July 26th Boulthurst Farm, Oxted, Surrey

Every season I like to spend at least one session at Boulthurst targetting the crucians that live there.

I arrived early (6:45) to ensure that I got the lily pads swim as I knew from past experience that that was where they were the most prolific.

I was first there as usual but the sight that met my eyes was most disconcerting. The club supply 2 bins, one in the carpark right next to the pond and one actually in swim 1. These bins were close to overflowing and the area all around them was covered in litter and even discarded articles of clothing! I had a quick walk around the pond and all the swims were in the same condition. How can people not leave things as they find them?

Anyway the swim I chose only had a few empty cans and a discarded loaf of bread in so I cleared that away and set up my tackle for the day.

I had no choice but to use my 13' match rod as my Shimano float rod was broke (see previous blog entry). On the 5lb main line I attached a small 2 bb waggler and a size 16 hook with a 4lb hooklength.

I mixed up my groundbait - 75% brown crumb with 25% carp/tench/brem attractor together with a handful or 2 of sweetcorn. I threw a couple of balls to the farside of the lily pads. (See photo below).

When I've fished this swim previously I've always managed to bag a bonus carp or 2 in between the lily pads and the bank. The water is only about a foot deep but if you feed it enough they will come in at some point during the day.

To this end I set up my feeder rod with 6lb main line and a size 14 hook to a 5lb hook length. While I was waiting for the crucians to be attracted to the groundbait I thought I would feed the margins swim with some corn and have a dabble.

While I was setting up my match rod the tip shot round and I struck expecting a carp but no, it was a roach of about 4 ounces!!!

By 7:45 I was ready to cast into the swim for the first time. I initially used corn as bait. I didn't have to wait too long before I caught my second roach of the day. This was followed fairly quickly by a crucian of around half a pound.

I tried corn in the margins every hour and at 9:00 I landed a 2.5lb common.

The next 3 hours were pretty slow in terms of the number of fish caught but I did have 4 crucians, sadly none made the magic pound mark. I did pick up a carp on corn which was a pleasant surprise. The margins swim produced another carp and another roach.

The afternoon session was not enjoyable for me at all. Around 3pm a group of kids turned up - 4 went in one swim to the side of me and one went down the far end. For the next hour they cast out the biggest float I've ever seen attached to a massive bit of bread. This fell off and so they reeled in and re-cast.

Of course one had to come over and ask me for a light - I don't smoke so couldn't 'help'.

There was a member of the committee fishing at the pond that day but when I spoke to him after they left (having cast into the tree over thier heads) he said that 'it wasn't worth the hassle to challenge them'. I tended to agree.

Anyway after they left I regained some composure and fished on. By the time I packed up (about 6:30) I added 4 roach (1 from the margins again), 1 more crucian and 2 carp (using a large piece of bread flake).

The largest one is shown below:

I did meet fellow Maggot Drowner Mr B Largus today but as we didn't realise it for several days we didn't chat. Oh well there's always next time.

I packed up at 6pm and headed home.