June 16th - Boulthurst Farm, Oxted, Surrey

This was my first visit of the year to the pond.

There are only 4 swims on the pond (one's a double) so I had to get up early to be assured of getting one.

To this end I did as much preparation the night before as I could which effectively meant I just had to load up the car, eat my cornflakes and shower before heading off.

I arrived just before 7 to find that the car park was empty. Great, I thought, first choice of swims. I selected the one on the far left hand side and moved all my gear down.

The famous swim.

Here's the opposite side to the swim:

It was the debut outing for my new rod pod (Xmas pressie) and carp rod (birthday pressie). The carp rod is a 2.5tc Shimano Alivio direct from Argos.

For the setup I used 6lb mainline with a size 14 hook on 5lb hooklength. For weight I used the smallest bomb I could find (1/8 ounce) and had this running on the main line between 2 small pieces of shot. For bait I used 10mm seafood and tutti fruitti boillies.

The photo below shows my setup and swim:

First cast went in at 7:14, first bite at 7:50 and also the first one missed!

Less than 10 minutes after re-casting the buzzer went off again and I landed a 9lb common, a personal best for this pond by 2lb! My day was made already. See photo below:

The spot under the tree was proving to be a hot swim as I had 3 carp in the first 2 hours and a chub which I caught last year from the same spot!.

Landing a carp at 8:40 proved to be a complete disaster as my landing handle broke. The height of the bank was enough to prevent me from using it anymore so I had to improvise. To this end I used an extenable bank stick as a make shift pole for the remainder of the day. 

Here's a full timetable of events:

7:14  First cast

7:50  First Bite missed!

8:00 9lb Common Carp - Seafood Boillie

8:10 4.5lb Common Carp - Seafood Boillie

8:15 6lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

8:40 6lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

10.05 2.5lb Common Carp - Seafood Boillie

10:20 4oz Roach - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

10.35 3lb Common Carp - Seafood Boillie

10.58 1lb Chub - Seafood Boillie

11.22 4oz Roach - Seafood Boilie

11:59 3lb Common Carp - Seafood Boillie

12:25 6oz Roach - Seafood Boilie

12:38 4oz Roach - Seafood Boilie

12:47 6lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

13:24 1lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

13:39 6lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

It was around this time that I found a landing handle and net in some bushes. Upon inspection I discovered that it was broken, it wasn't the universal screw type so I couldn't use it with my pole.

14:31 6lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

15:27 2lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

15:41 3lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

16:31 2lb Mirror Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

17:44 4lb Mirror Carp - Seafood Boilie

18:09 2lb Mirror Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

18:18 2lb Mirror Carp - Seafood Boilie

18:30 6lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

18:40 3lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie

19:03 4lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

19:25 3lb Mirror Carp - Seafood Boilie

20:12 2lb Common Carp - Tutti Fruitti Boilie
20:30 3lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

20:42 2lb Common Carp - Seafood Boilie

I finished the day with a total estimated weight of 93 pounds which I was very pleased with. I was just too tired to continue as I would have liked to have got to the magical 100 pound mark. I would have counted to 105 just to be sure.

There had been several changes to the venue since my last visit including the cutting away of the bushes on the bank and behind where we sit. I never used to be able to see my car from the swim but as you can see from the photo below (it's the blue one!) - I can now!

June 11th - Private Pond

It was the end of the flexi period and as I had completed my time by 11:20 I headed home with the intention of a good afternoon and evening session at the pond.

On the way home I got a tin of sweetcorn and a loaf of bread. The plan was to go with these only, no hemp, meat or maggots this time.

I've only ever fished peg 1 here but I've been told that the bigger tench reside at the other end so on the way I prayed that there were some spaces availabale up there. The pond only has 11 swims.

Luck was on my side, there were other anglers there but they were all on the near side around the middle of the pond. I quickly got my gear and made my way to the far side, top end swim peg 11.

Directly in front of me was a large bed of lily pads. To the left was the island but that was really out of range for float tackle so didn't figure in my plans. There was however a set of reeds/lilys both sides of the platform.

The first task was to mix the groundbait - 75% brown crumb and the rest carp/tench red attractor. I fed the swim about 2 rod lengths out.

As I was setting up my float rod I could see the swim bubbling away almost immediately. I hoped they would be crucians or even some of the larger tench.

As soon as the first cast went in (about 14:00) the corn was attacked. I struck and in came one of the ponds smaller carp (4 - 6 ounces).

This was the pattern for most of the session. A non stop array of small carp, all of which bent the rod but none were actually "rod benders".

In amongst the small carp were some tench but they were no bigger than a pound. I was, however pleased with the roach below:

Whilst fishing the swim in front of me I had also been feeding, with a couple of pieces of corn every 10 minutes or so the 2 margin swims either side of me. Around 5pm I dropped the float in to have a look. The carp below was the result.

