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