May 22nd Silver Lake, Gabriels Fishery, Edenbridge, Kent

I couldn't have a day off in the week so for one of the few times I can remember I went to a commercial on a Saturday. I'd been told that people are turned away from Stubpond so it was another trip to Gabriel's Fishery for me on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far.

I arrived at 7:10 to find about a dozen cars in the car park. I checked the notices on the gate and there was nothing regarding Silver Lake which is the complex's match lake. The complex has 5 lakes, so on average that was about 2 cars per lake. Not too bad so far.

I'd decided before arrival that if possible I would select a swim at the deep end of the lake as I hadn't tried that area before. As can be seen from the photo above I was successful. I decided to fish straight in front of me and along the reeds to the right, near the lily pads.

The set up I used was 5lb main line to a size 16 wide gape hook with 5lb hooklength. A highly visible 3bb waggler was the float of the day. I plumbed up and found that it was around 4 feet deep 2 rod lengths out and half of that by the lily pads.

I groundbaited both swims genorously with brown crumb, hemp, corn and a few maggots. I'd seen small fish activity ever since I'd arrived at the swim so my first cast was with a single red maggot and sure enough in came a small roach.

I had a decision to make at this point - do I stay on the small baits and be assured of a days Roach bashing or up the size of the bait for the chance of a bigger prize?

I decided to go for it and put a big piece of bread flake on the size 16 hook. The first piece was attacked by the roach but the second was more successful. The float began to move away very slowly and so I struck. The bend in the rod told me in was a good fish however it never moved more than a couple of feet from where I hooked it. I suspected a bream but then for no apparent reason it decided it was hooked and made a bolt for freedom. I played the fish for what seemed like an age - never seeing it until almost the last minute. Once I saw it I knew it was a good one. I netted it quite easily however my scales proved to small (they only go to 8lb). My larger ones put it between 8 and 9 pound - absolutely marvelous. See photo below:

There was good luck and bad luck regarding this capture, the good luck was that a passing angler was kind enough to take the above shot and the bad luck was that my landing net handle broke whilst I was putting the fish back.

At 8:45 the float again slid away and despite trying to bury itself in the reed bed I managed to land this 4.5lb common. A little roach also took a fancy to a big bit of bread!

Less than 20 minutes later I'd landed another common to 4.5lb, two 2lb commons, 1 Skimmer Bream and 1 Rudd all on bread.

The next 4 hours, I think because of the heat were pretty hard going. I did manage 1 Skimmer, 1 Roach, 1 Gudgeon and this 5.5lb common. All but the Gudgeon on bread.

I did lose another nice one. I was only using 5lb line so am very wary of using too much pressure when playing a fish. This leads sometimes to the fish getting into the snags, in this case the reeds next to me. I did walk behind the reeds to the next swim as the fish was up that end but couldn't get it out. Another angler from his swim could see the fish and came round to suggest that we net it through the weeds. Just as we were getting the net into position (it was a bit of a stretch) the fish spat the hook. I must have had it on for a good 20 minutes or so.

That was it for the day as far as the big action went. I did throw some bread into the lily pads around 5:30 to see if they would take it off the surface and sure enough they did. I put a large flake on and lowered it in - within seconds the float dipped and in came a 2lb common.

The picture below was taken as I packed up around 6:30. I was doing a great impression of a lobster! It was the hottest weekend of the year so far.

I will be going back.

May 14th - Plantation Lake, Stubpond, Surrey

This was going to be my first visit to Plantation Lake at the Stubpond fishery.

I arrived aound 7:40 to find the gates already open.

The weather seemed to be good for a change but when the sun went in and the wind got up it was decidedly chilly for the time of year.

Plantation is at the far end of the fishery (sounds further than it actually is). I had to make 2 trips with even my limited gear. I had looked at the lake a couple of years previously and fancied the first peg which gave me access to a fair length of margin swims and if the mood took me, access to the end of the island.

The view from my swim wasn't exactly breath-taking!

I plumbed around the swim and set up accordingly. My plan was to fish about 1.5 rod lengths out directly in front of me and feed the 2 margin swims either side. Fairly normal tactics for me.

I goundbaited the swim with crumb, maggots, sweetcorn and about 1/4 pint of hemp. Initially I went on single red maggot and immediately was into the roach. They were all around the 3 to 4 ounce mark which was better than I would have got on Mill Lake.

I tried some bread but wasn't too successful. I then tried sweetcorn which really seemed to do the trick as one of the fish I landed was a bream around the 2lb mark.

By 10:20 in addition to the 2lb Bream I'd also caught a dozen Roach and Rudd and 3 smaller skimmers.

