2011 13 May 20th Sidewinder Lake, More House Farm Fishery, Haywards Heath

After my first ever double which I caught at this venue two weeks previous I couldn't wait to get back down there again and today was the day.

I was up at 5 and out of the house at 6 to make the hour long journey to the fishery in Haywards Heath.

On arrival I made my way straight to the lake. No one else was there (big surprise) so I grabbed the same swim as I'd caught my double in. I didn't expect to catch it again but hey you never know.

I chose to have the same setup as before, however I had to use another float as the dog ate my new lucky one!

I normally take some maggots as feed not as hook bait as I don't want to be plagued by small roach etc however as I hadn't seen any roach or rudd on my previous visits I decided to start with maggots.

I put on a red one and flicked the float out to where I had groundbaited. Less than five mintes later the float disppearred and I was into a good fish. Unlike last time when I lost a good fish early on this time I managed to get it into the net. A nice 6.5lb common.

Next cast, again on maggot a 2lb'er made the net. I decided to give the whole of the first hour to maggots just to gauge the results. I did catch fish but all were around the pound mark.

After the first hour I switched back to strawberry corn but the larger fish kept away and I only managed F1s and commons around the pound mark. These were not coming in thick and fast although I could see signs that the fish were there.

The fishing continued to be slow for the remainder of the morning. By now I had been joined on the lake by a few other anglers. A solitary man 80 yards or so to my left and a man with four teenagers just around the corner from me.

The lads were far enough away from me and to be honest they were quiet so I can't honestly say they were disturbing the fishing. They did however disturb my concentration because they were forever changing swims seemingly every few minutes in the hope of catching a fish. Lucky for me they only lasted until 2:30 when they had obviously got bored and decided to leave.

After they left I managed to regain my composure and the fish started to come again. One thing that I did notice that was different from last time was that the fish were on average slightly larger. I wasn't getting many of the half pound and less carp but these were nearly all between 3/4lb and 2lb.

At three in the afternoon still with almost a tin of unused meat left I made the decision to switch to meat for the remainder of the day. Initial response was slow but I perserved with it in the belief that it would ultimately prove successful.

When I did catch the carp were of a much better quality, the biggest being around 5lb. (See below)

At the end of the day I'd caught 42 fish which wasn't bad. Simon, the bailiff said that maybe the fishing was slower because the water tempreture had dropped by 5 degrees or so.

As I packed up a chap who had been fishing canal lake began to chat to me and he convinced me to give the match lake (canal) a try next time. "It's not easy" he said "but the rewards are quite high".

So that's the plan for my next visit.

2011 12 May 14th Swallow Lake Gabriels Fishery Edenbridge

For this visit I'd decided to try the top end of Silver Lake. Normally I fish peg 1 but I fancied a change so the top section of the lake it was to be.

In the last few months a new road and car park has been built which enables anglers easier access to the lakes at the top of the complex.

I arrived at the fishery late by my standards - 7:05! I found the new road and followed it round to the new car park.

After getting out of the car I realised how close I was to Swallow Lake. I had never seen or heard of anyone ever fishing this pond. Another angler who had arrived at the same time saw me gazing towards it and told me that it contained a good head of 4 to 6lb carp.

On the basis that I had nothing to lose I decided to have a look around it anyway. So leaving my kit by the car I walked to the lake and to be fair it didn't look too bad. The pond contains 2 islands, one at each end. The far one has at least one very narrow channel between the land and the island. Most of the swims have reed beds around them however only one had a set of lily pads to fish to.

I decided to give it a go anyway. All plans for Silver Lake were forgotten as I carried my gear to my selected swim. I chose the one with the lily pads which were about 2 rod lengths out. My intention was to fish the area immediately behind them.

After setting up I fed the swim with a genourous helping of brown crumb with corn, hemp and meat mixed into it. On the size 16 hook I used a piece of strawberry flavoured corn. So for the first time ever I cast into Gabriels Swallow Lake.

It didn't take long for the float to diasppear, which is never a bad thing on a new water. My prize on this occasion was one of the smallest carp you'd ever likely to see on a hook!

The first hour yielded 7 very small carp and a gudgeon with a liking for corn!

I was hoping that as the day wore on the smaller fish feeding would attract any bigger ones that were around but alas by 10am  all I had was another 7 very small carp.

For the next hour I thought I would try bread and strawbery sweetcorn. Again I caught fish (8) but they were still all very small carp. I began to suspect that this was going to be my lot for the day.

Noon arrived, half the day was over. Another 5 carp in the net. The maximum weight being a massive 0.5 pound!

Around this time I took a break for lunch. This was also my most productive hour, another 13 fish however this also included one carp of 2 pound and one of 4. Could things be looking up?

The final hour of the lunchtime period brought the same results as before, seven very small carp.

Never one to give up I carried on the fight. In went the bait and out came the midget carp for the remainder of the afternoon until around 4pm when I switched to meat.

Just before I did a passer-by who turned out to be an Edenbridge and District Angling Society committee member stopped by for a chat. It also turned out he was a menber of Holland as well so we had quite a bit in common. Unfortunately I failed to get his name - silly me!

After I switched to meat I caught a few carp in the 2 to 3lb range.

I decided to pack up around 7pm.

In summary this pond looks very good but has what appears to be a high density of very small carp which would be ideal for the junior or starter angler. How much an experienced angler would enjoy it I'm not sure. I should return to it later in the summer to see if things have changed.

2011 11 May 7th Sidewinder Lake, More House Farm Fishery, Haywards Heath

11A Tale Of Two Fish

This was my second visit to this fishery. I was really looking forward to it as I'd had a really good day on my first.

