2012 26 September 19th Private Lake, Holland, Surrey

Today I decided to give Holland A.S’s Private Lake a go. It had been a few months since I’d been there so I though the time was right.

According to the club rules you cannot enter either of the ponds before 7am so I didn’t have to rush to leave the house, in fact I got up about the same time I usually do for work. On the drive down I noticed that the temperature was a couple of degrees up on the previous week. This was evident when I arrived and saw that there was no mist on the pond.

My favourite swim is peg 8 but today I decided to try the last accessible swim, peg 11. This swim has 2 rod lengths of clear water before the large expanse of lily pads. There is also bed of pads on either side.

I loaded up the trolley to be ready for the longest walk at the venue. When I arrived at the peg I noticed problem number one, the sun although out, was shining straight in my eyes. “Never mind”, I thought “in a few hours it would have moved position and I’ll be fine”.

I then went through my normal set up routine which takes about 30 to 40 minutes. On completion, the swim had been fed, the waggler rod had been set up and the peg laid out just how I like it. I made my first cast, using single red maggot as bait at about 8am.

I didn’t have to wait long for the first bite, a small common of about half a pound. A was very nice start indeed. In fact, by 9.20 I’d accumulated 5 more carp, a tench, a rudd and a crucian.

Confession time now, when I was making preparations for the day’s session I’d forgotten to take the sweet corn out of the freezer. This would have meant that I had to wait a few hours before I could use it if I hadn’t of found some in the fridge. It wasn’t much but it was enough.

As the morning wore on I was still catching fish but the rate dropped enough to concern me. Yes, I had swopped hook bait to corn but based on previous experience at the venue that shouldn’t have caused this much change. I do like to fish a tad over depth so the first thing I did was to take 3 inches off my depth. Straightaway I noticed a change. I was hitting more bites! The problem was apparently sorted.

The rest of the day I caught steadily, even when during the afternoon I switched baits to meat. By the time I packed up I’d added another 27 carp to the virtual net. There was nothing spectacular weight wise, the largest being about 2 pounds. What was somewhat surprising was that no other species got a look in.

Here's a view of the left hand  side of the swim:

 

In conclusion I really enjoyed my day. The sun shone all day which meant that I didn’t have to wear 100 layers of clothing to keep warm. Also, the carp seemed to have grown from very small (2 or 3 ounces in the main) to around the half  to three quarters of a pound mark which is a good sign for the future. On the negative side the lack of other species caught must have been down to the carp bullying them out of the swim. I hope that this does not have any long term effect on the pond.     

2012 25 September 12th Chittenden, Edenbridge, Kent

I have a certain reluctance to fish the club’s carp lake at Chittenden although it is a fine fishery. This is purely down to the fact that in summer it gets very busy and very noisy, that is the constant commentary of certain members. For this reason I hadn’t been down there all summer but today I figured that the crowds might be less and it could be worth a visit.

I set off at around 6:30. The sun was out but there was a chill in the air, this was borne out by the fact that the temperature in the car at one stage registered 4.5 degrees.

There were 2 cars in the car park when I arrived, after a quick look around I saw they were set up on the near bank. This was good news for me as I planned to fish the far side of the first island.

This photo shows the lake when I arrived:

 

I loaded up the trolley and headed off round the lake. Not a lot had changed since my last visit in the spring, even the discarded keep net was still where it was thrown. The NO LITTER policy obviously working!

I quickly set up my 2 rods. Both had size 14 hooks to 6lb main line. The left hand rod had 15ml pineapple frenzy boillies and the left hand one had 10ml monster crab.

I made my first casts dead on 8am. I then settled back on my chair to read my latest Stephen King (11-22-1963) while I waited.

At 9am I decided to feed the swims again with about half a dozen boillies.

The photo below shows the lake after the mist had gone.

 

At 10am I checked the baits on the rods, fed the swims again and re-cast to the same spots. It was about this time that I was joined by a couple of senior members who told me that they had come there because the car park at Nursery Fields was full!

Here is the pineapple swim:

 

At 11am I yet again fed the swims. I began to suspect today was going to be a tough one. I could hear one or two buzzers going off on the other bank but nothing for anyone my side.
Here's the view going up the lake: The angler in the photo was havinga s much luck as me.

