Hitchum Square Ponds

    The sun is out and the bluebells are in flower and like last season my first outing of the season was to be Hitchum Ponds, my target species were the Perch and Wild Carp.

    Hitchum Ponds are situated in the grounds of the Grovefield Hotel near Taplow Common and is part of the Intertype Anglng Society. Every year I'm envious of the 3lb plus Perch on the Intertype photo gallery, is there a more beautiful looking fish than a Perch? Last year I was palgued with small Perch on maggots so this time I made a trip to my allotments and dug up a few lobworms my aim was quality not quantity! 

    Of the three ponds named Square, Round and Richard's Pond my plan was to fish the Square Pond. I was delighted to see that I was the only person which is a bonus when fishing such a small area of water

My first cast and my float bobbed a little before dipping under, had I hooked into a nice Perch on my first cast? My rod bent over and put up a fight.... I prayed that this was the Perch I had sought for the past few seasons. Unfortunately I had hooked a small Wild Carp of not much more than a pound and so it continued.

As the day went on the sun came over the trees and warmed up the water and with it brought the Carp to the surface. You will soon realise that if there is one style of fishing I love more than others it has to be freeling and stalking carp in the margins. I put a few crusts of bread along the margins that the wind was blowing into and it wasn't long before the unmistakable slurping of carp could be heard. I cast out towards some reeds and within seconds the bread crust was sucked below the surface. My line straightened and I pulled into a nice Wildie of 6lb which powered off like any double figure carp I've caught. It's torpedo shaped body with a large tail effortlessly powered along the side of the pond but a few minutes later found it's self sliding over my net.

I had 22 Carp that day, the best being 7lb 10oz which put up one hell of a fight!