2018 9 April 16th, Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

Today, I was going to pay another visit to the club's mixed fishery at Nursery Fields, near Edenbridge in Kent. After the good session I had last time there I was filled with a good feeling of optimism.

It was just after 8am when I arrived at the fishery. There was one or two cars in the car park so that meant I was going to get an almost free choice of swims.

I unloaded the car and set off on the trek up the lake to the top swim. I like this swim as it is the shortest distance from the bank to the island.

I intended to fish the float line about 3/4 of the way across to the island and the leger rod about as close as I could get to the corner of the island.

I was ready to make my first casts at 9:30.

I started on double maggot and this proved a wise decision as the swim got off to a flyer. Fourteen fish comprising 2 Ide, 1 Crucian Carp, 1 Gudgeon and ten Roach made the virtual net. Not to be left out the feeder swim chipped in with a nice Tench.

As I felt I was on a roll I decided to switch to corn for the next hour. Alas, not much of a success. Only one of the lakes' Bream made it to the net. The feeder rod gave up an Ide and my first Barbel of the year.

I don't know why but I decided to stay on the corn for another hour. What a difference. 3 Ide, a Bream, 3 Crucian Carp and 2 Roach made the net. My total for day was now 27.

The next hour was the best of the session not because of the Ide, Roach and Bream that I caught but for the Crucian Carp which weighed in at 2lb 3oz, a personal best!

The next hour reverted to the day's  norm, one each of Roach, Crucian Carp and Rudd and a couple of Ide from the float swim. The feeder rod supplied a Tench and a small Carp. Total for the day now stood at 39.

By now it was 15:40 and the net's total stood at 43, having just added a Roach, Crucian Carp, an Ide and a Barbel to it.

An hour and twenty minutes later the net was bulging with 58 fish! Three Tench were from the feeder rod. The rest, consisting of, a Tench, 2 Crucians, an Ide, a Bream, 2 Roach and five Rudd were from the float swim. The corn was working well today.

I'd been feeding the margin to the right of me all day with one or two pieces of corn. At 17:00 I reeled in the feeder rod and shortened up the depth of the float rig and had a look down the side. Over the next half hour or so I caught 2 Ide, a Tench, a Crucian and a carp of about 5.5 pounds.

I decided after the catching the carp to call it a day. The net was bulging with 63 fish, one of which was a personal best, so I went home a happy man.