2017 4 April 7th Chittenden, Edenbridge, Kent

For my fourth outing of the year I chose to visit the club's carp lake at Chittenden near Edenbridge in Kent. My last visit had produced two early season doubles so I was full of confidence for the day ahead.

I arrived at the venue around 7am to find that I was the second one there. I unloaded the car and made my way down the lake to my favoured swim.

For the first time this year, I started the day fishing with two rods, the first, a float rod with 6lb main line and the second, a feeder rod with a small bomb on 8lb line.

As far as bait went, for the float rod I decided to start on corn and for the feeder rod it would be 10mm Tutti Fruitti boillies.

I was ready to make my first casts at 8am. The float shot out and I settled down in my chair ready for the action, if any, to begin.

I didn't have to wait long for my first bite of the day. The float shot away and I was into my first carp of the day, when it made the net I estimated it to be between 5 and 6lb. Not a bad start.

By the end of the first hour, I'd caught another carp of about 3lb and a small bream making my total for the day 3.

By noon I'd caught my first carp on the feeder rod, it was in the 7lb bracket, nice but no monster. Because of the long quiet spell on the corn I decided to change to 6mm halibut pellets.

An hour later and my decision to swop had been vindicated as I caught another two carp, one of around 9lb and the other about 4lb.

By 14:20, I'd added another carp of about 3lb from the pellet rod to the virtual net accompanied by a 2lb bream from the feeder rod.

In addition to halibut pellets I also had some crab flavoured ones and it was these that were responsible for the two carp that made the net in the next hour. Again no monsters, one was 4lb and the other around 3lb. Total for the day was now 10.

Bream also like crab as I discovered when another one made the virtual net.

By the time I packed up at 17:30 I'd caught another three carp, the largest of which was about 9lb. I was a bit annoyed that I had to keep estimating the sizes because my digital scales decided to play up. Of course when I looked at them at home they worked perfectly fine!

So the total for the day was 14. I was pleased with that, there weren't any monsters but I had enjoyed myself and that's what it's all about. One bonus was that it was hot all day so much so that I went home with a sunburnt face!

2017 03 March 31st Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

Beware The Ides Of March

For my third outing of the season I thought I would make a return visit to the club's mixed fishery at Nursery Fields near Edenbridge in Kent.

As I drove down I could feel that the sun was going to be quite strong for the time of year. This might be a factor in whether or not my trip would be successful. Time would tell.

It was just after 7 when I arrived at the venue. There was one other angler there who could only have been a couple of minutes in front of me. We exchanged pleasantries and some information and then went our separate ways.

Today's tactics was going to be the same as the ones I used at Chittenden the previous week, Initially a float rod and then another rod with a small bomb and a 10mm boillie as bait later on.

When I arrived at my swim I decided on a cocktail approach to my loose feed. A combination of hemp, maggots, corn and pellets was thrown in at regular intervals whilst I was setting up.

I was ready to make my first casts at 8am. The first hour flew by as I had action from the get go. Six fish made the net consisting of roach and ide, a species I found out from the bailiff that had recently been stocked.

I decided as the fish were biting that I would stay on the corn until that slowed down. By 9am I'd added another three Ide to the net.

The swim was definitely alive now. Ninety minutes later and I'd caught one more Ide and three tench. My total for the day was now 13.

By noon I'd set up the feeder rod and was fishing a line close to the island. Just before my lunch (12:30) I'd caught one tench on the feeder rod with the float line chipping in with 4 teach plus 1 each of crucian, roach and ide. I was rocking. I'd be taking my coat off next.

The Nursery Fields lunchtime slump then kicked in as by 13:30 I'd only added one more Ide to the virtual net.

The feeder rod then roared into action, the result was my year's first barbel. A nice 2lb specimen. Total for the day was now 23.

The rest of the afternoon (until 16.05) continued to be full on action. The float rod produced two tench, two bream and four more Ide. The feeder rod however produced a carp of 13lb 4oz, another double for the year and a personal best for Nursery Fields. Total for the day was now 32.

The carp - sorry photo not the best.

For the last 2 hours of the day I fished the margin swim that I'd been feeding, little and often, all through the day. I managed to get my best Ide of the day, around 1lb, and several tench and bream. However there weren't any showstoppers between them.

This fellow managed to keep me company throughout the day.

I packed up at 18:30, having caught 40 fish, one of those being a personal best carp from Nursery Fields. The biggest Ide was a personal best as well, however I'd never caught one before so it doesn't really count.

