Back to Holly Farm Lakes for another lovely days fishing

Last Thursday, the 21st April, I returned to Holly Farm lakes for another day's carp fishing. This is the view of the lakes from near the car park:-

It was a lovely sunny day, but still with a cool breeze that became more noticeable in the afternoon when some hazy cloud moved in. I arrived about 11.30 and headed down towards the lake furthest from the car park. I wanted to fish where I had been before, facing into the sun, but most of the platforms on that side had been taken. I did think about the platform furthest away on that side by the end of the lake but the reeds were quite close at that point and I thought that I might end up losing fish and tackle in the margins. So I ended up on the other side again near the end of the lake.

After setting up with my pole rod again, and fishing with sweetcorn, I had a couple of nice carp before lunch fishing close in to where I was sitting and just in front of the platform:-

This nice looking mirror was about 37cm long or 15 inches. For comparison, the last time I was here the average size of the carp I caught was about 16 inches.

This similar length fish looked a lot more rangy.

Things went a bit quiet about lunchtime and I found it a bit frustrating as someone had arrived at the platform I had rejected opposite and was catching a lot of carp, one after the other. I kept wondering what I was doing wrong. In these circumstances I alter my tactics and try everything; fishing close in or far out, in the margins, at a shallow depth and then on the bottom. Nothing seemed to be working. Then an hour and twenty minutes later (!) I caught another mirror:-

This nice coloured and healthy fish is 15 inches.

The guy opposite me (a nice bloke who chatted to me as we fished) had hauled in a pretty big roach which must have been a pound and a half at least. Not much later I caught this decent one as well:-

This fish is 30.5cm or just over 12 inches. Looking at this chart from the Idler's Quest this fish might weigh 1lb 3oz! Looking over my recent fishing I haven't caught anything of this size and I reckon this might be a personal best!


Another half an hour later my fortune and the guy's opposite me reversed. I began fishing literally just over the edge of the platform at a relatively deep depth and started catching carp at a rate of about one every 7 minutes:-

Interestingly, it is not necessarily the larger fish that gives the biggest tussle. Sometimes, as with this slightly smaller 14inch mirror (above), a healthy fish is less keen to be landed.

This was a nice 17.5 inch mirror.

This one was 17 inches.

This was a smaller but chubby 13 inches.

This was a slightly damaged fish of 14 inches.

Twenty minutes later I had this bronze beauty of 20 inches, the largest I have caught so far.

This poor fish of 15.5 inches has a severely damaged or deformed mouth.

This is a younger fish of 12 inches. I did catch a very small carp around this time, so the water has either been restocked or the fish are breeding successfully.


Things quieted down for about an hour and so I changed tactics again by fishing very shallow but right in the margins at the end corner of the lake. My friend across the water was by then catching carp regularly again.

Another dark 15 inch fish.

Twenty minutes later a nice bronzey 19inch fish.

This penultimate fish was 15 inches.

This final fish was 18.5 inches.

It is interesting to see how all these 15 mirror carp vary quite a lot in shape, scaling and coloration. Some are a lovely bronze whilst others are pale and silvery. What doesn't make me so happy is that a lot of these fish appear to have damaged mouths and I suspect that this is because they are caught time and again and the fishing line cuts into the flesh. Of course, I am as much to blame, but I feel bad about it.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.