2012 04 April 5th Silver Lake, Gabriels Fishery,Edenbridge, Kent

Due to the temporary closure of the club’s two main waters I was forced into looking for an alternative venue for today’s trip. After much deliberation I decided to give Silver Lake at Gabriel’s Fishery in Edenbridge a bash.

I knew as soon as I got out of bed that today was going to be different from my last two outings. It was dam cold! Still the decision had been made so I duly loaded up the car and set off about 6:30. The fishery opens at 7am so there was no mad panic to get there.

On Silver Lake there is a nice little bay on peg 1 where you can easily fish two or three different areas during the day and it was this swim that I hoped to get today.

I arrived as expected dead on 7am. I drove the half mile or so up the track to the fishery car park only to find 4 cars already there! I loaded the trolley up and headed off to the lake. I could see also immediately that the swim was free – my luck was in.

As the weather was so cold I didn’t think I would have to feed much today so I made up a small amount of groundbait featuring brown crumb, some small scopex pellets and a few grains of corn. For hook bait I intended to use single maggot.

I made my first cast at 8:00. To my complete surprise the float went under straight away and in came a Rudd of about 3 ounces! No blanking for me today then.

By 8:53 I’d added 3 roach, a gudgeon and another Rudd. Apart from the constant shivering I was off to a good start.

I was catching enough to keep me interested but for the sake of my health I had to put my waterproofs on as the wind was bitterly cold. By 10am I’d paid my £2 and added 3 more gudgeon, 2 Rudd and 2 roach to the virtual net.

At 10:30 I was confident enough in the swim to have a change of bait. I tried a small piece of bread flake. Almost immediately the float went away and I struck. This was no roach, it never moved so I thought it was one of the lake’s larger bream. When it did come to life and I managed it get a look at it I saw that it a mirror carp! To say it was a mighty tussle would be an exaggeration but they still have to be landed and I managed to net this one. It turned out to be a nice four pounder and my first of the season.

The morning session finished with 5 roach and 2 gudgeon as there was no more action on the bread and I’d switched back to maggot.

During the morning I’d been feeding a couple of grains of corn into the reeds to my left each time I landed a fish. I’d had a look during the morning but hadn’t had any signs of fish activity. After lunch I tried with a piece of bread flake. The float dipped and then shot away and I was into another carp. This one fought a bit harder but not by much. The result was another mirror weighing in at 3.75lb.

I’d also during lunch picked up my first perch of the day.

The early afternoon period was numerically my most productive as by 14:15 I’d added 5 roach, 3 gudgeon, 1 perch, 1 Rudd and my first bream. It was a tad warmer by now but not enough to remove any layers of clothing.

As the afternoon wore on people began to leave. I decided to give it until 5pm and it was starting to get really cold again. As luck would have it at 16:50 I got into an almighty tangle and that as they say was that!

I finished the session with 6 more roach, 4 gudgeon and 3 egg filled perch.

So in conclusion I would say apart the weather it was an enjoyable day. I’d caught 46 fish including my first two carp of the season. I will have to go back when the weather improves.

Wildlife Update: At one point during the day a robin landed on my rod as I was holding it. He looked at me shivering away and his eyes seemed to say “I have no choice being out here – what’s your excuse?”

2012 03 March 30th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge, Kent

Outing three of the season was to be another visit to the club’s Nursery Fields water.

I decided that due to the good weather continuing that I would leave earlier this time and so just after daylight broke I loaded the car and set off on the 15 mile or so journey to Edenbridge.

When I arrived at the fishery there was yet again just one other person there. I unloaded the car and set off for my today’s swim of choice.

I had decided to give the swim at the top of the lake another go as I felt that I had had a good day there two weeks earlier and that with the warmer weather continuing I might have an even better one today.

I used my normal 2 rod set up, one waggler with a size 18 hook and a feeder rod with a size 16 hair rig to house a 10mm strawberry flavoured boillie.

For the first time this season I mixed up some groundbait which consisted of brown crumb, some attractor, a few feed pellets and some corn. My plan was to use this sparingly, a golf ball size every hour or so.

After feeding the first ball of groundbait and some maggots into the swim I made my first cast at 8:14.

The first cast resulted in a skimmer bream as did the second. By 9:00 in total I’d accumulated 4 bream, 4 roach and my first tench of the season.

The swim was apparently alive with fish as the next hour produced a further 5 roach and 4 bream. The bream were small skimmers however the roach were of the 2 to 3 ounce variety not the really small ones that I was getting at Chittenden.

Once I’d determined that the fish were feeding today I began to throw 2 pieces of corn in front of the weed bed just to the right of me. At 10:00 I had a look but got no sign of fish activity. However at 11:00 the float dipped and I thought I’m in here. Seconds later the float shot away and I was into something larger than the bream and roach! It wasn’t a monster but it was a very nice crucian of 1.25lb!

Between 10 and 11 I’d also had 1 more bream, roach and tench on the single maggot.

It must have been the commotion of catching the crucian that caused the swim to slow down a bit because the hour leading up to noon only produced 2 skimmers.

Nigel, the bailiff told me that the fishing completely died in the afternoon of the previous day so I was hoping that the change of pace was just a blip and so it proved because by 13:00 I’d added 7 more bream and my first Rudd.

Up to this point there had been no activity on the feeder rod even though I’d been feeding the swim continuously throughout the morning however this changed during the lunch period when in came a nice tench and up to that point my best bream of the day. On the waggler I had 4 further bream and another tench.

For the next 4 hours I decided to abandon the single maggot, yes I would have carried on catching that much I was confident of but I wanted to see if any other bait would work.

I knew was working (that’s what the crucian took) so I tried that first. The result was a tench.

After 30 minutes or so without a bite I changed to bread. A used a small piece of flake and this proved a good decision as I took 2 roach and 5 more bream before I packed up at 18:00. The bream were all around the pound mark which just shows what a change of bait can do!

I hadn’t seen much carp activity during the day but as I packed away a white (ghost/koi) carp of a least double figure size passed just in front of me!

Wildlife update 1.

The result of the mating frogs of 2 weeks ago was all around the reed bed. Seemed like a few pounds of spawn to me.

Wildlife update 2.

For most of the day a very brightly coloured pheasant walked up and down behind me. He’ll be safe if he stays in the fishery I should think.

Wildlife update 3.

Woodpeckers building nests on a fishery can really be loud. This chap seems to be working on his home all day!