September 5th - Boulthurst Farm

My 2010 season finished with this final trip to 'the farm' on the afternoon of Sunday September 5th.

I turned up at the venue around 12:30 to find all the swims taken! The first time ever. I had a wander up the bank to see how things were going for the people there. Bad news - no one was catching. The rain began to fall as well and I thought how could things get any worse?

I mentioned to one of the anglers that I might as well go down to the ponds and try my luck there but he said there was a match on and that's why everyone was here!

I was actually chatting to the chap in the double swim who I had met there before and he said I could share with him to save me having a wasted journey. What a nice bloke!

To be honest it was a bit cramped but I managed to cast a boillie out into a area about midway across the pond. I fed a few freebies and settled back in my chair to see what was what.

To be honest it was a bit of cast fest there that day as it seemed that every few seconds someone had to cast a bait in. I put this down to the fact that apart from me everyone was using floating bread - there was loads of the stuff going in.

I was not really surprised that no carp were feeding considering the noise.

Anyway I was getting nothing on the buzzer, usually I would get some line bites that I took to be the roach initially investigating the freebies but today there was nothing.

As the afternoon wore on people began to pack up and leave. Around 6pm my fishing buddy went for his dinner as well. I started to hope that things would improve when I was left on my own.

However this was not to be as I managed to get my first blank of the season.

Roll on next spring!

September 3rd - Private Pond

Today I decided it was about time I did another afternoon/evening session at the club's Private pond in Oxted.

I travelled down in the rain but by the time I got to the pond it had stopped which allowed me the oppertunity to set up in some comfort.

I managed to get peg 8 which is rapidly becoming my favourite. The lily pads are quite close and the fish can be enticed out of them fairly easily. The margins area in this swim are also very productive.

I mixed up a small batch of groundbait containing mostly brown crumb. I fed a couple of generous balls into the swim along with about a 1/3 of a pint of hemp. A few grains of sweetcorn completed the carpet of bait.

My set up was a basic small waggler, 6lb main line, size 16 wide gap hook with a 5lb hook length.

My first cast (well flick in to be exact) was at 12:25.

There was an almost instant reaction to the bait in the swim but I put this down to the prolific stock of small rudd and roach. However by 2pm I'd caught 6 fish, 4 small carp, a crucian and one of the aforementioned roach.

All six fish were taken on sweetcorn or breadflake. I hadn't bothered taking any maggots as I know these would be snapped up by the smaller fish.

The next hour was much more productive, the tench showed up, a nice 2lb specimen and a 3lb common carp, both taken from the margins. The small carp were still there as I managed to bag 3 of them. The number of roach doubled as well as I had 2!

It was at this point that the heavens opened and I had to start to build a shelter on the platform. Up went the brolly which was attached to my box which was directly behind my chair making it a perfect dry fishing base. This worked well mainly due to the fact that there was no wind.

The downside of the change in the weather was that I couldn't take anymore notes so I'm writing the remainder of this entry from memory.

Despite the rain the fish continued to feed. I kept topping the two swims up with an occasional ball of groundbailt and some loose offerings. The small carp came in at about one every other cast.

I'm not sure how many I caught by the end of the session but it was over 30. I packed up around 7:30 in one of the intervals in the rain.

Was I just unlucky with my choice of days or did it really rain that much this summer?

August 29th Boulthurst Farm, Oxted, Surrey

I thought today I would give this pond an afternoon/evening session.

I turned up at 12:30.The weather was cloudy but thank god no rain. As usual it seemed I was the only one there.

I managed to get my favourite swim (see picture below) and immediately started to feed my 2 chosen lines, the first under the overhanging tree and the second the clear water about 30 yards to the right of the tree.

Under the tree I fed 10ml seafood boillies which I had been very successful with in the past in this swim. The other swim I thought I would try something different. I fed 10ml strawberry boillies (normally I use tutti fruitti ones) with the intention of using 12ml boillies on the hair. I was trying to keep the roach of the hookbait.

I cast in around 12:55. The first bite came at 13:20 but I missed it as the hooklength broke! Bt 14:50 I'd lost another 2 more. Both of which spat the hook!

