2014 26 October 5th, Nursery Fields, Edenbridge, Kent

Today was my last trip of the season. My 26th in all so not a bad year.

I decided to finish the season where it started, at the club's premier fishery, Nursery Fields.

I am a big motor racing fan so today my leaving time was delayed because I had to watch the Japanese Grand Prix. It was just after 9 am when I left the house for the drive down to Edenbridge.

There was rain in the air however the temperature was high for the time of year. I was anticipating a good day, so were a lot of other people it seemed as when I arrived at the car park there was at least nine cars in there! More than in the height of summer.

I unloaded the car and made my way to my favorite swim at the top of the lake. I like this one because it has the shortest casting distance to the island coupled with the fact that I always seem to see several carp cruising on the surface.

It was going to be a two pronged attack today. On the first rod I was going to leger with a 15 mm strawberry boillie close up to the reeds by the island. The second was a standard waggler set up with a
small banded halibut pellet as the bait.

I fed 2 balls of ground bait plus a few pellets into the swim and was ready to make my first casts at around 10:30.

All morning I sat and waited for a bite without even an indication that there were fish about. Every hour I fed the swim with a small ball of ground bait. Every cast I fed two or three pellets.

Lunchtime came and went there was still no action on either rod. I was beginning to think that it wasn't going to be my day.

Another angler, about 4 swims away seemed to be catching small silvers at a fairly good rate. Perhaps he was using maggots. I began to think that perhaps I should have brought some.

As the afternoon wore on I began to notice that the carp were all on the surface! The sun was now out and shining down pretty strong.

At 15:55 to my utter amazement the buzzer on the leger set up went off. I struck, expecting one of the lake's carp to rush off but alas no. There was some fight but not all that much. When it broke the surface I was not surprised to see it was one of the lake's small tench. I wasn't going to blank today!

Twenty minutes later the buzzer went again and I was into another fish. Yet again it was a tench. This one was slightly bigger than the previous one.

By the time I packed up at 6 pm the float still hadn't moved.Perhaps they just didn't fancy pellets today.

2014 25 September 19th, Boulthurst Farm, Oxted. Surrey

I'd promised myself after my early summer visit to this pond in search of crucians that I would return later on in the season to try my luck against the pond's bigger carp.

So today I loaded up the car with my carp tackle and set off around 6:15 for the trip down to Oxted.

The weather was very warm (17 degrees) for the time of year. There was a thick mist as I made my way through the country lanes.

When I arrived at the farm I discovered that the car park was empty which was a relief as the pond only has 5 fishable swims. As the weather had been better than the seasonal average for the last few days I was a bit surprised that no one else was there.

I selected the swim at the far right of the pond. For rod one I was going to fish around the overhanging tree and for rod two I selected open water about a third of the way across on the left hand side.

Rod 1 here:

Rod 2 here:

Both rods had identical setups, 6 lb mainline to a size 14 hook. For bait the right hand rod would use 15 mm tutti fruitti boilies and on the left it would the strawberry variety.

I made my first casts at 7:40. The air was very heavy and there was a distinct feeling of rain in the air.

There was no action in the first hour however the temperature had risen and the humidity had lifted somewhat. Would this have an effect on the fishing?

I think it did as at 9.25 the left hand rod went off and I was into my first fish of the day. After a small tussle I had the blighter in the net. A common of 7 lb 2 oz.

The next hour was very quiet. With the arrival of the sun I did spot 5 or 6 carp moving around on the top. Also there was a slight breeze from left to right was creating a ripple on the surface.

At 11:25 the buzzer on the left hand rod went off again. The culprit was small carp of 3 lb 5 oz.

Twenty minutes later the left hand rod went off for the first time and I was into another one. This one was almost identical in size to the previous one coming in at 3 lb 1 oz.

At 2.20 the left hand buzzer went again but unfortunately I missed that one. I didn't have to wait long for the next bite, 15 minutes to be exact. It came on the right hand rod however this time I captured the beasti It weighted 3 lb 8 oz.

