For the past 4 weeks or so I had been preparing for this day. This meant ensuring all existing tackle was clean, any broken or worn out tackle was replaced and any terminal tackle that needed acquiring was bought. Luckily my birthday was only a few weeks previous so the cost to me wasn't too great!
The weather forecast leading up to today was good, sunshine with no wind or rain. Also the temperature was going to above the seasonal average.
With all the gear packed into the car I set off at 6:30 for the 20 mile or so trip to Edenbridge. With the temperature at 7.5 and the Eagles blasting through the speakers, could life be any better?
I arrived at the fishery at around 7am to find another car parked in front of me with the occupant opening the gate. It must have been my lucky day. I followed the car into the car park and loaded up my gear ready for the longish walk to the top of the lake.
When I arrived at the peg, the lake looked great. I couldn't wait to get started. As normal, today was going to be a two rod attack. The feeder rod to the island and the waggler rod about half way across.
Having set up and baited the swims I cast out at 8am. The new season had started. I only had to wait 15 minutes for the first bite. The surprise was, it wasn't on the waggler rod but on the feeder. As soon as I struck the fish (a carp) jumped out of the lake. After a brief if not rusty struggle I had the fish in the net. A common carp of around 4lb.
It was thirty minutes or so before the waggler went down and in came the first roach of the season.
As the morning drew on the fishing could not be described as anything but slow. My initial optimism had all but vanished. I was still catching though, a perch, a bream and a mighty gudgeon made it 5 species in the first 5 fish caught. That has to be some sort of feat.
I started the day on single maggot whilst feeding a few pieces of corn every now and again. When I felt the time was right I tried corn on the hook. I waited nearly an hour for the float to dip, when it did I was rewarded with a skimmer of about a 1lb.
The pattern for the day was set, each hour produced one or two fish. These were a mixture of the usual suspects, roach, gudgeon and bream (who were in the majority).
All through the day I'd been feeding the reed area on my right with one or two pieces of corn every 15 minutes or so. As the day drew to a close I dropped the float next to the reeds. Almost immediately the float went away and I was into what turned out to be a crucian carp of around a 1lb.
The feeder rod was silent for most of the day after the explosive start. It did spring into action once more. It was a carp but not a common or a mirror but another crucian of about a 1lb.
One of the roach (or whatever it is) that I caught had a very distinctive coloring (see below):
I decided to pack up at 4:30 having had a good enjoyable day. As the season progresses so hopefully will my catches.
Tackle used
| Rod | Reel | Mainline | Hook Size | Bait |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12' Shakespeare Match Rod |
4lb
| 20 18 |
Maggots
Corn
Bread
|
| 2 | 12' Maver Abyss Feeder Rod |
6lb
| 16 | Monster Crab 10ml Boillie |
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