The next 20 minutes proved very fruitful as the magic of the sweetcorn struck again - this time accounting for a 3lb Bream and an F1 around the 2lb mark.

I was only fishing the line directly in front of me during the morning session - as the fish kept coming I saw no need to try the margin swims however I did keep feeding them with the odd few pellets and a few cubes of meat.

By noon I'd added a second F1 (bread), 2 more Bream (one of 2lb) and another 3 Roach to the net. It was also the time when I tried the margins swim for the first time.

Meat was productive almost straight away - I caught my biggest Roach of the day on it plus one other on sweetcorn.

At 14:17, again from the margins swim on meat, the float dipped and slid away. I struck and the fish headed straight into the corner, dummy! Then it turned and went into the middle of the pond. After a bit of struggle I landed this nice 7lb common. 

That was it for the day in terms of big fish action, I did add a further F1 plus 2 Roach and 3 more Bream before deciding to call it a day at closing time.

There were next to no carp caught on the lake so I wasn't in the end too disappointed with my days tally. I will be back

April 28th - Silver Lake Gabriels Fishery, Edenbridge Kent

This was my first visit to the fishery for a couple of years.

The fishery is approximately 20 miles from my house - I misjudged the timing of the drive and so arrived at the fishery 10 minutes after opening!

To my surprise there was already 5 cars in the car park and a further 2 by the far gate. I was not used to such crowds!

I made my way to Silver Lake, which is the complex's match lake. Depending on choice of swim it could also be the longest walk!

As luck would have it nobody was on this lake so I had the choice of swims. It had been a while since I'd fished the lake so I couldn't remember important details like which end was the deep end and which end was the shallow end.

I eventually ended up in a swim that seemed to me to have the shortest distance to the island and importantly a nice reed bed in the margins a rod length or two down from the fishing platform.

Just after 8:00am I fed my groundbait (bread crumb plus a smll oferring of meat and corn) and about a half pint of hemp.

I started off on single maggot and was immediately into 3 nice bream however as the first hour drew to a close I only added 2 roach and a gudgeon to the total.

Around 10am I started to feed the margins swim with 2 or 3 pellets every 15 minutes or so.

By 10:30 my virtual net had grown to include 2 more Gudgeon, 3 Roach and 2 good sized Rudd (for me that is!).

The next hour was as successful as the last (!), 3 Gudgeon, 2 Roach but 2 better Bream (still skimmers but a little larger than those I caught at the beginning of the session).

Around noon these fellas paid me a visit:

At 12:25 I finally caught my first carp of the session, it was around 3lb and fell to a single piece of sweetcorn.

I kept perserving with the swim which to be honest I did begin to think I should have been in the deeper water. By 15:00 I had 3 more small Bream, a Roach and a 3lb Common Carp out of the margin swim on meat!

I tried the margins swim again at 4pm and had an immediate bite but when I should have given some more line I thought I could hold it and promptly lost it.......... another lesson learnt - do not be a hurry!

Three more fairly good Roach fell to sweetcorn before I landed a 3lb Mirror Carp from my original swim.

Overall a good day but I need to go more often so as to learn the water.

April 16th Mill Lake, Stubpond, Felbridge Surrey

After the best part of 2 weeks back at work I had worked up enough time to have another flexi day, so off I went to Stubpond for another session.

I arrived about 20 minutes before the official opening but was let in by the workers from the firm that are on the next premises along.

The weather was better than my previous visit - 2 weeks before as can be seen from the photo below:

I went to my swim and set up my gear. After that was complete I went to pay my money. On my return I could sense something was different but couldn't put my finger on it. My hemp container was on it's side (with the lid on) - I knew it was ok when I left. This made me check my bait tray and sure enough my bait box containing my meat had been completely emptied!

I thought it was the wild cats that live in the fishery although I hadn't seen any that morning. Anyway I decided to go the hut and see if the bailiff had any meat for sale. When I got there I realised who the culprit was - it was the owner's great dane! I had been Scooby-Doo'ed!

As luck would have it the owner had no tins of meat but as I had plenty of bait (sweetcorn, bread and maggots) I really wasn't to dispondent. The owner did give me a tin of paste and a tub of drilled pellets to try - I've never used either!

I fed the swim with a couple of good sized balls of groundbait and about half a pint of hemp. This constitutes a large amount of hemp for me. I was curious to see the result.

It must have been around 8:30 or so by the time I eventually stared fishing. I started on single maggot but quickly changed to bread because I didn't want to spend the day catching small (very) Roach and Rudd.

