What can I catch?
The fish in the ponds
Carp
The ponds have an excellent stock of specimen carp and fish of over 35lb have been caught over the last few seasons. All the usual carp baits including boilies, particles and pellets are successful. Most carp anglers leger and use electronic bite alarms. A good tip is to follow the wind. You will often find carp in the corner of the lake where the wind is blowing. A strong wind will blow all sorts of food sources across the water and hungry carp are often the first to follow.
Tench
The Hampstead ponds hold some excellent tench and fish of over 10lb have been caught. Primarily a spring and summer fish, the tench will respond to many methods from float fishing in the margins, to long-range feeder fishing. A wide range of baits are successful including maggots, worms, sweetcorn, and casters.
Perch
Perch are voracious predators and often constitute the young angler's first fish. Float or leger will catch plenty of perch but the float offers more sensitivity, and allows you to cover more of the swim. Maggots, small worms and big lobworms will all work. Try a prawn for the larger fish.
Roach
The Roach's natural diet is made up of insects, aquatic vegetation, small water snails, bloodworms and fish fry. Roach will continue to feed throughout the year and are known to take almost anything, but maggots, casters, bread baits, hemp, sweetcorn and worms are amongst the most effective baits.
