2013 12 June 7th Chittenden, Edenbridge

For my second outing of the club season I thought I would try my hand at Chittenden, the club's premier carp water.

For once the early morning weather seemed to suggest a good day ahead as I headed towards Edenbridge. On the way I began to think  of where to fish this particular water.

The reason why I had to give it so much thought was because there are very few features to fish to if you are intending to fish the waggler rather than the standard carp methods os cast it into the middle etc. 

I arrived at the fishery just after 7am to find the car park empty. I was totally surprised. I loaded up the trolley and headed down to the bottom of the lake. 

On the way down I noticed all the new fishing platforms. It certainly shows that the committee are serious about improving the look of the lake.  

When I arrived at my intended swim I discovered that the nearest platform was 20 yards away! Now the dilemma I had was this, is it a club rule that you must fish from a platform or in this instance could I set up on the grass and fish next to the reed bed. Not knowing the answer I moved round to the first swim on the way back up the lake on the far bank.

The wind was blowing down the lake so in theory I had made the correct choice. The one downside was how to set up so that I could fish facing the reed bed. The water at the edge of the platform is too deep to use a standard rod rest so for today I would have to lay the rod on the platform.

As my days usually start off with a flurry of small roach or other silver fish I set my Shimano float rod with a 3bb waggler and a size 18 hook to 4lb main line. I intended to fish the reed bed about 2 rod lengths away from the platform. The leger rod I set up with a size 14 hook to 6lb main line and fished about mid way between my side and the far bank. 

After feeding both swims with ground bait and boillies respectively I made first casts at 8am. True to form the first fish in was a small roach however a flood of these in the first hour didn't happen, all I got was one other roach and a small carp of about 4 ounces. I did however lose 3 carp, the last breaking the hook length. At this point I decided that an 18 was too small and moved up to a size 16. The feeder rod on size 15mm pineapple boillies remained quiet. 

I also switched hook bait from maggot to corn. It appeared that I had made two good decisions as by 10am I'd had a further two carp, one common of 6lb and one mirror of 5lb plus a solitary bream.

For the next hour I changed hook bait again, this time to small cubes of meat. I was rewarded with 2 more bream and a carp of 3lb.

The period of non activity on the feeder rod was broken just before noon when the tip swung round and I was into what turned out to be a common of 7.5lb. The float road yielded a bream which took a single piece of corn.

Just as the Genesis lyric "It's one o'clock and time for lunch um de dum dee dum" went through my head the float shot away and I was into what turned out to be my biggest fish of the day. It took me all round the bay which was no surprise as I was only on 4lb main line! Eventually it succumbed and came into the net. A lovely 9lb mirror with a taste for meat.

The hour after lunch proved to be my most productive and scary part of the session. The feeder line yielded two mirrors, one of 6lb and one of 4lb. The float rod with corn on the hook gave a bream and three mirrors, one of 8lb, one of 4lb and a three pounder just for good measure. The scary bit was when the tip went round on the  feeder rod, and as I went to bring in the float rod, the float shot away and I was into a good fish on that line too. I made the decision to play the larger of the two first which was the one on the float rod. Seeming like an eternity I fought the fish. I did get it in, after which I turned my attention to the other rod and miraculously I managed to get that one in as well! The first was the aforementioned 8lb mirror and the second the 4lb mirror. I awarded myself a cup of tea for my efforts!

For the next hour I thought I would try something different - bread. To be honest they didn't coming rushing in. In fact for the whole hour I only got one fish, a 2lb bream.

More serious battling on 4lb line started up again at 15:36 when an 8.5lb common took my meat bait. These devils can really pull however I displayed a lot of patience as I waited for the fish to wear itself out before gently slipping it into the net. 

I went back on the corn for the next 90 minutes, which I shall now call bream time as I caught five of them in that period. The carp were still about because at 17:50 I had another 7.5lb common on a cube of meat.

I called time on the day at 18:45 but not before adding another bream and a 3lb carp on the last of the meat.

In conclusion I had a really good day, 28 fish, half of them carp. I lost 5 or 6 in the struggles but hey that's fishing.

2013 11 June 1st Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

Finally after a 31 day wait, the first two club waters were officially open. I'd already chosen Nursery Fields as today's venue as it being a Saturday I didn't fancy being mowed down by all the carp boys with their massive trolleys containing all their worldly possessions at Chittenden! 

Being a Saturday for first day's opening I thought there would be a mad rush of members new and old eager to getting the season going. So to this end I decided to get out of bed early and be on the road by 4:30 in the morning. As it turns out miracles do happen as I was indeed on the road at this ungodly hour!

When I arrived at the fishery I wasn't too shocked to discover that I was the third one in the car park. It would seem that my initial fears of millions turning up might just be proving to be correct.

I loaded up my trolley and headed to the far side of the lake where in my opinion the best summer time swims are. After a good look (no one else had opted for this area as yet) I selected peg number 12.

My plan was to fish by the side of lily pads to my right with a waggler set up on my match rod and straight across the lake to the island on a feeder set up with my feeder rod.

I mixed a healthy amount of ground bait and then put the rods together. Size 18 hook to 4lb mainline on the waggler and size 14 hook to 6lb mainline on the feeder. I intended to switch to a size 16 sometime during the late afternoon as I knew that was when the carp were likely come out to play.

I made my first casts at 6:15. I initially used single maggot on the hook for the float rod and 15mm pineapple boillie on the leger rod. It wasn't long before the action started with the first of the day's small roach.

At the end of the first hour I had accumulated 10 fish all of them roach plus a 2lb carp on the feeder rod. I then made the decision to switch the feeder rod from the island to the reed bed on my left because to be honest it just looked very fishy!

The roach to be honest were small even by my standards so for the next hour I decided to swap to corn to see if anything of any size was lurking around. To my dismay only a solitary bream took the bait. The time was now 8:15 so the benefit of the early morning start was now over. I was into 'normal' time.  

Back to the maggots then for the next hour and back to the usual suspects, roach (5) and rudd (2), none of them netbusters.

With maggots only attracting small roach and rudd and corn just the  one bream I decided to try meat. Usually I go on meat late in the day when the carp show however today I thought I would try something different. I was rewarded with my first tench and perch of the day. Still only two fish in an hour though. 

Another hour another throw of the dice, this time I was back on the corn. This change achieved slightly better results, 2 bream and a roach. Still not the first day stampede that I was expecting. Still it wasn't lunchtime yet.

Just before lunch I had another hour on the maggot which proved to be the most productive of the day so far. Nine roach and for the first time three perch, one of which was quite a few ounces.

While I was having lunch I went back on the meat. I only caught one fish but what a fish. A personal best Barbel of 2.5lb which I initially mistook for a carp because of the intensity of the fight! Very satisfactory indeed.

The next hour was a barren one on the corn. I began to hope that the afternoon and evening sessions might be the ones.

Back to the maggots for the hour which brought me up to 15:15. It was  relatively fruitful, 4 roach and one each of barbel and perch.

For the evening session I decided to stop changing hook baits and stick with meat until the bitter end. A tench and a barbel started the ball rolling but what made it a good decision was this 9.5lb carp!

The meat kept attracting the fish until I packed up at 17:30. A perch, 2 tench and another barbel was joined in the net by an 8lb carp. Not a bad end to a very strange first day.

I managed to get two bites on the feeder rod late on in the day but unfortunately I lost both. The first spat the hook and the second buried itself on a snag on the far bank. Here is the swim:

So at the end of the day my tally was 50 fish exactly, not bad for a day that I thought wasn't going too well.