At 15:00 I caught a fish on seafood but it was a bream not an expected carp. It was a good bream, the best I've ever had at this venue.

The first carp, a 2.5lb common arrived 5 minutes later, again to a seafood boillie.

Twenty minutes later the second carp turned up, this time one of 3lb which also had a liking for seafood.

The second "strawberry" line was very quiet and I was beginning to suspect that I had made a wrong choice. However at 6pm the buzzer went off and I landed a 6lb common easily the best fish of the session.

15 minutes later I lost another on seafood which spat the hook out.

The strawberry boillies struck for the last time at 18:40 when a 2lb common took a fancy to one. 

An hour later I lost another fish and that made me decide to call it a day. This session produced 5 fish with a further 5 being lost! Did the strawberry experiment work? Well it did produce the biggest fish of the day so I think at the very least it's worth another go.

August 22nd Boulthurst Farm

Every season I try to grab the best swim on the pond and fish for the carp using coventional float tactics.

First of all I had to make sure that I got the swim. To this end I was up early and arrived at the pond around 7am. Luck was on my side as there was no one there.

The photo below does not really give the right impression of the difficulties posed by this swim. On the left there is a large overhanging bush followed by a sunken tree. Stopping the fish before they reached the sanctuary of the snags was the order of the day.

Due to the snags my tackle for the day was my Shimano float road, 6lb main line to a size 16 hook on a 5lb hooklength. A 3bb float completed the set up.

I fed a generous helping of groundbait and about a third of a pint of hemp into the swim. My first cast was at 7:45 with a grain of corn on the hook.

I didn't have too long to wait for the first bite, aaround 30 minutes I would say. It wasn't a carp but a skimmer bream of about a 1lb which was a personal best for me for the venue.

The next two bites I lost, the first a small roach which dropped off on the way in and a foul hooked carp that I lost at the net.

By 9:15 I'd only added another roach. I wasn't particularly worried by the slow start as my previous experience on the pond had taught me that it was a slow starter.

The next hour was slighty more productive with 3 roach and a 1.5lb carp who had a liking for breadflake.

The action stopped for 2 hours. In that time I continued to experiment with corn and bread on the hook. I also had a go with meat and this did account for a 2lb common.

At 12:50 the heavens opened again but not before I landed a 3lb mirror, again on meat.

20 minutes later a second 2lb mirror was in the net.

The rain continued to crash down so I had to keep everything as dry as possible including my notebook and camera.

I did keep on catching escpecially after the rain finally stopped. It seemed as if the rainstorm somehow galvanised them into action. The photo below was one I managed to get off during a break in the rain.

The fish below is an example of what I was catching in the afternoon.

August 13th Private Pond Oxted Surrey

Didn't intend to go fishing on this day as I had already made plans to go on the Sunday afternoon. My daughter however decided to go on holiday on the Sunday and wanted a lift to Gatwick so that scuppered my weekend plans.

I then decided that if I took the Friday off I would go to the club's Private pond for an afternoon/evening session in another attempt to get one of their fabled good size tench.

The day started badly in that my PC's hardrive decided to give up the ghost (the second time in 2 years). I was not happy to say the least and even less so after being sent to PC WORLD by the TECH GUYS to get my data recovered (which I pay for monthly) only to discover that the store in Croydon doesn't do it anymore.

Anyway I left for the pond around noon armed with half a loaf of bread, a tin of corn and a tin of luncheon meat. I also had my Shimano float rod with it's new end piece (see previous post for that story).

It was raining when I left home but by the time I arrived at the pond 30 minutes later it had disappated. I wanted if I could, to fish peg 8 which I had been told by my scouse (sorry don't know your name) mate that that was the hot spot for the tench.

I was fortunate in that when I arrived the only other angler there was on peg 3 so I made was way to peg 8.

The peg had a definite 'fishy' feel about it. There was a large bank of lily pads directly in front of me (about a rod length out) which meant that I wouldn't have to cast the bait - just flick it out. See photo below.

Prior to setting up I threw in a couple of handfuls of corn.

My setup was 6lb mainline (because of the lillies), size16 hook to 4lb hooklength with a 2bb crystal waggler.