I was on a roll now as ten minutes later the left hand rod went and I was into what turned out to be another carp weighing 3 lb 1 oz!

No more action until 14:40 when another angler turned up. He made his way to the opposite end of the pond so effectively I still had a load of peace and quiet!

At 15:20 the inevitable happened, I got a bite on one rod while I was playing a fish on the other! Luck or good angling I'm not sure which saw me land both fish. The first came in at 3 lb 1 oz and the second one at a pound.

Life has a way of balancing the scales and so it was with me. I lost a fish at 15:30 and another at 16:05!

My last carp came at 17:15 and weighed in at just two pounds.

So when I packed up at 18:00 I reflected on my day. On the one hand I had caught eight carp (strawberry winning 6 2) and on the other none of them bigger than 7 lb. I know there must be bigger ones in there because I was catching carp around 7 lb there about 5 years ago! I shall have to try again.

2014 24 August 22nd Swallow Lake,Gabriels Fishery, Edenbridge

Today to spice things up I decided to fish a whole session using banded pellets. Nothing unusual in that you might think however I'd never tried this method before so it was a bit of a challenge to see how I coped.

I decided to go to Swallow Lake at Gabriels Fishery as this is a pond full of small carp and where I can almost guarantee bites.
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I arrived at the fishery about 10 minutes before opening time and as had happened on my last few visits the gate was open. I made the mile or so drive to the lake seeing nothing but rabbits! On arrival at the car park I discovered one other car there but never saw the occupant all day so he must have been on another lake.

The swim I chose today was right at the back of the pond. I'd never fished it before so didn't have any idea of the depth or snags present etc, It was quite close to the island so that was good.

My first problem arose when I tried to get the pellet in the band. It quickly become apparent that I needed some fingernails! I put my thinking cap on and in the end I used my forceps to hook the band and then I put the pellet in and and slid the band off the forceps. Job done!

I fed the swim and made my first cast around 7:30.

I had to wait all of ten minutes before the float went and I was into my first fish on banded pellets! The culprit a small carp of about half a pound. I unhooked the fish and found the pellet still banded, result!

By 8:30 I'd caught four of the little critters. My confidence in the method was increasing. Could I keep it up for the whole session? Here's the biggest of the four:

The next hour was even better than the first as the loose fed pellets were obviously having an effect. I took another seven of the small carp to make my running total eleven for the day.

The next hour and the catch rate increased again! This time I caught nine of the little blighters. First time on the banded pellet and I was at 20 with only three hours gone.

The fourth hour's rate dropped slightly as I only managed seven carp. I put this down to the fact that it started to spit with rain so I had to go back to the car for my waterproof jacket. Here's the best of the seven:

By the time I'd caught another eight carp it was 12:30 and time to start thinking of a quick lunch break. Today I had mini sausage rolls and a scotch egg. Lovely.

After lunch I had a quick attempt at using corn with a band but couldn't work out how to use it so it was back to the pellets. Seven more fell to this tempting bait.

The next hour brought seven more carp including my best of the day, a 5 lb 2 oz 'specimen'! This was my best ever carp from this pond so the pellets were really working for me.

Between 14:30 and 15:30 was my most productive hour in terms of the number of fish caught. Eleven of the small carp made the virtual net.

It couldn't last as in the next hour the catch rate dropped to six! I suppose they must have been getting full!

The rate continued to drop by 17:30 when I decided to pack up I had only caught one!

I was really pleased with myself, 67 fish, all carp on an untried method, albeit on an easy pond. I shall try it again.

2014 23 August 15th Chittenden, Edenbridge

I chose the club's carp lake at Chittenden for today's session.

I arrived at the fishery just after 6 am. There was no one in the car park. I loaded the trolley and set off down the lake towards my favorite swim.

