March 25th - Mill Lake, Stubpond, Nr Felbridge Surrey

March 25th saw me back down to Stubpond fishery. The fishery opens at 8am and by 8:37 I was set up and fishing in my favourite swim. 

Usual tactics for this venue to start with. A healthly amount of groundbait thrown in along with some hemp and a good three or four handfuls of maggots. This was allowed to settle in while I set up. I was using my Shimano float rod, 5lb main line, size 16 wide gape hook with a 4lb hooklength and a 2bb float.

In the first hour I used single maggot with an occasional piece of breadflake.

By the end of the first hour I had the following:

1 2lb Common Carp

1 1lb Cruician Carp (see later note)
2 Perch
8 Roach/Rudd

By the end of the second hour my virtual net now contained an additional

2 Crucian Carp - one 2.5lb (see photo below)
2 Perch
5 Roach/Rudd

When I initially caught the above I thought they were Crucians because of the brightness of their colours but now I think they are F1's. Could someone please confirm.

Around lunchtime I set up my feeder rod and fed a few shellfish boillies towards the far bank - almost immediately I was rewarded with a 3lb common.

As well as the aforementioned carp by 12:30 I had increased my net by:
1 Crucian
3 Roach/Rudd
1 2lb mirror (on bread)

From 12:30 to 14:30 the heavens opened and I got drowned despite having my waterproofs on!

The next hour and a half was very productive with both rods bringing in fish, maggots and bread on one and shellfish boilies on the other.

Added to the net were:
1 7lb Common Carp

2 5lb Mirror Carp
3 Roach/Rudd
1 Crucian Carp
8 small Carp various sorts.

In the final hour I had 2 more carp plus I lost what I felt was a good one. All fell to either bread or meat which I had only just tried.

When all said and done despite the weather it was a great day.

March 22nd - Mill Lake, Stubpond, Felbridge, Surrey

First of all I must apologise for the lack of photos - the batteries in my camera decided to give up the ghost when I went to take a photo of my swim.

Monday 22nd and I was still on annual leave and so with the gear packed, a pint of fresh maggots and some hot tea I made my way down the A22 to the Stubpond fishery.

Initial tactics were the same as the previous session only this time I had no hemp so I upped the groundbait amount to compensate.

As soon as the float hit the water I was into the small roach and rudd again.

As the morning went on I managed to land some small perch and gudgeon as well.

Around 10am the wind picked up again which made bite detection difficult but I perserved. I did find that during the bigger gusts if I used bread flake the bites were easier to see. So the pattern was set, windy then bread flake, calm then maggots.

The bread flake attracted my one and only carp and crucian carp of the day,together with a few bream and the better quality roach.

Around 3pm I decided to increase the amount of feed I was putting in as a way of feeding off the smaller fish. After about 30 minutes the float disappearred again and the rod bent over. Carp, I thought so I played the fish out and when it made the surface I saw it was the biggest perch I've ever seen! I weighed it and it was just under 3lb's. My previous best from the same spot was 2.5lb, caught at the same time the previous year. No photo though, what a shame.

By close of play I had caught 58 fish which included:

1 Carp
1 Crucian
2 Gudgeon
6 Perch
5 Bream
43 Roach and Rudd.

At Stubpond there is a group of 5 or 6 wild cats that roam around the fishery. Sometimes, as with today they come and sit behind me, waiting I thought for the odd scrap of meat. It's even been known that when it's raining one will sit under the brolly with me!

Anyway when I was swinging in a very small roach it dropped off the hook and like a flash a cat jumped in, nicked the fish and made off down the bank closely followed by his mates!






cat nicked roach

March 19th - Mill Lake, Stubpond, Nr Felbridge Surrey

After the relatively good weather I had on my last visit to the fishery I was expecting similar today but no, I had to contend with persistent wind and rain most of the day.

I was first to arrive again so it was off to swim 2 on Mill Lake.

I decided to follow the feeding pattern that I was successful with on the previous Monday. As can be seen from the bait tray above - it was maggots and hemp only.

