Directions

This lake is a bit harder to find, in the heart of Dunmow. Follow the A120 from Bishop's Stortford and take the Dunmow exit. Stay on the B1256 and take the roundabout after the Tesco supermarket roundabout - turn left here. This is called Rosemary Lane, stay on this for about 0.75km and take a very small lane on your right called Star Lane. This lane goes down hill and the lake opens out. There's really limited parking space but every time I've been, there has been at least one other space free.

A little bit about the Doctor's Pond...

...once again this lake is free and holds many carp that all look old, dark brown and traditional - like carp should be - not like the usual 'commercial carp' which are paler and less pretty, not that there's anything wrong with catching a commercial/stocky carp! The reasoning as to why these carp are traditional etc. is because they were stocked hundreds of years ago (not the same carp you catch today obviously - but their ancestors) and were used by the doctor (who used to live in what is now the cafe, which may I add is a great place for your parent(s), wife or brother and sister to go and have tea and cake who have come and aren't interested in the quality fish) to collect leeches that lived on the fish for his experiments ! There are also some silvers in the lake but they don't grow to any considerable size. This lake is very pretty and not too deep, it has a gravel bottom and overhanging willows. You can only fish on one side of the lake and there are no 'best pegs', they all produce good fish. On a really hot day they do congregate around the island and are often interested in a piece of sweetcorn or spam right next to the island shelf, so give that a go...

Carp - If I were you, I would not bother going to Doctor's Pond and 'sit behind alarms' all day unless you're that kind of guy. It's much more exciting catching them on a heavy float waggler set-up or on the 'method'. Use a 4BB,5BB or 6BB waggler if you can, with anything from 4lb to 6lb mainline. Crude tactics will still catch you fish and don't be afraid to use double or triple corn, large pieces of bread, 8mm pellets or 10mm cubes of good old luncheon meat. As a beginner you should catch, but don't worry if you don't. A good vantage point, as stated earlier, is to fish close to the island, but fishing out in the middle or at close range still works well.

 

Surface fishing does work especially on the side closest to Star Lane and the island end, the carp can often be seen cruising here because it's shallow and rarely gets interupted by wind - I also see young children throwing bread in for the ducks at that end and get a shock when a greedy carp surfaces and makes that unmistakeable SLURP on the surface before the ducks even have a chance of getting their meal! So try here for surface fishing - bread and dog biscuits both work.

Legering is also productive. Use whatever groundbait you want, but my favourite is Crane Big fish Groundbait (natural flavour). You can use bread crumb as well. Load any feeder up, but if you have an in-line method feeder, use this in most circumstances because you get much more obvious bites and the bait is distributed better. I add whatever my hookbait is to my method mix/groundbait. But whatever your hookbait is, don't use to much in the groundbait, otherwise the fish will (probably) eat that and be bored of that bait by the time they find your hookbait. So just use a few offerings per feeder load. In some circumstances however, the carp were so confident in feeding that people were able to use float rods, carp rods and junior 6ft rods when feeder fishing, and didn't even need/use a quivertip for bite indication! So that just goes to show how confident these carp can be.

 Roach - As a matter of fact there are more carp than roach in this lake. So getting past competitive and hungry carp to catch just the silvers alone is a hard task. Use very fine breadcrumb groundbait or micro-feed pellets and try to use <4mm pellets as your hookbait or pinkies. However, this does not mean tackle down and use 1lb hooklengths or 2.5lb mainline, because you are very likely to latch into a carp which could easy break through light lines. However, if you are paying a visit to this lake (which you should), I would seriously recommend not fishing for the silvers, the carp in this lake are just as easy to catch, if not easier and are much more exciting to play as well.