I packed up at 9:30 or so having had over 40 fish. I was disappointed that I didn't get one of the bigger tench or any of the crucians but there's always the next tiime.

June 05 - Private Pond, Oxted, Surrey

The two ponds of Holland Angling Society opened on the 1st June, however due to other commitments I wasn't able to get down there until the 5th.

As luck would have it the weather was pretty poor at the beginning of the week but by Friday the signs were good that it was going to be a scorcher. The fish were sure to be more active after some injection of heat into the water.

It's a bit less than 30 minutes drive to the pond so I could be up at my normal work time and still be there by 6:15. Needless to say I was the first one there.

My favourite swim there is peg 1 and as this was my first visit of the season I thought I would go there. It has the advantage of being a corner swim with lily pads deep in the corner plus a nice margin swim on the other side of the platform to another set of lily pads. The only downside is that it is a bit on the shallow side. See picture below:

I've known this swim produce some good fish from the margins all day here so I initially fed some corn into the swim and set up my feeder rod to free line some corn while I was setting up my main float tackle.

The tip went round very gently almost straight away but I missed the bite. I re-cast (actually dropped) the bait and carried on setting up. Within 5 minutes the tip went again and this time I was in. I could tell straight away it wasn't a monster however it was a nice tench of about a pound.

With my float set up complete I retired the feeder rod and cast to the far side of the lily pads with a single maggot - straight away the float dipped and in came a small roach. I decided to change baits immediately and out went a piece of corn. No action initially but after a while I was into the small carp, none of which topped a pound.

By 8:20 in addition to the first Tench, I'd got 2 Roach, and 5 small Carp.

The pattern was set for the rest of the morning: whilst I continued to catch on the sweetcorn by the lilys I also fed the margins swim, with an experimental cast every hour or so.

By 11:30 I had caught another 17 carp and a solitary roach all bar a couple on sweetcorn.

Appropriately enough the fish kept feeding during the lunchtime. The Tench pictured below was 1.5 pounds my best fish of the day so far.

The two hour lunch period yielded in addition to the tench above, 2 roach and 9 carp. It was also the beginning of a mini heatwave. I had to put the umbrella up to avoid getting sunstroke!

As the afternoon wore on I began to think that my day was going to entirely consist of small carp and that the bigger stuff were not going to show even though they did start to show on the surface.

However the margins swim came up trumps when this 5lb common carp took a liking to large piece of bread flake.

By 14.55 in addition to the carp above I'd added 1 Crucian, 2 Roach and one more small Carp.

I was at this time beginning to get tired due to the early start, the sun on the water and staring all day at the float. I didn't want to go home yet so I decided to pack away the float rod and fish the remiander of the day on my feeder rod. No feeder, just bait and 2 small shot to get it down.

I could flick the bait out to exactly where the float had been with a small amout of effort. For the next 3 hours or so I carried on catching small carp, almost a fish a cast. The tip proving far easier to watch than the float.

I packed up about 6:30 having caught around 60 fish. Not a bad first outting of the season.

Rant

I'm not one who usually complains for the sake of it but I must say I wasn't too impressed with the behaviour of the club members who were also fishing the pond today.

Firsty one of the guys talked/shouted a conversation to his mates for most of the day, the majority of it non fishing related.

Secondly apart from one of them, they all cleared off to the pub lunchtime leaving their gear in the swims. Now I know there are only 11 swims on the pond and could, if people turned up for an afternoon session have led to an altercation if there were no other swims available.

Rant over.

May 22nd Silver Lake, Gabriels Fishery, Edenbridge, Kent

I couldn't have a day off in the week so for one of the few times I can remember I went to a commercial on a Saturday. I'd been told that people are turned away from Stubpond so it was another trip to Gabriel's Fishery for me on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far.

I arrived at 7:10 to find about a dozen cars in the car park. I checked the notices on the gate and there was nothing regarding Silver Lake which is the complex's match lake. The complex has 5 lakes, so on average that was about 2 cars per lake. Not too bad so far.

I'd decided before arrival that if possible I would select a swim at the deep end of the lake as I hadn't tried that area before. As can be seen from the photo above I was successful. I decided to fish straight in front of me and along the reeds to the right, near the lily pads.

The set up I used was 5lb main line to a size 16 wide gape hook with 5lb hooklength. A highly visible 3bb waggler was the float of the day. I plumbed up and found that it was around 4 feet deep 2 rod lengths out and half of that by the lily pads.

I groundbaited both swims genorously with brown crumb, hemp, corn and a few maggots. I'd seen small fish activity ever since I'd arrived at the swim so my first cast was with a single red maggot and sure enough in came a small roach.

