Fishery Focus: Ashmoor Lakes Silvers

I am lucky enough to be part of a family who own a fishery. Ashmoor Lakes in Old Basing.

It is a small, mixed coarse fishery packed with many species of fish.

Initially they were dug for me, and I have been fishing there all of my angling life, over 30 years. It’s where I learned to fish, and as such I have extensive knowledge of the venue and how best to catch the fish.

So I figured it was about time I shared some of this information I've acquired through the years and how you can best target and catch certain species by design.

ASHMOOR SILVERS

Ashmoor Lakes is a mixed coarse fishery packed with many wonderful species. Though the Carp are the primary and most fished for species, the lakes are filled with a variety of what anglers call ‘silverfish’ as well.

A silver fish is an encompassing term for, unsurprisingly, a mostly silver coloured fish, such as Roach, Rudd, Bream, Chub, Dace, Bleak and other smaller fishes, but also sometimes includes less silver coloured fish like Crucian Carp and Perch.

When Ashmoor Lakes was first dug and stocked a bucket of various unknown tiny fish were added into them. No-one at the time had any idea what they were, and it was down to myself and Aaron over the next few years, before the fishery was opened to the public, to figure out what they were by catching them. As it turned out, the main stock of those silver fish were Rudd and Roach, whose ancestors make up the entirety of their population in Ashmoor Lakes today.

Later on, when the fishery was opened to the public, fish like Bream, Crucians and Chub were added to the mix to add more interest and provide angling sport all year round.

Though these fish have been there for many years, due to the angling pressure of the Carp, none have grown to record breaking sizes, but there are plenty of decent fish to catch for those who want to target them.

Other than the Carp and Barbel, the main focus for many Ashmoor anglers attention, there are Roach, Rudd, Bream, Tench, Crucian Carp, Perch, Chub, Golden Orfe and Goldfish present in Ashmoor, but rather than go into each one, I’ll spend some more time on the top 3 species, The Bream, the Roach and the Rudd. 

None of these fish are particularly difficult to catch, and a general day of mixed coarse fishing will catch all these species, and many of them, but there are ways to target them more specifically, and perhaps pick out the bigger fish..

BREAM

As mentioned, the Bream in Ashmoor were not there in the original stocking, but added just before the fishery was opened to the public. 50 individual fish were introduced to Lake 2, all no bigger than a few inches long. No stocking of Bream has taken place since, and as anyone who has fished Ashmoor will attest, there has been absolutely no need to. Those 50 Bream have bred like rabbits through the years, where now there must be thousands of them.

The fish have spread throughout the lakes via the underground pipe system and can and will be caught anywhere you sit.

There are indeed thousands of little skimmer Bream in Ashmoor Lakes, but bigger ones are present. 1-2lb fish are still fairly common, though none of the Bream seem to exceed 4lb in weight greatly.

A 1-2lb Bream on the Feeder

LOCATION

Though you can literally catch the Bream from anywhere, the best days Bream fishing can be had in the open water. Bream swim and feel safest in large schools and graze together. Casting out into the middle areas of the lakes will see you catching more Bream than in the margins.

TIME

The Bream here can be caught any time of the day. They are usually hungry enough to want food all the time, and they aren't too fussy about what you provide them. But like all Bream, they do prefer an overcast day to a sunny one. They fish particularly well during the winter months. This has a lot to do with the Carp becoming more dormant with the colder weather, giving the silver fish more of a chance to shine.

METHODS

Standard methods for Bream fishing sees good captures. The usual float fishing and quiver tip fishing with a feeder work well. 

When float fishing it is important to know the depth of the water with a plummet. Bream like to feed on the bottom of the lake mostly, where their food is found. Fishing a hook bait dead to depth, or even a few inches over depth to ensure the bait lies flat on the bottom gives them the best chance of finding your bait easier.

Bream are predominantly bottom feeding fish, and have mouths specifically designed to do so, but having said that, Ashmoor Lakes is one those rare, special venues where it is very possible to catch Bream on the surface. Gaining confidence among schools of other silver fish, like Rudd, they will happily come right up to the top of the water to intercept free offerings. In this way, you can fish for them very shallowly as if you were Rudd fishing, or even free-line bread on the very surface, though the Carp do tend to get there first with the latter.

BAIT

Being a farm fishery, the general rule with Ashmoor is that natural baits work best. Natural food is regularly blown onto the lakes from surrounding fields, and falls from the tree as Ashmoor is set in a woodland. Maggots and chopped worms therefore dominate when Bream fishing, and to a lesser extent bread and sweetcorn. However, as there are plenty of Carp fishermen that bait up the lakes too, and the Bream also enjoy pellets, especially soft hooker pellets or expanders, and luncheon meat. The Carp also prefer these however, so the trouble with using them to target Bream specifically comes with fishing fine lines for the Bream and heavy lines so you don't get broken up with the Carp.

