Hothfield

We fancied trying our luck at Hothfield on Sunday, as it looked a lovely spot, and supposedly good for tench. Did not pick the best of days, as the wind was about 15mph from the NW, and about 6c.

We arrived about 8:40 and had a wander along the east bank, as that is the only area available to fish from. There are about 14 swims cut out, and most of these are almost double swims which suited us well being close together. We chose a spot about a third of the way up from the waterfall, as it had a little shelter, and we could cast to the far bank in front of the reeds.

As the wind was almost blowing towards us now, I set Ryan up with the feeder (25g large Drennan flat method) and he had a few practice casts, which took him about 3 quarters of the way across the lake. After casting 4 feeders in to lay a bed of groundbait, he baited up with 1 dead red krilled maggot to start with on an 18 drennan red maggot hook.

The water was very clear, and there looked to be a lot of silt as I started to plumb up on the pole with the top 6 line. It was only just 2ft deep, but I decided to stay on this method as I didn’t know how Ryan was going to start off. I lobbed in a couple of balls of Marukyu 130 with micro’s, and started with on an 18 drennan red maggot hook.

Ryan started to get a few knocks on the feeder, but nothing caught yet. I swapped around trying double & single red maggot, and even had a first try of the 6mm JPZ’s I had bought a few months ago, but not a bite.

Ryan was in to his first fish at about 10:30, a small roach, which would explain why he was probably not hitting all the small bites he was getting. We mixed a bit more groundbait of Sonu 50/50, micro’s and the last handful of green swimstim, as he decided to stay on the feeder.

As I was not having a sniff on the pole, so I set up a feeder with krilled maggot, and

cast about 6ft short of the reeds on the far bank. When I brought it back in, I could feel something dragging on the end, and as the feeder hit the surface, I could see a long trail of weed from the feeder. Casting out to a few areas, it seemed to be full of weed from about 3ft in from the reeds, up to about 15ft out from my bank, so I clipped up for the far reeds, and sent out 3 feeders before baiting up again with a 6mm pellet.

I starting to get a few small taps on the tip, but could tell these were small fish knocking around at the feeder. As I was reeling in for a fresh cast, Ryan came over for a sandwich, and was getting a little fed up with missing the bites he was getting, but I assured him to be patient and see what happened.

The bailiff appeared behind us, and we had a good chat as he gave us quite a few tips and a bit of background on the lake. Apparently it is hardly ever fished now since the carp have been removed, but there are some good tench in there, plenty of roach, and some great pike. There are 2 lines of weed running most of the length of the lake, and an average depth of about 3ft, with lots of silt. The best place for the tench was on the far bank in front of the reeds where I was fishing. Apparently there had been little caught in the morning, but they did seem to come a live after midday, so he recommended just coming late in the day, which surprises me with the tench, which normally fish well early morning. Well when it is a bit warmer.

Ryan settled back down to fish and about 12:50 landed another small roach, on a single red maggot.  I changed from the pellet to a single krilled dead maggot, and about 15 mins later I got a nice bite, and landed my first fish, a roach of about half pound. The bailiff seemed to be spot on with the timing, as 10 mins later, I landed my second roach.

Ryan was now in to a nice fish, so I went along to help him, and I think it was as large tench, as it headed straight for the only reeds on our side of the bank. As it started to get itself near the reeds, I helped Ryan to to get the rod up a bit higher to keep it away, and ping, the hooklength had snapped. Probably was my fault, but if it had gone in the reeds, I don’t think he would have got it out anyway.

I put on a size 16 drennan carp with 4lb line this time for him, to give a bit more of a chance if he got hooked in to another nice fish.

His casting is really accurate now, he was soon back out to the same spot, and not long before he is in to another roach. I was having a few knocks, but nothing taking.

Ryan was still getting bites, and not hitting all of them, but still end up with another 4 roach, as we decided to call it a day at about 3 o’clock. Not the largest fish we’ve had, but they were all in great condition, and gave some strong bites for small fish.

Definitely will come back here again, but will wait until it warms up a bit more, and not get here until later in the day.