2016 08 April 29th Chittenden, Edenbridge

Today was going to be my last visit to the club's carp lake at Chittenden, near Edenbridge in Kent until June as the waters close for the month of May.

For a change the weather was good as I made my way to Edenbridge at about 5:45. I was hopeful of having a good day as my previous one a fortnight or so earlier had been a success.

There were a couple of cars in the car park when I arrived however the anglers were all situated in the upper and nearside section of the lake so I was pretty confident of having some peace and quiet at the lower end of the lake where I intended to fish today.

Arriving at my swim I first set up my feeder rod. Today I was using 8 lb main line to a 6 lb hook length containing a size 14 hook. A 15 ml tangerine dream boillie was going to be used as bait fished over a bed of maize.

When the set up was completed I made my first cast at around 7:30. Immediately there was a splash. I looked down and there was no spool on my reel! After some feeling around I managed to retrieve the spool from the lake bed only to find that the top had come off. The feeder rod was therefore out of play for the day. What a start!

So now I was down to just the waggler rod. I started with a single maggot as bait and for the first hour I was quite successful, 7 roach and 1 bream came to the net.

For the next hour I tried corn however it was a total failure as I didn't even get a bite. I did get interest from the small roach though.

By 10:30 I'd switched back to maggot and had claimed another roach and a carp. It wasn't a monster but a carp all the same. My spirits were lifted somewhat.

For the next hour I tried corn again. This time I was no more successful than the first. It just wasn't going to be my day.

A slight change of tactics (double from single maggot) was the plan for the next hour. The result was 2 roach and 2 bream.

At 13:30 I decided to have a complete change of tactics and so I went on 6 mm pellets. The result was dismal. By 17:30 when I packed up I'd caught absolutely nothing.

And so ended not a very good session.13 fish, all on maggot which is surprising for a carp lake in April. Still that's fishing.

Apologies for no photos - camera was playing up.