I flicked the bait out as near to the lillies as possible and settled back in my chair. A few minutes later the float went under and in came a carp off about half a pound.

This was followed in the first hour or so by 2 more small carp and a small rudd. I kept feeding the corn after each fish as I wanted to build up the swim as I hoped that as the day wore on the bigger fish would come and investigate.

I had brought bread with me but to be honest on this pond the very small fish are such a nusiance that I just get frustrated when I use it and tend to stay on the corn. However in this swim things were different. The bites were positive and although early on the takers were small carp I was not pestered by the small stuff.

The bread was working well - at one stage I was on a fish a cast!

The tench finally began to show around mid-afternoon. The first one barely made a pound but the next 2 were in the 2lb range.

Throughout the session I had been feeding the margins swim which because the swim was on a bend in the lake, was almost at my feet!

From time to time I had a dabble but it wasn't until around 5pm that I got a bite - it wasn't a carp but a nice tench of around a pound.

The pattern was now set for the remainder of the session - fish the main swim for 20 minutes or so and than try the margins swim.

Oh I forgot to mention that from 3pm onwards the heavens had opened and I had to camp out under my umbrella and don my waterproofs!

The rain seemed to galvanise the fish into feeding as whatever bait I used, be it corn, bread or meat they responded with very positive bites.

My main swim producing mainly small carp but occasionally the odd larger one of between 1 and 3 pounds. I also managed to bag a nice tench of around 3.5lb which if I hadn't have had my scales nicked recently I could have confirmed.

The margins swim was also still producing, I must have had 6 or 7 nice carp from there over the remainder of the session. All of them were between 2 and 6 pound.

By the time I packed up (7:45) I'd had 35 or so fish, mainly small common and mirror carp but also 3 roach, a rudd, a crucian and 8 tench (the most I've ever caught in a session).

I will be returning to swim 8 possibly for a full days session later on in the season.

August 8th Private Lake. Oxted Surrey

For some time I had been wondering what it would be like to have a go for the carp in this pond using carp methods rather than my normal waggler approach.

Last Sunday I thought I would give it a go. Conditions for fishing should have been good as for the previous 2 days the heavens had opened which had got rid of the high humidity.

I arrived arround 7am and was set up for the first cast around 7:30.

The swim I chose had 2 advantages - the first being the island at an angle of 45 degrees and only about 5 rod lengths out, the second a set of lily pads at 45 degrees the other way about 4 rod lengths out.

15 minutes after my first cast I realised my first mistake - the boillies I use are 10ml in size and this pond is full of small carp of less than a pound. Straight away one of them took the bait. Still I was off the mark.

My second mistake was not so obvious. When I came to feed the swims, the lily pad swim was no problem the small boiliies I could throw in quite accurately however I couldn't get them to the island swim. I decided to swop the leger for a small swimfeeder. I mixed up some brown crumb which I put in the feeder along with 3 or 4 boillies. This seemed to do the trick.

By noon I'd added 3 more small carp - there were bigger ones on the surface but none as yet were feeding.

12:15 saw the action resume with this 2lb common.

By 1pm I'd accumulated a further 2 small carp and a 2lb mirror all with a liking for tutti fruitti.

The next hour saw the pattern repeated as 2 more small carp and a 1lb'er were caught.

My continual feeding must have had some affect as in the afternoon session as the small carp disappearred and the larger stuff (over a 1lb came in).

To prove the point the next one was this nice 4lb specimen.

Next up was a 3lb'er and then at 14:50 the biggest fish of the day so far was in the net - a 5lb common who fell for a seafood boille just off the lily pads. See photo below:

The next 1 and a half hours brought 3 more 2lb commons, all from the lily pads swim on seafood. See photo below:

By 5 o'clock I'd landed 2 small commons, a 2lb common, my first mirror, my one and only tench and my best fish of the day a 6lb common.

The last 2 hours produced a further 5 carp on both tutti fruitti and seafood boillies.

Lessons learnt? Well the obvious one is that next time I go I will have to use bigger boillies so that the smaller carp can be avoided and maybe inest in a catapult!

August 4th Boulthurst

It was one of those really humid August mornings as I set off for Boulthurst for hopefully a good carping session on the best swim (if I could get it).

