2017 03 March 31st Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

Beware The Ides Of March

For my third outing of the season I thought I would make a return visit to the club's mixed fishery at Nursery Fields near Edenbridge in Kent.

As I drove down I could feel that the sun was going to be quite strong for the time of year. This might be a factor in whether or not my trip would be successful. Time would tell.

It was just after 7 when I arrived at the venue. There was one other angler there who could only have been a couple of minutes in front of me. We exchanged pleasantries and some information and then went our separate ways.

Today's tactics was going to be the same as the ones I used at Chittenden the previous week, Initially a float rod and then another rod with a small bomb and a 10mm boillie as bait later on.

When I arrived at my swim I decided on a cocktail approach to my loose feed. A combination of hemp, maggots, corn and pellets was thrown in at regular intervals whilst I was setting up.

I was ready to make my first casts at 8am. The first hour flew by as I had action from the get go. Six fish made the net consisting of roach and ide, a species I found out from the bailiff that had recently been stocked.

I decided as the fish were biting that I would stay on the corn until that slowed down. By 9am I'd added another three Ide to the net.

The swim was definitely alive now. Ninety minutes later and I'd caught one more Ide and three tench. My total for the day was now 13.

By noon I'd set up the feeder rod and was fishing a line close to the island. Just before my lunch (12:30) I'd caught one tench on the feeder rod with the float line chipping in with 4 teach plus 1 each of crucian, roach and ide. I was rocking. I'd be taking my coat off next.

The Nursery Fields lunchtime slump then kicked in as by 13:30 I'd only added one more Ide to the virtual net.

The feeder rod then roared into action, the result was my year's first barbel. A nice 2lb specimen. Total for the day was now 23.

The rest of the afternoon (until 16.05) continued to be full on action. The float rod produced two tench, two bream and four more Ide. The feeder rod however produced a carp of 13lb 4oz, another double for the year and a personal best for Nursery Fields. Total for the day was now 32.

The carp - sorry photo not the best.

For the last 2 hours of the day I fished the margin swim that I'd been feeding, little and often, all through the day. I managed to get my best Ide of the day, around 1lb, and several tench and bream. However there weren't any showstoppers between them.

This fellow managed to keep me company throughout the day.

I packed up at 18:30, having caught 40 fish, one of those being a personal best carp from Nursery Fields. The biggest Ide was a personal best as well, however I'd never caught one before so it doesn't really count.