Raisons Gold Valley
Middle Lake
An early Friday morning start, heading around the M25 to Aldershot to visit Raisons Gold Valley. According to the website, it was voted the UK’s Best Commercial Fishery, a big billing indeed but then it does have a big name behind it. Hoping the early start would mean an easy trip around the M25 I was in for a disappointment and the 90-minute trip turned into nearly 2 hours. (I won’t even discuss the trip back!).
Well, none of this has anything to do with the fishing and on arrival I parked up the van and headed into the tackle shop to buy my day ticket. Ticket in hand I headed off to one the few swims, roadside where you can park behind the swim.
30 minutes later I was set up and ready. I tried a bit of a different setup with the box, moving the pole sock and the side trays back leaving the front legs free, giving me more space to get to the margins. I was also going to try a pole rest, brand new and its first outing.
I went with a long 13m, 3ft, short 6m to 8m around 3ft and edge which was a little all over the place but I found a spot at the edge of a tree which was also 3ft. I started out long with a banded 6mm Robin Reden fished over a medium CAD pot of 2mm soaked micros. Soon I was to discover what would be the headline for most of the first hour. Lots of missed bites but eventually I hooked into one but soon realised as it raced off that this one was fail-hooked. After a bit of the normal fail-hooked battle, I had it in the net, a Carp around 3lb. I put a new Robin Red on the band and went straight back out with the same approach.
Address
GOLD LANE, GOVERNMENT ROAD
ALDERSHOT, HAMPSHIRE, GU11 2PT
More missed bites later I fail hooked into an F1 which did not put up much of a fight. I needed to change something, I pulled the spread bulk down and tightened up the spacing hoping this would sharpen up the bites, I also changed my leg position, because of the pole rest I didn’t have my left leg under the pole which plays a big part in striking, so I got myself into my normal seating position, pole across both legs and the pole rest providing extra support. These changes worked like magic and I soon found myself in a run of F1s, most of which were hooked cleanly.
After just over an hour out at 13m I came in to 8m, again with the 6mm robin red. This time feeding half a cad pot of 4mm pellets. Middle Lake is just jam-packed with F1s so the hard bit is hooking them cleanly, less bait and a shorter pole helped and again I landed 1 to 3 pound F1s for another 45 minutes.
I had a few shallow rigs set up (of course) there had been signs even from the first time I stepped up to the swim they were feeding on the surface, maybe that’s where I should have started. A jigger rig on the top 5 I went to work with jigging, with a banded 6mm robin red. Fish were not instant but a regular feed of 4mm and a little slapping got them feeding eagerly and the bites came. The bites still were not as fast as I would have hoped though, guessing the pole tip was spooking the fish I changed the rig to a long slapping rig, depth set to about 2ft with a 6mm pellet and feeding 4mm pellets by hand, slapping the rig into the feed. This again worked quite well, netting me some more F1s.
Then whilst thinking about changing baits I foolishly left my topkit and pole connected with the pellet sitting on top of the water aided by the pole rest. Along came a passing carp, nabbed the pellet and started to pull in the pole. The movement grabbed my attention and before my pole disappeared into the lake I rescued it and I had a nice battle with a decent carp. That moment can be seen below on YouTube.
I planned to stay until around 2.30 p.m. (M25 was on my mind) but I wanted to try the edge for the last hour. Edge rig on I changed bait to sweetcorn. I did feed a small pot of groundbait around 15 minutes before I started, that was probably a mistake and I should have just fed small amounts via the CAD pot. This meant the edge started messy and fish were hard to hook but eventually, after 20 minutes or so a few nice-sized F1s were landed, most of which were not fail hooked. Happy with my first 6 hours at Gold Valley I packed up the Van.
Conclusion
I do tend to take my time feeling my way into a new venue but Middle Lake at Gold Valley didn’t need feeling into and it fished like a standard commercial venue. There were lots of fish at 13m’s and shorter and also in the margins. I didn’t get the rods out but I am sure the method feeder at mid-distance would work well and the big carp were cruising out close to the rope along the middle so a clipped-up Pellet Waggler would probably catch a few too on the right day.
If you can get to Gold Valley without going on the M25 it should be on your list for a visit. That said though the fishing at Gold Valley is good enough that I will be visiting again soon regardless of the M25.
Clicker Score - 79
Website
Cost
£15
Lakes
Gold Lake
Middle Lake
Syndicate Lake
Bat Lake
Bungalow Lake
Methods
Pole
Method Feeder
Pellet Waggler
Pole Rollers
By the road I used 1 roller and chose to break down twice.
Site Facilities
Tackle shop
Cafe