In all cases of Bream fishing, using a ground bait pays dividends, not only to draw the fish in, but also to keep them feeding in the swim as you catch them.

BEST WAY TO CATCH

The best way to Bream fish at Ashmoor is undoubtedly to quiver tip for them with a small cage feeder rig on the end. A combination of ensuring the hookbait lays perfectly on the bottom and making sure the groundbait also gets to the bottom through the mostly surface feeding Rudd gives you the best chances of a good day catching Bream.

Throughout the session you will also catch all the other species of course, as they will all get drawn in. But there really isn't much you can do about that. To get the most Bream, hooking on 2 dead maggots is the best tactic. Live ones will wriggle into the silt often, resulting in a long wait for bites, but to target the bigger Bream a little more specifically, a hookable pellet on the hook works best.

As discussed though adding pellets will bring in the Carp. The issue here lies with the line you use. A nice fine line, like 2 or 3lb is best for your hooklength with Bream, but the Carp will soon smash that up. Using a stronger line, like 6lb+ will stop the Carp destroying it, but will result in less Bream.

The best way of getting around this is simple. Fishing for the Bream in Winter is better. As the Carp get more dormant and sluggish with the cold weather, you can more safely fish lighter lines. If a big Carp still takes your bait, they are likely to be more sluggish and easier to land on a light line, and there will be less anglers so you have more space to play the fish. 

Bagging up on Bream

ROACH

The Roach stock in Ashmoor originates from that first bucket of small fish tipped into the water when they were dug. Initially, we were unaware of the quantity of them, as most of the fish that were caught were the Rudd, being easier to see and target on the surface, but it was soon discovered that a healthy population of Roach were present, and caught less only because of the surface fishing tactics that were mostly used at the time.

There are lots of little Roach in Ashmoor, only a few ounces, but if you spend the time to target them, or if you are lucky when mixed fishing, you will often come across a few fish of 1lb+. Anglers who take the time to target the Roach here have caught them over 2lb.

A Decent Ashmoor Roach

LOCATION

The Roach can be found anywhere around Ashmoor Lakes, as they too swim between all 3 lakes freely thanks to the underground pipes that join all the lakes together. The Roach here tend to like the cover a bit more, so are more often found along the margins of the lakes, or underneath lilies or overhanging trees.

TIME

The are definite best times of the day to target Roach at Ashmoor. Being there fishing for them at first light and just as the sun sets is best. Roach always feed more confidently at these times of day, when predators are less likely to see them.

The best time of the year to target the Roach specifically at Ashmoor is during the winter months.

METHODS

Float fishing and quiver tipping, much like when Bream fishing, are the best methods to target the Roach. A cage feeder with a nice Roach groundbait will bring them in for a swim, casting to the margins or a similar feature working best.

BAIT

Natural baits are the best baits to use at Ashmoor as a rule, with the quantity of natural food finding their way onto the lakes from overhanging trees and blowing in from the fields. Roach love to eat maggots, worms, bread and sweetcorn baits. A really good bait to use alongside these is actually prawn, which often targets the bigger Roach.

The Roach will also eat pellet and luncheon meat hook baits, though less readily than the others.

BEST WAY TO CATCH

The best way to catch the Roach is with the float. Finding the depth of the water with a plummet, fishing a hookbait on the bottom is the way forward. No need to cast out far, the near margins are the place to be for them. With targeting Roach I wouldn't use a groundbait at all. It attracts the other fish, particularly Bream, too much. Instead, loose feeding small amounts of bait and often, over the top of the float, is the better tactic.

Maggot or chopped worms on the hook are great baits, but I’d also try some chunks of prawn, as they seem to love these too.

Similarly to the Bream, the best Roach fishing season is in the winter when the Carp are less active due to the colder weather. You can use finer lines because of this and therefore catch more Roach, and also enjoy catching them a lot more on more suitable gear that isn't big Carp proof stuff. It's worth emphasizing that it is the early morning and late even at all times of the year when you will catch the most and better sizes of Roach.

A Classic Roach

HYBRIDS

Just a quick mention at this point about the hybrids in Ashmoor. With the large populations of Roach, Rudd and Bream whose breeding seasons are at the similar times, there are a lot of cross bred fish present in Ashmoor.

Luckily, the cross bred fish are still very decent fish, particularly the Roach/Bream and Rudd/Bream hybrids. Bream as a species aren’t renowned for their fighting habits when caught, but the Bream hybrids give a much better account of themselves.

It’s not always easy to tell if the fish you have caught is a hybrid or a genuine fish. The way I usually tell: if it looks like Bream, I gently pull its mouth down. If it extends downwards like a bottom feeding tube, it's a genuine Bream, if it doesn't, it's a hybrid. 

Figuring out if it's a Roach hybrid or a Rudd hybrid involves also looking at which way the mouth is pointing. A more terminal/flat mouth is a Roach hybrid, and a more upward pointing mouth is a Rudd hybrid, in general.