My day didn't start very well as I discovered that after setting up the rod that the line at the top of the reel was very dodgy. It was falling off the spool and breaking way below the specified breaking strain. Somewhat cheesed off I removed all the damaged line and set up again. I was finally ready to make my first cast at 7:17.

For a change I decided to start with bread on the hook rather than my favored corn. In the first hour the float only disappeared once. The culprit was, as expected, one of lakes bream.

By 11:30, I'd tried corn but to no avail. I'd also tried some meat. This did bring me some success, albeit just the two bream. I did miss two carp, both spat the hook. This just wasn't my day!

I changed to pellets on the hook with little success. By 12:30 I'd only added another bream to the virtual net! Not very good.

I rang the changes again, this time back to meat. By 15:13 I'd added another four bream to the day's total.

By the time I packed up at 18:00 I'd caught a further three bream and a carp! Unfortunately it only came in at 5 oz! Probably the smallest one in the lake. Still it proves they are breeding doesn't it?

So at the end of the day I'd caught 16 fish, 15 bream and a solitary carp. Never mind, my next session on this lake is scheduled for early autumn.

2014 22 August 10th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

Today, I decided to have an afternoon/evening session on the waggler at the club's premier fishery, Nursery Fields.

The weather wasn't the best as I left home around 12 pm for the 30 minute journey to Edenbridge. Rain was definitely in the air.

When I arrived at the car park I found it quite full. This was a shock to me as usually even when the sun is out the attendance on a Sunday isn't very high.

Undeterred I loaded up the trolley and made my way round the back of the lake. I'd decided on the way down to fish one of the early swims as I hadn't done so for about a year. My luck was in as I discovered that they were all free.

I chose peg 4 because it had some very fishy looking lily pads to which I could fish to. I mixed up some ground bait and set up the float rod. It was 13:18 when I made my first cast.

I started with corn on the hook while feeding small halibut pellets every few minutes. It took a while before the swim responded but when it did I was into the roach and bream.

At 3 pm a hooter or whistle went off and I realized that there was a match on! That's why there were so many cars in the car park. I didn't think there would be a match on the Sunday after NF had been closed for a week but there you go.

At 16:20 I changed hook baits from corn to meat to see how that would fare. It galvanized the lake's tench  into action as I seemed to catch one after another. Those little fellas sure put up a fight on light tackle.

As the match anglers filed past me one of the anglers dropped some of his gear and remarked 'I should make two journeys'. He picked his stuff up and made his way to the car park. Later I discovered that he had left his landing net behind. I will give it to Peter next time I am there.

At 17:27 as the evening began to close in I hooked a carp which immediately took me across the lake and into the lilys on the far side. After applying pressure for several minutes the carp finally spat the hook. I was gutted.

Not put off I re-baited the swim and continued fishing. I never got another indication that anymore carp were in the vicinity. By the time I was ready to call it quits I thought I would have a dabble in front of the reeds almost under my feet.

The bait wasn't in the water more than a few seconds before it shot away and so did the fish! Instead of heading across it went down the lake. I was initially lucky in that it passed 2 beds of lilys however it did get in the third. After much coaxing I got it out however on the way back to my swim it went into the second set.

For several minutes I applied pressure in an attempt to get it out. I even walked down the bank so that I was opposite the fish. I did see it from time to time but it was a stubborn fighter and refused to come out. In the end the inevitable happened and the hook length broke. I was gutted.

It was at that point that I decided to pack up and call it a day. In retrospect I had a really good enjoyable session. In total I caught 17 fish, 6 bream, 3 roach, 7 tench and a solitary crucian carp (see below).

2014 21 August 1st Chittenden, Edenbridge

Another Friday summer visit to Chittenden. After the carp losing disaster of my most recent trip to Nursery Fields I was keen to see if I could land a few without any of the problems I'd experienced there.

Up at 5 am and on the road by 5:45 meant that I got to the fishery just before 6:30. Just the one car in the car park so I knew I would be able to have a good choice of swims.