2017 2 March 24th Chittenden, Edenbridge, Kent

For my second outing of the season I decided to visit the club's carp lake at Chittenden, near Edenbridge in Kent.

Driving down to the venue I noticed that it was very much colder (6 degrees) than the previous week. The good news was that there was an absence of wind. How would this affect the fishing?

I arrived at the fishery just after 7am to find just one other car in the car park. The weather was obviously putting  people off.

I unloaded the car and made my way down to the bottom end of the lake.

Today I was going to start with one float rod and then introduce a feeder rod later on. My initial set up was 6lb main line, size 18 hook and single maggot as the hook bait. I fed the swim with hemp, pellets, maggots and corn as I was setting up.

I was ready to make my first cast at 8am. At this time of year I didn't know what to expect from the day so I was full of positive anticipation as I sat back in my chair to wait for the action to begin.

By the end of the first hour I had caught fish, the only problem was they were very small bream and roach, Still it was better than no action.

The next hour was pretty much the same as the previous one except that the three fish were all small rudd.

By 11:35 the small fish had kept coming in on the maggot. One rudd, one bream and five roach to be exact. Total for the day was now 13.

About 11:45 I made two changes to my tactics, the first was to switch hook bait from maggots to corn, The second was to start fishing a small bomb on the feeder rod with 10mm tutti fruitti boillies as the bait.

By 12:20 my plan seemed to have worked. On the float rod I'd caught 2 bream both bigger than the ones I was getting on maggot (the largest being about a pound) and on the feeder rod I'd landed this 7.5 lb carp. Things were looking up.

The next two hours were slow but rewarding. On the float rod I'd added another bream to the virtual net. On the feeder however I'd caught my first double of the year, a 12 lb 12 oz specimen, I was a happy little bunny.

By 15:30 the feeder rod had delivered another fish, Not a carp but a bream of about 2lb. My biggest of the year so far.

Just after 4pm, as I was starting to have thoughts about packing up, the feeder rod went off again and I was into another good carp (for me that is). This was my second double of the season although not quite as big as the previous one it did weigh 11 lb 2 oz.

It was at this point that I decided to call it a day. Twenty fish caught including two doubles. I can't complain about that.

2017 01 March 19th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

Sunday March 19th marked the start of my 2017 season. As has been my practise for the last few years my season debut was to be at the club's mixed fishery, Nursery Fields, just outside of Edenbridge in Kent

As I set out the weather outside was 12 degrees, dry but very windy. When I arrived at the fishery around 7:20, I was surprised to see about 5 cars in the car park, that is busier than what I see in the height of summer.

Due to the weather I could see that no one was at the top of the lake and so it was in that direction that I made my way after I'd loaded up the trolley.

I'd already planned that today I would just keep things simple and fish with just one rod. This would in theory enable me to "get back into the old routine" easily.

Although the temperature according to the car was 12 degrees the strong wind must have made it in reality, at least, half that.

The setup today was a match rod with 4lb main line to a size 20 (yes I can still see it) hook. Bait was primarily single maggot but depending on the day I had with me some corn. No ground bait today just loose fed maggots, hemp, pellets and corn on a little and often basis.

I was set up and ready to make my first cast at 8.22. The question now was, how long before I got my first bite of the season?

The answer was about a minute, the culprit, not unexpectedly, a very small roach. By the end of the first hour I caught another two and a gudgeon, making my total for the day, four.

One of the reasons I 'only' caught four was because I kept getting tangled up when casting due to the strong wind. At the end of the hour I reviewed my shotting pattern. I had all the weight around the float because I wanted to slowly let the bait drop through the water. I decided to make the pattern more even and the result was that I never got another tangle all day. Success!

The next hour's results proved my point, 5 roach and a perch made the virtual net. My total for the day was now ten, double figures.

The fishing slowed down a bit in the next hour. Just the three small roach making the net. Total now was thirteen.

Around noon after another small roach had made the net I decided to give corn a go. I was immediately rewarded with a roach of about 5 or 6 ounces. Much bigger than the ones taking the maggots.

By 13:30 I was still on the corn. I had only more fish to show for my efforts. The good news was that it was my first bream of the season. Not a monster though.

By 15:00 my total for the day had risen to 21. I'd added to the total with another bream and roach on corn plus 2 roach and my first crucian of the season on maggot.

During the day I'd been feeding the margin swim to my left with the occasional piece of corn and so for the last hour I dropped my float in it to see what I had attracted. The result was 2 nice tench.

That was it for the day. I packed up about 16:30. I went home happy after catching 23 fish in all.