The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I belong to Dunmow & district piscatorial society and they 4 small lakes 1 of which is with out carp and a second has less than 10 left in it. The club is also due to net it this winter to try and remove the last few. The lakes have some lovely Crusians & Tench as well as some good sized Perch. The bad news is the club is full but there is a waiting list.
Welcome to the forum

Welcome to TFF - I think that rivers are a better prospect for avoiding carp and at this time year good sport can be had with dace , roach and chub by trotting good old fashioned hemp and tare.

Quick update
I fished a local day ticked water past two days with my dad as it was easy for him to get to.
I won't name the venue.
But it was depressing. We both caught a load of fish - pretty much every cast. My dad and I found it boring. And I was quite shocked by the condition of the fish. I was fishing 4lb line waggler at the margins with sweetcorn. I would say 90% of the carp had bad mouth damage among other deformities - presumably a lack of care and people using way too heavy tackle. The bailiff kept telling us to throw our left over bait into the water as th even fish need it - he even had a go at my dad for giving some bait to the people next to us. Comes down to a very overstocked lake where the fish are starving and don't care what bait is presented or how thick the line is. The silvers were actually in decent condition - I assume no one actually fishes for them given how easy the carp are. I landed a 10lb plus common which was in decent nick but I think literally every other carp was damaged - so sad.

I think trying to find some nice carp lakes where people care, and fishing for silvers/tench makes sense - I'm happy to pay 'Carp money' for that. I'm also looking in to Billericay and Dunmow.

Thanks for all the input again.

So depressing - I'd hate to take my son to that kind of lake to learn as I did many moons ago with my dad

Also going to check out the local rivers as suggested..