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.

Fishery Focus: Ashmoor Lakes Carp

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. Its 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 CARP

Though Ashmoor Lakes is a mixed coarse fishery packed with many wonderful species, like most coarse fisheries, the Carp are by far the most dominant and common.

With Carp angling being as absurdly popular as it is, its rare to find a fishery without Carp in.
When Ashmoor Lakes was first dug and stocked it only had 2 Carp in it. Years later, just before the fishery was opened to the public, it was stocked with many more smaller Carp, and was topped up regularly through the years to a point where, if anything, there are way too many Carp in the lakes!
The old original fish are still there, and pushing 25lb in weight now, but are caught extremely rarely through the hoards of other Carp who get to the bait first.
Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Ghost Carp, Grass Carp, Crucian Carp and Goldfish are all present in Ashmoor Lakes. But its the King Carp species that are the most common, and the ones I will be talking about here.
The biggest Carp in Ashmoor is 25lb, reportedly. Though I know for certain a 23lb was accurately weighed on a separate occasion. The average fish however used to run at about 3-4lb, but now holds steady at 4-6lb.
In the winter, the average fish is around 2-4lb, as the bigger fish become more dormant with the colder weather slowing their metabolism.
The colours of the Common Carp vary from chestnut brown through to silver, all tending to be lean, large tailed, powerful fish. The Mirror Carp range from blue/greys and silvers through to browns, with beautiful accents of colour like yellows, oranges and purples. The Ghost Carp, both Mirrors and Commons, are pale whites and yellows, and often interbreed with the others producing different coloured young. The Ghosties are a bit rarer to find than the more naturally coloured Carp, but no less easy to catch.

A Decent Ashmoor Lakes Mirror Carp

LOCATION

Carp are found throughout all 3 lakes at Ashmoor, so wherever you fish, you will find them. Not only that, but it doesn't even matter which lake you fish on, as surprisingly to some, the lakes are all joined together. Beneath the ground joining Lake 1 to Lake 2, and Lake 2 to Lake 3 are two large pipes, allowing water and fish to pass through between them.
The main reason for this is so that when the lakes are topped up with water from a water holding pond in the summer when the water levels drop, the water flows evenly between them. But it also provides a channel between all the lakes that Carp regularly use travel between and feed in different ponds.
Many a time have anglers caught a notable Carp in Lake 2, only to come down a separate time and catch the same fish in Lake 1. It does mean, however, that if you are after a certain fish, there's no way of knowing which lake its likely to be in that day!
As is usual with Carp, in Ashmoor they can be easily caught near a feature. Along the far margins, by lily pads, and not forgetting the near margins, often right beneath your feet. Near margins are a top place to fish at Ashmoor, but rarely do I see people fish them.
With so many Carp in Ashmoor Lakes, the margins around the lakes are quite undercut due to the activity of the Carp feeding and rubbing along the edges, and this provides a safer haven for them, as well as good places to feed.
There are some more notable swims that Carp anglers like to inhabit. On Lake 1 the aptly named 'Carp Corner' is a popular place, a corner on an otherwise square lake that juts out making a little bay, and the unfishable 'Field Bank' that backs onto the farm land.
On Lake 2, the islands are obvious points, particularly swims where you can fish the area between the two. And on Lake 3, which is home to the lilies, any swim that has one of them in, though the whole lake is very popular due to the entire opposite side being unfishable.

TIME

Carp can be caught all year round. At Ashmoor as with many places, late Spring through to early Autumn is the best time, with Summer being the best. Carp love the warmer weather, and feed most strongly during it. During winter, the bigger Ashmoor Carp tend to get their heads down and become more dormant. Carp can still be caught, but expect them to be less frequent and smaller on average.
Fishing for Carp on a hot summers daytime however often proves unfruitful. Fish bask in the hot surface layers and show little sign of interest in bait. Far better is the morning and the late afternoon/evening. Prime feeding times.

