2015 10 May 15th Silver Lake, Gabriel's Farm Fishery, Edenbridge

Another Friday and another trip this popular fishery. Silver lake was my target for the day. I was looking to improve my performance of a fortnight ago. Could I do it?

I arrived at the fishery just before 7 am. I parked up, loaded up the trolley and headed off to peg 1 which is my favorite peg on the lake.

First I mixed some ground bait and then set about setting up my match rod. Today I was going to use a waggler, 4 lb main line to initially a size 18 hook with 3.8 lb hook length. I felt that this would give me some fun with the silvers and also it could handle any passing carp.

I was ready to make my first cast at 7:45. For bait, initially I was on single maggot. After the first 10 roach I switched to corn and caught another two before the first hour was up.

The next hour I spent more time on the corn. This resulted in only five more roach however the ones on the corn were of a better quality.

This family kept me company for much of the day.

For the next hour I went on the corn full time. Five more reasonable roach made it to the virtual net plus this bonus perch.

The hour before lunch brought another five roach. The 'highlight' though was a massive crayfish! I haven't seen one for about three years.

By 14:00 I'd added 2 more roach and two of the lake's bream.

This family of ducks also kept me company during the day.

During the morning I'd set up my Shimano float rod so that I could at some point during the day attack the swim using banded pellets. At 14:00 I decided that the time was right to give it a go.

I had four hours on the pellet. It was enough time to bring in five carp and three roach. The carp weren't enormous but were good little scrappers. Here's one I caught at 16:20.

I decided to pack up at 6 pm but before I did I thought I'd try a piece of cocktail sausage. It was the only meat I had on me. I flicked out the float and less than the 30 seconds later it disappeared and I was into a 6 lb 1 oz carp! Here it is:

So it was the end of another day. I enjoyed it - 41 fish caught. I shall be back.

2015 9 May 8th Hare Lake, Gabriels Farm Fishery, Edenbridge

Today was my second visit of the year to Gabriel's Fishery. This time though, my target lake was Hare.

The weather was reasonable as I started the drive to Edenbridge. Because of this I was feeling optimistic for the day ahead. I'd had too many cold days recently.

I arrived at the fishery dead on 7 am. I unloaded the car and made my way round to Hare lake, It isn't very wide and the swim I chose is where the lake is the narrowest. It's perfect for flicking a float out in front of the opposite reed bed.

Bait wise today's attack was maggots and sweetcorn because from previous experience it was going to be roach and bream all day with a few small (less than a pound) carp.

As I was only going to use one rod again today I was easily set up and ready to make my first cast at 8 am.

Here is the swim in question:

And here is my set up!

With a single maggot on the hook I didn't have to wait long before the action started. True to the script the first three fish in were very and I do mean very small roach. I decided at that point to switch full time to corn to avoid being pestered by these roach all day. I was rewarded with a small carp.

Here is the carp:

The next sixty minutes produced only another of the lake's small carp. They are about a 1 lb but do pull when you use a match rod so I did have some fun.

The next hour was as slow as the previous one. Just the one fish, this time it was a bream.

Did I say the weather was lovely? Well it was. The sun was shining and it really was quite pleasant. Did it affect the fishing? I think so as I only caught one small carp in the next hour. It was noon now and I'd only caught seven fish.

After lunch the clouds came and began to deposit their content. Just what I needed. It didn't affect the fishing though, another hour another small carp.

The rain seemed to galvanise the fish, by 15:00 I'd added another four fish to the virtual net, three carp and just for a change a small roach. Here's one of them:

I then decided to have a complete change of tactics. I set up my Shimano float rod with 6 lb main line and a size 16 banded pellet hook with the view that I would go for the lake's larger carp. I had nothing to lose I wasn't catching much anyway.

The plan sort of worked as in the last three hours before I packed up I caught eight carp, problem was they were all of the small variety. Yet again I was beaten by the lake's bigger inhabitants.

In conclusion I caught 20 fish all but four were carp. Where were the roach, spawning I guess. I shall be back to have another go at this lake.

Here's a view of the lake from my left side:

2015 08 May 1st Silver Lake, Gabriels Farm Fishery, Edenbridge

Today was the first day of the club's close season so I had to visit another fishery. Today I chose Gabriel's Fishery which is on the far (south) side of Edenbridge.

Weather wise the thing I was worried about today was rain rather than the low temperature as the sky was very cloudy when I left the house at around 6:20.

I arrived at the fishery dead on 7 am which was great because that is the time the fishery opens. I had to wait a few minutes before I was let in. The mile or so bumpy drive to the lakes passed quickly and I was soon at the car park.

There was one other car parked by the gate, a very flash BMW whose owner I never saw all day. There are three lakes at this fishery that I like to fish, Silver, the match lake, Hare, the mixed fishery and Swallow which has an abundance of small carp. Today I chose to fish Silver.

Peg 1 has always been my favorite as it is a corner peg surrounded by reed beds. You don't have to be the world casting champion to get to the likely fish haunts. There is also plenty of space on the nice flat platform for all my gear.

Just the one rod today. A waggler set up with 4 lb main line and a size 18 hook. Initially I started on a single maggot but hoped to progress to corn if the fish were biting.

At 7:50 after ground baiting the swim I was ready to make my first cast. At this time there was no wind but there was a chill in the air.

I didn't have to wait long for the lake's small silver fish to arrive. Nine fish in the first hour, seven roach and two small perch.

For the last fifteen minutes of the hour I did try a piece of corn but there were no takers.

The second hour was almost a repeat of the first, eight small fish caught. No perch this time however a rudd or two did make the net.

Hour three brought nine more fish, eight roach and my first gudgeon of the season, a mighty devil of at least half an ounce! I was still trying corn for the last fifteen minutes of the hour. Unlike the previous hours I was successful this time. The hungry critter was one of the aforementioned roach.

The next hour brought another six fish, Five roach and another rudd. This time I caught two of them on corn.

By 13:00 I'd added another eight fish to the net. As well as roach there was a perch and a gudgeon, When the gudgeon came in I switched full time to corn. This accounted for five of the six roach caught.

The first hour solely on corn brought four roach. These were slightly bigger than the ones caught on maggot.

Three more roach came in on corn and then just before 15:00 my first carp of the day fell victim to a piece of corn. It wasn't huge barely 2 lb but at that point it made my day.

Since midday I'd been loose feeding halibut pellets into the swim with the intention of trying for the lake's bigger carp using banded pellets later on in the day. I'd also set up my Shimano float rod with 6 lb main line to hopefully cope with anything that took the bait.

At 15:00 I made the switch to pellets. The first hour was quiet although I was getting knocks all the time. My assumption that it was the small roach was borne by the fact that I did catch one fish in the first hour and that was indeed a small roach.

About twenty minutes later when the float went I struck expecting another roach, so imagine my surprise when the fish shot off to the left taking line easily from the reel. I managed to turn it and was slowly bringing it back when the hook was spat out. I was gutted.

After another small roach I had a long wait until my next true bite. When it came it was my second smallish common of the day. This was followed at around 18:00 by my third and final carp, a mirror of about 2.5 lb.

I ended the day with a total of 52 fish, the majority were roach however I enjoyed myself which is the main thing.