A FISH EVERY SINGLE PUT-IN!
Ian Jones visits a prolific, little known venue
SOUTH Yorkshire is a match and pleasure angler’s dream, with a whole range of fisheries at your disposal – but there’s one in particular that you never seem to hear much about.
Ferryboat Farm Fisheries near Mexborough, Doncaster is an historic two-lake fishery dating back to the 1800s and once a part of the nearby River Don.
Converted into an oxbow lake to make way for the Mexborough railway line, a stunning natural water was eventually born and descendants of the original tench and bream can still be caught here today.
Ferryboat’s current proud owner Phil Henderson split the lake into two and stocked both pools with hard-fighting carp and F1s – creating a fantastic commercial fishery with really natural features including lily pads and reed beds.
For the purposes of this feature I decided to fish the 35-peg Jay Lake in the hope of latching into one of the big tench or bream, as well as sampling the abundance of F1s here.
SIMPLY SHALLOW
Venue owner Phil kindly put me on a peg that had produced an 80lb-plus bag in a match just a day before, but looking at the water it seemed as if you could bag up anywhere – fish were topping wherever you looked!
Settling into my peg, I was instructed to set up a 13m line into open water, where I introduced five balls of groundbait to kick-start proceedings. If the fish did eventually come shallow I’d switch to my pellet rig and ping pellets over the top on the exact same mark.
Dropping in with double maggot I was pleased to see that skimmers were feeding from the off and I took six on the bounce, with a chunky crucian hybrid finding the maggots too irresistible on the seventh put-in.
The skimmers then vanished as the F1s moved in. My rig was being knocked all over the shop, evidence that the fish had come shallow. Switching rigs, I pinged 4mm pellets to the 13m line and persevered with a banded 6mm offering on the hook… and never looked back, netting F1 after F1 for the next three hours.
IT’S A TENCH!
By this point it was nearly 30ºC and the F1s could be seen cruising around on the surface. I managed to ‘mug’ a couple of bigger fish on a banded pellet but now I really wanted to catch one of those big tench.
A change of line was due, so I fed four balls of groundbait and one cupful of chopped worm to the lily pads down my left-hand margin. After leaving it for 10 minutes I could see the swim fizzing like a Jacuzzi, and when I dropped in with chopped worm on the hook I was gutted to see the F1s had moved in.
I took several more fish before eventually snaring a tench of only 1lb, but welcome nonetheless.
I had a fish every put-in here, and although I wanted bream and tench, the F1s provided fantastic sport on such a hot day. I’ll certainly be back when it’s a bit cooler to target those wily old bream and tench!
PRICES: £5 a day, under-16s must be accompanied by an adult but can fish for free CONTACT: Phil, 01709 588088
LOCATION: Ferry Boat Lane, Old Denaby, Mexborough, Doncaster, South Yorkshire. DN12 4LB.
RULES: Day tickets to be bought at reception before fishing, dip all nets before fishing, only one rod per ticket, no braided line, maximum hooklink 8lb, maximum hook size 12, barbless hooks only, no meat, keepnets in matches only, groundbait in feeder or pole pot only, no night fishing, alcohol or fires
FACILITIES: Parking, caravan and camping facilities, hot food and drink available