Essex-Fishing

Does/has anyone fish/fished Parsonage farm res.? I was thinking of having a go on the pole over there, and want to know a bit more than what the website says.

my mate is the fishery officer there and we go over there during a mild spell in winter, the books says skimmers to 2lb these fish are now 4lb+ with big crucians/brown goldfish and perch. its perfect for a light feeder and pole tactics with the best area this time of year is with the carpark behind you the right hand side halfway and three quarters the way down.
depending on the water level there is a shelf at 9-10 mtrs and you fish at the bottom of this. we have not caught any tench this time of year. under ray,s guidance my best is 20lb+ and his is 30lb+. you can always ring him as i dont know what the water level is at the moment as this is important. although there are trees around it is quite exposed however
there are some sheltered swims unaffected. hope this helps

Thanks mate! That helps loads.

Sounds like a good water for me, does it get busy?

I fished it late September and there we're a few other anglers about but I don't think it's the sort of place that will get rammed with people especially at this time of year.

I had a good session over there with plenty of Roach, Rudd a single Tench and a few hybrids. The roach/rudd seemed to be a better than average stamp of fish at around 6oz which might not seem like much but realistically on average you'll catch 2-3oz or smaller from most other club venues. I managed to feed the rudd into a bit of a frenzy and they we're really having it well into darkness. I really did'nt wanna leave when it got to 10pm

Have you had many Bream Jim?

I did'nt have any Bream only a few Roach/Bream hybrids but then I've only fished it the once

if you get it right in winter you still get a few razor blades to start with then the bream push them out and the roach and rudd are not as greedy
as they are in summer. roach to 6ozs mean they are growing as they did seem stunted a few seasons ago.

Is this lake worth a go in the winter, or would I be better off sticking to the rivers?

theres too much water [salt] in the rivers and if it does not rain the temp in the morning is minus in celsius. all of our stillwaters produce
in winter that i have fished but they are better with air temps around
10c. i think due to the wet weather if i go out it will be a stillwater.

Excellent, will give me a chance to use my new Christmas pressie...a new pole rest. As I can't imagine it will be particularly busy in terms of bites

I fished the Wid on Monday, 28th, it was hard going but managed a couple of decent chub and roach towards the end of the day, and had enough bites to keep me awake. The river wasn't particularly high, and was clearing. I would have thought that the current crop of rain should wash any remaining salt out of the water, I haven't seen the gritters out for over a week. I see the Roding has almost burst it's banks up by Halsford and Langford bridges. Maybe I should fish in the fields.....

Bernie

PS BTW Andy do you hold fromal working parties on the river during the closed season?

bernie
the wid has burst its banks as well as the roding i had a phone call from a mate that works at the widford ind estate. i am planning to go to southminster tomorrow for a few hrs. i did organise work parties
then one year i got called out at 3am sunday morning and the members did it while i was at work they went impressed even though i was with what they done. so i stopped after that, however anyone want to spend there sunday watching the fish and giving me a hand is welcome in mid may/early june.

So that's why you weren't there! I think that the tree that we pulled out is still lying there!

I fished Parsonage farm Saturday only two of us there but despite the sunny intervals it was pretty cold mainly cause of the freezing NE wind. I fished the recomended right hand side bank but only managed a single bite all day and blanked. the guy on the left hand side bank did'nt have any luck either. the water level was very high and it was surprisingly cold at -1oC by the time I got back to the car although this was around 8pm
A far cry from my previous session at Asheldham the week before which did at least produce a good dozen or so Roach