2014 24 August 22nd Swallow Lake,Gabriels Fishery, Edenbridge

Today to spice things up I decided to fish a whole session using banded pellets. Nothing unusual in that you might think however I'd never tried this method before so it was a bit of a challenge to see how I coped.

I decided to go to Swallow Lake at Gabriels Fishery as this is a pond full of small carp and where I can almost guarantee bites.
s
I arrived at the fishery about 10 minutes before opening time and as had happened on my last few visits the gate was open. I made the mile or so drive to the lake seeing nothing but rabbits! On arrival at the car park I discovered one other car there but never saw the occupant all day so he must have been on another lake.

The swim I chose today was right at the back of the pond. I'd never fished it before so didn't have any idea of the depth or snags present etc, It was quite close to the island so that was good.

My first problem arose when I tried to get the pellet in the band. It quickly become apparent that I needed some fingernails! I put my thinking cap on and in the end I used my forceps to hook the band and then I put the pellet in and and slid the band off the forceps. Job done!

I fed the swim and made my first cast around 7:30.

I had to wait all of ten minutes before the float went and I was into my first fish on banded pellets! The culprit a small carp of about half a pound. I unhooked the fish and found the pellet still banded, result!

By 8:30 I'd caught four of the little critters. My confidence in the method was increasing. Could I keep it up for the whole session? Here's the biggest of the four:

The next hour was even better than the first as the loose fed pellets were obviously having an effect. I took another seven of the small carp to make my running total eleven for the day.

The next hour and the catch rate increased again! This time I caught nine of the little blighters. First time on the banded pellet and I was at 20 with only three hours gone.

The fourth hour's rate dropped slightly as I only managed seven carp. I put this down to the fact that it started to spit with rain so I had to go back to the car for my waterproof jacket. Here's the best of the seven:

By the time I'd caught another eight carp it was 12:30 and time to start thinking of a quick lunch break. Today I had mini sausage rolls and a scotch egg. Lovely.

After lunch I had a quick attempt at using corn with a band but couldn't work out how to use it so it was back to the pellets. Seven more fell to this tempting bait.

The next hour brought seven more carp including my best of the day, a 5 lb 2 oz 'specimen'! This was my best ever carp from this pond so the pellets were really working for me.

Between 14:30 and 15:30 was my most productive hour in terms of the number of fish caught. Eleven of the small carp made the virtual net.

It couldn't last as in the next hour the catch rate dropped to six! I suppose they must have been getting full!

The rate continued to drop by 17:30 when I decided to pack up I had only caught one!

I was really pleased with myself, 67 fish, all carp on an untried method, albeit on an easy pond. I shall try it again.

2014 23 August 15th Chittenden, Edenbridge

I chose the club's carp lake at Chittenden for today's session.

I arrived at the fishery just after 6 am. There was no one in the car park. I loaded the trolley and set off down the lake towards my favorite swim.

My day didn't start very well as I discovered that after setting up the rod that the line at the top of the reel was very dodgy. It was falling off the spool and breaking way below the specified breaking strain. Somewhat cheesed off I removed all the damaged line and set up again. I was finally ready to make my first cast at 7:17.

For a change I decided to start with bread on the hook rather than my favored corn. In the first hour the float only disappeared once. The culprit was, as expected, one of lakes bream.

By 11:30, I'd tried corn but to no avail. I'd also tried some meat. This did bring me some success, albeit just the two bream. I did miss two carp, both spat the hook. This just wasn't my day!

I changed to pellets on the hook with little success. By 12:30 I'd only added another bream to the virtual net! Not very good.

I rang the changes again, this time back to meat. By 15:13 I'd added another four bream to the day's total.

By the time I packed up at 18:00 I'd caught a further three bream and a carp! Unfortunately it only came in at 5 oz! Probably the smallest one in the lake. Still it proves they are breeding doesn't it?

So at the end of the day I'd caught 16 fish, 15 bream and a solitary carp. Never mind, my next session on this lake is scheduled for early autumn.

2014 22 August 10th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge

Today, I decided to have an afternoon/evening session on the waggler at the club's premier fishery, Nursery Fields.