Noon came and I once again checked my baits before feeding the swim and re-casting. I also started my lunch, small sausage rolls and a couple of very spicy scotch eggs!

Here's my set up :

13:00 arrived and went with no apparent change in the proceedings. So yet again I fed the swims.

Here's the two guys who couldn't get into NF:

 

 At 14:00 I decided on a little change when I reeled in to check my baits. On the monster crab boillie I wrapped some halibut paste round it for some added attraction.

The clear blue sky of the morning was now replaced by a heavily overcast sky. I suspected the rain was imminent.

The action finally started at 14:35 when the pineapple rod’s buzzer went off and I was into a fish. I knew straight away it wasn’t a carp. It turned out to be a small skimmer. How it managed to get the boillie I’ll never know but all that was academic as it came off as I went for the landing net. I was still blanking!

15:00 came and went after I fed the swims again. The wind was also getting stronger. On a positive note I was getting through my book.

Finally at ten to four in the afternoon the buzzer on the pineapple rod went off big time. This time I knew it was something more substantial than a skimmer bream. I took my time playing it, I didn’t want to lose this one. It circled around in front of me for a minute or two before it came to the net. I hadn’t blanked! When I weighed it I found it was a 5.5lb mirror, not a monster but a welcome sight indeed.

At 16:00 I checked the baits for the last time as I’d decided to pack up at half past five.

During this time other people had also decided to leave. As I packed up I wondered why things hadn’t worked out for me. Was I in the wrong swim? I had caught from there before however that was before the island had been heavily pruned. The guy fishing opposite me had been catching consistently throughout the day but he had been the only one.

If someone could offer some advice I would be grateful.    

2012 24 August 26th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

After a break of two weeks or so I decided that the time was right to pay another visit to the club’s main lake, Nursery Fields.

I was determined to try a new swim but still use my 2 rod attack. When I arrived at the fishery there were three cars already in the car park, undeterred I loaded up the trolley and made my way to the top of the lake. My intention was to fish one of top swims on the far side.

Unlike last time my luck was in as I found that all the swims in that area were free. After some deliberation I chose peg 14. There were lilies to fish to close in and some to fish to on the far side. It seemed very interesting.

 

As usual I started by mixing up the ground bait and when that was done I preceded to set up the rods. I was ready to make my first casts at 7:56. The feeder rod today had small pineapple frenzy boillies. I was trying something different from the usual monster crab.

 

The last few visits to NF had seen me start with maggot on the hook and today was no different. The ground bait and loose feed had obviously done their job because the first hour yielded 8 roach, 2 tench, 1 small barbell and a perch.

At the end of the first hour I repeated the feed and the results also seemed to repeat themselves, 3 roach, 2 tench, another small barbel and my first bream of the session.

The next hour only yielded three fish. This was in part due to the fact that I decided to change hook bait. I started to alternate between corn and meat. Corn was responsible for the roach and meat for the small barbel. The third fish was the first from the feeder rod and was another small bream.

The last hour of the morning session was the slowest so far, one tench on each of the rods. Perhaps this swim wasn’t as good as it first looked.

After my lunch, 2 scotch eggs and some southern fried chicken pieces I went on an all-out meat attack. I was rewarded with 4 barbel and a couple of tench. The quality of the tench was improving but the barbel was still on the small side.

I went back to corn occasionally but mainly it was the meat that was doing the trick. Only three fish in the next hour, again it was tench and barbel however a solitary bream decided to join the party this time.

The swim was really dying now so I decided to return to the maggots. Numbers wise it didn’t get any better as I only caught four in the next hour. A roach, a barbel and one of each from two species new to the session, a Rudd and a crucian carp. Those crucian are really lovely looking fish.

I was not sure that today’s choice of swim wasn’t the best because when the clock struck four I’d only had another couple of barbel. Sadly these were not the two pounders that live in this lake but their smaller siblings.

I packed up at 18:00 having only added another 2 barbel and a tench. The pineapple frenzy boillies on the feeder rod weren’t faring much better although around 5pm the rod tip shot round and I was into a carp, sadly it wasn’t into me and it broke the hook length as it charged towards the nearby lily pads.

So in conclusion did I have a good day? Of course I did I was out of the house, away from the TV and out fishing. I did catch 44 fish so that was ok. I might go back to monster crab on the feeder rod next time though.