Luck was on my side this day as when I arrived the car park was empty so off I trotted down to the end swim.

The swim has an incoming stream to the left, followed by some bushes and then the dreaded sunken tree. This is followed by a bed of lily pads. My plan was to fish 10 yards or so to the right of the tree so that when(if) I got a take I had some time to stop it before it made the snags.

My setup up today would be my Shimano 2.5lb tc carp rod, Shimano Exige reel with 6lb line, a small 1/4 ounce leger and size 14 hair rig on 5lb line.

The bait was 10ml seafood boillies.

I didn't have to wait very long for the first take - I cast in at 7:15 and by 7:45 the first common of the day was on the bank - a nice 2lb'er.

At 8am I had another take, this was a bigger fish however I lost the battle to keep it out of the snag and lost it when the hooklength broke.

Half an hour later a second 2lb common was in the net - shaping up for a good day me thinks!

I'd been feeding a spot under a tree/bush on the other side of the swim with tutti fruitti boillies with the plan that I woudl swop swims every fish. This paid off at 8:40 when I land a 1.5lb common.

Having caught one on Tutti Fruitti I changed back to seafood and  re-cast to my oiginal spot. Straight away the rod tip went round but this time the fish got away, having spat the hook out.

At 9:30 the biggest fish of the day so far (a 4lb common) fell to a tutti fruitti boillie.

Just before 10 the tree came to the rescue of another one. You do need quick reactions to stop them getting there - it's a fine balance on 6lb line to decide how much strain to initially put on the fish.

10 minutes later a seafood boillie accounted for a 3lb common.

At 10:30 I decided to up the hook size to a size 12 and almost immediately landed a 2lb common.

Because the boillies I use are small the roach in the pond like them and so it proved when I caught one on a  tutti fruitti!

As is always nearly the case the morning session at Boulthurst is not that great and so the swims went into a 90 minute rest period - It may just be my limited talent though.

After I ate my lunch the action resumed first with a 4lb mirror and then with a 1.5lb mirror in quick sucession.

The lunchtime period ended with a 3lb common on tutti fruitti.

Another 90 minutes of inactivity was broken by a 2lb common with a liking for a seafood boillie. So far neither swim appeared to be the hot one of the day.

15:15 brought another small common and a torrential downpour that lasted until 16:30. Luckily I was able to get the umbrella up and the waterproofs on before any serious soaking was had.

At 4pm I lost my second fish in 6 hours, not bad considering the swim I was fishing.

Five minutes later and I had put that right when I landed a 4lb common.

The rain must have have woken them up somewhat as next cast I had a 3lb mirror.

The rain finally stopped but the feeding fish didn't as in the next hour I had a 2.5lb common, a 3lb common and a 4lb common.

The run of carp was interruputed by a good size roach with a liking for seafood boillies!

Just before 6 I caught my last fish of the day - a small common of about a pound.

I packed up at that point having had a good day in what is a very good but challenging swim. 

July 26th Boulthurst Farm, Oxted, Surrey

Every season I like to spend at least one session at Boulthurst targetting the crucians that live there.

I arrived early (6:45) to ensure that I got the lily pads swim as I knew from past experience that that was where they were the most prolific.

I was first there as usual but the sight that met my eyes was most disconcerting. The club supply 2 bins, one in the carpark right next to the pond and one actually in swim 1. These bins were close to overflowing and the area all around them was covered in litter and even discarded articles of clothing! I had a quick walk around the pond and all the swims were in the same condition. How can people not leave things as they find them?

Anyway the swim I chose only had a few empty cans and a discarded loaf of bread in so I cleared that away and set up my tackle for the day.

I had no choice but to use my 13' match rod as my Shimano float rod was broke (see previous blog entry). On the 5lb main line I attached a small 2 bb waggler and a size 16 hook with a 4lb hooklength.

I mixed up my groundbait - 75% brown crumb with 25% carp/tench/brem attractor together with a handful or 2 of sweetcorn. I threw a couple of balls to the farside of the lily pads. (See photo below).

When I've fished this swim previously I've always managed to bag a bonus carp or 2 in between the lily pads and the bank. The water is only about a foot deep but if you feed it enough they will come in at some point during the day.

