2018 9 April 16th, Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

Today, I was going to pay another visit to the club's mixed fishery at Nursery Fields, near Edenbridge in Kent. After the good session I had last time there I was filled with a good feeling of optimism.

It was just after 8am when I arrived at the fishery. There was one or two cars in the car park so that meant I was going to get an almost free choice of swims.

I unloaded the car and set off on the trek up the lake to the top swim. I like this swim as it is the shortest distance from the bank to the island.

I intended to fish the float line about 3/4 of the way across to the island and the leger rod about as close as I could get to the corner of the island.

I was ready to make my first casts at 9:30.

I started on double maggot and this proved a wise decision as the swim got off to a flyer. Fourteen fish comprising 2 Ide, 1 Crucian Carp, 1 Gudgeon and ten Roach made the virtual net. Not to be left out the feeder swim chipped in with a nice Tench.

As I felt I was on a roll I decided to switch to corn for the next hour. Alas, not much of a success. Only one of the lakes' Bream made it to the net. The feeder rod gave up an Ide and my first Barbel of the year.

I don't know why but I decided to stay on the corn for another hour. What a difference. 3 Ide, a Bream, 3 Crucian Carp and 2 Roach made the net. My total for day was now 27.

The next hour was the best of the session not because of the Ide, Roach and Bream that I caught but for the Crucian Carp which weighed in at 2lb 3oz, a personal best!

The next hour reverted to the day's  norm, one each of Roach, Crucian Carp and Rudd and a couple of Ide from the float swim. The feeder rod supplied a Tench and a small Carp. Total for the day now stood at 39.

By now it was 15:40 and the net's total stood at 43, having just added a Roach, Crucian Carp, an Ide and a Barbel to it.

An hour and twenty minutes later the net was bulging with 58 fish! Three Tench were from the feeder rod. The rest, consisting of, a Tench, 2 Crucians, an Ide, a Bream, 2 Roach and five Rudd were from the float swim. The corn was working well today.

I'd been feeding the margin to the right of me all day with one or two pieces of corn. At 17:00 I reeled in the feeder rod and shortened up the depth of the float rig and had a look down the side. Over the next half hour or so I caught 2 Ide, a Tench, a Crucian and a carp of about 5.5 pounds.

I decided after the catching the carp to call it a day. The net was bulging with 63 fish, one of which was a personal best, so I went home a happy man.

2018 8 April 12th Chittenden, Edenbridge, Kent

Today was going to be another one of my visit's to the club's carp lake at Chittenden near Edenbridge in Kent.

I arrived at the fishery about 7:45 to find the car park empty. As is the norm I loaded up the trolley and headed down the lake to my favourite swim.

As it was still spring, some would say still winter, my attack on the float line would be predominately maggots today. It would be small 10mm boillies on the feeder rod as usual.

As I was setting up I generously fed both swims with maggots, hemp and boillies and pellets respectively.

I was ready to make my casts at 8:45.

The lake's bream were quick to latch onto the maggots with five of them making the virtual net by 9:45.

For the next hour I decided to have a dabble on the corn. This was a complete failure as by 11:10 I'd caught precisely nothing.

In the last hour of the morning session the fish suddenly went mad for the cord. Seven bream and a carp of around 3lb made the virtual net.

Another hour passed with no action on either rod. The feeder hadn't moved all morning which was unusual.

By the time the clock had ticked over to 14:30, the float line had gone mad. I caught another bream, lost and caught two carp. The first was 8lb 12 and second a tad bigger at 8lb 15.

By the time I packed up at 17:45 my total for the day was 21 as I managed to add a further 7 fish to the net. Some were carp however they were not as big as the ones above.

2018 7 April 9th, Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

Today I decided to pay another visit to the club's mixed fishery at Nursery Fields near Edenbridge in Kent.

As I parked the car in the empty car park I made up my mind to give peg 13 another bash as I'd been fairly successful last time there.

I loaded up the trolley and headed off up the lake, around the top and down to peg 13. A fair old trek.

It was the usual two rod attack today, one float rod and a feeder rod. The float line would be straight ahead of me about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way across. The feeder line would be just passed the lily pads on my left.

As I was setting up I fed the float line swim with maggots and hemp, hoping that the fish would gain some confidence before I started fishing.

I did the same with the feeder line except that it was pellets and small boillies that I fed.

I was set up and ready to make my first casts at 9:10. I then settled back into my chair to wait hopefully for the action to begin.

And begin it did. The float line on double maggot delivered 16 roach and rudd and the feeder rod gave up one of the lake's hard fighting tench. Great start.

I stayed on double maggot for the next hour and the result was 3 crucian carp, 1 ide and seven more roach and rudd. Twenty eight fish already, can't be bad.

As I'd been feeding corn on top of the maggots all morning I decided the time was right to switch to corn on the corn. As expected the fishing slowed however I stilled managed 1 crucian carp and four more roach and rudd.

It was the next hour that the corn really kicked in, 2 Gudgeon (!), 1 Bream and 12 more roach and rudd. The feeder rod chipped in with a crucian carp. The time was 13:45 and the total form the day stood at 49.

The next hour was a bit slower for the float line. It only produced four fish, 4 roach and rudd. The feeder chipped in though with a bream and a barbel.

By 16:01 the float line had gone mad for the corn and produced, 2 Bream, Ide and 5 Crucian Carp.

The end of my day came at 18:30. The feeder's last contribution was a Bream and a Tench. The float rod's was a Bream, an Ide, a Rudd and some more Crucian Carp. My total for the day was 72 very satisfactory.