Our club has a concession here, £2 instead of the usual £8. This was my first chance to use it.
I arrived at the fishery at 7:05 to find 3 cars in the car park. No fighting over swims today then. As I entered the lake area from the car park I saw that they were all bivvy boys on the specimen lake so I had the pick of the swims on Silver Lake.
I knew the deeper water was at the end by the car park and as I thought it was too early in the year to try the shallow area I chose peg 1. This swim faces straight up the lake, with the island to the left and a set of rushes to the right in the corner. All bases covered.
The contre line straight down the lake about two rod lengths out was my preferred starting point. I groundbaited the swim in the normal way. For setup I used 4lb line, 3BB waggler and a size 18 hook. Initial hook bait was maggot.
Surprisingly nothing showed an interest. I fed a few each cast and I did get the feeling that there were some roach albeit small ones to be had. I gave it 30 minutes or so but couldn't get a decent bite. I switched to corn on the hook to see if that would change my fortune.
I didn't have to wait long for a bite though. The float shot away, the rod bent over and in came a skimmer bream of about a pound. Corn was to be the bait of choice today so I relegated the maggots to feed status. An hour or so later a second bream arrived.
"I'm in here" I thought as the float disappearred for the third time, However it wasn't a bream but a carp of about 2 or 3 ounces.
For the rest of the morning sport was slow. Derek the bailiff came round and said that everyone was saying that the fishing was slow. At least I thought it wasn't just me. I manage in that time 3 gudgeon and 2 roach (on maggot) and 2 3lb carp on bread. The second of which came from the reed bed about 2 feet out!
After I finished my gourmet lunch (mini savoury eggs and a sausage roll) the fishing began to pick up.
The sweetcorn started to work as at 13:38 I had one of 3lb followed an hour later by one of 5lb.
The sweetcorn was working in my original however I did not ignore the reed bed. I was steadily feeding small pieces of bread and then having a look every hour or so. I was rewarded at 15:15 with a 3lb common.
Another hour of relative quiet followed before I got a good bend in the rod which I took to be a small carp only to discover that it was a fair size perch with a liking for corn.
The margins produced again half an hour later when a 3lb mirror was tempted by a large piece of bread flake.
Proving that bread isn't just for carp I then landed another skimmer of about a pound.
It was nearing 5pm so began to think about packing up for the day. Although the fishing had been slow I had enjoyed the day which is the point of it all.
So I began the process of packing when a dad and his son came round and we started to chat about the fishing. When he mentioned that he was a member of Holland AS I remembered speaking to him at Boulthurst Farm last season! Anyway as we chatting the float disappearred and his little boy saw me land a 2lb carp.
That was it for the day.
| Time | Fish | Bait | Weight | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:39 | Bream | Sweetcorn | 1lb | |
| 9:33 | Bream | Sweetcorn | 1lb | |
| 9:43 | Carp | Sweetcorn | 2oz! | |
| 13:00 | 3 Gudgeon 2 Roach 2 Carp | Roach and Gudgeon on maggot, Carp on bread | 3lb | |
| 13:38 | Carp | Sweetcorn | 3lb | |
| 14:44 | Carp | Sweetcorn | 5lb | |
| 13:42 | 3 Carp Gudgeon 7 Roach/Rudd | 2 of the carp on strawberry boillies, the other on corn. The remainder on maggot. | 4lb and 4.5lb | |
| 16:45 | 10 Carp | All on strawberry boillies | 6lb 5.5lb 5lb 4lb |
Here are some of the fish:
Common Carp
Common Carp - The biggest of the day
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