Well now the season has drawn to a close, it seems I have been struck by some sort of close season malady. Still, eventually I’ll recover, well hopefully.
In a strange way I quite look forward to the close season, although it doesn’t last very long to be honest. However I do enjoy the glorious 16th June, when we get to revisit all of that bubbling, flowing water and exuberant growth that has been given a reprieve whilst we have been away.
In the meantime, my buddies and I try our hands at cruising, no crucian carp fishing, with hopefully a few decent tench thrown in for good measure. We head to the beautiful county of Surrey and fish Marsh Farm near Godalming. Not only is the fishing excellent, the on-site shop, Apollo Tackle run by Steve, is about the best I have ever been in and its just a great association between the fishery and the shop. The service is exemplary and the abuse free! Can’t be bad.
There are numerous lakes here and if you are a member you have access to several private lakes too, although not all at this site. The main complex consists of three lakes. One is geared toward juniors and is known as Hill Pond, then there is a match lake called Richardsons and lastly the specimen lake known as Harris. Although these are man made and therefore you might think of them as commercials, they are a sort of hybrid complex. Not quite natural but by no means out and out commercial.
Summer at Marsh Farm
All of the fish contained within these waters are stocked from Godalming Angling’s own waters. They haven’t been bought in from elsewhere and the fish are totally natural, English stock. The main species being tench, roach, rudd and crucian carp. No ordinary crucians here though, they grow to exceptional sizes. Two pounders are commonplace and three’s are caught regularly. It’s quite exceptional and they are all genuine crucians, with no cross breeding. They are quite simply stunning fish. A beautiful buttery gold, plump and rounded as crucians should be.
Although a little early in the year to start fishing for these magnificent creatures, we nevertheless commenced our close season campaign for a big crucian. The ultimate goal is a 4 pounder but to be honest each fish, whether 1lb or 3lb, are so stunning, its a real pleasure to just catch them.
The nights on the weekend were pretty cold, with quite a sharp frost on Sunday and Monday morning, which would make the fishing pretty tough. So it was to prove. The first session on Tuesday evening was very difficult. Between Geoff and I we only managed a few roach, with the lion’s share going to Geoff. On Wednesday we were joined by Danny and Kevin. The day was a little warmer and the evening stayed milder for longer too. This was at least a little encouraging.
The highlight of the two days for me was the incredible sight of four planets in the evening sky. The amazing sight of the large, bright planet Venus and below it Jupiter. Also visible was the red planet Mars and also Saturn (I think). Sadly from our vantage point we couldn’t see Mercury, which is also currently visible with the naked eye. A stunning display and quite extraordinary.
The Planets
The lakes are also a cacophony of bird noise at the moment. With Spring on the horizon the wildfowl are in full mating ritual and are very territorial at the moment. What with the Geese (Canada, Greylag and Egyptian), ducks of the Mallard and those rather alien sounding Tufted variety, Coots, Moorhens, Grebes and Herons it was quite a racket. Still, that’s Mother Nature for you.
As for the fishing, well we didn’t do quite so badly. Dan I think was first in with a crucian of a couple of pounds and later followed that up with a bigger crucian plus a decent roach, I managed a couple of crucians at 2lb 9oz and 2lb 11oz plus a lovely tench of about 4lbs. Sadly I lost 3 crucians (they often come off) including what looked like a possible 3 at the net. Kevin had a couple of nice tench, with one over 5lbs and a near 2lb crucian and Geoff just the one crucian.
A typical MF Crucian
All in all not a bad start, considering the night time temperatures, which is keeping the water temperature down and the fish a little less active than they will be once it warms up a little.
The River Angler 
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