2015 12 May 25th Hare Lake, Gabriels Farm Fishery, Edenbridge

Today was going to be my second visit of the year to Hare lake on the Gabriel Farm complex. The earlier visit hadn't produced the expected haul of small roach. Instead it had been small carp on banded pellet. What would today's trip bring?

Yet again I was at the gate at 7 am and after being let in I made my way down to the car park. There were only a couple of cars there so I knew I would have a good choice of swim.

I loaded up the trolley and made my way round to my favourite swim on Hare. When I got there the surface of the water was covered in blossom and lots of other flotsam and jetsam from the overhanging trees. Little did I know how this would affect the day's fishing.

The set up today would be a one rod with a simple waggler set up. I mixed the ground bait and then let it stand while I set up my match rod. I was all set up and ready to make my first cast at 7:50 am.

The first two hours was very quiet. I only managed to catch one small skimmer on the corn. I did however lose a carp which spat the hook when it reached the far side. I can only put it down to the fact I wasn't yet warmed up!

Five hours passed and I'd only added a couple of carp to the total. They were caught on banded pellet. Why was I having so much trouble you may ask?

Here they are:

The answer was this aforementioned flotsam and jetsam. It kept sticking to the line which among other things made casting difficult. It also more importantly meant that every few minutes I had to clear the rod and line of debris which wasn't as easy as it sounds. It really stuck to the line. By the end of the day I was extremely frustrated with the situation.

Another hour passed and another two small carp made the virtual net having again fallen to banded pellet.

By the time I packed up at 18:10 I'd caught another three carp on pellet plus one on meat. This made my total for the day a mere nine. Perhaps when I saw the state of the lake I should have moved to another one, then again hindsight is a wonderful thing.

2015 11 May 22nd Swallow Lake, Gabriel's Farm Fishery, Edenbridge

Today was my first visit of the year to Swallow lake at Gabriel's Fishery in Edenbridge. The lake is the fishery's small carp lake so I was looking forward to getting loads of bites.

The weather was rain free if a bit chilly when I left home around 6:20. The roads were relatively clear which meant that I arrived at the fishery a tad before 7 am. On the way from the barrier to the car park I saw literally hundreds (well a load) of rabbits all out enjoying the early morning peace and quiet.

I parked the car in the top car park and made my way round the lake to the back where there are swims that offer easy access to the island. The car park had been empty so I knew the swims were available.

I used my normal waggler set up and was ready to make my first cast at 7:45. The swim had been baited and so I sat back and waited for the hungry little devils to show up.

Show up they did, as after the first hour I'd bagged five of them, two on maggot and one on corn. Confidence was high that today was going to be my day.

The next hour showed that the first was just a flash in the pan as I only landed one and that was on corn.

The next hour was exactly the same, one small carp on corn. My initial confidence had now left town.

Just before lunch there was a bit of rush on - four of them fell to the corn. I was beginning to think I was doing something wrong. This lake is normally a banker!

As it was quiet on the fishing front I was glad I had this family for company:

It was now noon and I had a decision to make, should I persevere with corn or should I go on the pellet? Well corn was't working so pellet was really the only answer.

Well my plan seemed to work as in the first hour after I changed to pellet I caught 10 carp, 1 less than I'd managed in the entire morning session!

The next hour was even better, eleven of the little scrappers made the net. Now I was becoming bothered that I couldn't catch anything of any size! What a moaner.

The pace slowed down around 3 pm. I think the fish were there I just wasn't getting them. Still five in the hour wasn't bad compared to the morning session. I felt a change of tactics was required.

I decided it was time for some meat. Yet again the change of tactics worked as I caught eight in the first hour using meat.

The next hour they went completely bonkers. They started taking the meat on the drop. I stopped watching the float and just struck when the line tightened. Sixteen of them made the virtual net in the next hour.

This was the biggest carp of the day:

Before I packed up at 18:30 I managed to catch another seven which made my total for the day, 73! Eleven before lunch and sixty two after.

I will be back.