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!