Fishing Harting Pond

As a 13 to 16-year old I used to fish a brick lined clear-water ornamental pond in Harting Hampshire.

The pond was up to about 4 to 5 feet deep, quite heavily weeded and yet full of medium sized carp, tench, rudd and for a while there was a trout of about 4 pounds. In the stunning clear water, you could observe the fish taking your baits. This helped me to learn to manage my set-up's rigs. Setting them up properly greatly improved my results.

Watching a trout or a carp take your bait whilst you keep perfectly still wearing a camouflage shirt and trousers and doing your best to blend into the background was quite electrifying. Although the fish were not immense they had the advantage of living in a heavily weeded pond which resulted in many losses. Nevertheless as a regular at the pond I began to learn how to beat them and catch plenty. With no-one to show me how to fish, Harting village pond was a great training ground and I learnt so much and gained so many wonderful fishing experiences.

I remember once fishing to an hour or two after dark, with a pathetically feeble torch and in almost complete darkness, almost surrounded in deep foliage. I heard a very human-like cough. Switching on on my almost useless torch and aiming it in the direction of the rather ominous cough, I saw two eyes glowing back at me from the darkness. Another cough almost sent me into the pond. Then as the coughing culprit turned and walked away, I saw that it was a fallow deer. Even though I knew that I was safe, the experience had really got the adrenaline going to the point where, I packed up and went home.

At the far bank of the pond, which situated at the foot of the South Downs hills, was a platform constructed of brick. This served the pumping station at the far end of the pond. The pumping station in the past had supplied water to Uppark Estate (owned in the past by Lady Emma Hamilton) up on the South Downs hills between Chichester and Petersfield. The platform was a fantastic fishing vantage point, but when it rained I was exposed to the weather and there was nowhere where to put up a brolly. Undeterred, I constructed a shelter made of opened up bin-bags and attached them to the overhanging tree branches to keep me sheltered from the rain. I used this for several weeks and caught many carp and tench. One day a horrible oik from the village set it on fire and melted it away. It was too much for him to bear to have somebody enjoying themselves. Grotty little low life.

Undeterred I fish this wonderful pond for nearly 4 years and learnt so much that I used and continue to use in my other fishing exploits.