A days fishing at Ashford Fish Farm

Location: This is in Ashford, Middlesex. From London take the A30 to Ashford and turn left at the Ashford Hospital cross roads. This is Stanwell Road. Take your third turning on the right down Station Crescent. Turn left down Windsor Road into Queens Walk. At the T junction with Queens Walk turn right. On the left hand corner at the end on the road you will find an alley leading to the fishery.Tickets: These are £3 per day available from Stan Talbot at his house in front of the first lake.The fishery consists of three gin clear lakes of about three acres in total. The lakes are clear with an average depth of about 4ft with a whole range of different types of water lily.The lakes are all well established mature waters with a good balance of features, weed and fish.Stocks: There is a good head of mirror and common carp averaging double figures in the first two lakes. The best should be about twenty pounds. The third lake is the smallest and is mainly stocked with crucian carp and tench. All lakes contain mixed species including roach, tench, bream, crucians and perch. There are also a few still water chub that have been present since the owner opened it up for fishing about thirty years ago. Some of these are now very big but not easy to catch.This is primarily a mixed fishery that is capable of a few surprises as I found out when I fished there.

A days fishing at Ashford Fish Farm

Although I have known Stan Talbot, the owner, for over thirty years I had not given the water much attention in recent years. This is a great pity as Stan is a great character, he was the man you had to beat to win matches with the local club. His catches of Thames roach were legendary as were some of his performances on local gravel pits.When I arrived Stan told me where to fish and advised me to bait up several swims. It was mid week and there were few people fishing so I followed his advice. I baited up two swims with 5mm diameter trout pellet before setting up my tackle. This consisted of an 11.5ft float rod with a test curve of 1.25lb with a centre pin loaded with 61b b.s. line. This may appear heavy but Stan had warned me not to fish too light as the carp were active. The terminal tackle consisted of a Pat Tarrant pole float holding two number six shots that were spaced out down the line. The float was deliberately fished top and bottom to allow for a faster strike. The crucians in this water are noted for quick shy bites. My hook was a size 10 Preston Innovations pinch barbless that was baited with trout pellet paste.After about 15 minutes, I noticed a lot of fizzing in the swim with massive amounts of bubbles. There were obviously carp present in the swim which was most encouraging. The bubbles then moved round my float and seconds later the float shot away. I struck into my first fish that was obviously a carp. It put up a rather spirited fight before I netted it. It was a very dark common carp of about 91b. Ten minutes later the water again bubbled up around my float resulting in another very similar looking common carp of about 81b. I was impressed – two carp in about half an hour!The swim then appeared to go dead with no signs of bubbling. It went flat calm and I noticed the smallest of dips. I struck and knew straight away that I had hooked a good crucian carp. It put up a very good fight for its size but was quickly netted. It appeared very dark in the landing net which is typical of a clear water crucian. I was delighted and pleased as it slipped the scales past the three pound mark. I settled on 3lb 10z and photographed it using my bulb release. Hence part of my head is missing from the photograph (!) but the fish is clear.Smaller bubbles were now appearing from the edge of the lily pads in front of me. Gradually they moved into the swim and I started getting more bites but this time they were tench mixed in with a few bream. I had four tench and two bream to about 3.51b in the next hour. The bream were even a dark colour and looked to be in perfect condition. I then moved to my second swim for an hour. It did not take long before I had another dark common carp out and two more bream. Although the swim was productive, I could see fish bubbling away in my first swim as I had fed it up with six handfuls of trout pellet as I had left it.Naturally I returned to the original swim and saw it was one mass of bubbles. The fish had really moved in. I made a cast into the middle of a large mass of bubbles. I thought that such a direct approach might have scared the fish off but I was fortunately proved wrong as the float shot under again. It was another carp, it shot off down the bank towards some snags under an over-hanging tree. I applied maximum side strain and turned it before it reached the snag. It tried several times to reach the safety of those snags but each time I managed to turn it. It then started tire and I netted my first mirror carp of the day. Again it was very dark fish going just into double figures.The fight had put the fish off and the bubbling had stopped. Stan then arrived and we discussed my tactics and what I had caught. Stan said “I suppose you want some roach to finish off”. “Yes, please!” I replied.”Go lighter and fish punched bread over liquidised bread near the island” he advised.I set up with a much lighter rod with another centre pin loaded with 2.5lb b.s. Maxima green line. The same pole float was used with a size 14 hook.I moved close to the island as Stan had advised and fed it with a little fluidised bread. I fished punched bread directly over the feed to get bites from the off. To my surprise the roach were much bigger than I had expected with plenty in the six to ten ounce class. These again were fish in perfect condition. I continued to catch roach with the odd nice rudd, tench and bream for the next hour and a half. It was then time to pack up.I had had four carp to double figures, a crucian of 31b 10z, tench to over 31b, bream to pushing four pounds, roach to 12oz and some nice rudd. This was in my opinion, good fishing from an often neglected venue that I would seriously recommend to readers. One final bit of advice on the water. Take notice of what Stan tells you, he really does know his stuff.

As the water is only about 600 yards from my house, I will certainly not be neglecting it.