To this end I set up my feeder rod with 6lb main line and a size 14 hook to a 5lb hook length. While I was waiting for the crucians to be attracted to the groundbait I thought I would feed the margins swim with some corn and have a dabble.

While I was setting up my match rod the tip shot round and I struck expecting a carp but no, it was a roach of about 4 ounces!!!

By 7:45 I was ready to cast into the swim for the first time. I initially used corn as bait. I didn't have to wait too long before I caught my second roach of the day. This was followed fairly quickly by a crucian of around half a pound.

I tried corn in the margins every hour and at 9:00 I landed a 2.5lb common.

The next 3 hours were pretty slow in terms of the number of fish caught but I did have 4 crucians, sadly none made the magic pound mark. I did pick up a carp on corn which was a pleasant surprise. The margins swim produced another carp and another roach.

The afternoon session was not enjoyable for me at all. Around 3pm a group of kids turned up - 4 went in one swim to the side of me and one went down the far end. For the next hour they cast out the biggest float I've ever seen attached to a massive bit of bread. This fell off and so they reeled in and re-cast.

Of course one had to come over and ask me for a light - I don't smoke so couldn't 'help'.

There was a member of the committee fishing at the pond that day but when I spoke to him after they left (having cast into the tree over thier heads) he said that 'it wasn't worth the hassle to challenge them'. I tended to agree.

Anyway after they left I regained some composure and fished on. By the time I packed up (about 6:30) I added 4 roach (1 from the margins again), 1 more crucian and 2 carp (using a large piece of bread flake).

The largest one is shown below:

I did meet fellow Maggot Drowner Mr B Largus today but as we didn't realise it for several days we didn't chat. Oh well there's always next time.

I packed up at 6pm and headed home.

July 7th Boulthurst Farm, Oxted, Surrey

It was back to Boulthurst for another carping session on this lovely summer's day.

It was early when I arrived (I love an early start) and as expected there was an empty car park. I quickly made my way to my favourite swim. The photo below shows what it was like at 6:30 in the morning.

I set up my 2.5tc carp rod with the usual 6lb main line and 5lb hook length to a size 14 hook. I was going to use 10ml seafood and tutti fruitti flavoured boillies.

One set of boillies I put under the tree and the second in the clear water on the opposite side of the swim. Each set no more than 15 yards from the bank.

Thirty minutes after my first cast I had my first run. I played the fish fairly hard as I had to stop it getting into the roots of the tree. Uunfortunately for me it managed to get there and eventually spat the hook. 

I had to wait a further hour and fifteen minutes for the second run. This one I landed - a nice common of 1.5 pounds. It fell to a seafood boillie.

Forty minutes later it's twin brother succumbed to the same flavour!

Twenty minutes later (9:30 by now) I lost another one as it buried itself in the bank under my feet. I went for the net which must have slackened the line and the hook came out. Silly boy.

The weather was warm and the sky quite overcast so I was a bit disappointted with the action to date. I thought there would be more activity than this. 

10:30 arrived and so did my biggest fish of the day - a 3lb common with a liking for seafood.

For the afternoon session I thought I would concentrate on the tutti fruitti swim. Just before one and just after my salmon paste sandwich I landed a half pound roach!

Fifteen minutes later a 3lb common fell to the fruitty bait. I did begin to wonder why the larger carp were not showing as I could see them on the surface all over the pond when the light was right.

Both swims then went through 3 hours of calm before a 2lb mirror grabbed a tutti fruitti boillie.

Just before 5pm I had another small common before finally calling it a day at around 6pm.

I did enjoy the day (I nearly always do) however I was disappointed with the results.

Better luck next time me thinks.

July 4th Private Pond Holland Surrey

I'd spent my last 2 fishing trips carp fishing at Boulthurst Farm, so I thought I was due a session on the float at the Club's Private pond in Holland whisch is in darkest Surrey.

I arrived around 6:3o and went straight to peg 1 in the corner. There is a lily pad bed to the right and another along the margins to the left whcih are good features to fish to. (See photo below).

I fed sweetcorn into both swims and a mixture of groundbait, hemp and maggots into the swim by the lily pads which would be my main line.

