Ascott Ponds in the Cleveland Hills.

I fished one of my clubs stillwaters for the 1st time today. Ascott Ponds are set in the beautiful Cleveland Hills just outside the village of Faceby. Not knowing what to expect i took 2 feeder rods, one set up to fish the Method Feeder and Halibut Pellet hookbait and the other to fish Groundbait feeder with Maggot or worm hookbait. I also took my match rod set up fairly light with a size 18 hook and a 0.14 hooklink. I finally arrived around 7.00am after returning home to collect the maggots i'd forgot! Anyway the weather was horrid. Windy & rainy so my 1st priority was a peg with some shelter which i promptly found at the far end of the big pond. Firstly i tried the Method feeder. I squashed soaked pellets around it and hair rigged a bigger pellet for hookbait. After around 10 minutes to baitrunner sprang into life and after a brief fight i had a pristine 3lb-ish Carp in the net....

Feeling like i'd nailed the tactics 1st cast, i recast to the same spot but around half an hour of nothingness followed. Being an impatient fella i felt a change was needed so i set the Method rod to one side and cast a feeder loaded with groundbait and a maggot hookbait to the same spot. It produce and instant result with a Tench of around 1lb in the net....

30-40 minutes of switching between the two rods produces nothing so i decided to have a dabble in the margin swim i'd been feeding with groundbait and maggots. I'd plumbed up earlier and was surprised to find 5 foot of water right under my rod tip. Worm was the hookbait as i'd heard the pond held some nice Perch up to the 2lb mark. The Worm had barely hit the bottom when the float slid away. After a fierce fight a Tench of around 10oz was mine.....

A few more Tench around the half pound mark followed along with some small Perch, then my 1st Skimmer appeared, followed by 2 more small Tench and another 3 Skimmers, the 4th of around 10oz being the biggest.....

Then the Skimmers disappeared and it was 6-10oz Tench and small Perch with the odd half pounder thrown in for the next 3-4 hours. I had the odd dabble on the feeder line to no avail but after a run of small Tench on the Waggler i struck into a much weightier fish. It was a Bream and came to the net without too much fuss. Around the 2lb mark.....

A final Tench followed to round off a most enjoyable session that produced around 20lb of fish.