2014 04 March 28th Chittenden, Edenbridge

Today was going to be my first visit to the club's carp lake at Chittenden.

As usual I left home at 6:30 and was pleasantly surprised to see that the temperature was 6 degrees. I was looking forward to the day already.

First surprise of the day was when I entered the car park and saw the new pond! It looks like it has potential but that of course depends on how it's going to be set up.

I intended to fish the far side of the first island today so first I walked through the trees to check that it was free. It was, and so I loaded up the trolley and headed off on the short walk to the peg.

The channel between the bank and the island is quite narrow and about 3 foot or so deep. The island is about 20 yards or so long so the plan today was to fish 3/4 of the way across with a waggler and 15 yards down the channel with a feeder rod.

I made my first casts at 8:15 and then with the sun beating (!) down on me, sat back and waited for the action to start.

It turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax as there didn't appear to be anything about. By the end of the first hour all I had was one roach and a skimmer bream. Still some days you just have to be patient.

The next hour was much the same as the first except that I got 2 roach and a skimmer. I'd noticed that the guy fishing by the first island on the near side had been joined by three or four of his mates. It was listening to their chatter that I first realised that I recognised one of the voices. More of that later.

Around 10:15 the buzzer on the feeder went off and I was in. What a tussle it was. I had to be careful as this time last year a fish of similar size broke my rod! Anyway this had a happier ending. An 8lb 4 oz mirror carp! Brilliant.

Another 4 very small roach made the net in the next hour. I decided that I had nothing to lose so for the lunchtime period I would switch to corn. I was rewarded with a bream of 1lb 9ozs.  

Another skimmer followed shortly afterwards and then the float dived and I was into something that wasn't a skimmer. It ploughed off to my left taking line at a right rate of knots. I was on 4lb line with 2.5lb hook length so I had to very careful when applying pressure. Eventually it started to slow down and I was able to retrieve some line. Nearer and nearer it came. When the float appeared I began to get very nervous. I was patient though and after a long battle it was in the net. The prize 9lb 5oz mirror. The switch to corn had sure worked! 

With the feeder rod needing a re-cast and feeling knackered after the fight I decided to have a stroll round the lake to find the owner of that voice. Sure enough it was my uncle. We'd been fishing together a while ago when we'd both been members of WADAS but had lost touch since. After I brief chat I returned to my swim. I'd listen out for him again on future trips.

Over lunch I had another two skimmer bream on corn. The first hour after lunch was also very quiet, just another three skimmers.

The feeder had been quiet for about 5 hours but that period came to end at 15:30 when the buzzer sounded and I was into another carp. This one wasn't as big as the previous one but it still came in at 7lb 6ozs on the scales.

It wasn't all good news though. I hooked another good carp on the waggler which followed the pattern of the first. That is, it took me all around the area before letting me retrieve some line. This time, however when it came into the side it spat the hook. I was gutted but hey that's fishing isn't it. You win some you lose some.

By the time I packed up at 17:15 I'd added another three bream including my best of the day at 2lb 2ozs to make my total for the day 22.

Tackle used

Rod	Reel	Mainline	Hook Size	Bait
1	12' Shimano Alivio Float Rod	4lb	18	Maggots Corn Bread
2	12' Maver Abyss Feeder Rod	6lb	16	Monster Crab 10ml Boillie