2014 08 April 24th Chittenden, Edenbridge

Today was going to be my last visit for this season to the club's carp lake at Chittenden. My last visit had yielded a personal best carp so what would today bring, that was the question.

I arrived at the fishery around 6:10 or so. There was one other car there so I quickly checked to see where he was. As it happens he was at the top end of the lake. I planned to fish the swim at the bottom so no problem there.

When I arrived at the swim I noticed that all the vegetation behind and to my left had all been removed. What was the point of that?  

I was set and ready by about 7:10. The first rod to be cast was the feeder. I then set about positioning the chair, box and rod rests etc for the float rod. I didn't have a chance to finish before the buzzer went off. I knew straight away it wasn't a carp. When it came in I saw it was a bream which went 2 lb 4 ozs when weighed. A good start to the day.

When I was finally ready to cast in with the float rod I made a decision to start on bread flake rather than the single maggot. I didn't have to wait long for the float to go under. The result a carp of 6 lb 1 oz. 

The first hour ended with a small skimmer with a liking for bread. I felt at this stage that I was in for a good day.

I stayed on bread for the next hour or so and was rewarded with two carp, the first went 5 lb 10 oz and the second was a couple of ounces bigger at 5 lb 12 oz. Three small skimmers also made the virtual net.

Things slowed down considerably during the next hour. I only netted one small bream. 

As things had slowed down somewhat I decided to change baits from bread to corn. Again it was slow going. I did manage a couple of skimmer bream though.

The lunch hour was even worse, the float never moved. The feeder buzzer did go off but only for a small skimmer bream.

The afternoon session was very dire, from 12:40 until 16:20 I only caught two fish, both of them bream. The first was on the float the second, the larger of the two at 2 lb 6 ozs came on the feeder. During this time I also switched baits to meat.

The last two hours weren't completely barren. I did manage to hook two carp but couldn't land either. The first I lost when it went under the pallet and the second spate the hook when I tightened up the clutch too soon. 

I was so inactive in the afternoon that I heard a fellow angler on the other bank ask his mate if he'd seen the guy in the corner move as I think he could be dead!

I finished the day on 14 fish, not the return I was hoping for. The lake is closed now until June 1st so I will have to wait until then to have another crack at it.