In the last few months a new road and car park has been built which enables anglers easier access to the lakes at the top of the complex.
I arrived at the fishery late by my standards - 7:05! I found the new road and followed it round to the new car park.
After getting out of the car I realised how close I was to Swallow Lake. I had never seen or heard of anyone ever fishing this pond. Another angler who had arrived at the same time saw me gazing towards it and told me that it contained a good head of 4 to 6lb carp.
On the basis that I had nothing to lose I decided to have a look around it anyway. So leaving my kit by the car I walked to the lake and to be fair it didn't look too bad. The pond contains 2 islands, one at each end. The far one has at least one very narrow channel between the land and the island. Most of the swims have reed beds around them however only one had a set of lily pads to fish to.
I decided to give it a go anyway. All plans for Silver Lake were forgotten as I carried my gear to my selected swim. I chose the one with the lily pads which were about 2 rod lengths out. My intention was to fish the area immediately behind them.
After setting up I fed the swim with a genourous helping of brown crumb with corn, hemp and meat mixed into it. On the size 16 hook I used a piece of strawberry flavoured corn. So for the first time ever I cast into Gabriels Swallow Lake.
It didn't take long for the float to diasppear, which is never a bad thing on a new water. My prize on this occasion was one of the smallest carp you'd ever likely to see on a hook!
The first hour yielded 7 very small carp and a gudgeon with a liking for corn!
I was hoping that as the day wore on the smaller fish feeding would attract any bigger ones that were around but alas by 10am all I had was another 7 very small carp.
For the next hour I thought I would try bread and strawbery sweetcorn. Again I caught fish (8) but they were still all very small carp. I began to suspect that this was going to be my lot for the day.
Noon arrived, half the day was over. Another 5 carp in the net. The maximum weight being a massive 0.5 pound!
Around this time I took a break for lunch. This was also my most productive hour, another 13 fish however this also included one carp of 2 pound and one of 4. Could things be looking up?
The final hour of the lunchtime period brought the same results as before, seven very small carp.
Never one to give up I carried on the fight. In went the bait and out came the midget carp for the remainder of the afternoon until around 4pm when I switched to meat.
Just before I did a passer-by who turned out to be an Edenbridge and District Angling Society committee member stopped by for a chat. It also turned out he was a menber of Holland as well so we had quite a bit in common. Unfortunately I failed to get his name - silly me!
After I switched to meat I caught a few carp in the 2 to 3lb range.
I decided to pack up around 7pm.
In summary this pond looks very good but has what appears to be a high density of very small carp which would be ideal for the junior or starter angler. How much an experienced angler would enjoy it I'm not sure. I should return to it later in the summer to see if things have changed.
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