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.