2011 24 July 15th Chittenden, Edenbridge, Kent

I'd made up my mind earlier in the season to return to Chittenden and fish the narrow channel between the island and the bank using convential float tackle and tactics. Today was going to be that day.

I'd been reading an article on potatos on the forum and thought this would be a good time to give them a go. The night before I prepared them by part boiling them, flavouring them strawberry and colouring them red.

By the time I had setup and groundbaited the swim it was about 7:30. The weather for a change was glorious as can be seen from the photo below.

I didn't have to wait long for the action to start. The float moved sideways across the water and when I struck I knew that I  was into a good fish. It must have been about 5 minutes or so before I managed to land the fish - a 5lb mirror. Strawberry flavoured corn was the weapon of choice today. See photo below:

The next fish set the tone for the remainder of the day - a skimmer bream.

By 9:30am I had added another 6 skimmers to the virtual net. I fed a few grains of corn every fish to keep them interested and it seemed to be working.

However I was mistaken big time as the swim died for 2.5 hours! I couldn't fathom why, initially I thought they had been bullied away by carp but I hadn't seen any signs of carp at all once the sun came fully up. I therefore put it down to bad angling on my part.

Dead on noon the fish reappearred in the shape of a small roach.

Another skimmer at 12:40 was followed at 1pm by my first bite using the mighty potato. Sadly on this occasion I couldn't connect with the fish. It did give me some encouragement though.

Twenty minutes later just after I'd landed another skimmer the buzzer went off again on the potato rod and yet again I failed to land the fish. Very frustrating.

For the rest of the afternoon I attacked the float line on corn in a big way. I was rewarded with a further 7 skimmers and another solitary roach.

This is a good example of the quality of the skimmers caught:

For the early evening part of the session I decided to switch my hook bait to meat in the hope of snaring another carp.

I didn't have to wait long for the float to disappear. Unfortunately it was yet another skimmer not the carp I expected. Forty minutes later the float goes again but this time I missed it. I couldn't tell what it was from the few micro seconds that it was on the hook.

Then finally at 16:52 I landed a 1lb common not on the meat but on the potato rod! My first success using this bait! Yippee.

Unfortunately that was my one and only fish on the regal spud. The last two fish of the session, caught at 17:40 and 18:30 respectively were commons of about 2lb and fell to meat.

A good session.