As I knew where I was going on the farm now I was by the lake at 7:05. The temptation for me is always to go back to the swim I'd done well at before but this time I decided to try a little further to the right just before the 90 degree bend in the lake. Now what I thought was 'fishy' about this swim was that on my left the channel was wider and on my right it was very narrow and had a nice looking reed bed fronting it.

Unfortunately the photo of the swim didn't come out properly (my fault) so I cannot show it.

My set up for the day was now 5lb main line (upped from 4), size 16 hook on a 4lb hooklength. I mixed a good portion of groundbait which I intended to feed every hour or so. Inside the mix I added each time some hemp, corn and meat.

My secret weapon for the day was going to be strawberry flavoured (by myself) sweetcorn. I've had some success with this in the past.

I decided that as it was still early I would try the reed bed on the far side of the narrow channel first. So on went a piece of red corn and out went the float - the far side was so close I didn't have to cast, just flick it out.

After a few minutes the float started to move across so the water so I struck and all hell let loose. The fish shot off to the left and then back past me. When it went past me the disturbance on the water was so great that I knew it was a very good fish possibly bigger than anything I'd ever caught before. I managed to turn it and it returned to the area in front of me. I then started to think about netting it - however it wasn't to be. The fish spat the hook out! I was gutted - what a disaster and I hadn't been fishing half an hour yet.

I took a few minutes to regain my composure before I cast into my main swim. Going was slow however by 8:45 I'd managed a small carp and my first chub of the season!

For the next hour as I only had 2 bites on the strawberry corn I switched back to normal corn and caught a further 6 small carp.

I swopped back to strawberry for the next hour and again caught 6 carp. Maximum weight for these were about a 1lb.

I kept with the strawberry corn for the next hour but the bites dried up to such an extent that I only managed to bag two more small carp.

Had a sandwich for lunch and then it was back to the fishing on normal corn - yep you guessed it - the next yielded 6 more carp!

Switched back to Strawberry corn for the next hour and got another six carp. The carp I was catching were an even mix of Common, Mirror and F1s. Unlike my last visit I hadn't as yet caught any of the Ghost variety.

For the next hour I thought I would try some bread flake. Now usually I am not too successful with this bait as I seem to get pestered by the small roach etc nipping at the bait. I strike and there is nothing there. As I hadn't seen any sign of any silvers I was quietly confident of getting something on it.

I put a large piece on and then the hook fell in my corn turning the bread red. What the hell I thought and cast it out. Straight away the float went under and out came a carp. So for the next hour I dipped the flake in the red corn juice each cast. Six more carp made the net in the hour.

By 2:45 the average weight of the carp seemed to be going up so I determined that it was time to try the meat on the hook. The first hour was slow, only 5 carp but they were all around 2 or 3lb. This was enough to convince me to stay with the meat.

The next three hours was when the action really started. The meat proved very successful as each fish proved to bigger than the last.

I was alternating between my original swim which was slightly to the left of me and the reed bed which was closer and straight in front of me.

If the beginning of the day was unlucky for me the reverse cannot be said for the end as when I missed a bite the float and terminal tackle all came back tangled up. It was so bad that I had to set up again. As the fish were improving in size I took the oppertunity to increase the hook size from 16 to 14. What a decision that turned out to be.

First drop in after changing the hook size the float shot under and off went the fish straight down the lake. It was obvious that the best thing to do was to let it run. Eventually it stopped and I managed to get some line back. After a few minutes the float reappeared although still a fair way away. It ran to the right and then to the left and then in ever decreasing circles in front of me. At this point I still hadn't seen it.

Eventually I began to feel that I was getting on top of it so I carefully reached down for the net. The first attempt failed as the fish turned as soon it saw the net. Attempt two went the same way. Now I was really getting nervous. However it turned out to be third time lucky as into the net it went. When I saw how big it was I was astounded.

I weighed it staright away and after accounting for the net it was dead on 11lb! My first ever double.

"Yes!" I shouted. I couldn't help myself!

The only disappointting thing was that there was no one around who could take a photo of me holding the fish so I had to content myself with the usual in the net pose.

It was a bit sad to see it go back into the water.

It was half six or so by now and I wasn't sure whether or not to continue. Just to make sure I'd miss the traffic on the way home I decided to give it until 7pm. Just as well because 5 minutes later I landed a 7 pounder - god did it feel and look small!

After that I decided enough was enough and packed up.

I can't wait to get back down there.

2011 10 April 29th Silver Lake,Gabriels Fishery,Edenbridge,Kent

I suppose like the majority of us I decided to go fishing to escape the royal wedding, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing!

I arrived at the fishery a few minutes before opening time to see more cars than I had ever seen before!

Most were still unpacking their gear so I grabbed my rod bag and went to Silver Lake, peg 1 was free so I bagged it and went back for the rest of my gear.

I intended to fish exactly the same tactics as before. The main swim was about 2 rod lengths down the channel. With the swim baited up and corn on the hook I cast out.

Normally this swim is fairly productive early but today was different. I struggled for bites to such an extent that by 9:40 I'd only caught a skimmer bream (on bread), three roach and a gudgeon on castor.

The one thing that kept me going was the fact that it appearred that no one that I could see was catching much either. These included 2 anglers who were fishing tight to the island.

I did notice that the wind that is normally in my face was actually behind me and that the humidity level was very high - when I mentioned to the bailiff that the fishing was slow he did say that it probably was down to the weather conditions.

I persevered though and by 13:30 had added 2 carp, 1 more good skimmer and a small roach to the net. By this time a few people were wandering around and most were reporting slow days on all the lakes. I was fishing next to the specimen lake and hadn't heard a single buzzer go off.

The afternoon continued to be slow, small carp plus a few roach and skimmers were the order of the day.

I did pick up the occasional carp during the late afternoon as can be seen from the photos below:

An enjoyable day none the less, escpecially as I missed that damned wedding!