I intended to set  up 2 rods because these swims tend to mainly produce small (under a pound) carp but occasionaly a larger specimen can be had from the margins in the afternoon.

The first rod I set up was my feeder rod. This had a very basic free-lining set up in that I put a 3 bb shot on the 6lb main line just before the 5lb hook length. This had a size 14 hook.

Whilst I was setting up the second rod I cast the first one into the margins swim using a piece of sweetcorn as bait to see if there were any early morning callers - there wern't!

The second rod had 5lb main line to 4lb hook length and a size 16 hook with 2 bb float. I had plumbed the depth and set it around two feet which was a couple of inches over depth.

First cast and there was a strange sound followed by the float landing just in front of me! Upon inspection I discovered that my rod had broke - brilliant! I hadn't cast with any force as the lily pads are quite close.

Luckily I carry my old 13' match rod with me so I re-setup using that.

I started off using sweetcorn on the hook as I had pre-baited the swim with a fair amount of it.

By 9am I'd had 7 small carp none of them bigger than a pound but fish never the less.

I was loose feeding every cast into swim 1 (normally corn) and into swim 2 (the margins) every fish caught.

By 10:20 I'd added 3 more small carp, 2 goodish roach from swim 1 and this tench from the margins swim which took a fancy to a piece of meat. 

I was by now settling into a nice pattern. I was feeding maggots to the lily pads and using corn on the hook. By 11:30 this had accounted for a further 8 small carp, 2 roach and another tench. I was also having a look in the

The next two hours produced 9 carp and yet another solitary tench.

One of the 9 carp was this specimen taken from the margins swim.

By 14:30 I was still catching consistently. I did try bread flake for a while but the very small roach kept picking at it which made bite detection almost impossible.

Despite that I still managed to add 2 more tench and 8 carp to the net.

The margins swim was still proucing the odd good carp. The one below came in at 15:40.

From around 4pm the glare of the sun off the water was getting too much for me so I put the float rod away and put a small amount of weight on my feeder rod and used that instead. The tip being far easier to see than the float.

This method brought me 11 carp, 2 tench and 5 roach.

I was on a roll now, I was alternating between the swims, taking a fish from each until I packed up because to be fair I was getting very tired!

Highlight of the last session was this 9lb common taken from the margins - my best ever carp from this pond. Luckily I managed to get someone to take this picture.

The last session yielded 3 tench and 8 carp making a grand total of 73 fish. A very pleasing day.

June 28th Boulthurst Farm, Oxted Surrey

After the fantastic success of my previous visit (16th June) I couldn't wait for the next opportunity to get down amongst them at the Farm.

I arrived at the pond around 6:15 and immediately set up in my favourite swim (see below). Thirty minutes later I had my first cast.

I had never really tackled this pond from an early start, I'd previously been there mainly in the afternoon and evenings so I was a bit surprised when I had no action until 8:50.

The buzzer went off and I played the fish up to the lip of the net. At that point it decided that it didn't want to meet me and spat the hook out.

I re-cast to the same spot. Fifteen minutes later the indicator went again and I was in for the second time.

This one was even more reluctant to meet me - he spat the hook way before the net came into play.

I began to think it wasn't going to be my day. My third cast went into a tree which seemed to confirm my worst fears. 

At 9:55, using a pineapple 15ml boillie I manage to tempt a nice chub of around 1 pound into the net.

Twenty Five minutes later the tutti fruitti fllavour struck gold as I landed a nice 5lb common.

Regarding the chub I caught, I was informed last year that chub had not been stocked in the pond and that it was probably a rogue immigrant. Well, at 11:20 I either caught another or the same one as I did an hour or so before! This one was caught on a seafood boillie.

By now the fish were playing ball, 30 minutes after the second chub I had a small common.

One of the advantages (or disadvantages depending on how you look at it) of using small boillies is that other species can often take the bait. Sometimes these other species are a nice size. At 11:55 a Roach decided to have a boillie. The buzzer wasn't tripped but I saw the line move around. I struck and in came the roach.

Just past noon I switched boillie flavour to seafood and lo and behold I caught another chub (or the same one for the third time!).

