line.
The other bonus is I can feed less bait so I get a reduced amount of bubbles in the peg making them easier to catch.
Rigs
I’ve kept my rigs really simple today – for the long lines I’ve got a .5g F1 Carbon float which is plumbed to the bottom of the body, but I expect the fish to scour out the bottom and I’ll need to replumb later when the fizzing starts so for that reason, I always leave a long lash on the rig initially.
This is set up on 0.15mm to 0.11 MAP Optimum Power, to a size 16 hook, shotting wise a simple bulk and droppers arrangement is all you need.
Because of the amount of Tench in the venue I’m using a 10-12 MAP TKS Solid Core Hybrid elastic today, to give me a bit more control but it’s still soft enough for the bream and crucians too.
Short I’ve set up a .3g float for fishing maggots and casters, same line and shotting patterns but this time I’ve opted for a 3-6 TKS Twin Core Hollow, as I expect I’ll catch some roach and perch early on this before the bigger fish settle, so it gives me the best of both worlds.
The Session
After feeding my three lines, which have all been fed at angles – something I like to do where possible, to give myself a bit of a channel to play fish in to minimise disturbance – I started on the short line.
Almost immediately I was getting bites, but there were a lot of small fish around today, which when you’re sitting on your own can happen, in a match situation these are more spread out but I did manage to catch a few roach and a couple of skimmers early.
With bubbles popping up over my left hand line at 13 metres where I fed neat worms, I couldn’t wait to get out there, interestingly, there hadn’t been any activity over the area where I fed groundbait yet but it was too early to decide whether it wasn’t going to work or not.
Baiting up with a couple of dead red maggots, I shipped out to the left-hand line and it didn’t take long before at all for a steady stream of pink elastic to be streaming from the pole tip, a tench of around 3lb on the first drop in was a great start.
With plenty of bubbles still visible, I obviously didn’t need to refeed yet and I intended to fish the line until either the bubbles stopped, or I started to catch small fish which would be my prompt on both of these long lines, to re-feed then switch the other line.
I was catching very steadily, with some lovely crucians well over a pound, bream to 4lb and the odd tench but what was most interesting was that the groundbait line was the slower to get going, but when the fish did arrive on that line, I could catch one or two more than on the swim fed with neat worms.
This is probably due to the smell of the groundbait being in the peg and keeping them grubbing around in the area for that bit longer. One of the main things today though that has made an amazing difference is to not be afraid to replumb after catching a few fish, when I started today my rig was set at least 6 inches shallower than it was at the end of the day just showing how much the fish move the silt around on the bottom.
The giveaway that my rig wasn’t fishing correctly was that I’d either not get a bite when the peg was fizzing, I’d catch a crucian or I’d suffer a foul hooked fish, so if you ever experience a peg that fizzes, you must replumb the peg regularly it is absolutely crucial.
I’d had an incredible session and after just two and a half hours I’d put over 40lb in the net, later I switched both lines to topping up regularly with a small amount of worms, casters, maggots and a pinch of groundbait as it certainly seemed to hold the fish for longer, but feeding large amounts wouldn’t have helped my chances on such a silty venue and a little and often approach was best.
Fishing pieces of worm on the hook was better later in the session, whereas early on I waited far too long for bites, whether this is because it was a bigger target bait once the bottom had been disturbed or whether the fish were feeding with more aggression, I’m not too sure.
It had been a very interesting day, fishing like this is something I enjoy massively the fish are of a fantastic quality and there are lots of them but you have to work for every bite, Marsh Farm has always been a thinking anglers’ venue and those who can suss out what is going on quickest generally pick up the envelopes at the end of the match.
The quality of the fishing had been incredible on our short session today; I hadn’t been to Marsh Farm for a while and I don’t think it’ll be long before I am back here for one of the Wednesday open matches, I’ve enjoyed it that much.
With over 70lb of quality silver fish caught in just 4 hours, it was time for a quick catch shot and head for home. If you haven’t been here before, you really ought to pay a visit, you won’t be disappointed.
Venue Tip: Keep replumbing if your peg is fizzing, it’s possible for your peg to get 4-6 inches deeper during the match!
