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