I had a decision to make at this point - do I stay on the small baits and be assured of a days Roach bashing or up the size of the bait for the chance of a bigger prize?

I decided to go for it and put a big piece of bread flake on the size 16 hook. The first piece was attacked by the roach but the second was more successful. The float began to move away very slowly and so I struck. The bend in the rod told me in was a good fish however it never moved more than a couple of feet from where I hooked it. I suspected a bream but then for no apparent reason it decided it was hooked and made a bolt for freedom. I played the fish for what seemed like an age - never seeing it until almost the last minute. Once I saw it I knew it was a good one. I netted it quite easily however my scales proved to small (they only go to 8lb). My larger ones put it between 8 and 9 pound - absolutely marvelous. See photo below:

There was good luck and bad luck regarding this capture, the good luck was that a passing angler was kind enough to take the above shot and the bad luck was that my landing net handle broke whilst I was putting the fish back.

At 8:45 the float again slid away and despite trying to bury itself in the reed bed I managed to land this 4.5lb common. A little roach also took a fancy to a big bit of bread!

Less than 20 minutes later I'd landed another common to 4.5lb, two 2lb commons, 1 Skimmer Bream and 1 Rudd all on bread.

The next 4 hours, I think because of the heat were pretty hard going. I did manage 1 Skimmer, 1 Roach, 1 Gudgeon and this 5.5lb common. All but the Gudgeon on bread.

I did lose another nice one. I was only using 5lb line so am very wary of using too much pressure when playing a fish. This leads sometimes to the fish getting into the snags, in this case the reeds next to me. I did walk behind the reeds to the next swim as the fish was up that end but couldn't get it out. Another angler from his swim could see the fish and came round to suggest that we net it through the weeds. Just as we were getting the net into position (it was a bit of a stretch) the fish spat the hook. I must have had it on for a good 20 minutes or so.

That was it for the day as far as the big action went. I did throw some bread into the lily pads around 5:30 to see if they would take it off the surface and sure enough they did. I put a large flake on and lowered it in - within seconds the float dipped and in came a 2lb common.

The picture below was taken as I packed up around 6:30. I was doing a great impression of a lobster! It was the hottest weekend of the year so far.

I will be going back.

May 14th - Plantation Lake, Stubpond, Surrey

This was going to be my first visit to Plantation Lake at the Stubpond fishery.

I arrived aound 7:40 to find the gates already open.

The weather seemed to be good for a change but when the sun went in and the wind got up it was decidedly chilly for the time of year.

Plantation is at the far end of the fishery (sounds further than it actually is). I had to make 2 trips with even my limited gear. I had looked at the lake a couple of years previously and fancied the first peg which gave me access to a fair length of margin swims and if the mood took me, access to the end of the island.

The view from my swim wasn't exactly breath-taking!

I plumbed around the swim and set up accordingly. My plan was to fish about 1.5 rod lengths out directly in front of me and feed the 2 margin swims either side. Fairly normal tactics for me.

I goundbaited the swim with crumb, maggots, sweetcorn and about 1/4 pint of hemp. Initially I went on single red maggot and immediately was into the roach. They were all around the 3 to 4 ounce mark which was better than I would have got on Mill Lake.

I tried some bread but wasn't too successful. I then tried sweetcorn which really seemed to do the trick as one of the fish I landed was a bream around the 2lb mark.

By 10:20 in addition to the 2lb Bream I'd also caught a dozen Roach and Rudd and 3 smaller skimmers.

The next 20 minutes proved very fruitful as the magic of the sweetcorn struck again - this time accounting for a 3lb Bream and an F1 around the 2lb mark.

I was only fishing the line directly in front of me during the morning session - as the fish kept coming I saw no need to try the margin swims however I did keep feeding them with the odd few pellets and a few cubes of meat.

By noon I'd added a second F1 (bread), 2 more Bream (one of 2lb) and another 3 Roach to the net. It was also the time when I tried the margins swim for the first time.

Meat was productive almost straight away - I caught my biggest Roach of the day on it plus one other on sweetcorn.

At 14:17, again from the margins swim on meat, the float dipped and slid away. I struck and the fish headed straight into the corner, dummy! Then it turned and went into the middle of the pond. After a bit of struggle I landed this nice 7lb common. 

That was it for the day in terms of big fish action, I did add a further F1 plus 2 Roach and 3 more Bream before deciding to call it a day at closing time.

There were next to no carp caught on the lake so I wasn't in the end too disappointed with my days tally. I will be back

April 28th - Silver Lake Gabriels Fishery, Edenbridge Kent

This was my first visit to the fishery for a couple of years.

The fishery is approximately 20 miles from my house - I misjudged the timing of the drive and so arrived at the fishery 10 minutes after opening!