METHODS

At any time of the year the Carp can be caught on all methods. Off the surface, on the float, on a feeder and on leger Carp tactics. By far the most popularly used method of the carpers is bite alarms and bolt rigs on the bottom. However I am here to tell you that this is actually the least effective method. Though any decent angler will soon realise that Ashmoors lake bottoms are silty, few people realise quite how deep. During lake maintenance, when I'm in the water in a wet suit, the silt often comes up to mid shin height. Carpers fishing bolt rigs on the bottom often complain that they don't catch many fish, but its mostly due to their rigs sinking deep in the silt, making it impossible for fish to find the bait. A problem eased by using smaller leads or helicopter rigs.
Feeders are more effective, as they tend to lay on the surface of the silt better, and groundbait feeders encourage the Carp to root around in the silt if the bait does get covered a little. Float fishing is even better as you can get the depth dead right, so long as you allow that the plummet will sink into the silt a little too, and sometimes give you a false reading of where the lake bottom is.
Despite the large Carp being present, I would say that 4lb line for most float or feeder fishing is quite acceptable, as there is plenty of room to play a bigger fish in in most swims. With 6lb line for techniques like surface fishing or traditional carp fishing, or if you don't feel confident that you could control a running larger fish being better, as you gain more control over the fish. Many anglers use 10lb line or more, but it is often less effective, as the fish see the line. Size 10 barbless hooks are the maximum to be used at Ashmoor, and are more than sufficient to hook the biggest Carp in the lake, but obviously, using a hook that is a suitable size for your bait is the way to go, with myself never using less than a size 16 barbless when float fishing maggots.
A very good method to pick up a Carp at Ashmoor is to look for bubbles rising to the surface from feeding fish and to place a depth set bait over the top of them, particularly with a float set up to reduce disturbance. A worm or a prawn or a soft hooker pellet being the best baits for this.

BAIT

The most important thing to remember with Ashmoor Lakes is that its a farm venue. As many anglers in the know will tell you, farm ponds tend to be bit trickier to catch from. This is due to the quantity of natural bait that is around for the fish to feed on, not only under water, but also flying or blown in from crops in fields nearby, and as Ashmoor is set in surrounding woodland also, plenty of food comes down from the trees as well. Because of this, natural baits tend to be the way of things to catch fish easier.
This, to some degree, is the way of Ashmoor Lakes. Maggot and worm catch many more fish than other baits, also including prawns and bread. Though naturally, using maggot and worm does tend to catch you a mix of species rather than picking out Carp more specifically.
 However, Ashmoor Lakes is a popular venue, and gets plenty of groundbait, particles and pellet introduced by anglers, meaning pellets, sweetcorn and luncheon meat are also good baits. During periods of closure or quiet times, the fish are also fed on grain and bran based foods, so they are more used to it.
Being a farm pond, and naturals being the way of things, it does mean that boilies are not a very effective bait for catching Carp. Inevitably they will eat a boilie eventually, but all other baits out shine them by far. Pellet hookbaits are better. If you must use boilies (as for some reason the carp boys think they have to) I would suggest smaller ones, and perhaps more fish based smells to match pellet.
The key to all these baits though is to feed little an often, much like a match fisherman, and not toss out large beds of bait. In the summer I introduce about 8-12 pellets or maggots every 5 minutes or so, and less of larger loose feed like sweetcorn or prawn chunks. The Carp guzzle up near enough everything as quick as possible, as do the resident Bream hoards, so you need to keep their interest.

