Previous visits to Holly Farm on the 28th April and the 4th May

I had a couple of visits to Holly Farm on the 28th April and 4th May. This view is from the 'canal' lake furthest from the car park on the 4th May. Notice the reed bed to the right which was where the fish appeared to be lurking. I realised my Middy Battlezone 4 metre Carp Margin Whip was no longer up to the task of dealing with fish of more than about 3lb. Besides the elasticated end had lost its strength and I need to put a new one in. One of the reasons to take a stronger rod was fish like this one:-

This 55cm or 21.5 inch mirror weighs 7lb and is the largest carp I have caught there to date. I have put it in sling of my own making so that I could weigh it.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

Consistent results at Holly Farm

I was back at Holly Farm Lakes again today for another happy day's fishing. I have been a couple of times since my last blog post but didn't make a note here of how I got on. I will do so after I have described today's events.

Holly Farm seems to be very consistent. Every time I go I seem to catch plenty of fish and so do the people who are fishing near me. Today was warm (about 15C) with sunny spells. Very nice for sitting by the lake side and only a gentle breeze. One worry is the strength of the sun, so I do wear a hat, put on sun cream and if I feel the need put up my 40 year old fishing brolly! I am sure some people think I am a bit mad but it keeps the sun off me.

I arrived about midday and was pleased to see that the peg at the far end of the 'canal' lake on the north side was free. This is nice and close to a reed bed where the fish tend to hang out. I have stopped fishing with my Middy Battlezone carp whip as some of the fish I have caught recently are far too big for it. More on this later. Also, last time I was out, my old Abu Garcia reel broke and so I have been out and bought a Drennan Feeder 6-40 from the Red Range. It was only £19.99 but I am very pleased with it. I used this in conjunction with my old Shakespeare Eros Telescopic rod which can cope with most things.

I was fishing with cubes of luncheon meat and pieces of sausage which work very well. I used my carp pole float on 5lb line and a size 10 barbless. Most of the fish I caught today were mirror carp. I also had a common, several roach and skimmers. I don't intend to give the calculate the sizes of all the fish, however, you can work this out knowing that the disgorger in all the photos for comparison is 12.5cm or 4.9 inches long.

Here they are in the order I caught them:-

The above was the nice little common.

I have now bought some scales and so I was able weigh the above 45cm or 18inch mirror. It weighs 3lb. The average size of the fish on my first two visits to Holly Farm were about 16 inches and so this one is slightly larger than average.

The above 47cm or 18.5 inch fish weighs 3.75lb.

A nice little skimmer (above).

The above 53cm or 21 inch mirror was the largest of the day weighing in at 4lb.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

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.

Great carp fishing at Holly Farm Lakes, South Walsham

As I had some bait left over from my visit to Hockering I decided to try out Holly Farm Lakes at South Walsham which is about half an hour's drive from where I live. It had been misty and wet most of the morning but when I set out about 11am it had begun to clear up and by the time I arrived at Holly farm the sun was out and I was quickly shedding waterproof gear. The owners don't seem to have a website of their own but in case you need to find them their postcode is NR13 6EQ. They charge £6 a day for one rod (an extra rod is another £2). They have two lakes, and after asking a fellow fisherman, it seems that the lake furthest from the car park fishes the best and that's where I went:-

I was using my pole rod again, as you can see, with the same set up as I used at Hockering. I wondered if this Middy Battlezone 4 metre Carp Margin Whip would be up to the job, but I am pleased to say that it was and it was really good fun. The bailiff reckoned that the margins would fish best for carp, so I began with a few maggots and then switched to sweet corn. Initially, I think I was fishing too close to the margin as I ended up getting tangled up with the bushes a couple of times! The bailiff had said to fish the bottom but I wasn't getting much success apart from a few small roach. Then I noticed that some carp were loitering around the surface so I tried the opposite tack of fishing really shallow with immediate success as I caught a small bream (or perhaps a roach/bream hybrid). I then began to catch succession of very nice carp. These two I had about lunchtime:-

This first one looks like a common and is about 36cm in length or 14 inches.

The second is a nice 40cm or 16 inch mirror carp. After lunch, whilst it was still sunny, I caught two more mirrors, both of which were unfortunately foul hooked.

This one is about 45cm or 18 inches.

This was a lovely looking specimen of 47cm or 18.5 inches.

The weather than began to close in and alarmingly, I could hear thunder in the distance. Then as the afternoon progressed flashes of lightening could be seen. I wondered if I should give up but I stuck with it. The lightening was at least 6 miles away. Still fishing shallow I had this lovely roach:-

This is 23.5cm long or 9 inches and probably weighs about 10oz. The rain started hammering down by then and instinct told me that I should fish deeper. In the rain I had another six more carp. The first two I photographed but then it became impossibly wet to photograph any more. I think they were all mirrors. Here are the first two:-

This first one is 37cm or 14.5 inches.

I think the largest fish I landed came soon after this but everything was sopping wet by then and the camera wasn't an option. All of these fish were caught on sweetcorn. I packed up about 5pm when the rain started to abate.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

Day Out at Park Farm Lakes, Hockering

My brother and I were getting a bit twitchy about not having been fishing for a few weeks so we decided to have a day at Park Farm Lakes, Hockering yesterday. These lakes are west of Norwich and not far from the A47. We arrived about 10.30 on a lovely spring morning. There was a match on at the largest (Deer House) lake and so we had the choice of the two smaller ones. As we walked past the next largest lake and nearest to the entrance (Woodhouse), there was a swirl in the water down near the mucky end but for some reason we decided to ignore this fishy invitation and continue on to the smallest (Copse) lake. Having read somewhere that fish like to be on leeward side I decided to choose the platform on that end of the lake nearest to all the floating muck as I thought that the fish might be hiding underneath it. My brother took the next platform to the right of me and slightly further upwind.