To my surprise there was already 5 cars in the car park and a further 2 by the far gate. I was not used to such crowds!

I made my way to Silver Lake, which is the complex's match lake. Depending on choice of swim it could also be the longest walk!

As luck would have it nobody was on this lake so I had the choice of swims. It had been a while since I'd fished the lake so I couldn't remember important details like which end was the deep end and which end was the shallow end.

I eventually ended up in a swim that seemed to me to have the shortest distance to the island and importantly a nice reed bed in the margins a rod length or two down from the fishing platform.

Just after 8:00am I fed my groundbait (bread crumb plus a smll oferring of meat and corn) and about a half pint of hemp.

I started off on single maggot and was immediately into 3 nice bream however as the first hour drew to a close I only added 2 roach and a gudgeon to the total.

Around 10am I started to feed the margins swim with 2 or 3 pellets every 15 minutes or so.

By 10:30 my virtual net had grown to include 2 more Gudgeon, 3 Roach and 2 good sized Rudd (for me that is!).

The next hour was as successful as the last (!), 3 Gudgeon, 2 Roach but 2 better Bream (still skimmers but a little larger than those I caught at the beginning of the session).

Around noon these fellas paid me a visit:

At 12:25 I finally caught my first carp of the session, it was around 3lb and fell to a single piece of sweetcorn.

I kept perserving with the swim which to be honest I did begin to think I should have been in the deeper water. By 15:00 I had 3 more small Bream, a Roach and a 3lb Common Carp out of the margin swim on meat!

I tried the margins swim again at 4pm and had an immediate bite but when I should have given some more line I thought I could hold it and promptly lost it.......... another lesson learnt - do not be a hurry!

Three more fairly good Roach fell to sweetcorn before I landed a 3lb Mirror Carp from my original swim.

Overall a good day but I need to go more often so as to learn the water.

April 16th Mill Lake, Stubpond, Felbridge Surrey

After the best part of 2 weeks back at work I had worked up enough time to have another flexi day, so off I went to Stubpond for another session.

I arrived about 20 minutes before the official opening but was let in by the workers from the firm that are on the next premises along.

The weather was better than my previous visit - 2 weeks before as can be seen from the photo below:

I went to my swim and set up my gear. After that was complete I went to pay my money. On my return I could sense something was different but couldn't put my finger on it. My hemp container was on it's side (with the lid on) - I knew it was ok when I left. This made me check my bait tray and sure enough my bait box containing my meat had been completely emptied!

I thought it was the wild cats that live in the fishery although I hadn't seen any that morning. Anyway I decided to go the hut and see if the bailiff had any meat for sale. When I got there I realised who the culprit was - it was the owner's great dane! I had been Scooby-Doo'ed!

As luck would have it the owner had no tins of meat but as I had plenty of bait (sweetcorn, bread and maggots) I really wasn't to dispondent. The owner did give me a tin of paste and a tub of drilled pellets to try - I've never used either!

I fed the swim with a couple of good sized balls of groundbait and about half a pint of hemp. This constitutes a large amount of hemp for me. I was curious to see the result.

It must have been around 8:30 or so by the time I eventually stared fishing. I started on single maggot but quickly changed to bread because I didn't want to spend the day catching small (very) Roach and Rudd.

By 9:09 3 fish had been caught on bread: 2 Roach and 1 F1 Carp. (See below)

During the next hour I tried some sweetcorn and for the first time in 2010 I caught fish on it! The second hour yielded 1 Roach and 1 Bream on sweetcorn and a small Mirror Carp on bread plus this bigger mirror carp.

At lunchtime I set up my feeder rod and began to feed and use 10mm Monster Crab bollies.

By 14:00 I had managed to net the following:
1 2lb Common Carp on sweetcorn
1 4lb Common Carp on boiilies

10 assorted Roach, Carp, F1's and Crucians.

The 2 larger carp were caught straight after each other.

At various times during the day I'd been trying the paste - confidence using it was low (I'm not good with new things) but at 14:28 I got lucky when a carp took a fancy to it and my duck was broken.

To be honest I was concentrating on bread as I had the feeling that this was the bait of the day and I was proved right when at 15:18 I landed a 5lb common and again at 16:19 when I landed a 6 pounder.

The boillies were still working as well because at 17:01 I caught my final carp - a 3lb Mirror.

For once I did have some company during the day! See below:

So apart from the carp mentioned above the final 3 hours brought me 11 assorted Roach/Rudd and Bream mainly on bread but some on sweetcorn.

The day was not over for me yet in terms of incidents. As I pack up I like to have a cup of tea. Having packed up and drunk my tea I went to take the top off of the flask to get rid of the dregs when there was one almighty bang as the flask exploded!

Sone guys have all the luck (bad)