Less than 10 minutes after the chub was released the buzzer went again and in came a 5lb common. I was beginning to get on a bit of a roll.

The aforementioned roll continued with another roach and unblieveably another chub! I now suspect that there is more than one chub in this pond.

At 12:30 the wheels came off my roll as I missed another one - unusual for me this season - I must have been having one of those days!

The swim then settled into a 3 hour quiet period which gave me the oppertunity to contemplete life, the universe and everything.

The calm was broken at 15:35 when I landed a 4lb common after switching to tutti fruitti boillies.

Ten to four came and I lost another one. I was definitely off form today. Just to confirm that I lost another 20 minutes later.

As the evening wore on the fishing slowed down which was the opposite of what I expected. As the clock struck 6pm I landed another fairly good roach.

I was beginning to think about packing up when the buzzer went and I got a 4lb common on a pineapple boillie. This gave me the energy to carry on.

I had my last bite at 19:30 which became my 6th loss of the day so I decided it was time to pack up and go home.

I did enjoy the day though.

June 16th - Boulthurst Farm, Oxted, Surrey

This was my first visit of the year to the pond.

There are only 4 swims on the pond (one's a double) so I had to get up early to be assured of getting one.

To this end I did as much preparation the night before as I could which effectively meant I just had to load up the car, eat my cornflakes and shower before heading off.

I arrived just before 7 to find that the car park was empty. Great, I thought, first choice of swims. I selected the one on the far left hand side and moved all my gear down.

The famous swim.

Here's the opposite side to the swim:

It was the debut outing for my new rod pod (Xmas pressie) and carp rod (birthday pressie). The carp rod is a 2.5tc Shimano Alivio direct from Argos.

For the setup I used 6lb mainline with a size 14 hook on 5lb hooklength. For weight I used the smallest bomb I could find (1/8 ounce) and had this running on the main line between 2 small pieces of shot. For bait I used 10mm seafood and tutti fruitti boillies.

The photo below shows my setup and swim:

First cast went in at 7:14, first bite at 7:50 and also the first one missed!

Less than 10 minutes after re-casting the buzzer went off again and I landed a 9lb common, a personal best for this pond by 2lb! My day was made already. See photo below:

The spot under the tree was proving to be a hot swim as I had 3 carp in the first 2 hours and a chub which I caught last year from the same spot!.

Landing a carp at 8:40 proved to be a complete disaster as my landing handle broke. The height of the bank was enough to prevent me from using it anymore so I had to improvise. To this end I used an extenable bank stick as a make shift pole for the remainder of the day. 

Here's a full timetable of events:

7:14  First cast

7:50  First Bite missed!

8:00 9lb Common Carp - Seafood Boillie

8:10 4.5lb Common Carp - Seafood Boillie

8:15 6lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

8:40 6lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

10.05 2.5lb Common Carp - Seafood Boillie

10:20 4oz Roach - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

10.35 3lb Common Carp - Seafood Boillie

10.58 1lb Chub - Seafood Boillie

11.22 4oz Roach - Seafood Boilie

11:59 3lb Common Carp - Seafood Boillie

12:25 6oz Roach - Seafood Boilie

12:38 4oz Roach - Seafood Boilie

12:47 6lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

13:24 1lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

13:39 6lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

It was around this time that I found a landing handle and net in some bushes. Upon inspection I discovered that it was broken, it wasn't the universal screw type so I couldn't use it with my pole.

14:31 6lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

15:27 2lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

15:41 3lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

16:31 2lb Mirror Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

17:44 4lb Mirror Carp - Seafood Boilie

18:09 2lb Mirror Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

18:18 2lb Mirror Carp - Seafood Boilie

18:30 6lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

18:40 3lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

19:03 4lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

19:25 3lb Mirror Carp - Seafood Boilie

20:12 2lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie
20:30 3lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

20:42 2lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

I finished the day with a total estimated weight of 93 pounds which I was very pleased with. I was just too tired to continue as I would have liked to have got to the magical 100 pound mark. I would have counted to 105 just to be sure.

There had been several changes to the venue since my last visit including the cutting away of the bushes on the bank and behind where we sit. I never used to be able to see my car from the swim but as you can see from the photo below (it's the blue one!) - I can now!