The weather man was right for a change ! Highs of 27 deg c were on the cards and I felt like another fishing trip coming on. I knew jenny would need little or no persuasion to sit in the sun for afew hours and I desperately need to redeem myself after my woeful performance at Lizard last week. [See diary 07-09-06]
After a leisurely start, we decided on a visit to Gold Valley lakes in Aldershot, hants, where you are almost guaranteed some fine sport. It was midday by the time we arrived, the sun was high in the sky and the main lake was almost full. We had little choice of swims, although fortuntely one of the few availble was nearest the car park.
Jenny adopted the "quantity" approach fishing up in the water for the many silver fish using a waggler, alternating between corn and banded pellets. I adopted the "quality" approach and determined to break by PB [15lb common] set up a method feeder, burying a 15mm pineapple boilie in the mix and casting to the central island. It didn't take Jenny long to find the hungry roach and rudd and it wasn;t much longer before I was playing the first carp of the day, a 7lb common which was soon safely in the net. That was quickly followed by a 9lb 8oz mirror. Meanwhile, Jenny continued to heave out the roach and rudd.
As the heat of the day really kicked in, the fish undertsandably decided that a rest was in order and things went very quiet for a while. It wasn't until about 4pm that things started to liven up again. I decided to ring the changes and opted for the splasher waggler approach using a banded pellet and feeding 6 or 7 pellets every cast.
This bought some immediate success. Almost immediately by skud waggler hit the water, my pellet was devoured by a hungry carp which hurtled off into deeper water. Over the next hour or so, I couldn't go wrong and banked another 7 carp, the best tipping the scales at 11lb. They then switched off the feed again and I could only manage one more carp of 9lb before we decided to call it a day as dusk fell.
Gold valley had certainly lived up to its reputation once again as a fisrt class commercial fishery. Despite its various drawbacks [£10 for only 1 rod, a host of bait bans, some poor quality fish and a disappointing attitude to disabled access that we once encountered], it is still worth a visit and you probably won't go away with an empty net !!
Til next time, happy fishing!! Paul @ UK Fisherman
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what bait do i use at gold vally-
2010-07-14 21:28:52 | Admin
Hi Finlay
just about any bait works at Gold Valley - method, pellets, boilies, corn. You can't fail to catch there
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2010-09-12 18:15:00 | Kev Car - Gold Valley Carp
Hiya
I fished Gold Valley yesterday and was shocked by the condition of some fish. Very bad mouths. None of the carp gave any type of fight to the net. I just reeled them straight in.
Another point: Way too many swims. The guy next to me may as well as sat on my lap we were so close.
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2011-01-12 19:53:09 | jay - gold valley
have fished the gold lake in sept 2010,bagged alot of carp under 10lbs, a couple of decent mirror, bout 14/15 lbs, going friday 14th jan 2011, hopefull of some bigger carp this time , changing tactics , two rods, one on pellet, towards island nr car park , 2nd rod out into the deep middle, boilie pop up snowman rig, hopeful this will draw in the bigger ones, i will let you know how i got on with that.
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2011-01-14 18:50:31 | jay - not a bad day
just got back from golod valley, fished the gold lake, got there early doors at 7am and with 4 friends we had 9 rods out in total, i had a 15lb common first, was a bit of a banged up fish andn not much of a fight, next another common of 8lb and what a great looking little bruiser, put up a good fight , then nothing fdor hours, was using thr fisheries 8mm pellets for the first 2, then decided to switch tactics to mainline cell boilies, this paid off as just before kicking out time hook into a lovely looking 12lb mirror, was well chuffed as my other m ates had nothing apart from 2 little bream, haha, toook the piss a bit, gonna go back soon and try a different lake, maybe syndicate, anyone got tips for this one??
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2011-01-14 18:53:40 | jay
also noticed the amount of new swims.... way too many, and they cut back all the bushes bettween swims so no privacy and it looks shit!!!! never mind , at least its good fishing which is the main thing i suppose
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2011-02-10 21:34:06 | Josh Drummie - Best bait and lake to fish
The best lake to fish at gold valley is Bungalow lake, People say its for Amatuers and only holds small types of fish. Ive been fishing Gold Valley for 8 years now and if you want big doubles and some mint condition fish, Bungalow is the lake. I caught my record in Bungalow which weighed 26.2lb. I caught this fish on the same bait i use every time i go to Gold valley. Pellets on a band in the margins on float. Personally i think this method is fantastic and easy. Another could bait to use is Strawberry Boilies and Tutti Fruity Boilies. These baits work really well in Bungalow and Syndicate, where me and my friends have caught Lower twentys and upper doubles. Give Bungalow a try and see what result you will get. Any questions or tips just email me on jdrummie@gmail.com Tight Lines
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2012-03-17 18:17:54 | Jamie - gold lake
gold valleys a quality place to go if you wanna bag a lot of carp they will feed on anything always have results on 14ml halibut toped of with a bit of corn they love it cast to the rope in the middle of the lake and throw out aa few three offerings and u should catch doubles happy fishing
