August 22nd Boulthurst Farm

Every season I try to grab the best swim on the pond and fish for the carp using coventional float tactics.

First of all I had to make sure that I got the swim. To this end I was up early and arrived at the pond around 7am. Luck was on my side as there was no one there.

The photo below does not really give the right impression of the difficulties posed by this swim. On the left there is a large overhanging bush followed by a sunken tree. Stopping the fish before they reached the sanctuary of the snags was the order of the day.

Due to the snags my tackle for the day was my Shimano float road, 6lb main line to a size 16 hook on a 5lb hooklength. A 3bb float completed the set up.

I fed a generous helping of groundbait and about a third of a pint of hemp into the swim. My first cast was at 7:45 with a grain of corn on the hook.

I didn't have too long to wait for the first bite, aaround 30 minutes I would say. It wasn't a carp but a skimmer bream of about a 1lb which was a personal best for me for the venue.

The next two bites I lost, the first a small roach which dropped off on the way in and a foul hooked carp that I lost at the net.

By 9:15 I'd only added another roach. I wasn't particularly worried by the slow start as my previous experience on the pond had taught me that it was a slow starter.

The next hour was slighty more productive with 3 roach and a 1.5lb carp who had a liking for breadflake.

The action stopped for 2 hours. In that time I continued to experiment with corn and bread on the hook. I also had a go with meat and this did account for a 2lb common.

At 12:50 the heavens opened again but not before I landed a 3lb mirror, again on meat.

20 minutes later a second 2lb mirror was in the net.

The rain continued to crash down so I had to keep everything as dry as possible including my notebook and camera.

I did keep on catching escpecially after the rain finally stopped. It seemed as if the rainstorm somehow galvanised them into action. The photo below was one I managed to get off during a break in the rain.

The fish below is an example of what I was catching in the afternoon.

August 13th Private Pond Oxted Surrey

Didn't intend to go fishing on this day as I had already made plans to go on the Sunday afternoon. My daughter however decided to go on holiday on the Sunday and wanted a lift to Gatwick so that scuppered my weekend plans.

I then decided that if I took the Friday off I would go to the club's Private pond for an afternoon/evening session in another attempt to get one of their fabled good size tench.

The day started badly in that my PC's hardrive decided to give up the ghost (the second time in 2 years). I was not happy to say the least and even less so after being sent to PC WORLD by the TECH GUYS to get my data recovered (which I pay for monthly) only to discover that the store in Croydon doesn't do it anymore.

Anyway I left for the pond around noon armed with half a loaf of bread, a tin of corn and a tin of luncheon meat. I also had my Shimano float rod with it's new end piece (see previous post for that story).

It was raining when I left home but by the time I arrived at the pond 30 minutes later it had disappated. I wanted if I could, to fish peg 8 which I had been told by my scouse (sorry don't know your name) mate that that was the hot spot for the tench.

I was fortunate in that when I arrived the only other angler there was on peg 3 so I made was way to peg 8.

The peg had a definite 'fishy' feel about it. There was a large bank of lily pads directly in front of me (about a rod length out) which meant that I wouldn't have to cast the bait - just flick it out. See photo below.

Prior to setting up I threw in a couple of handfuls of corn.

My setup was 6lb mainline (because of the lillies), size16 hook to 4lb hooklength with a 2bb crystal waggler.

I flicked the bait out as near to the lillies as possible and settled back in my chair. A few minutes later the float went under and in came a carp off about half a pound.

This was followed in the first hour or so by 2 more small carp and a small rudd. I kept feeding the corn after each fish as I wanted to build up the swim as I hoped that as the day wore on the bigger fish would come and investigate.

I had brought bread with me but to be honest on this pond the very small fish are such a nusiance that I just get frustrated when I use it and tend to stay on the corn. However in this swim things were different. The bites were positive and although early on the takers were small carp I was not pestered by the small stuff.

The bread was working well - at one stage I was on a fish a cast!

The tench finally began to show around mid-afternoon. The first one barely made a pound but the next 2 were in the 2lb range.

Throughout the session I had been feeding the margins swim which because the swim was on a bend in the lake, was almost at my feet!

From time to time I had a dabble but it wasn't until around 5pm that I got a bite - it wasn't a carp but a nice tench of around a pound.

The pattern was now set for the remainder of the session - fish the main swim for 20 minutes or so and than try the margins swim.

Oh I forgot to mention that from 3pm onwards the heavens had opened and I had to camp out under my umbrella and don my waterproofs!

The rain seemed to galvanise the fish into feeding as whatever bait I used, be it corn, bread or meat they responded with very positive bites.

My main swim producing mainly small carp but occasionally the odd larger one of between 1 and 3 pounds. I also managed to bag a nice tench of around 3.5lb which if I hadn't have had my scales nicked recently I could have confirmed.

The margins swim was also still producing, I must have had 6 or 7 nice carp from there over the remainder of the session. All of them were between 2 and 6 pound.

By the time I packed up (7:45) I'd had 35 or so fish, mainly small common and mirror carp but also 3 roach, a rudd, a crucian and 8 tench (the most I've ever caught in a session).

I will be returning to swim 8 possibly for a full days session later on in the season.

