2011 9 April 21st Sidewinder Lake, More Farm Fishery, Haywards Heath

This was going to be my first visit to this fishery. I had a couple of days before mailed a post to the forum asking if anyone had fished it before but no one replied! Despite that I headed off about 5:45 to do the 70 minute drive from Croydon to Haywards Heath in Sussex.

The sun was quite strong when I left and the forecast was for a very hot one so I made sure that I had plenty of liquids, flask of tea, 2 litre bottle of pepsi max and a 2 litre bottle of water! The sun screen also made it into the tackle box.

I arrived at the fishery at 7:05 it would have been 7:01 but I overshot the entrance! I parked up by the bailiffs hut and got out to have a look around. I could see one lake that I took to be the specimen one judging by the rod setups and bivvys. I couldn't see the others. So I made my way to the specimen lake and asked the first angler where the other two lakes were. He didn't know(!) so I made my way back to the hut. By this time a farmhand was about and he showed me where the Sidewinder Lake was. So off I went for a look.

One thing I did discover was that in the next field there were Llamas!

The lake is a typcial snake match lake. The reed beds in the main however were on our side leaving the far bank pretty barren by comparison. I began to set up with a plan to fish the far bank. After plumbing up I found the far shelf and after a few practise casts found that I could get there easily and with minimal effort.

Once I was ready it was almost 8am so I made my way back up the hill with the intention of paying the bailiff. When I arrived I found he still wasn't there so I rang the number on the hut and he said he was stuck in traffic but would be there momentariliy. When he arrived I found it was Robert the previous boss of Stubpond himself. I paid my £1, had a brief chat and then made my way back to my swim.

I decided to attack first with corn. I didn't have to wait long as the float dipped and in came a carp of about a 1lb. By 9am I had landed 10 carp, all roughly 1lb. I knew the lake had fish in it then!

During the next hour I had a 2 ghost carp and 7 more of the small carp! It was during this hour that I caught my first ever barbel, a personal best of 3 ounces!

There were two good margin swims to left and right of me which I had fed from the start. At 10am I had a look in both. At 10:06 both the right and left hand ones produced carp on meat.

The next hour or so I went went on maggots in a big way, feeding the swim with a few every cast however although I caught a further 10 carp they were all around the 2 or 3 ounce mark. I also checked the margins again however this time only the right hand swim produced a carp.

Carrying on the theme of changing hook baits I tried bread next. Again ten carp all around the pound mark. It was now around 12:30 so I took a break for lunch.

By half past one I'd added another 10 carp to the 'net' plus one from each of the margin swims.

Another 9 small carp came out steadily through the afternoon plus a 7lb common on meat. My biggest so far of the day.

An hour later, I was still catching small carp however I had also managed a season's best carp of 8lb.

The pattern continued with a 3lb common.

My last fish of the day was a personal best Ghost carp of 4lb. I was delighted.

By now it was about 7pm so I packed up and made my way home.

2011 8 April 15th Silver Lake, Gabriels Fishery, Edenbridge Kent

Another Friday off work and another trip to Gabriels.

I made up my mind early that I would if possible try and get swim number 1 as I did last visit. Apart from the obvious success I had there it also has the advantage of haviing a reed bed coming off the end of the island that I could fish to with the feeder rod if the weather turned nasty.

I arrived at 7am sharp and made my way from the gate down the 1 mile or so track to the car park. After parking up two lads who had been fishing there overnight gave me all thier unused maggots!

I knew by the number of cars (or lack of) them to be precise that I would be on peg 1 again today. I reached the lake and was not disappointed. The whole lake was free.

On the way down I'd decided that I would try and fish a little further out than usual so I set up with a 1.3g waggler instead of the usual 3bb one. Also I'd read recently on the forum a set of posts on the importance of plumbing the depth of the whole area surrounding the swim. I normally do just around where I intend to put the float. Anyway this time I spent a few extra minutes plumbing up and discovered a hole around a foot deep just after where I normally fish followed by the 'normal' depth.

The plan now was to fish the far side of the hole so I groundbaited that area with brown crumb, corn and fair amount of hemp.

I started with corn as the hookbait. I didn't have to wait long as a 2 ounce carp took a fancy to it and his fate was sealed. Ten minutes later I'd had a bream of about a pound, a carp of 1.5 pounds and the first roach of the day.

The swim was on fire now as in the next hour I managed a carp of 2.75 pound, 5 bream (all largish skimmers) and another roach.

Around 10:30 I decided to give some bread flake a go, now usually I'm pretty wary using this bait in the main swim as I tend to get pestered by the smaller fish, that is the float dips but when I strike there is nothing there not even the flake. Anyway initially my fears were correct as the small roach did the dirty on me. Eventually the float took a real dive and in came a carp of at least 2 ounces! Thirty minutes later so did his brother. Undeterred I tried again - this time success a 2lb common!

All morning I'd been feeding lumps of flake and meat into the reed bed on my right. At noon I decided to give it a whirl. It is pretty shallow there so the float was laying on. Once it lifted and started to move away I stuck and eventually out came a 2lb common. Meat was the bait this time.

Apparentlly fish have lunchtimes too because until 2pm the swim(s) went very quiet. Not a sign of any feeding activity. Then at 14:00 they came back to life, a common of 2lb from the main swim and one of 2.5lb from the margins on meat again.

Another couple of quiet hours followed in the early afternoon. Undettered I carried on feeding the swim in an effort to get them back sometime in the early evening.

I was still fishing with corn and was rewarded just after 4pm when I caught 2 roach and a 3.5lb carp. The evening dinner bell apparently had been sounded!

I only had to wait 30 minutes or so before the float went under again and I was into what was then my best carp of the day - a 4.5lb specimen(!).

Fifteen minutes later a 5lb'er took the bait. They were coming quicker and bigger! The quiet afternoon spell long since forgotten.

Alas it was a false dawn, I had to wait a further 90 minutes before I caught my last fish of the day, a 2lb common from the margins.

I packed up around 7pm and headed home for some fish and chips, well it was a Friday.