2018 11 May 1st, Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

It had been a couple of weeks since I'd last been to the club's mixed fishery at Nursery Fields and so I decided it was going to be the venue for today's session.

The car park had a few cars in it so I wasn't sure where I would end up. After unloading the car I made my way round to the far side of the lake. On arrival I found peg 13 vacant. I'd had good sessions before there and so I was content with that.

Two rod attack today, a float line fished between 1/2 and 3/4 of the way to the island and a small leger with a 10mm boillie fished just past the lily pads.

After setting up and feeding the swim it was 8:20 when I was ready to make my first casts.

I started on corn as I only use maggots in March and April. I didn't make the wrong decision as 11 fish made the net in the first hour. These consisted of an Ide, a Perch, a Bream, a Rudd and 7 Roach.

The next hour was a tad slower, only yielding a Roach, a Crucian Carp and two Ide. I was content with that.

From 10am to 11am it really slowed a lot. So much so that only one fish made the net, a nice looking Tench.

By 12:30, the swim still wasn't setting the world alight. One Roach and an Ide falling victim to the corn. The feeder rod did chip in with it's first fish of the day, another Ide.

I switched to meat for the next hour in the hope that this might give the fish an incentive to feed. Alas, it did not. Only a small Ide made the net.

This fella was feeding though:

Another slow hour followed, 1 Ide and 1 Roach made the net. It wasn't going to be one of those special days today. The session's total was 22.

Until packing up time, which was around 5:30, I decided to go all out on the meat. 

My prize for this change of tactics were 2 reasonable Bream.

The only other fish that were interested were the Ide, three of them to be exact.

So that was it for a fairly uneventful session. I wasn't complaining though, 27 fish in a day isn't bad.

2018 10 April 23rd, Silver Lake, Gabriels Farm, Edenbridge

Today was going to be my first visit of the year to Gabriel's Farm Fishery on the outskirts of Edenbridge in Kent.

I arrived at the fishery a little after opening time at 7:10.

I made my way down the mile long track to the fishery's car park to find it completely clear of cars.

I unloaded the car and made my way over to Silver Lake, the fishery's match lake.

It was just the one rod today - the waggler fished close to an outcrop of reeds. I'd fished it before and been quite successful.

As I was only setting up one rod I was ready to make my first cast at 8:10. I'd already fed the swim with a generous helping of free offerings.

I started on double maggot and was into a variety of fish straight away. In fact, twenty made the net in the first hour. These consisted of, 2 Chub, 2 Perch, 1 Rudd and 15 Roach. Lovely.

This fella kept an eye on me all morning.

The next hour I changed to corn and had one bite. It must have been a carp by the way it took the line however today wasn't the day when it would make a visit to my net.

I alternated between maggot and corn for the next hour but the fishing still stayed slow. Two Roach made the net, one on maggot and one on corn.

I did have this fella for company though.

I stayed on the corn until noon but perseverance didn't pay off in my case as I only managed to nab one small Chub.

Another hour passed with very little action, the only disturbance to the day's total was a small Rudd!

I decided at this point that a change was needed. I decided to give 6mm halibut pellets a go. In the next hour I lost one carp of about 3lb and captured one of about 6lb. Good decision then.

My fortunes swung back to the unproductive side as I sat for another hour without a bite. Very strange day - no consistency at all.

By 16:20 having spent the rest of the afternoon on pellets I'd added a Gudgeon, Bream and a Carp of 2lb to the net. My total for the day was now 28.

At 18:00 when I decided to call it a day, I'd added another three fish to the net. This consisted of 2 Carp and one Roach. A very strange day indeed.