Straight away the roach and rudd went mad and again it was a fish a chuck. After the first hour I decided that I had to try something different if I was to get to the bigger fish.

I made the switch to bread but still nothing other than the occasional roach seemed interested until I caught my one and only crucian of the day.

Then at 11:38 this nice carp took a fancy to a bit of bread flake.

The weather was excellent until around 10am when the wind increased such that it made seeing the bites very difficult. At 15:00 I decided to switch to a small bomb fishing small 10mm boillies on a hair rig to the far bank using my feeder rod. These carp were the result:

                                     

                                    

By the end of the day I had caught 26 fish which included:

5 Carp (3 4's 1 3 and a 1 pound)
1 Crucian
20 assorted Roach and Rudd.

I lost 3 carp during the session - one of them appearred to be pretty decent.

March 15th - Mill Lake, Stubpond nr Fellbridge, Surrey

This was my first visit to this complex of 2010 and I was eager to see how it fished compared to the previous Friday's trip to the club pond at Oxted.

The weather was warmer today however I still had on 3 layers of clothing - no coat required though. There was no rain and that's how it stayed for the day.

Having arrived at the moment the fishery opened I had first choice of swims. My favourite, on Mill Lake is swim 2 and so I made my way to that one. See picture below:

I made up a small amount of groundbait and threw it in about a rod length's out. I also fed some hemp and maggots.

Straight away the float went under and in came the first roach.

I fed moderately all day with a few maggots or a few grains of hemp all day and at times it was literally a fish a cast.

I did experiment with bread and corn but no joy so it was maggots all day long!

Just after 12 I landed this nice perch:

Around lunchtime I decided to follow the pattern from my previous session and feed another swim with small 10mm seafood boillies to see if there were any carp about. I hadn't seen any on the surface.

Although there had been no signs of any carp movement the tip went round at 14:20 in came this beauty:

At 15:00, an hour or so before closing the tip went round again and this second and final carp was landed.

When I had finished I had caught 60 fish which included

2 Bream
10 Gudgeon
6 Perch
2 Carp
10 Rudd
30 Roach

There were two other people on the lake all day.

March 12 PB Tench + Mobile Phone - Private Pond, Holland, Surrey

As in 2009, I had most of March off to get rid of my excess annual leave so for me the 2010 year/season started today.

With only 3 fishing days to end of the club's season I decided to pay a final visit to the Private Pond in Holland, near Oxted in Surrey.

As expected when I arrived at the pond at 8am there was no else to be seen. I put it down to the fact that it was a Friday and also that the weather was very cold! I made my way to peg 1 which is my favourite swim there.

As the lily pads from the summer had died away I decided to fish diectly in front of my platform about 1 rod length out.

I initially fed some groundbait, hemp and a few casters and then it was a few grains of hemp every cast.

Around midday I finally got my first bite which was a small roach. I had been seeing signs of small fish moving about but nothing had shown any interest in my bait.

I had quite a few of last year's seafood 10mm boillies left so all morning I 'd been feeding a swim about 3 rod lengths away to my left with 2 or 3 boillies every 30 minutes or so.

At 13:30 I decided to cast to the swim using my feeder rod, size 14 hooklength and 6 pound line.

Less than 45 minutes later the rod tip went round and in came this 3.5lb tench, which is a personal best for me.

If you look closely you can see it is unfortunately blind in one eye.

2 hours later, around 16:08 the tip swung round again and in came this 5lb common.

At 17:05 this 3 pound common also took a fancy to my boillies and that as they say was that for the club's season.

I can't leave this report without mentioning the mobile phone incident.

Around 3pm, I was on my way to answer the call of nature when my phone rang. Now, in March it's not too easy or comfortable to go for a jimmy so I was saving it up until the last minute. I answered the phone call as quickly as I could, replaced the phone in my arm pocket and had the aforementioned jimmy. Returning to my swim I threw out some hemp along with my phone - in my haste to relieve myself I handn't re-zipped my pocket!