2011 27 July 31st Nursery Field, Edenbridge, Kent

Another Sunday another afternoon/eveing session at Nursery Fields.

The weather was really good again so on the car park was almost full. As luck would have it the swim at the top of the lake was free again so I was happy enough.

I intended to employ exactly the same tactics as I did  on my last visit. Again two rods were set up - one, to my left with tutti fruitti boilies and the other to my right on halibut ones.

I made my first cast at 16:45 and settled back to have bit more of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein 4.

It was a good job that the book was good as I had to wait 90 minutes for the buzzer to go off. This time the halibut rod was the first off the mark. The result was a nice little barbel.

I had to wait another full hour before the second bite arrived - again it was on the halibut rod. This time it was one of the lake's small tench. Still they all count.

Thirty minutes later and the tutti fruitti rod decided to get into the action - the result - a similar tench to the previous one.

By now it was 8pm, the sun was still shining so the carp decided to have a munch. First up was one of 4.5lb with a liking for halibut.

This was followed 45 minutes later by another slightly bigger specimen of 5lb also with a taste for halibut.

So that was it for another session. I can't complain the weather was good and so was the fishing. Can't ask for anything more really can you?

2011 26 July 29th Nursery Field, Edenbridge, Kent

Today was the day I planned to return to peg 13 at Nursery Fields to see if I could fare any better than I did on my previous visit.

It was another afternoon/evening session. I'd learnt from previous visits that the better carp tend to come out to feed around 5pm, so an afternoon/evening session seemed to be the perfect idea.

I arrived at the fishery around 1pm to find a large number of cars in the car park. I suppose with the summer we were having people were getting out at every oppertunity. Relatively speaking it's a bit of a trek to peg 13 so I was fairly confident that the swim would be free. My assumption proved correct as I dumped my gear down in the swim and proceeded to set up.

I set one rod up with float tackle aiming to fish the lillies to my left (See photos below). The other was the feeder rod which I set up to fish the far bank.

The float line I groundbaited as usual with the addition of a relatively large number of free offerings of corn.  In the feeder I put some small halibut boillies with my groundbait mix.

I made my first cast at 13:54. At the end of the first hour the float line had produced 3 bream, a roach and a tench. One of the bream was nearly a proper one (see photo below). The feeder rod produced 1 small tench.

For the second hour I alternated between meat and castor as the hookbait. The meat was responible for a small common and the castor for a roach and a gudgeon.

The next hour was my slowest of the session, the float line producing a solitary tench. However the feeder rod did spring into action with a 3.75lb common.

Another 2 hours on the clock and another mixed bag followed. On the float line I had 1 bream, 4 tench and a roach. On the feeder I had a tench of about a 1lb.

The last hour was as nearly always the best, 2 bream (one around the 2lb mark) and the only barbel and crucian of the session. I also had a 3.75 mirror on the float line.

Not to be outdone the feeder rod produced a 4lb'er and another skimmer.

So another good session. I'm beginning to get the hang of this fishery (or so it would seem!)

2011 25 July 24th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge, Kent

Another Sunday, another afternoon/evening session at Nursery Fields.

I arrived at the fishery around 3pm with a plan. This time if possible I was going to fish one of the swims at the top of the lake.

Fortune was on my side once again as there was only one angler at the top of the lake and after a quick exchange I established that he was fishing the margins and therefore I had the end of the island to myself. See photo below:

I set up both carp rods with a small bomb and a size 14 hook with a hair to 6lb main line. One rod had  a 10ml tuttti fruitti boillie on it and the other a similar sized halibut boillie. Prior to casting I had fed the swim with a few free offerings.

My first cast hit the water at 16:11! I then settled back in my chair, opened my Kindle and started on Dean Koontz's Frankenstein 4.

I'd hardly got to the bottom of the page when the buzzer went off on the tutti fruitti rod and after a brief struggle in came a 5lb common.

That carp must have been an early feeder because I had to wait until 18:46 before the buzzer went off again. Once more it was the tutti fruitti one that went off. This carp was not as big as the previous one coming in around the 4lb mark.

Forty five minutes of Frankenstien later and the buzzer on the tutti fruitti rod went off again and the biggest carp so far - a mighty 6lb mirror was in the net.

Less than 20 minutes later and the halibut rod's buzzer sounded. A nice scrap followed but this time it was with one of lake's barbel - a 0.5lb specimen.

Just 15 minutes later and I was into my best fish of the day. A 7lb common, the first carp of the session on halibut pellet.

The session ended 15 minutes later at 20:30 when I caught a 4lb'er again on halibut.