I loaded the trolley up and headed off down the lake. On the way I passed the new stock pond. The plants are coming on well. Also I did see a fish or two on the surface. There is something in there then! I also spotted an empty can of luncheon meat, will people never learn?

I was set up and the swim fed by 7:23. In the time between arriving and being ready to start fishing a few other anglers had arrived and were set up on the near side by the islands.

A usual for Chittenden I started off using a single piece of corn on the hook. Seven fish in the first hour was a fast start. There was 5 bream, a roach (rare for Chittenden) and a carp of  8.5 lb.

I'd had some meat left over from my previous trip which I had frozen when I got home. This meant that it was in a condition which I could use on the hook. I switched to meat for the second hour. The bream wern't interested but a carp of 5 lb 6  oz was.

I switched back to corn for the next hour. Again the bream didn't play ball. A carp of 7 lb 14 oz did though.

Another change for the fourth hour, this time it was back to the meat. Still no bream, perhaps they had gone on their summer holidays? I did get two more carp though, one of 8 lb 12 oz and a slightly smaller one of 5 lb 14 oz.

Around 12:30 I changed hook baits again, this time to soft hook able pellets. Again no bream and again a solitary carp of 5 lb 10 oz.

For the lunch break period I switched back to corn. Again no bream but another carp, this one 6 lb 14 oz. I definitely wasn't complaining about the lack of bream as the carp were all putting up a good fight. I was really enjoying myself.

As the afternoon session started I was back on the meat. This time I caught my best carp of the day a 9 lb 14 oz specimen. As a bonus I also nabbed a bream, they were back!

My last fish of the day was caught at 15:47 and was also a carp. This one had a liking for pellets and weighed 6 lb 9 oz.

I lost very few fish during the day so the problems I had with the carp on my previous outing must just have been down to one of those days. In the end I caught 16 fish, most of them carp. A good and enjoyable day.

2014 20 July 27th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge, Kent

Today was going to be another afternoon/evening session at the club's mixed fishery at Nursery Fields in Edenbridge.

I arrived at the fishery at around 2:30 pm which I hoped would give me at least 6 hours fishing time. The weather was very hot and so I was surprised to see only three cars in the car park. I mean it was a Sunday.

Usually I go to the top of the lake and spend the afternoon and evening sitting behind two buzzers but today I thought I would concentrate on one rod and fish the waggler. This was mainly to see if I could tempt the lake's carp into feeding a little closer in.

With only three cars in the car park I wasn't surprised to find my swim unoccupied. I set up the waggler rod, plumbed the depth, mixed the ground bait and was ready to make my first cast at 15:30.

Instead of the usual mixture of hook baits, I decided today to concentrate just on meat. I was really just going for the carp today. If I got a good tench or barbel then that would be a bonus.

I didn't have long to wait for the first bite. The float went, I struck and off went the carp for a run. When it got to the reeds on the far side it turned and spat the hook out! I was gutted but none the less I re-baited the swim and cast again.

Unfortunately the above scenario repeated itself a further five or six times during the session. I knew by the end that I must have been doing something wrong. I normally miss a couple as I suppose does everyone else but I was getting the hook spat out every time.

When I got home I contacted the Maggotdrowning forum for some assistance. See the link below for their response.

http://www.maggotdrowning.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=174387&SearchTerms=HELP

I did manage to catch 16 fish during the session, they consisted mainly of bream and tench however I did catch one barbel right at the end. As for the carp I did land one!

So, in conclusion my plan did work as far as getting a good number of carp to come in and feed on the meat quite close in, the down side of course was that I couldn't land any!

I will try this tactic again, taking on board the help I've received and see what happens.

2014 19 July 18th Hare Lake, Gabriels Farm Fishery, Edenbridge

Today I thought for a change I would make a return trip to Gabriel's farm to see how the fishery performed during the summer months.

