I mistimed my arrival at the fishery, getting there 15 minutes before it opened at 7 am. It didn't matter as I saw two white vans heading down the track in front of me.
It turned out there were 4 of them none of whom had been to the fishery before. I gave them the benefit of my somewhat limited experience of the venue. After a look around they decided to join me on Silver.
I made my way to peg 1. When I arrived I immediately noticed the additional reeds surrounding the platform and the growth of the lily pads to my right.
I was set and ready for my first cast at 7:45 am. I got a small Roach on the first cast and thought the result would be the same when the float dipped on the second, however I was completely wrong. The resistance I felt after I struck told me that it was no Roach! Sure enough after a tense early struggle I landed this Carp of 5 lb 3 oz with a liking for single red maggot.
Another four small Roach made the virtual net by the end of the first hour. I swapped hook baits to corn at the start of the second but after a blank 30 minutes I decided to return to the single maggot approach.
Along with the expected 2 roach, I caught 2 small Perch and the first four of the day's Rudd.
The next sixty minutes was very productive in terms of fish caught. The switch to corn yielded two Roach and when I went to back to maggot I managed to get 2 Roach and 15 Rudd!
Nothing on the corn in the hour before lunch so I went back to the maggot. Two small Roach and three small Rudd stopped me blanking.
Finally, just as I was about to eat my lunch I landed a Carp on corn. It wasn't massive, coming in at 3 lb 9 oz but it was a welcome relief from the small stuff I had been catching. I still managed a Perch and a Rudd before eating my lunch.
For some strange reason the swim then went completely dead until 14:30. I even went on meat but to no avail. I did keep trying though and by 15:08 it had comeback to life. On maggots I caught two each of Perch, Rudd and Roach before capturing a 4 lb 2 oz Carp on corn.
I did have this family to keep me company during the quiet times.
As the afternoon wore on I switched totally to meat. I hoped that the Carp would come back on the feed as the sun started to fade. Signs, initially were not good. At 16:26 all that changed as the float went away and I struck. At first I thought I'd hooked the bottom however something moved. It didn't charge off like a carp would but it was definitely a fish. As it came up it did make some sort of a run albeit somewhat of a gesture. When it broke the surface I saw it was a bream and a big one at that. When I weighed it the scales went round to 4 lb 2 oz, a personal best!
I stayed on meat long enough to catch another carp of 2 lb before switching to bread for the last hour or so. I only managed a couple of carp on bread, the first went about 1.5 lb, the second and my final one of the day went 4 lb 7oz.
I finished the day at 18:30 with a total of 48 fish. That didn't matter it was the personal best Bream that did it for me.
The guys who came in with me also left the same time!
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