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.