The fishery doesn't open until 7 am so today I had a bit of a lay in! Anyway I arrived at the gates at 6:50 to find them already open! I drove the mile or so to the lakes to find a couple of cars already there.

I had made the decision to fish Silver Lake today but when I got to my favorite peg the reeds that were just in front of the platform in May were now so thick it would have made retrieving any fish caught very difficult. Because of this I decided to try my favorite swim on Hare lake instead.

I was set up and ready to make my first cast at around 7:40. Unlike the previous week today was going to be a hot one as already I was down to my t-shirt! That's the British weather for you!

I started on corn over a ground bait mix of crumb, meat, pellets, corn and hemp which was fed close to the reeds on the far side. I was rewarded in the first hour with six fish made up of rudd, roach and bream.

The second hour was a bit slower, only three fish made the virtual net. A bream, a roach and the first carp of the day, albeit only about 1.5 lb.

The third hour brought in 8 fish, two of them carp (around a pound) and the other six were roach. They all fell to a piece of corn.

The next hour was the quietest so far with just 1 small roach falling victim to the magic corn.

As I entered the lunch period the sun was really beating down on me so for a change I put my umbrella up to protect myself from the effects of its rays. Two bream and a roach made the virtual net in that hour.

I decided after lunch that it would be a good time to switch hook baits. I had prepared some small cubes of meat the night before and now was the time to give them a try. I was rewarded with 2 roach and a carp of 1.5 lb.

For the next hour I switched baits to small hook able pellets. No surprise what I caught, three more roach in the 2 to 3 ounce category.

I went back on the corn in another attempt to catch something other than a roach. Well I sort of succeeded as I managed to get a bream and a roach.

By the time I packed up at 17:30 when the sun had finally taken it's toll on me I'd added another two roach to the net making the day's overall total 33.

In conclusion, it was another day where I either I han't really succeeded or the lake is just top heavy with roach of 2 or 3 ounces.

2014 18 July 11th Chittenden, Edenbridge

Another midweek trip to the club's carp lake at Chittenden.

I was up at 5 am and out on the road by 5:45. Everything was going smoothly until I approached the gate at Nursery Fields! Oops wrong place! I turned the car round and somewhat red faced headed back towards Chittenden.

When I finally arrived, there was one other car in the parking area. I could see that the owner was situated on the far side of the first island. In terms of the weather it was just beginning to spit with rain.

I unloaded the car and made my way down to the bottom of the lake. As I made my way down the rain began to get noticeably harder.

Setting up in the rain is not much fun however as I had no choice so I got on with it. I was ready to make my first casts at around 7:30.

By the time I starting fishing the rain was really coming down so even with the umbrella up it was very difficult to write notes for this report and keep the notebook dry. I decided therefore to just keep a tally of the total fish caught for the day and how many of them were carp.

As regards setup I made a decision at the end of my last session at Chittenden that I would use 6 lb main line and size 14 hooks on the waggler set up to lessen the chances of losing good fish.

Corn was my initial bait of choice on the waggler and 15 mm strawberry boillies were my choice for the feeder rod.

The corn attracted the bream very quickly which I took to be a good sign. They were all in the range 0.5 lb to 2 lb which for me was very good.

After a couple of hours the bream seemed to disappear so I decided to change to halibut hook able pellets.

This change seemed to work well as I managed to catch my best carp of the day and a double at that (10 lb 2 oz).

This mirror was caught at 9:15.

This one was caught at 10.06.

This one was caught at 10:42.

This one was caught at 18:12.

There was a let up in the weather around 3 pm which to be honest saved me from packing up at 4 pm. I stayed till 6:30 pm in the end. However despite the respite in the weather I was still cold, dirty, wet and miserable.

By the time I finally packed up I'd caught 37 fish of which 17 were carp and the other 20 were bream.

Aside from the weather I'd had a good day. My plan to beef up my terminal tackle worked as I only lost 2 or 3 fish during the day.

