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!