July 12th Boulthurst Farm, Nr Limpsfield Surrey

After nearly not getting a swim for an afternoon session last week and ending with a 7.5 pound carp I thought I thought that was good enough reason to devote a whole day to the club pond at Boulthurst Farm.

I arrived about 7am accompanied by a light rain. The forecast was for rain all day so I put my waterproof trousers and fleesce on. I carried my tackle through the undergrowth to my swim. I was glad I had got changed as my legs were covered in water!

On the way to the swim and I could see fish moving all over the pond including several good ones near the bank where I was walking and planning to fish. I had the feeling today was going to be a good day.

I set up in the usual way, the only difference being that the pond was a couple on inches deeper thanks to the recent rains. Out went a single piece of corn and I sat back and waited for the action to begin. Here is my swim:

No immediate action, not even any signs of life around the swim. Very strange. I kept up my normal feeding pattern but to no avail. By now the early morning rain had disappated and the sun had broken through. The carp continued to cruise on the top all over the pond.

About 8:30 a father and his 7 year son turned up and set up in the swim next to mine. They had all the modern carp gear including rod pod and buzzers. By the sound of thier conversation the young lad had the left hand rod and the dad the right. They were casting to the far side of the pond, I could tell because the height of the bank meant that I could clearly see where their lines entered the water.

After 30 minutes or so off went one of their buzzers and in came a carp of around 3lb. The father came round for a chat and told me what his tactics were, tutti fruitti boile on 10lb main line fished as close to the far bank as possible. The far bank is inaccessible to anglers. He asked me what the largest fish in the pond was and I told him about 15 pounds.

The rest of the morning session followed the same pattern. I was getting absolutely nothing and for them the buzzer went off every 30 minutes or so although to be fair not all were landed. Around lunchtime the young lad came round to see if I had caught anything yet - I replied no and he said "not to worry" as he had had 3 so far - all good uns!.

I decided to have my lunch around 1pm - feeling confident that by now that it wasn't my day and that the float wouldn't go under while I was eating! After lunch I decided to feed the swim under the tree, as that is where the previous week I'd had some success.

I gave it half an hour before dropping the float in - as I did the young lad and his dad came round again for a chat. As they were standing next to the tree I really didn't expect much action but in mid sentence the dad jumped back as the float went and I struck. After a few minutes into the net came a nice cap of around 2 pound. Off the mark at last - not a blank!

I thought a change of tactics might be in order so I switched to the feeder rod and sent the feeder out for a couple of hours. Nothing, not a sniff of a bite. Yes it was definitely one of those days.

All the time I was using the feeder I kept feeding the swim under the tree. Eventually I took the feeder off and feelined meat under the tree. One carp almost immediately was in the net. I fed bread as well as meat and corn. Some of it floated around the tree. I kept seeing the same carp come to the surface and eat the stuff. I put on a large flake and flicked it out. After a few minutes the tip went round, I struck and in came a 4 ounce roach!

4 o'clock came and my 2 new fishing buddies decided to called it a day - I reckon they must have had 10 carp between them - I was struggling on 2 plus a roach.

Over the next 2 hours I managed to extract one more carp from the bush swim (see below). By now the confidence was low and I started to think about packing up. In went a large handful of meat and some corn. I waited and waited and then the tip flew round and we were off again. A few minutes later, with the fish well and truly beaten I went for the net. The fish took this as a sign to leave so it did but gave me my hook back first!

That was it for me - I called it a day right there and then!

Tight lines.

5th July Boulthurst Farm, Limpsfield, Surrey

Now I'm no different from most anglers in that I believe the best time to attack a venue is the period late afternoon until it gets dark. To this end I set off at 2:45 for Boulthurst Farm, the club pond just outside Limpsfield in Surrey.

I arrived around 3:15 to find 3 cars in the car park. I began to panic - there are only 4 swims there! Anyway after a quick walk round I discovered that one of the swims was free - it was the most open and probably the worst on the complex except if you are one of the buzzer brigade in which case it's perfect. The best swim was occupied by a father and 2 small boys. I got chatting to them and they were going to pack up soon so I thought I'll have a quick try in the margins under the bush on a small float rather than the open water and then move round when they leave.

I set up a float rod and plumbed the depth. The water level was very low - the depth was just over a foot. The recent lack of rain was really having an effect on this small pond. I throw in a few grains of corn and flicked the float out.

Immediately there was some action around the float. I took it to be small roach just knocking the line. Suddenly the float shot away and I struck, the fish turned and headed back under the tree where it stayed after returning the hook! Undettered I threw a few more grains out and flicked the float out again. Five minutes later the same thing happened!

The dad and 2 boys decided to call it a day at this point and I took the oppertunity to move swims to actually do what I intended to do and that was have a little go at feeder fishing with a normal cage feeder.

I decided to fish about 20 yards in front of me and about 2 or 3 yards to the right of the fallen down tree. This was near enough for the carp to come to and far enough away I hoped not to lose any feeders.

The plan for the rest of the afternoon and evening was to use the feeder as stated above and feed the swims under the tree and in front of the bush with luncheon meat so that later on I could try fee-lining some meat.

I know my casting isn't brilliant but I did manage to put it quite close to the spot where I intended it to go. The pond has quite high banks but with the stream forming a gap I was able to position the rod 90 degrees to the feeder and about 6 inches off the surface of the water. I tightened up the line so that the tip was slightly bent and then waited.