2014 17 July 6th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge, Kent

July rolls in and it's another chance for me to fish the club's excellent Nursery Fields fishery.

I arrived at the fishery at around 7:30 to find the car park surprisingly empty. The reason for this was that there was a junior match scheduled for that day and also there was torrential rain pouring on my head! The good news was that they were only going to use the pegs on the near side of the lake so I really wasn't affected at all as I always go down the back stretch.

I selected a swim with some lily pads which I could fish a waggler to and some lily pads on the far bank which I could fish the ledger set up to.

Today I was going to use small strawberry boillies in a PVA bag with a larger one on a size 14 hook to 6 lb main line. The waggler set up would be my standard 5 lb main line to a size 16 hook.

I made my first casts at 7:30 and then settled down for the day's action to begin. On the waggler I started on corn. The first hour resulted in two bream and the obligatory small roach. The strawberry boillies were also proving popular as I also bagged a nice common carp.

For the second hour I switched waggler hook bait to small hookable halibut pellets. I was rewarded with 2 more small roach.

Today I decided that I would concentrate on using nothing but hookable pellets, the small variety already mentioned and the larger ones which I cut down so that I effectively had three sizes to use.

The action certainly was not fast and furious and as the day wore on, the time was now 14:45, I began to doubt my tactics. I was feeding 3 or 4 pellets every cast along with a ball of ground bait every hour. The result was a disappointing 2 roach.

I did manage to get another common carp on the feeder. It was a good one weighing in at 7 lb 2 oz.

The next 90 minutes was much the same, 1 small roach on the pellets and a mirror carp on the feeder. The carp came in at 7 lb exactly.

In the last hour or so the pellets started working on another species other than roach as I caught three barbel!

The final fish of the day was a tench with a liking for strawberries.

2014 16 June 29th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge, Kent

Today was going to be my first afternoon/evening carping session at the club's mixed fishing venue at Nursery Fields in Edenbridge.

The weather was overcast and not all that warm for the time of year as I made the drive to Edenbridge at around 3 pm.

When I arrived at the car park there wasn't that many cars present, maybe 3 or 4 certainly no more than that. I therefore, felt pretty confident that my choice of swim for today at the top of the lake would be free.

I was proved right in my assumption when I arrived at the top of the lake to find only one other angler there. He wasn't in my swim of choice however.

Today was going to be a two rod attack, one either side of the swim. The first rod would have strawberry 15 mm boillies and the second the same size tutti fruitti ones. Main line was going to be 6 lb to a size 14 hook on a 5 lb hook length.

This is the view down the lake:

I was ready to make my first casts at 16:27. I then settled back in my chair under the trees as it had just begun to rain. How long would I have to wait for the action to begin?

The answer was about two hours. The tutti fruitti rod's buzzer went off and I was in, unfortunately not for long as the fish came off! Undeterred I recast and sat back down to resume waiting.

Twenty minutes later the buzzer on the same rod went off and I was in again. This time I did manage to land the fish. It was a carp of 4 lb.

An hour later the strawberry rod's buzzer went off and I was in again. The culprit this time was a slightly better carp of around 5.5 lb. I didn't bother weighing these carp as they were nowhere near my personal best and I didn't want to keep them on the bank too long.

The strawberry rod was again in action 30 minutes later. Unfortunately it was one of the lake's smaller inhabitants, a 3 lb carp. On runs it was two all between the two flavors.

Immediately I recast, the Tutti Fruitti rod's buzzer sounded and I was in again. This one, like the first one was also lost.

I recast and had to wait only 20 minutes before the strawberry rod's buzzer signaled another run. I got this one but again it wasn't a monster. It looked a shade under 4 lb.

The time was now 20.30 and so I began to think about packing up. As I packed away the strawberry rod the other one went off and this time it wasn't a carp but one of the venue's barbel.

So the final score was 5 fish, three on the strawberry rod and two on the tutti fruitti one. Not a bad session however the fish could have been a bit bigger!

