Birds Green Fishery

After looking on the web at the weather forecast on Metcheck.com, it showed there was to be a break in the freezing icy weather, Rob, Mike Warden (a good friend of ours) and yours truly decided to do a 24 hour session on Birds Green fisheries in Ongar, Essex. After a call to the fisheries office and speaking to the Manager James, he informed us that the Top Lake didn't fish too bad in the colder months and the fish go up to around 28lb.

When we arrived Mike fancied fishing the open water, Rob went for the back of the island with a small bay to his left lined with high Norfolk reeds, I opted for the other side of the island to Rob. The water to my right still had ice on it but it was starting to melt as I was setting up. We had around 2 hours before dark so I put the first rod in the deep margin to my left armed with a Mainline Tutti Fruity pop-up. However before I had a chance to get my second rod out I heard Rob's alarm give a one toner - a noise we all know and love! Mike and I watched Rob play and land the fish which turned out to be only a small double, but with the light rods and small Shimano reels, the small little scaley warrior put up a good account for itself and was truly welcome as we hadn't been able to go angling for a few weeks due to the weather conditions. I put my middle bait very close to the island in front of me, baited with a 10mm Mainline Milky toffee pop-up with a small bag of response pellet and my third rod to the edge of the melting ice. In the past when I've done this it’s been productive. This rod was baited with maggots using the Korda maggot clip.

I had all three rods with slack lines as I thought that tight laser lines to the island will spook any fish in the area. Within 3 minutes of the bait hitting the water my hanger was up and down like a yo-yo and after 10 minutes I realised maggots were a bad bet as it was attracting a lot of small silver fish. Therefore I had a quick change of rigs to Hi-viz 10mm pineapple with a small bag of Hinders elips and Mainline response pellet, with a small amount of pineapple syrup on the pellet for my bait on this rod.

With the brolly up and the kettle on Rob was in again. This time he wasn't so lucky and the fish was off before he could net it. In the manner of the way we speed fish, Rob soon had a new hook link and bait back on the spot where he already had had two takes from.

Just before nightfall my right hand alarm gave a single bleep and the rod hooped round. After a short fight I bought a perfect looking mirror of around 10lb to the waiting net, not the biggest fish in the lake but any carp is welcome in the cold weather. Before I could put the rod back out my rod which was on the island was away Again not a record breaking fish but the double figured mirror was in prime condition. With the two rods back out on the marks, a freshly cooked beef stir fry was calling Mike and I. We sat chatting and decided if Mike didn't have any action by the morning he should move to the other end of the island - he had all his baits in open water.

The temperature really dropped in the night so it was a nice surprise when my island rod was away again around midnight. Whilst I was playing this fish I saw Rob's head torch on, obviously he was busy playing a fish which turned out to be a scale perfect common of 17lb 8oz. Mine was a chestnut coloured mirror weighing 17lb 2oz. I had two more takes through the night but unfortunately lost both of them.

Mike woke me at first light with a cuppa and after a short chat he decided to move before any day anglers turned up. So he went up to the other end of the island. Whilst Mike was moving I re-baited and moved my left hand rod from the margin spot and relocated it very close to the island using a Mainline pineapple Hi-viz 10mm pop-up using the KD rig, again with a small bag of response and elips pellet. This time though I put a stick bag on the hook link filled with Hinders salamiz mix.

Within an hour of Mike moving swims he was playing a fit good looking mirror of around 15lb - the move was worth the effort. He was also using 10mm hi-viz pop-ups and Korda Kurv hooks size 12. A few more anglers turned up for the day and after having a chat with us they moved into the swim Mike had vacated an hour before. We didn't have any more morning action so with the fishing slow it was a great time to do some bait and rig shots.

With the photography done I was ordered to do the honours with the kettle by Mike and as he's a giant I did as I was told (HA-HA!!). Whilst we were waiting for the kettle to boil one of Rob's rods burst into life, this fish really had the hump for falling into one of Rob's traps. Again the small bright pop-ups with small mouthful bag of mixed pellet were doing the business for us. Mike went round to Rob's to land the fish for him. This fish turned the scales round to a decent 19lb 2oz. By the time Mike returned to me I was playing another fish which felt bigger than the others I had been catching. I was using 2lb T/C Freespirit rods which are great with these smaller fish. This fish put up a great battle before finally coming to the net, it was a common weighing 20lb 10oz. I was well pleased with this as James the Manager told me that there were not many commons in the lake.

Before Mike had time to take the pictures for me he was playing another fish. Considering how cold the water had been all the fish we caught really fought hard and this mirror was no exception, finally coming to Mikes waiting net and weighing around 13lb. We all decided to have a slow pack up, but were not lucky enough to have anymore takes. However, we all had had a good 24 hours cold weather angling, catching some nice fish. It just goes to show not all the fish you catch have got to be massive to enjoy catching them.

Words by Rob Marsh & Lee Merritt