We were both float fishing which I guess is not the norm for a carp lake. Most other people were ledgering on the bottom. My brother used to be a real carp specialist but these days he just likes turning up without much kit and was happy to float fish. I had brought my pole rod with a new pole float that had specifically said "carp" in the shop which I took at face value. I used a No. 12 hook on 4lb line and the float was weighted with two No. 4 shot. I had brought maggots, sweet corn and luncheon meat as bait. I had also brought my traditional rod and reel and it was already rigged with a waggler and a size 16 hook, so I began with that with a couple of maggots. My brother had a similar waggler set up on his rod.

I was pleased that we had bites straight away and were catching a few small roach. As I wasn't sure how long it would take to get bites from the carp I opted to fish with both rods. I had a piece of sweetcorn on the pole rod and I placed the float in a gap in the muck (mainly rotting vegetation) at a depth of about 3 feet (the lake was about 4 or 5 feet deep where we were). I fed a few pieces of corn by the float.

It was lovely sitting on the grassy bank with the sun on our faces. A nice chatty lady came round to collect our fee and only charged us £5 each rather than the usual £7 as the match had been on. I started to get bites on the pole rod and had this small mirror carp to begin with:-

I then caught this common carp which was similarly sized (perhaps 7 inches at most):-

My brother then hooked a bigger common of perhaps a pound and finally in the morning I had fun landing this slightly battered common on the pole rod:-

This last fish is about 34cm in length or about 13.5 inches. It is difficult to say how much this fish weighed but probably between 1 and 2lb. I was glad that it headed straight into deeper water when I hooked it rather than into the "muck". I dread to think what it would have been like to hook a fish of say 10lb on such light tackle.

As lunchtime wore on the carp seemed to stop feeding and we didn't have any more for the rest of the day. We moved to Woodhouse lake after lunch as we could see fish cruising around in the shallows. There was frogspawn at the bank edge and I think they were feeding on this. We saw a couple of decent carp being landed by the ledgering boys but for the rest of the afternoon we were catching a few roach on sweetcorn and maggots.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

End of the Season

The end of the coarse fishing season finished in England at midnight on the 14th March and so it is time to give the fish a rest (unless you want to fish those still-water ponds and lakes which are excluded from the regulations). In the last week before the closed season I was down at Neatishead Staithe a few more times squeezing in a bit more fishing time before the end along with a number of other anglers. The weather has been steadily improving and becoming drier and sunnier but still pretty cold. I had enjoyable couple of hours with my brother and his family on Sunday the 13th when the morning sun brought some much needed warmth as we sat by the bank side. My nephew had been really keen for me to take him fishing with his Dad, but when it came to it, he was so excited he just couldn't sit still (he is only 5). Still we helped him reel in one or two fish and my brother caught a reasonable bream and I had a half decent perch.

I had a better afternoon the week before when I went down in the afternoon on the Sunday. I had three reasonable bream early on that were nice. This first one was about 30cm or 12 inches. Definitely the largest bream I have caught this season. This one was maybe 1lb5oz. Note it has lost part of its tail fin.

Note also that this fish has 55 scales along its lateral line which almost assuredly makes it a common or bronze bream rather than a silver bream. The next fish was a smaller 24cm or 9.5 inches and looks more like a roach/common bream hybrid and the number of scales along its lateral line and anal fin rays seem to confirm this:-

Finally, a similar 25.5cm or 10 inch fish that has the look of another hybrid but who knows:-

All text and pictures copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

A cold wintry afternoon

Even though I new that the forecast was bad for this afternoon I couldn't resist going back to Neatishead staithe for another couple of hours fishing. As I arrived, it started to rain and sleet and, as the temperature was only 5C, I knew it was going to be a bit on the chilly side. I set up near the end of the dyke that the boats moor in and close to where the car park can be found. I had a reasonable size roach before deciding that it would be prudent to move to the other side of the water where there was a bit of shelter under the trees. Despite the weather this early fish gave me hope for a pleasant afternoon.

The fishing didn't disappoint. I took two rods with me this time, one rigged up with my waggler and the other a pole rod that I have described before. I was thinking that I could use the pole rod to fish in front of me and the waggler to explore some of the other water further afield. I thought that if the fish were a bit timid then I could handle both rods simulateously. I needn't have worried as the bites came in thick and fast and I changed from the pole rod to the waggler and back to the pole.

The fisherman who advised me to fish in the middle of this section of the water rather than on the edge of the main navigation was right. Here there were far fewer ruffe and I only caught one all afternoon. Most of the fish I caught were skimmers (very small bream) and the bites were continuous. I had another couple of decent roach and one perch, but none needed a net. I was using maggots again and feeding the swim very regularly. I had just swapped back to the pole rod when I caught this decent bream:-

As you can see it is a bit battered; it is missing scales behind its dorsal fin and it has some sort of injury/disease between its pelvic and anal fins. It was similar in size to Monday's being about 26cm in length or 10 inches.

All text and pictures copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016