2014 15 June 23rd Chittenden, Edenbridge

Today was going to be my first outing of the new season to the club's premier carp water at Chittenden.

This lake does get busy so I set the alarm for 5 am to ensure I was loaded up and on the road by 5:45.

I arrived at the fishery about 6:15 to find one other car in the car park. Not too bad I thought especially as I could see where he was. I loaded up the trolley and made my way down the lake to the swims at the very end.

Two pronged attack again today, a waggler just in front of the reeds and a feeder line about a third of the way across. The boillie flavored bait today was halibut frenzy. The bait for the waggler set up was corn and meat.

I was ready to make my first casts at 7:20. On the waggler I started with corn and was into the action straight away. Six fish in the first hour, five bream and a solitary roach. Here's one of them:

The next hour was slower than the first only yielding a couple of bream to the single piece of corn.

The real action started in the third hour, as well as five bream I landed my first carp of the day. It was a nice mirror coming in at 5 lb 14 oz. However this is one of the bream and the aforementioned carp:

Another 60 minutes of fishing brought another 6 bream. The bream total for the day was mounting.

Going into the lunch break the swim slowed again, Only two more bream making the virtual net.

Sometime between 12:30 and 15:00 I made the switch to meat. Before switching the corn attracted two roach. The rest was made up of 6 bream and a carp of 3 lb 13 oz which was definitely caught on meat.

By four o'clock the virtual net had swelled to include 2 more carp and a three more bream. Also for the first time of the day the buzzer went off and I landed a carp of 2 lb 12 oz on the halibut boillie. I don't think they like halibut all that much. I will have to try something different for my next visit.

A quality bream:

When I finally packed up at 17:25 I'd added three more bream and another carp to the day's total which had now reached a respectable 40 fish. The final carp weighed 8 lb 8oz, my biggest of the day.

On the waggler set up I was using 5 lb mainline with a size 16 hook with a 3.8 lb hook length. I did lose quite a few carp today so on my next visit I will beef up the strength of my tackle a shade.

2014 14 June 13th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge, Kent

Finally my first chance of the new season to go to the club's premier venue, Nursery Fields had arrived. I was up at 5 am and because I prepared everything the night before I was on the road by around 5:45.

I didn't expect to be first there and so I wasn't disappointed to see three cars already in the car park. I knew I would still have a good choice of the swims on the far side of the lake when I saw one angler fishing the near side and one on the pegs at the bottom.

The peg I eventually chose was number 12 which has it's lily pads on the right hand. This makes it a lot easier for a right handed angler like myself. As a bonus the reeds around the platform had been cut back so that I could easily put my bank sticks in.

Today I intended to return to my normal dual attack tactic, one waggler rod for the lily pad swim and a feeder rod and feeder for the island bank. I also made the decision to only ground bait the waggler swim at the beginning of the session and just rely on loose feed to keep the fish interested.

I was ready to make my first cast at 7:30. The first out was the feeder rod. On the hook I had a 10 mm monster crab boillie. After casting in the feeder, I sorted my peg out so that everything was just where I wanted. A few minutes after that I was ready to cast the waggler in.

Just as I'd put the maggot on the hook the buzzer went on the feeder rod. I struck and immediately knew that I was into a good one. My luck was in, as a few minutes later I'd netted a 9 lb 9 oz common carp.

I released the carp, re-cast the feeder and sat back down to cast the waggler out. As soon as the float hit the water it disappeared and in came the first roach of the day. As I released the roach the buzzer sounded again. This one was not as big as the first, coming in at 3 lb 12 oz.

I managed after that carp to return to the waggler rod and put another seven roach into the virtual net. At the end of the first hour I'd accumulated 10 fish. A good start.

In the second hour the buzzer went off a further 4 times, alas none of the takers were carp. Instead it was three tench and a very nice crucian. On the waggler, I had four more roach and the first bream of the day.

