2016 18 July 30th Chittenden, Edenbridge, Kent

Today it was back to club's carp water at Chittenden after a brief sojourn to Bouthurst Farm.

The differnce today was that instead of a day long sesssion I planned to leave at lunchtime and fish into the evening. I would finish before I needed a torch to let myself out.

I was out of the house and on the road in time to reach the fishery at 13:10. There were a few anglers there but not as many as I expected.

I unloaded the car and headed down the lake to my chosen swim of the day. You do work up a bit of a sweat pulling that trolley in the summer heat.

Today was going to be a carp session featuring my two carp rods and some lovely tangerine dream and tutti fruitti boillies. I intended to use maize as feed in the swims. As a bonus I had a combination of hemp, pellets and other assorted boillies which I was also going to use as an addititional attractor.

I had both swimis fed and both rods set up to make my first casts at 14:10. What would today bring? That's the joy of fishing, we never reallly know.

This was my swim to the left.

This was the swim to my right.

The first time the bleeper went off was at 15:06, alas I lost this one. It felt about 5 lb or so and came on the tangerine dream rod.

An hour and 25 minutes later the other buzzer went off, this one I did get in, unfortunately it was a bream of about a pound. The tutti fruitt rod was one up on the day.

Fifteen mnutes later and I'd bagged my first carp of the day. It was 6 lb and came in on the Tangerine Dream rod.

Between 16:45 and 17:59 I lost a further three carp, the second of the three actually took the boillie on the drop,. I had now lost four fish. I began to get worried that I was doing something wrong.

The setup:

At 18:15 I was back on track. This one weighed 7 lb and fell to a tutti fruitti boillie. The run of misses had been broken. Confidence had been restored.

Fifteen minutes later and again on tutti fruitti I landed another carp of 6 lb or so.

At 19:30 the buzzer went off and I was into another one. After a few minutes of playing the fish and with it now being close to the bank I noticed that the line was tangled around the reel and that I wouldn't be able to retreive anymore line. I took the line and keeping tight managed to guide the fish to the net! The result was 5 lb carp.

I caught my last and biggest carp at 19:50. It weighed 9 lb and came in on the Tangerine Dream rod.

So that was it for the day. I was worried about the lost fish so I enquired on Maggotdrowners and the advice given was that 15 mm boillies on a size 14 drennan hair rig was imbalanced. I shall, in future, change my set up when fishing this method.

2016 17 July 1st Boulthurst Farm, Holland, Surrey

Today I was going to make a visit to one of my old favourite venues, Holland AS's small carp pond in Boulthurst Frrm near Oxted in Surrey.

As there are only 5 swims on this pond it was imperative that I was up and out of the house as early as I could manage.

I arrived at the pond a little after 6 am to find the small car park empty. "Perfect" I thought to myself. I parked the car about 15 metres from the swim on the far right of the pond which meant no need of the trolley today.

I was set up and ready to make my first cast dead on 7 am. As this is a carp pond it was carp rod and a buzzer today. Not a tactic for a day session that I use very often. Tangerine Dream 15 mm boillies were my bait of choice.

I had fed two lines within the swim, one to the right and yes, one to the left. I started with the one on the left. It was thirty minutes into the session when the buzzer went off the first time and I was in. The result didn't threaten the breaking strain of the line, a mere 1 lb of fighting carp!

I then swopped to the right hand swim and ten minutes later the buzzer went again. This one was a bit bigger (2.5 lb) but still smaller than I was expecting.

The pattern for the day was now set, I would change lines each fish or after an unproductive hour whichever came first.

At 8:21 my biggest fish of the day so far turned up. I estimated it to be about 5 lb.

Six minutes later and I was in again, the result was the same, a small carp of about 3 lb. Where were the bigger ones? When I had visited the pond a few years back they went to about 7lb.

I had to wait half an hour before the buzzer went off again. Yet again it was another carp of about a 1 lb. I began to suspect that the club had recently re-stocked the pond with small carp.

Things were slowing down. I had to sit for an hour before the sound of the buzzer disturbed the peace and quiet. The result? Yep another small carp. This one about 2 lb.

The time was now 10:49 and I'd just released another 3 lb carp. These greedy beggars were taking 15 mm boillies like they were Smarties.

Of course I don't mind catching fish but when you come armed for carp around 7 to 10 pound but keep catching fish like the 1.5 lb specimen I caught at 11:30 it is not a fair fight. I had however no choice but to continue.

Between 12:30 and 14:30 I had three more of the small carp. If I'd fished the swim with a waggler and light tackle I would have had a monster day.

Between 14:30 and 16:30 I caugh 8 lb of carp.... with three fish!

At 16:06 I caught my biggest fish of the day. A very nice carp of 6 lb. I felt almost happy!

At 16:48 I caught my last small carp of the day. I decided at that point to give up and go home. Was it me or was the pond just over-stocked with small carp? It's a shame if it's the latter.