2016 10 May 6th Swallow Lake, Gabriel's Farm, Edenbridge

Today was going to be my first visit of the year to Gabriels Fishery, just outside of Edenbridge in Kent.

The fishery opens at 7 am so I didn't need to leave so early which was nice. The drive to the fishery was quiet and as I finally arrived at the top car park I found myself to be the first one there.

I unloaded the car and had a quick look around the lake before selecting my swim.

I can only use one rod here so it was just the waggler set up today. 6 mm pellets were going to be my main line of attack.

Just having the one rod to set up I was ready to feed my swim at around 7:45. First I fed three big balls of goundbait followed by a few handfuls of pellets. To help acuracy I'd cast the rod without any bait on into the area where I was going to fish. Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the float had gone under while I was feeding the swim! The result was a 2 lb carp. No bait required!

I then settled down to a 'normal' days fishing. I fed 2 or 3 pellets every cast and this tactic seemed to pay off as I caught 9 small carp ranging from a few ounces to a pound in the first hour.

The next hour was even better, 10 small carp and a gudgeon. Was I on for one of those special days?

The improvemnt continued in the next hour. Fourteen small carp made the virtual net. The day's total now 34!

By noon I'd caught another ten carp which numerically was good however they were on average the smallest of the day so far.

The fishing slowed right down during the first hour of the afternoon so much so that I only caught 2!

By 14:00 I'd only added another three to the virtual net. Had I done anything wrong?

I decided at that point that my tactics needed changing. The plan for the rest of the day was to aleternate baits between corn and meat to see if I could bring them back on the feed.

It seemed to work as my total for the day when I packed up at 17:20 was 75 which included my best ever carp from this pond (5 lb 13 oz). It was caught on meat.

2016 9 May 4th Silver Lake, Gabriel's Farm, Edenbridge

With the club waters closed for May it was time for me to make my first visit to Gabriel's Farm Fishery on the outskirts of Edenbridge.

The weather for a change wasn't too bad as I arrived at the fishery dead on opening time (7 am). I then drove the mile or so from the gate to the car park which was as usual empty.

I unloaded the car and made my way round to peg 1 on Silver lake. This peg is my favourite because it allows me to fish up the lake and if reqyuired to either side.

I can only use one rod here so it was about 7.45 when I was ready to make my first cast.

Initially I started with a single maggot on the hook. The first hour brought me six fish, five roach and rudd and a bream taken on corn.

The next hour was even more productive than the first. I managed to capture seven fish consisting of roach, bream, gudgeon and perch. All were taken on a single maggot.

By 10:45 I'd added another six fish to the virtual net consisting this time of gudgeon, roach and bream. These still all came in on maggot. I was trying corn from time to time but with no success.

All day I had these for company.

I decided for the next hour to go exclusively on corn, I knew if I stayed on maggot that I would catch but they wouldn't have been of any size. Anyway the result was a small skimmer bream and a carp of about 2 lb. So the change was a success of sorts.

Only two fish in the next hour on the corn, a roach and a bream. The roach was four or five ounces so better than the ones I'd caught on maggot.

At 14:45 I changed tactics again, this time to meat. Between then and and when I packed up I managed to get another 2 lb carp. That made my total for the day 25. Not bad but not as good as I'd hoped.

I will be back.

2016 08 April 29th Chittenden, Edenbridge

Today was going to be my last visit to the club's carp lake at Chittenden, near Edenbridge in Kent until June as the waters close for the month of May.

For a change the weather was good as I made my way to Edenbridge at about 5:45. I was hopeful of having a good day as my previous one a fortnight or so earlier had been a success.

There were a couple of cars in the car park when I arrived however the anglers were all situated in the upper and nearside section of the lake so I was pretty confident of having some peace and quiet at the lower end of the lake where I intended to fish today.

Arriving at my swim I first set up my feeder rod. Today I was using 8 lb main line to a 6 lb hook length containing a size 14 hook. A 15 ml tangerine dream boillie was going to be used as bait fished over a bed of maize.

When the set up was completed I made my first cast at around 7:30. Immediately there was a splash. I looked down and there was no spool on my reel! After some feeling around I managed to retrieve the spool from the lake bed only to find that the top had come off. The feeder rod was therefore out of play for the day. What a start!

So now I was down to just the waggler rod. I started with a single maggot as bait and for the first hour I was quite successful, 7 roach and 1 bream came to the net.

For the next hour I tried corn however it was a total failure as I didn't even get a bite. I did get interest from the small roach though.

By 10:30 I'd switched back to maggot and had claimed another roach and a carp. It wasn't a monster but a carp all the same. My spirits were lifted somewhat.

For the next hour I tried corn again. This time I was no more successful than the first. It just wasn't going to be my day.

A slight change of tactics (double from single maggot) was the plan for the next hour. The result was 2 roach and 2 bream.

At 13:30 I decided to have a complete change of tactics and so I went on 6 mm pellets. The result was dismal. By 17:30 when I packed up I'd caught absolutely nothing.

And so ended not a very good session.13 fish, all on maggot which is surprising for a carp lake in April. Still that's fishing.

Apologies for no photos - camera was playing up.

2016 07 April 24th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

This trip was going to be my last visit of the club's season to it's mixed fishery at Nursery Fields near Edenbridge in Kent.

It was raining pretty heavily as I loaded the car in readiness for the thirty minute trip to the venue. Yet again I cursed this year's terrible spring weather.

Due to the weather I suppose, I found no other cars in the car park when I arrived at the fishery. I unpacked the gear and made my way over to the back stretch where today's choice of swim was situated.

Two rod attaack again today. The feeder rod was going to fish the reed bed to my left and the waggler rod the swim by the lillies on the right. I was going to use the same tactics on the feeder rod that I had used the previous week at Chittenden. That is to say, heavily feed maize and fish a 15 ml tangerine dream boillie on the hair over the top.

The reed bed on the left is where I fished the feeder rod.

After the feeding of the swims and the setting up of the rods I was ready to make my first casts at 7:55. The rain was still coming down albeit a bit lighter.

This is the view from my swim down the lake.

The first hour was quite productive, at least on the waggler rod. I had six fish consisting of roach, rudd and small bream. All were taken using single maggot.

This is the view from my swim up the lake. Yes, there was someone else there today!

The next hour brought another seven fish, all the same as the above except the bream were replaced by perch. These were all caught in the first 30 minutes as I unsuccessfully tried corn for the second 30 minutes of the hour.

The next sixty minutes almost mirrored the last. The rudd were absent however as I caught six roach and perch on single maggot and nothing on corn.

The last hour before lunch yielded four more roach, one of them somewhat unexpectedly came on a piece of corn.

The first hour after lunch returned to the normal pattern of the day, all on maggot, nothing on corn. This time I managed four fish, a couple of roach and  a couple of gudgeon.

Sixty minutes later and I'd bagged another three roach. I was getting the feeling that this was going to be the extent of my catch for the day. The feeder rod hadn't moved all day either.

The time was now 14:00, by 15:00 I'd only added another roach to my 'bulging' net. Things were slowing down somewhat.

For the next two hours the swim completely died except for one good bream with a liking for corn.

I packed up around 17:30. Despite a promising start I ended the day with 32 fish. They all came from the waggler, the feeder rod stayed motionless all day.