Between 9:30 and 10:30 the feeder rod slowed down somewhat as it only produced 1 tench. The waggler however was slowing but still produced the day's first barbel, a tench and a further two roach.

It was about this time that the feeder rod's reel got in an almighty tangle so I put it down. Over the next two hours bit by bit I managed to sort it out. On the waggler rod the next hour gave up another barbel and a tench.

I switched swims on the feeder at 12:30 from the far bank to the reed bed to my left. Over the next hour this change of tactics brought in another barbel and another tench. The waggler rod's swim was still going strong, a barbel, a tench and a bream all falling victim to sweetcorn.

Over lunch, which consisted of mini sausages and mini pasties, both rods produced, Yet another barbel and tench on the feeder and just the one roach on the waggler.

I was having a lot of trouble seeing the float in the mixture of sunshine and shadows so I decided to switch floats. Boy, did that make a difference. Lesson learnt, always try another float instead of struggling with your original choice.

The next hour was the first one that the feeder rod drew a blank. The waggler however produced another barbel, tench and bream. My total for the day was now 36. Not bad at all.

After I'd netted another six fish consisting of roach, tench and barbel I decided to have a complete change of tactics. Over the winter break I'd bought loads of  6 mm halibut pellets. I began to loose feed these instead of the corn and maggots. For hook bait I had some small hookable halibut pellets.

The effect was instant. A barbel took the first pellet and a roach the second. The hat trick was completed with the arrival of another hard fighting tench.

This was the roach:

As the afternoon made it's way into evening the fish kept coming in on the pellets. Then for no reason at all the swim died. I switched baits to meat and the fish started coming again. They were made up of the usual suspects, roach, bream, barbel and tench.

I finished the day on 58 fish. The sun on my head had finally taken it's toll! I shall return in a few weeks to put right what I did wrong.

2014 13 June 5th Boulthurst Farm, Oxted, Surrey

After a break of almost three years I decided today to visit Holland Angling Society's carp pond at Boulthurst Farm. For a change I decided not to target the carp but instead I'd go for the crucians using standard waggler tactics.

I arrived at the pond about 7am to discover that the car park was empty. This was a relief as the pond only has 5 swims although one of them is a double. The swim I chose is the only one that has some lily pads to fish to.

I was ready to make my first cast at 7:30. The weather was great, the sun was out and my coat was off! Could this be a good day for me?

I started on single maggot and the action started as soon as the float hit the water. The problem was that I think they were very small roach as I couldn't connect with the knocks. At the end of the first hour I'd accumulated 3 roach and a small skimmer bream.

For the second hour I decided to abandon the maggots and go for broke by changing to corn. I was still getting loads of knocks but nothing serious. That was until the float shot away and I was into something that wasn't a small roach. It was the crucian that I was after! Job done before 9:30 in the morning.

The shade now arrived in my swim and I had to put my coat back on! The larger carp in the pond were also now to be seen cruising in the morning sunshine on the top.

It was about now that a second angler turned up. He weighed up whether to go to my left or my right before finally deciding to go to my left and take on the sunken tree, the home of much lost tackle.

Another hour and another three fish. No more of the pond's crucians, just 2 roach and a small bream.

By 11:30 things still hadn't improved. I knew there were fish there I could see them feeding on the loose fed maggots but they were all very small. I did manage to get another two roach on the corn.

The next hour followed exactly the same pattern only this time I managed to get a couple of skimmers.

If the morning was bad then the afternoon was ten times worse. The swim went completely dead. All I had to show for my efforts was another roach.

It was about this time that my mate decided to pack up for the day. He had targeted the carp and had around 5 out, the best of which was about 7 lb.

In the next three hours I managed to get a carp of my own, this one came in at just over a 1 lb but was very welcome after the day I was having. When I packed up at 18:30 I'd managed to get another 2 bream and a further 3 roach!

I decided then to pack up for the day. It was not a day that lived up to my expectations however I still managed to get 19. I will return to put the record straight!