I had decided to go to Chittenden for the afternoon as I expected there to be millions at Nursery Fields, their other main stillwater. During the morning I sorted out my carp gear, bait etc and loaded up the car. The plan was to leave around 3pm, arrive at 4ish and leave when it got dark.
I memorised the route as best I could (21 miles, last 3 unknown to me so not to bad) and then set off. There were a few spots of rain on the way but nothing to cause me any worry.
On arrival I encountered my first problem, I couldn't open the gate. The instructions said, "dial in number and then push button". I dialed the number and then found that there was no button! After a while I thought I would walk to the lake and ask for assistance. On my way down I met a car coming the other way who then showed me how to get in, turned out the instructions were for the previous year's lock!
Having now gained access to the grounds I made my way down to the lake. My first impression was that it was huge compared to the venues that I normally fish.
Straight in front of me as I reached the lake was some disabled swims facing the bigger of two islands. Although by now it was around 4pm I didn't initially set up on one but did on the area immediately to the right of them.
As I began the process of setting up the heavens opened and I realised the predicament I'd got myself into. The area I was in was bare clay and it began to stick to my trainers and everything else! So after ten minutes of pouring rain I made the decision to move to the very end of the disabled swims - 2 yards in total. Here I was free of the clay.
I set up my two rods as follows:, the first with a 10mm halibut pellet bollie cast about two thirds of the way to the island to the right of me, the second with a 10mm strawberry boiliie about 12 metres from the bank to the left. As I sat down to wait the heavens opened even more and the rain came down even harder. I hadn't expected this for a summers evening session!
The time was 16:30 when I made for first cast. I poured out a cup of hot tea and sat down on my wet chair! Oh as I was doing a summer's evening carping session I hadn't thought to bring my umbrella - silly me!
Less than 20 minutes after casting in the buzzer on the halibut rod went off and I was into my first Chittenden fish. A combination of a not very hard fighting fish and the 2.75tc carp rod saw the fish into the net fairly quickly. I could see it was a good one and the scales confirmed it - 11lb, equalling my personal best set a couple of weeks earlier (but on a different water).
As luck would have it there was another angler close by (called Paul) who agreed to take a snap of me holding the fish.
Thirty minutes later off it went again, this time a small carp of about a pound had taken a liking to my halibut boillie.
I then had a wait of about 90 minutes before my next bite which was again on halibut. This time it was a 7lb common. I was beginning to like this lake!
Didn't have to wait as long for the next bite (13 minutes) - again it fell to a halibut boilie. A 8.5lb common!
A quarter of an hour passed before the next one came in - this time a common of 5lb yet again falling to a halibut boillie.
I was really on a roll now - less than 10 minutes later I landed my only fish on the tutti fruitti boilles, a 6.75lb common. I was in albeit a wet fishing heaven!
At half seven with the rain still pouring down I caught my final carp, a small 1.5lb common.
As I packed up I reflected on the fact that this session had been absoloutely great and that much of the success was in my opinion down to the pouring rain.
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