Hi, after many years I am about to take up coarse fishing again but as I'm now in a different area (Fareham, Hampshire) I do not know any of the local stillwaters (my preference is for smallish mixed fisheries without a huge head of carp, preferably more suitable for float fishing).
Can any of you help with suggestions of reasonably local waters within say 20 miles that may be suitable?
Eventually I would like to possibly join a local club but at the moment I think I'll fish a few different places to get my hand in again.
Thanks (in anticipation)
Keith

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Yep - day ticket fisheries in the area are fine. Try Broadlands (off the M27 outside Southampton). 3 lakes - £8 per day to fish. Tiddler bashing with maggot, pellet, etc. There are monster carp in there in the biggest of the three lakes as well. A medium sized match lake has carp to about 15lbs plus big tench, bream, roach etc. Small lake is like a doughnut (ideal for pole fishing) but has loads of fish in it (I've caught a 6lb bream from in there). Something for everyone and lovely on a nice day. Fish waggler, method feeder or normal feeder anywhere. Also try NBK in Petersfield.

Sorry Keith - I'm miles away.

But welcome to AN though

There's a little fishery about 5 minutes from Junction 9 M27 that has a mixed bag of everything including grass carp in a smallish lake. This was where I started out and learned how to float fish catching lots of silver fish and small carp and the more than occasional monster too.

Not the most scenic but it's out of the way and quiet unlike Broadlands where I found the traffic noise from the motorway can get tiring.

It's been a few years since I was there but at the time it was run by a very nice elderly couple. Tickets were £5 back then.

I think the place is called River Farm Trout Fishery and it's on Fontley Road (or lane) north of the junction with Segensworth Rd and slightly past where it goes under the railway bridge.

Hope that helps.

Hi Keith..and welcome to AN..

So you're a coarse floatfisherman, and are now in Fareham?

You are slap bang in the middle of some of the finest river floatfishing in the UK, and it's all free fishing.. but it's not for coarse fish.

I too moved to the Southampton Water area, full of images of centrepin trotting for grayling and roach, avon floats for chub etc etc. The Itchen, the Hamble, and that other river whose name just leaps out at you: the Test.

However..it didn't work out as I'd planned. The stretches of freshwater river that I could fish were streets away from the image I had of the "wild" rivers of Mr Crabtree's Southampton Water. Forget it. Some stretches are so landscaped and regularly-fished, that some of the better specimens have been given nicknames, they come out so regularly. If that sort of thing rings your bell, then fine.. but I wanted wilder fishing with true wild fish that would be a challenge..

..and then, quite by chance, I discovered the local estuarine mullet fishing. It was everything I'd dreamed of, and more: big wild fish that I could floatfish for with coarse tactics on a river system.. swims for every occasion and type of float.. and when I hooked my first decent fish, the fight was stupendous, way ahead of any coarse fish I'd caught before.

So, beware, Keith. Try it once and you may find that all other floatfishing becomes pale in comparison, and you might find yourself sidelined into a bracket that is neither true "coarse" fishing, nor "sea" fishing..

..but the best thing about it is 95% of it is free fishing, and no rod licence.

Fareham? Check out Pompey Harbour, Gosport, Southampton etc, and look for dirty-looking estuaries, tidal saltmarsh with features, and harbours/marinas/pontoons. You'll soon learn to spot mullet. They're everywhere.

Anyway..good luck with whatever fishing you do.

[ 10. August 2004, 11:56 AM: Message edited by: Graham X ]

Try the Yateley complex for stillwaters. Yup, some have carp but lots don't ... the Summer Pit, Horseshoe,Pumphouse, Split Lake, Match have crucians, tench, perch, bream, eels, catfish ... all sorts really Yateley

Hey Graham - like the sound of the mullett bashing! Where do you go mate and what tactics do you use? I've seen big shoals of mullett cruising up the River Avon on the Royalty fishery in Christchurch. Everyone (me included to begin with) thought they were chub. They wouldn't take anything....Any tips and locations gratefully received....

I fish mainly in the three main estuaries of Southampton: Itchen, Hamble, and Test. I've also fished the Beaulieu River, but you'll have to get a day ticket from the Bucklers Hard Harbourmaster to fish there.

Get yourself a map, and look for public footpaths along estuary banks. You'll find loads. Go out exploring, and you'll soon realise that you have, on your doorstep, prime mullet and bass riverfishing. (Yes, bass too. They love bread). Getting out in a boat is also a fantastic way to spot new likely-looking locations on a riverbank.

You'll have to do your own footslogging, Fordy. I cannot give you any precise locations. It would be the end of me locally. I'm sure you catch my drift.

As for techniques, they respond well to all float tactics: top-and-bottoms, wagglers, controllers etc.. but by far my most successful technique of late is putting a piece of floating crust in as shallow a piece of water as you can imagine: 4"-6", right at the edge, when you spot mullet close by. Some darkness will help too: they seem to lose their caution as it starts to get dark, and if you're quiet, you'll get fish in right at your feet. They love shallow water you see, and use the tides to investigate the shallower banksides.

Here's a couple of articles/stories that might give you a further taste:

here

and here.

There are other articles too, on this website, that I'm sure you'll find useful.

Good luck, and don't forget your tight line!

Take it easy.

[ 10. August 2004, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: Graham X ]

Thats awesome mate. Thanks.

Welcome, Keith. I hope you enjoy your fishing whatever you do as well as time spent on AN.