11th September - Private pond - Holland, nr Oxted, Surrey

This year's summer was showing no signs of breaking so on Friday September 11th, I decided to suspend my carp fishing and have a day float fishing on the club's private pond, just outside Holland in Surrey.

I arrived around 7am and my favourite peg (number 1) was free so I made way round to it and contemplated my plan for the day.

The water was dead calm so that made my mind up to fish a very light waggler tight to the lily pads in the corner of the pond to my immediate ight. The depth there is about 18 inches or so. I would also feed the margin swim to my left in the hope of picking up some bonus carp later on in the day.

I mixed some groundbait and fed two generous balls into the first swim. Coupled with this I also fed some maggots and a handful of hemp. To both swims I added a few grains of corn.

I was using my 12 foot float rod which is better suited for the bonus carp than my match rod. I had 5 lb main line to a 4 pound hook length on size 16 wide gap hook. A 2bb waggler dotted down completed the set up.

I started on swim 1 with a piece of strawberry flavoured corn. Although I could detect life in the swim nothing initially showed any interest in my bait. I put this down to either small rudd and roach or my grounbait doing its job so was not particulaly bothered.

As the first hour drew to a close I hadn't had any action at all in swim 1 on the corn. I decided to have a go in swim 2. I'd been feeding it a couple of grains of corn every 10 minutes or so.

Within seconds the float disappearred and I was into a fairly good fish. I played it within a couple of yards from the platform directly in front of me so I knew it was no monster. A couple of minutes later into the net came a very nice tench of around 2 pound.

Back to swim 1 and a change of bait brought me a few small (very) roach and the occasional small carp (mirror and common). None of them more than half a pound.

On the grounds that the corn and to a certain extent then maggots wern't working I decided to try bread. I wasn't using a punch so the flake on the hook was quite large which gave me the problem of small fish nibbling but not taking the bait. However when I did hook into a fish it invariably was a crucian carp. I couldn't keep count of them but it was something like a fish a cast for the next hour or so.

The only drawback was that once when I put my hand in the bread bag a bolt of pain shot up my arm. I withdrew my hand pretty quick to discover that I had been bitten by a wasp!

The pattern was set for the remainder of the morning. From the margin swim I managed to get another two good (for me) tench and the occasional better quality roach and from the main swim small carp, small tench and a load of crucians.

During the morning I had left the luncheon meat in the sun so that the outer skin hardened enough for me to use it on the hook. I'd been feeding the occcasional lunp or two in the margin swim all morning and at about two thirty I decided to give it a go. I was rewarded with a beautiful common carp of around 5 pound.

For the rest of the day I fished swim 1 with corn and bread taking crucians and small carp mostly and then every hour or so I would dip in the margins and take a bonus carp.

I did lose 2 good carp later on in the day.

I packed up at 7pm having had a great late summer's day. I must have caught around 70 fish including crucian carp, roach, rudd, tench, mirror and common carp. I'd learn't that if one bait doesn't work -try something different, in this case - the magic bread!

Till the next time.

Sorry about the lack of photos but my batteries went in my camera!