In summary a successful session in an unknown swim by my standards so I think I can be pleased with myself.

Oh and I can recommend the Frankenstein book!

2011 24 July 15th Chittenden, Edenbridge, Kent

I'd made up my mind earlier in the season to return to Chittenden and fish the narrow channel between the island and the bank using convential float tackle and tactics. Today was going to be that day.

I'd been reading an article on potatos on the forum and thought this would be a good time to give them a go. The night before I prepared them by part boiling them, flavouring them strawberry and colouring them red.

By the time I had setup and groundbaited the swim it was about 7:30. The weather for a change was glorious as can be seen from the photo below.

I didn't have to wait long for the action to start. The float moved sideways across the water and when I struck I knew that I  was into a good fish. It must have been about 5 minutes or so before I managed to land the fish - a 5lb mirror. Strawberry flavoured corn was the weapon of choice today. See photo below:

The next fish set the tone for the remainder of the day - a skimmer bream.

By 9:30am I had added another 6 skimmers to the virtual net. I fed a few grains of corn every fish to keep them interested and it seemed to be working.

However I was mistaken big time as the swim died for 2.5 hours! I couldn't fathom why, initially I thought they had been bullied away by carp but I hadn't seen any signs of carp at all once the sun came fully up. I therefore put it down to bad angling on my part.

Dead on noon the fish reappearred in the shape of a small roach.

Another skimmer at 12:40 was followed at 1pm by my first bite using the mighty potato. Sadly on this occasion I couldn't connect with the fish. It did give me some encouragement though.

Twenty minutes later just after I'd landed another skimmer the buzzer went off again on the potato rod and yet again I failed to land the fish. Very frustrating.

For the rest of the afternoon I attacked the float line on corn in a big way. I was rewarded with a further 7 skimmers and another solitary roach.

This is a good example of the quality of the skimmers caught:

For the early evening part of the session I decided to switch my hook bait to meat in the hope of snaring another carp.

I didn't have to wait long for the float to disappear. Unfortunately it was yet another skimmer not the carp I expected. Forty minutes later the float goes again but this time I missed it. I couldn't tell what it was from the few micro seconds that it was on the hook.

Then finally at 16:52 I landed a 1lb common not on the meat but on the potato rod! My first success using this bait! Yippee.

Unfortunately that was my one and only fish on the regal spud. The last two fish of the session, caught at 17:40 and 18:30 respectively were commons of about 2lb and fell to meat.

A good session.

2011 23 July 10th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge, Kent

Today was my first Sunday afternoon/evening session at the club's Nursery Fields fishery.

I'd fished peg 1 on my two previous visits so this time I made my mind up to try a different swim where maybe I could catch one of the carp that had so far eluded me.

I arrived around 15:30 and after gathering half my stuff up I made the first of two journeys to my swim. I started at peg 1 and made my way around and up the far bank. I was searching for a swim with some lily pads that I could fish to without the need to cast 100 miles. Peg 13 seemed to fill my requirements so I dropped my gear and went back for the other half.

I mixed up the usual groundbait mix and fed the swim accordingly. I also set up and cast out the feeder rod with a small bomb and a 10ml tutti fruitti pellet attached. This would be my sleeper for the session.

I made my first cast at 16:25. I cast over the lillies and drew the float in as close I could. I loose fed some grains of corn and sat back and waited for the action to begin.

I didn't have to wait long for the float to disappear. However as soon as I put some strain on it the line above the float snapped. On inspection I discovered that the next few yards of line had disintegrated. Considering the line was only a few weeks old I wasn't very happy. Anyway rant over.

It was over an hour later when I got my second bite of the session - this time on the feeder rod. There were no problems getting this one to the net - a tench of about 0.5lb.

At 18:00 the float disappeared and the moment I had been waiting for arrived - I was into my first Nursery Fields carp! Strangely and lucky for me it shot away from the lily pads and into the middle of the lake. I could feel it was a good fish (by my standards) however at the back of my mind was the fragility of the line. As it turned out everything was ok and I managed to land a 5lb common. 

Apart from 3 small roach that was the last fish I caught on the float rod set up. Perhaps the fight with the carp had spooked the remaining fish - who knows.

At 19:30 the tip went round and I was into my first Nursery Fields carp on the feeder rod. A few minutes later a nice 3lb common was on the bank.

Eight minutes later and the tip went round again and in came another 3lb'er. Things were looking good.

I was on a roll now - another 8 minutes (strange I know but that's how it went) later the tip shot round again and this time it was a nice 5lb'er. See photo below.

It was 20:20 when I caught the next one - a 4lber.

All in all a good session apart from the line incident.