By 9:09 3 fish had been caught on bread: 2 Roach and 1 F1 Carp. (See below)

During the next hour I tried some sweetcorn and for the first time in 2010 I caught fish on it! The second hour yielded 1 Roach and 1 Bream on sweetcorn and a small Mirror Carp on bread plus this bigger mirror carp.

At lunchtime I set up my feeder rod and began to feed and use 10mm Monster Crab bollies.

By 14:00 I had managed to net the following:
1 2lb Common Carp on sweetcorn
1 4lb Common Carp on boiilies

10 assorted Roach, Carp, F1's and Crucians.

The 2 larger carp were caught straight after each other.

At various times during the day I'd been trying the paste - confidence using it was low (I'm not good with new things) but at 14:28 I got lucky when a carp took a fancy to it and my duck was broken.

To be honest I was concentrating on bread as I had the feeling that this was the bait of the day and I was proved right when at 15:18 I landed a 5lb common and again at 16:19 when I landed a 6 pounder.

The boillies were still working as well because at 17:01 I caught my final carp - a 3lb Mirror.

For once I did have some company during the day! See below:

So apart from the carp mentioned above the final 3 hours brought me 11 assorted Roach/Rudd and Bream mainly on bread but some on sweetcorn.

The day was not over for me yet in terms of incidents. As I pack up I like to have a cup of tea. Having packed up and drunk my tea I went to take the top off of the flask to get rid of the dregs when there was one almighty bang as the flask exploded!

Sone guys have all the luck (bad)

March 31st - Mill Lake, Stubpond, Felbridge Surrey

As March drew to a close so did my annual leave. I don't like going on Bank Holidays and the like for fear of the crowds so today was the last day I would go before returning to work on April 6th.

The rain and wind was the worst I can remember but it did let up enough for me to set up in reasonable comfort. I decided straight away that it was the feeder rod, small bomb and 10mm boillies to the island all day.

When I paid my money the owner called me "The saddest man in South Norwood!" (the name of my club). Charming.

After setting up I tried to put my umbrella up - now this wasn't as simple as it sounds. The wind which was very strong was coming in from my right and so I had to tilt the unbrella towards the wind to give me some sort of shelter.

Despite the bad weather the fish were hungry - this mirror carp was landed at 8:21:

This common came in at 10:22:

Dead on noon I landed this specimen:

The strength of the wind was so great that every now and again the umbrella threatened to leave and head off down the bank. I had to hold it with one hand will concentrating on the tip of the rod.

As luck would have it eventually I got a bite and as I was playing the fish a fierce gust of wind blew the umbrella into the hedge. OK, I thought it's safe enough there. Still not landed the fish and the umbrella heads down the bank. After landing and unhooking the fish I see the umbrella head off onto the lake.

I put the fish back and raced off down the bank. The umbrella, upside down now was caught in some reeds almost within touching distance of the bank. However, even with a long landing net all I could succeed in doing was turning it right side up and digging it into the bottom so that only the last 6 inches or so was showing.

Despondently, wet and cold I made my way to the bailiffs hut to tell him that there was an umbrella in his lake. We agreed that if he could get it out (when the weather got better) he would save it for me.

I returned to my swim and fished for an hour or so in the rain when the bailiff came round with a rake on a rope and we managed after some effort to retrieve my umbrella! Lovely jubbley.

At the end of another wierd and very uncomfortable day I had 9 carp, with the biggest being a 5lb common all on 10mm boillies fished about a yard from the island. I was the only one on the complex (not surprising really).

March 29th - Mill Lake, Stubpond - Felbridge, Surrey

To celebrate the extended opening hours (6pm - the clocks had just gone forward) at Stubpond - I made way down on the fishery on this the penultimate Monday of my annual leave.

As usual I was the only at the fishery - perhaps it's me?

The weather was ok in the morning but it did rain hard all afternoon.

I setup in my favourite swim (see below:)

In the morning bread was the bait of choice and in the afternoon it was the small 10mm shellfish boillies.

Bread accounted for this nice looking F1 around 9am:

Bread also was the bait of choice for this common which I caught just before noon:

25 minutes later the same tactics brought about the downfall of this mirror:

By 13:00 the bad weather had settled in for the day (see below):

I can't remember or didn't note down how many I actually caught in this session which is a shame however I do know that bread accounted for my personal best Ghost Carp which weighed a repectable 5.5lb's. I thought it was much bigger as it fought very hard.

It wasn't the best fish of the day though, that went to a 6lb common which took the boillie as it hit the water. I was actually in the process of putting the rod in it's rest!

So in the end not a bad day at all despite the weather! As usual I was the last to leave.