June 11th - Private Pond

It was the end of the flexi period and as I had completed my time by 11:20 I headed home with the intention of a good afternoon and evening session at the pond.

On the way home I got a tin of sweetcorn and a loaf of bread. The plan was to go with these only, no hemp, meat or maggots this time.

I've only ever fished peg 1 here but I've been told that the bigger tench reside at the other end so on the way I prayed that there were some spaces availabale up there. The pond only has 11 swims.

Luck was on my side, there were other anglers there but they were all on the near side around the middle of the pond. I quickly got my gear and made my way to the far side, top end swim peg 11.

Directly in front of me was a large bed of lily pads. To the left was the island but that was really out of range for float tackle so didn't figure in my plans. There was however a set of reeds/lilys both sides of the platform.

The first task was to mix the groundbait - 75% brown crumb and the rest carp/tench red attractor. I fed the swim about 2 rod lengths out.

As I was setting up my float rod I could see the swim bubbling away almost immediately. I hoped they would be crucians or even some of the larger tench.

As soon as the first cast went in (about 14:00) the corn was attacked. I struck and in came one of the ponds smaller carp (4 - 6 ounces).

This was the pattern for most of the session. A non stop array of small carp, all of which bent the rod but none were actually "rod benders".

In amongst the small carp were some tench but they were no bigger than a pound. I was, however pleased with the roach below:

Whilst fishing the swim in front of me I had also been feeding, with a couple of pieces of corn every 10 minutes or so the 2 margin swims either side of me. Around 5pm I dropped the float in to have a look. The carp below was the result.

I packed up at 9:30 or so having had over 40 fish. I was disappointed that I didn't get one of the bigger tench or any of the crucians but there's always the next tiime.

June 05 - Private Pond, Oxted, Surrey

The two ponds of Holland Angling Society opened on the 1st June, however due to other commitments I wasn't able to get down there until the 5th.

As luck would have it the weather was pretty poor at the beginning of the week but by Friday the signs were good that it was going to be a scorcher. The fish were sure to be more active after some injection of heat into the water.

It's a bit less than 30 minutes drive to the pond so I could be up at my normal work time and still be there by 6:15. Needless to say I was the first one there.

My favourite swim there is peg 1 and as this was my first visit of the season I thought I would go there. It has the advantage of being a corner swim with lily pads deep in the corner plus a nice margin swim on the other side of the platform to another set of lily pads. The only downside is that it is a bit on the shallow side. See picture below:

I've known this swim produce some good fish from the margins all day here so I initially fed some corn into the swim and set up my feeder rod to free line some corn while I was setting up my main float tackle.

The tip went round very gently almost straight away but I missed the bite. I re-cast (actually dropped) the bait and carried on setting up. Within 5 minutes the tip went again and this time I was in. I could tell straight away it wasn't a monster however it was a nice tench of about a pound.

With my float set up complete I retired the feeder rod and cast to the far side of the lily pads with a single maggot - straight away the float dipped and in came a small roach. I decided to change baits immediately and out went a piece of corn. No action initially but after a while I was into the small carp, none of which topped a pound.

By 8:20 in addition to the first Tench, I'd got 2 Roach, and 5 small Carp.

The pattern was set for the rest of the morning: whilst I continued to catch on the sweetcorn by the lilys I also fed the margins swim, with an experimental cast every hour or so.

By 11:30 I had caught another 17 carp and a solitary roach all bar a couple on sweetcorn.

Appropriately enough the fish kept feeding during the lunchtime. The Tench pictured below was 1.5 pounds my best fish of the day so far.

The two hour lunch period yielded in addition to the tench above, 2 roach and 9 carp. It was also the beginning of a mini heatwave. I had to put the umbrella up to avoid getting sunstroke!

As the afternoon wore on I began to think that my day was going to entirely consist of small carp and that the bigger stuff were not going to show even though they did start to show on the surface.

However the margins swim came up trumps when this 5lb common carp took a liking to large piece of bread flake.

By 14.55 in addition to the carp above I'd added 1 Crucian, 2 Roach and one more small Carp.

I was at this time beginning to get tired due to the early start, the sun on the water and staring all day at the float. I didn't want to go home yet so I decided to pack away the float rod and fish the remiander of the day on my feeder rod. No feeder, just bait and 2 small shot to get it down.

I could flick the bait out to exactly where the float had been with a small amout of effort. For the next 3 hours or so I carried on catching small carp, almost a fish a cast. The tip proving far easier to watch than the float.

I packed up about 6:30 having caught around 60 fish. Not a bad first outting of the season.

Rant

I'm not one who usually complains for the sake of it but I must say I wasn't too impressed with the behaviour of the club members who were also fishing the pond today.

Firsty one of the guys talked/shouted a conversation to his mates for most of the day, the majority of it non fishing related.

Secondly apart from one of them, they all cleared off to the pub lunchtime leaving their gear in the swims. Now I know there are only 11 swims on the pond and could, if people turned up for an afternoon session have led to an altercation if there were no other swims available.

Rant over.