You can tell if it's a genuine Roach or Rudd or a Bream cross also by how it feels. If you hold it in your hand and it's normal, it has no Bream in it. If your hand was covered in the typical Bream snotty slime, it definitely has a sniff of Bream in it. 

A Definite Bream/Roach Hybrid

RUDD

Out of all the silver fish in Ashmoor Lakes, the Rudd are by far the most popular. This could be because they are quite easy fish to spot as they tend to be seen easily near the surface of the water, or it could be because finding a good fishery with plenty of Rudd to catch is harder and harder to do. The Rudd have been here since the lakes were first dug, and were the most prolific species at the time. When I was very young I used to come down with Aaron with a light float rod and 2lb line and float fish for them with rigs about a foot deep with a single grain of sweetcorn on the hook and catch plenty. I have a deep affection for the Ashmoor Rudd in particular, as it was fishing for these fish’ ancestors that taught me the basic fishing techniques and gave me my love of angling that I carry with me today.

Similar to the Roach, the Ashmoor Rudd all descended from those originally stocked fish. Also back then, Golden Rudd were quite common, but through the years of interbreeding they have had the gold colour in their offspring bred out somewhat, though the odd somewhat Golden Rudd still exists.

The majority of the Rudd in Ashmoor are what I call “handful” fish, being a comfortable fit for the hand, though as some Rudd catching regulars know, there are some Rudd in the lakes of 1lb, and even some caught up to 2 lb. 

My favourite Ashmoor Lakes Fish

LOCATION 

Rudd are found everywhere in all 3 lakes, once again thanks to the underground pipelines joining the water up. They are easily spotted on a sunny day basking near the surface and nipping at fallen items on the water surface. Rudd are mostly surface feeding fish, with their mouths clearly pointing upwards to be able to do so. On warm evenings when the seeds from the plants in the surrounding fields have their seeds blown onto the lake, the water can come alive with feeding Rudd sipping them up.

TIME

Though Rudd fishing is usually best in the evenings, when food items fall from the warm air as the air cools, onto the surface of the lakes, at Ashmoor this doesn’t seem to matter. The Rudd feed well pretty much all day long. I would say that on the very hottest days the Rudd don’t seem to feed too well, whether the heat gets to them, or the sun getting into their eyes when looking up for potential food near the surface.

Spring, Summer and Autumn are the best times of the year for targeting Rudd, when the weather is nice and warm.

METHODS

You will indeed catch Rudd on the bottom with the float and feeder tactic discussed above. 

The better method of the two is float fishing of course. With Rudd being a mostly surface feeding fish, setting your rig at about a foot deep is the better way to target them. No plummet needed, and certainly no dropper shot. This allows the bit to drift down slowly, which is what the Rudd like.

Regular feeding of small amounts of loose feed will bring the fish in to the swim and start them competing, say a pinch of maggots every cast. You will soon see schools of them buzzing around in the water snapping them up, and see them even clearer with polarised sunglasses on, which is a must to have. Though you will be float fishing, don’t just watch the float, also keep an eye on the line as it drops through the water as the Rudd will often intercept the bait on the drop. If the line starts to dash off before the float cocks, strike!

Allowing the line between the hook and the float to lay on the water by swinging the rig out into the swim also helps with this.

I’d still use 3lb line on the hooklength, as there is still a chance a sneaky Carp will pop up and slurp in the bait.

BAIT

Rudd love maggots, casters and bread. Baits that sink slower through the surface levels of the water. Though I always used to use sweetcorn to catch them in the day, and that still works, these other baits are far better. Also, don’t be afraid to improvise. If you catch a fly or a bug on the bank, lightly hook that and use it as bait too, as these are the natural baits they are always looking for. 

BEST WAY TO CATCH

Now, most would attest that fishing on the drop near the surface is the best way to target the Rudd, and they are sort of right. But through the years I have perfected the best way of targeting them with a float. Well, not even a float, a piece of stick or twig will do just fine.

Rather than using a waggler float and only attaching the line at one end, the float I propose is more set up like a stick float. A piece of floating reed, stick found on the bankside or indeed a stick float as used in river fishing held onto the line at both ends with float bands (though I prefer to make or find my own ones).

The idea behind it being that this is your casting weight, much like a normal float in this situation, but the float itself will lie perfectly flat on the surface and camouflage perfectly as just some normal bit of reed or stick on the surface. Rather than having to wait for the float to cock and dip with a bite, if there is ANY movement of that stick, it's a bite and worth striking.

This setup also makes it easier to adjust the depth of the rig if the fish shy off and move to feeding deeper by just running the float up and down the line.

But crucially, it is perfect for stalking individual fish.

Get them feeding up on the surface on a sunny day with maggot or caster and when you see a decent fish you want, swing the float into position right on its nose and it'll grab it perfectly. It won’t be spooked by the splash of a float, because the float is just a normal bit of reed or twig. In this way you can catch Rudd continuously for hours without end, and always target the bigger individuals.