Members Article
Jeff Middleton had been a member of the old Petworth Angling Club for 3 years, mainly concentrating on the River Rother. After a poor close season fishing non club waters in pursuit of a 10lb tench he eventually decided to put away the bite alarms and rod pod, rejoin the new Petworth and Bognor Angling Club and start thinking about the Rother again.
News items on the web site advised that matches had recently had to be moved due to the river flooding so he therefore decided to try Petworth Park. Jeff had never fished there previously and describes below what a pleasant suprise he had.
My first trip on the 31st July produced seven bream, one eel of 3lb and about five pound of small Roach and Rudd for a total weight of 35lb. Nice easy relaxed float fishing, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed using a float as I spend most of my time behind alarms (boring) or using a quivertip.
A second trip on the 2nd of August was even better. Fishing just over the drop-off in 4ft of water, almost under the rod tip, I found I couldn’t get a double maggot hookbait to the bottom as it was constantly intercepted by bits. A switch to pellet solved the problem and produced a Crucian and a Bream, but bites were slow. A switch to corn helped and I finished with 15 Bream, 3 Crucians plus a few bits for a total of 65lb. I only had one tin of corn with me and felt I could have done better with more bait.
On my third trip on the 7th of August I was better prepared with more bait. This trip produced two Tench, the best 2lb 12oz, three Crucians the best 2lb 4oz, a small Pike of 2lb which also took sweetcorn fished hard on the bottom and twenty four Bream, the best 5lb 5oz for a total weight of 101lb 2oz
A cracking day and I am sure I can do even better on this exceptional water. This must be a pleasure anglers dream water. Fantastic surroundings, plenty of fish, herds of deer wandering about. What more could you ask.
This is definitely the clubs ‘Jewel in the Crown’. Suprisingly, on the last trip I was the only one fishing.
If you have a good session on one of our waters please share your experience with fellow members by contacting the webmaster on the Contact Us link to the left.
Jeff Middleton