August 8th Private Lake. Oxted Surrey

For some time I had been wondering what it would be like to have a go for the carp in this pond using carp methods rather than my normal waggler approach.

Last Sunday I thought I would give it a go. Conditions for fishing should have been good as for the previous 2 days the heavens had opened which had got rid of the high humidity.

I arrived arround 7am and was set up for the first cast around 7:30.

The swim I chose had 2 advantages - the first being the island at an angle of 45 degrees and only about 5 rod lengths out, the second a set of lily pads at 45 degrees the other way about 4 rod lengths out.

15 minutes after my first cast I realised my first mistake - the boillies I use are 10ml in size and this pond is full of small carp of less than a pound. Straight away one of them took the bait. Still I was off the mark.

My second mistake was not so obvious. When I came to feed the swims, the lily pad swim was no problem the small boiliies I could throw in quite accurately however I couldn't get them to the island swim. I decided to swop the leger for a small swimfeeder. I mixed up some brown crumb which I put in the feeder along with 3 or 4 boillies. This seemed to do the trick.

By noon I'd added 3 more small carp - there were bigger ones on the surface but none as yet were feeding.

12:15 saw the action resume with this 2lb common.

By 1pm I'd accumulated a further 2 small carp and a 2lb mirror all with a liking for tutti fruitti.

The next hour saw the pattern repeated as 2 more small carp and a 1lb'er were caught.

My continual feeding must have had some affect as in the afternoon session as the small carp disappearred and the larger stuff (over a 1lb came in).

To prove the point the next one was this nice 4lb specimen.

Next up was a 3lb'er and then at 14:50 the biggest fish of the day so far was in the net - a 5lb common who fell for a seafood boille just off the lily pads. See photo below:

The next 1 and a half hours brought 3 more 2lb commons, all from the lily pads swim on seafood. See photo below:

By 5 o'clock I'd landed 2 small commons, a 2lb common, my first mirror, my one and only tench and my best fish of the day a 6lb common.

The last 2 hours produced a further 5 carp on both tutti fruitti and seafood boillies.

Lessons learnt? Well the obvious one is that next time I go I will have to use bigger boillies so that the smaller carp can be avoided and maybe inest in a catapult!

August 4th Boulthurst

It was one of those really humid August mornings as I set off for Boulthurst for hopefully a good carping session on the best swim (if I could get it).

Luck was on my side this day as when I arrived the car park was empty so off I trotted down to the end swim.

The swim has an incoming stream to the left, followed by some bushes and then the dreaded sunken tree. This is followed by a bed of lily pads. My plan was to fish 10 yards or so to the right of the tree so that when(if) I got a take I had some time to stop it before it made the snags.

My setup up today would be my Shimano 2.5lb tc carp rod, Shimano Exige reel with 6lb line, a small 1/4 ounce leger and size 14 hair rig on 5lb line.

The bait was 10ml seafood boillies.

I didn't have to wait very long for the first take - I cast in at 7:15 and by 7:45 the first common of the day was on the bank - a nice 2lb'er.

At 8am I had another take, this was a bigger fish however I lost the battle to keep it out of the snag and lost it when the hooklength broke.

Half an hour later a second 2lb common was in the net - shaping up for a good day me thinks!

I'd been feeding a spot under a tree/bush on the other side of the swim with tutti fruitti boillies with the plan that I woudl swop swims every fish. This paid off at 8:40 when I land a 1.5lb common.

Having caught one on Tutti Fruitti I changed back to seafood and  re-cast to my oiginal spot. Straight away the rod tip went round but this time the fish got away, having spat the hook out.

At 9:30 the biggest fish of the day so far (a 4lb common) fell to a tutti fruitti boillie.

Just before 10 the tree came to the rescue of another one. You do need quick reactions to stop them getting there - it's a fine balance on 6lb line to decide how much strain to initially put on the fish.

10 minutes later a seafood boillie accounted for a 3lb common.

At 10:30 I decided to up the hook size to a size 12 and almost immediately landed a 2lb common.

Because the boillies I use are small the roach in the pond like them and so it proved when I caught one on a  tutti fruitti!

As is always nearly the case the morning session at Boulthurst is not that great and so the swims went into a 90 minute rest period - It may just be my limited talent though.

After I ate my lunch the action resumed first with a 4lb mirror and then with a 1.5lb mirror in quick sucession.

The lunchtime period ended with a 3lb common on tutti fruitti.

Another 90 minutes of inactivity was broken by a 2lb common with a liking for a seafood boillie. So far neither swim appeared to be the hot one of the day.

15:15 brought another small common and a torrential downpour that lasted until 16:30. Luckily I was able to get the umbrella up and the waterproofs on before any serious soaking was had.

At 4pm I lost my second fish in 6 hours, not bad considering the swim I was fishing.

Five minutes later and I had put that right when I landed a 4lb common.

The rain must have have woken them up somewhat as next cast I had a 3lb mirror.

The rain finally stopped but the feeding fish didn't as in the next hour I had a 2.5lb common, a 3lb common and a 4lb common.

The run of carp was interruputed by a good size roach with a liking for seafood boillies!

Just before 6 I caught my last fish of the day - a small common of about a pound.

I packed up at that point having had a good day in what is a very good but challenging swim.