2013 18 July 21st Private Lake, Holland nr Oxted, Surrey

Another Sunday afternoon session, this time on the Private Lake owned by Holland A.S near Oxted in Surrey.

I set off around 2:30 to make the relatively short trip to the fishery. It was dry but humid, so I braced myself for rain. 

When I arrived the place was filled with anglers, I expected some but not as many as this! Undeterred I got out of the car and went in search of a free swim. I hadn't walked very far when a loud hooter went off, it was the end of a match! 

Peg 6 was free and as I had never fished it before I decided to set up there while the match boys weighed in and cleared off home.

With lily pads in front and to the right of me one rod was all I could use today. I set up my match rod with a small waggler and set about plumbing the depth. The swim was very shallow which said to me that this could be the reason why the swim wasn't used for the match.

I chose to fish the lilies on my right as these were nearest to the open water and it was slightly deeper water. Before casting in I fed the swim with ground bait and a lot of maggots and corn. Straight away there were signs of fish activity. By this time the match men had all gone home.

Using sweetcorn as hook bait I made my first cast at around 15:40. Despite the obvious presence of fish and the knocks I was getting it proved pretty difficult actually hook many. This was borne out by the first hours' poor showing. Three small carp and an even smaller rudd to be exact.

For the next hour I switched hook bait to meat to see if I could not only tempt the bigger stuff but also help me hook more than I had with the corn. Numerically and size wise it wasn't a great success as I only caught 4 small carp.

I stayed on the meat for the next hour as I thought that now I was into the evening some of the bigger specimens must surely make an appearance. Alas I was to be disappointed again. Three small carp and a roach made the virtual net this time. 

Between 18:40 and when I packed up at 20:00 I could only add a further three fish, two more of the small carp and my one and only tench of the session.

And so I came to the end of a very disappointing session. Fifteen fish in a 4 and a half hour session on this lake was not what I expected. Was it the match beforehand, the shallowness of the water or my dodgy angling skills? Probably all of the above.