Today was to be my third visit of the year to this lovely fishery in Kent. I don't specialise in carp so I tend to fish the three non specimen lakes, Silver, Swallow and Hare. The latter being the only one I haven't fished this year. Today I intended to put that right.
On the way to the fishery the temperature gauge at one point read 2.5 degrees, not a good omen for the day ahead.
The car park was empty when I arrived so I knew I had first choice of swims. I unloaded the car and made my way to the lake. It is in two sections, the nearest is in a wooded area and the farthest is in open ground. I decided on three possible swims in the wooded area as if it rains I would have some sort of protection.
The first two were in the bay area fishing to either side of the not quite developed lily pads. The third and in the end my choice of the day was the narrow section at the end of the bay where you can fish just in front of some reeds. (See picture below).
Only one rod today so setting up didn't take me too long. Once the swim had been fed I settled back and made my first cast at about 7:55. I decided to feed maggots every cast regardless of what the hook bait was. Initially single maggot was my weapon of choice.
The first hour was like rush hour on the M25 as the float barely had time to settle before it disappeared from view. By 9am I'd caught 13 roach, 4 bream, 1 carp (not big), 1 rudd and a gudgeon. I was feeling confident of the day's prospects.
For the next hour I switched to corn and the fish although not as many but definitely better quality kept coming, 3 roach, 3 bream and a smallish carp kept the day's tally mounting.
Back on the maggot for the next hour and still the fish kept coming, 4 roach, 3 bream and another small carp. I was a bit concerned that the pace had dropped since the early morning. Perhaps it was the amount of food that went in early and the lesser amount I topped it up with?
The next corn hour produced much the same as before, 2 roach, 2 small carp and a bream. What began to change was the weather. Initially the precipitation had been light and with my waterproofs on, manageable, however from the early afternoon onwards it really began to come down hard.
Learning from the last time I fished in a heavy rainstorm, I packed away all non essential items (including my notebook), put the brolly up (lucky not much wind through the trees) and settled down and hoped it would stop soon. I decided to have lunch at this point before it to took a soaking.
It was also very cold and I began to get the shivers. The rain was so hard I couldn't even begin to think about packing up. I still caught some fish although not too many. By 5pm when the rain abated somewhat I'd had 5 roach, 2 bream and a gudgeon. Scant reward for 5 hours fishing!
Due to the fact that there was no sun to speak of the meat hadn't hardened enough to put on the hook. There were though one or two pieces I could use. I gently cast in and was rewarded with three roach of about 0.5lb. A pleasant conclusion to a damp and miserable day.
In conclusion, I caught 51 fish consisting of 30 roach, 13 bream, 5 carp, 1 rudd and 2 gudgeon. Not bad, but how good could it have been? To find out I will have to go back when the weather improves.
The two halves? Well the morning session in bearable conditions when I caught plenty and the absolute deluge in the afternoon when I caught very little.
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