A little knock and then another which was quickly followed by the tip slowly going round. I struck and up came a nice roach. Not a bad fish for my first cast. Next cast exactly the same thing. I must be getting good at this. I swopped baits from corn to luncheon meat and was rewarded with a nice carp of about 2 pounds.

Time was moving on and as I'd seen some fishy movement under the tree I thought I would give it a go. So in went some meat and out went a nice big piece on a free line. At the same time I started to pack away my stuff which I would no longer need. Now this a bit of a knack - tidying up while keeping an eye on the tip!

Here is the tree/bush.

Just as I finished the tip bent round and we were away. At first I thought it was in the 2 pound range but once on the surface I saw it was a good size. My feeder rod is strong and with 6lb line on I was confident of landing the beast. Finally into the net it came - a nice 7.5 pounds of common carp! My personal best for the season so far.

And here it is....

That was it for me - It was about 8 o'clock - I'd had 5 hours or so of fairly good sport so it was time to go home and have my dinner!

Tight Lines

03rd July 2009 - Mill Lake, Stubpond Fishery, Felbridge, Surrey

Having given the club ponds a hammering over the last few weeks I thought it would be a good idea to pay Stubpond a visit today.

The previous 4 days had been the hottest of the year so far but the forecast for today was for a drop of some 7 degrees so I thought if the fish had become sluggish in the heat they may now come back to life and feed.

I arrived at the fishery dead on the opening time of 8am to see a change to the notice which notified anglers that the fishery will now close at 6 rather than 5 - great an extra hours fishing for my quid!

Had the pick of the swims again as I was the first on the lake - only just though as another fella was only 2 or 3 three minutes behind me. What struck me about the swim that was different from this time last year was the absence of the lily pads to my right. There were replaced not by clear water but by the type of thick weed that grows under the water. Not to complain too much thougn as the swim was one of the more weed free on the lake. The further you walk away from the car park the weedier it becomes.

I decided to start by fishing as tight as I could to the weed bed that had replaced the lily pads. It wasn't difficult as a good underarm cast did the job wonderfully. I had groundbaited the swim and thrown in a handful or 2 of maggots to get them going. For set up my comercial float rod with 5lb line plus a size 16 carp wide gap hook was used. I knew if I was lucky that the carp here could be anything from 1lb up to around 15 pounds so I wanted to be prepared for anything. Also the set up had to be able to cope with a fish getting in the weeds (the visible and the invisible).

I decided to start with a single maggot to see if the silver fish were active in the swim and to ensure I didn't blank! Ten minutes later I had 3 rudd and a roach, the last of which had swallowed the hook deep and it was an effort to get it out. That made my mind up to change. Off came the maggot and on went normal sweetcorn. To be honest I'd been using scopex flavoured corn a lot lately and only using the 'normal' corn in the groundbait mix. Immediately there were indications on the float that something was interested. Down it went and in came a small tench of just under a pound.

Even though it wasn't yet 9:30 the big yellowish ghost carp that live in Mill Lake began to patrol the surface. They are big. The odd mirror could also be seen feeding on the surface weed. Sometimes they would literally swim beneath my feet!

Back to the action and I began to realise that the swim was alive with fish. Carp up to 2lb and 5 tench up to a pound found their way into the 'net' by lunchtime on corn, bread and scopex flavoured corn. So far I had only lost one fish which judging by it's run, I thought was another small tench.

If you are a regular reader of my reports you will know that 9 times out of 10 I tend to be the only person on the lake/pond. Now something very wierd happened in the morning. Another angler turned up and started to fish in the swim nearest the car park. First off he set up the biggest umbrella I've ever seen (which I mistook for a bivvy at first), complete with one of those beds that carpers use. Ten minutes later the umbrella was down, 10 minutes or so after that he was gone! Very strange.

Around 11 a father and son turned up who told me they hadn't fished there before and wanted the local info! What they did know came from the woefully out of date website which still stated that there were 5 lakes on the complex when in actual fact there was only 4. They decided to set up to my right in the 2 swims nearest the car park. They talked to each other all the rest of the day but it wasn't affecting my fishing so I didn't pay it no mind.

At noon I was feeling confident enough to make the switch to meat. I began to feed the swim to my immediate left which was against a reed bed about a rod length away. I decided to attack the swim at 1pm.

First drop into the swim and almost immediately the float went away and I had a good size carp on. As I said before the pond has a lot of weed in it and as the fish fought the line gathered more and more of it making the whole job slightly more difficult. Anyway I managed to get it in - a nice one of around 4 pound. See below:

For the rest of the afternoon I alternated between the two swims. The only difference being that the swim on the left I fed exclusively with meat and the other I fed the same way as in the morning except for a few cubes of meat. The fish kept coming in. All good fighters but none bigger than 4 pound. This was probably the best of the lot.

I did however break one of my personal bests - in fact I caught a species of fish I've never caught before. A nice goldfish of about 6 ounces!

I packed up about 5:30. I caught steadily all day for a total of 35 fish, the best being a 4lb carp. The weather as predicted was a lot cooler (although not uncomfortable) than the previous few days and I think this accounted as much for my catch as my skill!

In the words of Arnie - I'll be back.

Tight Lines.