Some bream and tench.

I started my 2012 UK fishing in a Sussex fishery, just before my rod license had expired. It wasn't too successful but ended up with a few tench and bream. Tench - Tinca tinca Bream - Abramis brama

Catching up on Coarse fish

With about three quarters of the year now over, I wasn’t content with having only caught two species of freshwater fish for the year, so I decided to go to a venue to increase my count in a big way. My pick was Sussex fishery where I had caught 10 different species at last year and with a possibility of Golden Orfe and Catfish as well it was worth a trip and I knew it would probably be my last change for these this year.

The trip to the fishery is quite long for someone who relies only on public transport but is well worth it. After a lengthy train and bus ride and about 20 minutes hike through a nice little nature reserve, I went straight to the non-carp lake and starting fishing a float and sent a ledger to an island. The species starting flowing in, with Roach, Perch, Gudgeon, hybrids and Rudd coming onto the bank quite regularly.



European Perch - Perca fluviatilis



Gudgeon - Gobio gobio



Rudd - Scardinius erythrophthalmus



Roach - Rutilus rutilus



Roach Bream Hybrid - Abramis brama x Rutilus rutilus

I had some cracking good roach and by lunchtime I had also added a nice Crucian Carp to the tally. All species so far had fallen to waggler floated maggots. The ledger wasn’t a lost cause though, pulling in a nice Bream and a Tench in the mid afternoon on hair rigged halibut pellets.



Crucian Carp - Carassius carassius



Bream - Abramis brama



Tench - Tinca tinca


Later in the afternoon, I had given up hope for an Orfe so I moved on to one of the carp lakes hoping to get a catfish. I fished with sardine flavoured catfood as well as maggots using both rods. First cast landed a nice looking skimmer bream, followed by a few perch, gudgeon and more skimmers. It went quiet for a little while and then the float just disappeared and I held on to dear life as a large underwater creature took my catfood on the end of my waggler rig with only 4lb of mainline. I was really hoping it was a catfish that took my catfood but after a 10 minutes of run after run, I had a nice 9lb 4oz Common Carp on the landing mat. The same thing followed for another 3 carp, a mirror, a leather and another common all around 6-8lb on the waggler as well.



Bream - Abramis brama



Gudgeon - Gobio gobio



Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio



Mirror Carp - Cyprinus carpio



Leather Carp - Cyprinus carpio



Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio

After the 4 carp I felt I had caught enough of carp and so was happy hike back uphill to the bus stop. I had caught over 50lb of fish of 8 species, which so happens to be the total number of freshwater fish caught so far this year.

More Pike and Carp, Sussex

Since the previous trip I made here where I caught my first pike, my mate who originally put me onto this fishery had always wanted to catch and pike and to make use of his many lures that he had collected over the years but had never caught a fish on. So when we arrived at the fishery, we went straight onto the predator lake and plugged for the pike. A couple of hours went by and we hadn't had a pike but we and several follows and takes but no solid hookups.


White Goldfish - Carassius auratus


Red Goldfish - Carassius auratus


Bream - Abramis brama


Brown Goldfish - Carassius auratus


Rudd - Scardinius erythrophthalmus

We decided to move on to the ornamental lake to take a crack at the goldfish and koi. Not much happened for a while and had a couple of missed bites. I did hook up on a few tiddly rudd which came off the hook before I could land them, no big loss. I then had a solid take which ended up in a beautifully coloured white goldfish. I think it may have been an albino, but it did have blackish eyes and a lot of orange on its body where there we no scales. Shortly after I a second goldfish which was a proper red goldfish with quite a long 'comet' tail. We decided to fish the main lake to get something better, so I set up a ledger and waited. I kept on getting tempted to fish the ornamental like with my float rod and pulled out several tench, goldfish, bream, rudd and two carp, a little 1lb ghost carp and a common of about 3lb. Unfortunately, no koi this time. My mate managed to get a decent 1lb goldfish from the main lake, but I was unable to hookup getting only several missed runs.