The King of all Baits

THE BEST WAY TO CATCH

Having discussed the methods to catch Carp at Ashmoor Lakes you'll notice I skirted around one in particular. And that's because it is by far and away the best method of not only catching Carp at Ashmoor, but also catching the bigger of them over the smaller ones.
I cant count how many times I have seen carp anglers sat behind bite alarms with rigs on the bottom of the lake, sat there all day catching nothing at all, when simple watercraft would show them that the Carp are up in the water. Often with fish clearly basking, swimming and feeding on the surface of the lake quite visibly. And this even includes the winter months.
To catch the bigger of the Carp at Ashmoor, the surface is the place to do it. The warm weather drives the fish up, and being a farm pond with lots of natural flies and bugs being blown into the water, its one of the best places for them to feed. Locating the fish in any chosen swim is very easy, you can visibly see them most times, and if not, you'll see the swirls of them taking things from the surface. You will also hear them sucking in food.
The Ashmoor Carp can easily be brought to feed on the surface with the introduction of floating baits, and by spending a little time watching the fish, and letting them feed, you can pick out the biggest fish of the bunch to catch. In this way, you can ensure you are getting the biggest Carp over the smaller ones, unlike all other methods. Not that its all about size. I will often catch prettier looking fish over larger ones, and always target a Ghost carp no matter its size when one appears.
By spending half an hour or so slowly feeding the Carp on the surface, usually with dog biscuit or bread, I can not only pick out the biggest fish or the one I want, but also watch its feeding habits to a point where after coming up and taking a bait, how long it will take for it to eat it and come up for another and also where it is likely to come up from. This method is very much about patience. Though bites can be as instant as 5-10 seconds, it very much pays to watch the fish for maybe half an hour to an hour to get a better quarry.
By far the best way to catch any fish, not just Carp, is to spend time watching them and learning how best to target them.

My tackle of choice when surface fishing is a nice light, small carp reel. At the moment I'm not actually using a carp reel, but a small lure fishing reel as these are designed to be cast and held all day, much like when surface fishing, and are naturally lighter. For the rod, nothing bigger than 1.75lb test curve. 1.5lb is ideal. A barbel rod. You don't actually need one this strong, but you have to be aware of snags the fish could run into and have enough power to bully them out or away from them, and also away of other anglers. Swims can be a little close together, and some anglers quite rightly would be unforgiving if you let your fish run all over their swim and ruin it.
Reel line of 6lb is more than sufficient for the task. Anything stronger then the fish see it and sense it before they even take the bait. The fish are wily enough to be wary of any surface bait before they take it. The last thing to use is a size 10 barbless hook, the biggest the venue rules allow. This is to ensure that the bread hook bait has the best chances of staying on, and also that the point protrudes from the bait to be able to hook the fish. And I never use carp hooks from certain Carp specific companies. These hooks work fine for bottom baits, but they are often too heavy to be used on the surface, and are also too thick and big. Not only do the fish see them, but they can also make your hookbait sit more unnaturally on the surface compared to the free offerings, and the fish can tell this. Fine gauge match style hooks are much better.
I will always fish near margin swims over distance fishing. Reason being, that that's where the fish are, and also I am free lining. There is no casting weight of a float on the line so it makes the whole thing easier. Having said that, pinching a bit of bread flake to the hook and dabbing it in the water, gives all the weight you need to swing it over to a far bank or island.
I would NEVER use a controller or bubble float at Ashmoor, as they are really not needed, and just provide weak points in your line, or things to snag around weeds, over hanging trees, or submerged roots and reeds.
When your target fish is spotted, its a case of placing the bait in front of it to eat. Watching and waiting for the mouth to open, engulf your hook, and close is mouth. Always wait for the mouth close, and strike quick, as within a second, they can spit it out again when they realise. Obviously, for all of this a pair of polarised glasses is as essential as bringing and using a rod, reel and bait. You need to be able to see the fish through the glare of the water. Never leave home without them!
As for bait, I sometimes use a rubber bait band with a tab to push the hook through to hold a chum mixer dog biscuit. Though I do find with Ashmoor Carp particularly, they do see the hook and be more tricky to catch on it. Far better is bread. Some swear by a fresh loaf, but I tend to use the cheapest sliced I can find. Only because I pinch out a 50p piece circle of bread from the middle, lay it between the shank and the point of the hook, then pinch it back over the shank. I find it stays on better, and leaves the hook point open to hook better too, and if by some miracle a Grass Carp appears, you are primed ready to give it a go. Which I will discuss in another blog at some point in the future.
As mentioned, the number one most important thing you need for surface fishing is patience. It can be incredibly stressful, but when you hook up, its infinitely more rewarding than any other form of Carp fishing.

A Beautiful Common caught Freelining Bread on the Surface