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.