The lakes these days are not the same as they were back in the early days, most of the original stock for which these lakes are well known have long since gone, but they still hold some superb looking specimens from subsequent stockings and in the case of the Match lake a mere handful of original fish survive to this day. The selling off of these lakes by the previous owners CEMEX saw the lakes on the East of the complex bought up by Farnham Angling society, an open to all fishing club with a large membership and some very nice existing waters in their portfolio. This means of course that the lakes do get busy at times and the fish are under an enormous amount of pressure all year round. If you are lucky enough to be able to drop on the fish, with the right approach, there are some incredible rewards to be had.
Travelling long distances to fish for wary Carp has never bothered me, no chance of pre baiting and it takes much longer to get to know a lake and it's residents habits, but if you have a bait in the water, as far as I'm concerned you have as much chance as the next fellow. Observation on arrival is key of course and we, my Son and best friend and myself walked the Match lake and adjacent Copse and Nursery lakes looking for clues as to where we might find success. None of us expected to catch on our first session at a strange water of course and this proved to be the case, but during the next few days we learnt an awful lot which will stand us in very good favour for subsequent visits, and of course we shall continue to learn more on each try.
The Match lake is roughly 13 to 14 acres and for much of the year solid with various types of weed. A large proportion of this seems to be a cotton candy type silk weed that reaches from the bottom almost to the surface, only small areas being clearer or supporting a more normal type of hornwort or Canadian pond weed. The silk weed is nigh on impossible to fish or present a bait in and then the chances of actually landing a fish buried in this mess is probably extremely slim. The areas with hornwort also seem to be the more popular swims, as it can be raked out a lot easier than silk weed and there are clearer patches amongst it if you search hard enough. I would imagine that once the first frosts set in, ( if we get any! ) the weed might abate a bit. This is what we are banking on for the next few months anyway as it should make presenting a bait a bit easier even if the Carp feed less as the temperature drops!
Our observations on this visit led us to believe the majority of the fish were favouring the areas of silk weed, no doubt they can move through it fine and will have created underwater corridors for themselves to navigate around it, they certainly showed more regularly in amongst it than anywhere else on the lake.
Eventually after a couple of hours walking and very tired legs we all decided on out individual plots. No social session this one as we all chose very different areas to fish, so it was communication by text for the most part, sharing our findings and observations in these areas.
For my part I chose the furthest point from the car park, a small bay in the far corner which despite still containing some weed seemed to offer a fishable and bait presentable area. I won't give a blow by blow account of my findings but I did find some obvious areas that fish had clearly visited and presented two baits on those spots.
We'd been told by other anglers that it was a night water, but as always your own findings are the best guide before taking notice of what others say. My own experience on this trip would suggest this may indeed be the case as all buzzer activity was between set times in the hours of darkness. Indeed for the three nights we were there I received activity on the two baited spots on every night and only at night, the daytimes being seemingly devoid of activity or fish in the bay. Further more I am certain my baits were picked up and ejected on all three nights with the fish ' getting away with it'. the positions of the bobbins and line angles confirming this in my mind after each subsequent bleep or series of bleeps on the alarms. clearly these fish are extremely cute when it comes to dealing with anglers rigs. This is something I have taken a great deal of interest in over the last few years, rather than dismissing each bit of buzzer activity as simply liners or small fish attacking the baits. I believe on many waters we are constantly being picked up and our rigs being ejected by fish without even knowing it. This has made me pay particular attention to certain aspects of rig mechanics, constantly making adjustments until they stared to convert more of these pick ups into fish. It seems likely that despite using my normal rigs that I supremely confident in, these fish have diminished that confidence and it's back to the drawing board! I am actually not convinced the rigs themselves are at fault, more what happens after the fish has pricked itself and the headshake that causes the hook to be flung from their mouths. Heavier leads and taking the leads out of the equation as soon as possible after the rig is picked up are things that I shall be looking at for the next trip. Pick ups from these fish will be hard won and I can tell you it was very frustrating knowing I was indeed getting those pick ups but not converting them into fish on the bank!
Hopefully there will be more to report on the Match lake and Yateley in the coming weeks and months.
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