Tench - Tinca tinca


Ghost Carp - Cyprinus carpio


Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio

After a while, get got a little bored and wanted to take another crack at the pike. I wanted to try to catch some decent carp or bream from the predator lake as we were told there were some nice fish in there. My mate persisted with the lures and managed to get a nice little jack of about 2lb. Not a very bit fish, but was beautifully marked compared to the one I had about a month ago. After that I tryed a little bit of spinning but wasn't very successful. I went back to fish a different corner of the main lake setting up a ledger and a float. Nothing much happened, I did have a few takes on the ledger, and lost either a small carp or a large goldfish on the float. I had the float rod in the water and walked up the bank for a chat. When I came back, the float was gone and I reeled into a heavy weight. After several minutes, I had a nice near double Ghost Carp in the net. I would say that it was a little under 10lb, the biggest ghost carp I had ever seen. A nice end to the day.


Northern Pike - Esox lucius


Ghost Carp - Cyprinus carpio

100th Species

After another cancellation of my charter boat trip, I decided that I had to get a good fish for the 100, and I wanted it to be a pike. I was told about a fishery in Sussex which had a predator lake and decided to do an afternoon ticket there. Got off the train at about 10 minutes to midday and decided to walk to the fishery as I had an hour to spare for the afternoon ticket and it was only a few miles from the station. It was a pleasant walk and got there about 12:30. Half an hour to spare to set and have my lunch.


My 100th Species of Fish - The Northern Pike - Esox lucius #100


Northern Pike - Esox lucius


Bream - Abramis brama


It’s a 2 rod ticket but decided to spin on a single rod until I got a pike. There a lot of activity on the water with my rudd or roach dashing away from predators. I tried some spinners, spoons and plugs. Its was raining quite a heavily and I perservered having a couple of taps every few casts. After about 90 minutes changing lures, I had some decent resistance on the line, initially it was just a little bit of dead weight but as it surfaced, it starting making runs and after a few minutes, it was in the net. I little jack of about 3lb. Because of the coloured water it was a very pale looking fish with a lot of scars, I think they may be from leaches as I saw them on some of the fish I had later one. The lure was a perch coloured lure without the stripes that I got for a mere £2.50. I wasn't very impressed by the battle though, I would have expected it to be much stronger. It only felt like a carp and not a perch. There were bursts of speed but no violent headshakes that you get with 3lb perch or bass. I decided to not go for another pike and go for some coarse fish. I fished corn on the waggler and soon had a nice 2-3lb bream. A skimmer and another couple of bream. Time for a move.


Fully Scaled Mirror Koi - Cyprinus carpio


Fully Scaled Mirror Koi - Cyprinus carpio


Linear Mirror Carp - Cyprinus carpio




I knew that one of their other ponds was an ornamentals pond which contained a good head of koi and goldfish, so I moved there. I decided to use two rods here. I had a rod with ledger corn and the waggler rod which I used with corn and cat-meat. Had a few small rudd on the corn and the ledger corn had a little run and brought in a nice little tench. A change of bait to meat on the waggler and got a really nicely coloured fully scale mirror carp which looked a little koi like with orange lips. I then had another tench on the ledger. The the float dipped again and had an better fish on the end of the line. This one was a Linear Mirror Carp about 3lb.

So got a few skimmers, rudd tench and carp, and apart from a koi-ish carp, where are those ornamentals?


Koi - Cyprinus carpio


Koi - Cyprinus carpio


Koi - Cyprinus carpio


Linear Scaled Koi - Cyprinus carpio

Rebaited with catmeat again and watched the float dive as I hooked into another good fish. As it surfaced, I got my first glimpse of the yellow koi on the end of the line. After a few minutes, I played it out and it was soon in the net, and it was a beauty too, it was a nicely coloured common (ghost) koi. As I was putting the fish back into my net to return it, the ledger rod went off and this time it was a proper fish. A few minutes later I had another nicely coloured koi but it was a Linear Mirror type koi. A few photos and then release.


Brown Goldfish - Carassius auratus


Brown Goldfish - Carassius auratus


Brown Comet Goldfish - Carassius auratus


Orange Common Goldfish - Carassius auratus


Orange Common Goldfish - Carassius auratus

The carp fishing quietened down and soon got into the all the goldfish varierties. The long tailed comet ones do fight hard. Seem to catch a few more of those than common goldfish because they probably swim faster with better propulsion? Kept on seeing the red goldfish following the koi earlier on but didn't manage to get hook it but it was now time. This was the most goldfish like goldfish I’d ever caught. Had more skimmers, tench, rudd and another small common carp. The day ended in the smallest tench I’ve ever caught. I think thats time to go home.


Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio


Skimmer Bream - Abramis brama


Rudd - Scardinius erythrophthalmus


Tiny Tench - Tinca tinca