The weather wasn't the best as I left home around 12 pm for the 30 minute journey to Edenbridge. Rain was definitely in the air.

When I arrived at the car park I found it quite full. This was a shock to me as usually even when the sun is out the attendance on a Sunday isn't very high.

Undeterred I loaded up the trolley and made my way round the back of the lake. I'd decided on the way down to fish one of the early swims as I hadn't done so for about a year. My luck was in as I discovered that they were all free.

I chose peg 4 because it had some very fishy looking lily pads to which I could fish to. I mixed up some ground bait and set up the float rod. It was 13:18 when I made my first cast.

I started with corn on the hook while feeding small halibut pellets every few minutes. It took a while before the swim responded but when it did I was into the roach and bream.

At 3 pm a hooter or whistle went off and I realized that there was a match on! That's why there were so many cars in the car park. I didn't think there would be a match on the Sunday after NF had been closed for a week but there you go.

At 16:20 I changed hook baits from corn to meat to see how that would fare. It galvanized the lake's tench  into action as I seemed to catch one after another. Those little fellas sure put up a fight on light tackle.

As the match anglers filed past me one of the anglers dropped some of his gear and remarked 'I should make two journeys'. He picked his stuff up and made his way to the car park. Later I discovered that he had left his landing net behind. I will give it to Peter next time I am there.

At 17:27 as the evening began to close in I hooked a carp which immediately took me across the lake and into the lilys on the far side. After applying pressure for several minutes the carp finally spat the hook. I was gutted.

Not put off I re-baited the swim and continued fishing. I never got another indication that anymore carp were in the vicinity. By the time I was ready to call it quits I thought I would have a dabble in front of the reeds almost under my feet.

The bait wasn't in the water more than a few seconds before it shot away and so did the fish! Instead of heading across it went down the lake. I was initially lucky in that it passed 2 beds of lilys however it did get in the third. After much coaxing I got it out however on the way back to my swim it went into the second set.

For several minutes I applied pressure in an attempt to get it out. I even walked down the bank so that I was opposite the fish. I did see it from time to time but it was a stubborn fighter and refused to come out. In the end the inevitable happened and the hook length broke. I was gutted.

It was at that point that I decided to pack up and call it a day. In retrospect I had a really good enjoyable session. In total I caught 17 fish, 6 bream, 3 roach, 7 tench and a solitary crucian carp (see below).

2014 21 August 1st Chittenden, Edenbridge

Another Friday summer visit to Chittenden. After the carp losing disaster of my most recent trip to Nursery Fields I was keen to see if I could land a few without any of the problems I'd experienced there.

Up at 5 am and on the road by 5:45 meant that I got to the fishery just before 6:30. Just the one car in the car park so I knew I would be able to have a good choice of swims.

I loaded the trolley up and headed off down the lake. On the way I passed the new stock pond. The plants are coming on well. Also I did see a fish or two on the surface. There is something in there then! I also spotted an empty can of luncheon meat, will people never learn?

I was set up and the swim fed by 7:23. In the time between arriving and being ready to start fishing a few other anglers had arrived and were set up on the near side by the islands.

A usual for Chittenden I started off using a single piece of corn on the hook. Seven fish in the first hour was a fast start. There was 5 bream, a roach (rare for Chittenden) and a carp of  8.5 lb.

I'd had some meat left over from my previous trip which I had frozen when I got home. This meant that it was in a condition which I could use on the hook. I switched to meat for the second hour. The bream wern't interested but a carp of 5 lb 6  oz was.

I switched back to corn for the next hour. Again the bream didn't play ball. A carp of 7 lb 14 oz did though.

Another change for the fourth hour, this time it was back to the meat. Still no bream, perhaps they had gone on their summer holidays? I did get two more carp though, one of 8 lb 12 oz and a slightly smaller one of 5 lb 14 oz.

Around 12:30 I changed hook baits again, this time to soft hook able pellets. Again no bream and again a solitary carp of 5 lb 10 oz.

For the lunch break period I switched back to corn. Again no bream but another carp, this one 6 lb 14 oz. I definitely wasn't complaining about the lack of bream as the carp were all putting up a good fight. I was really enjoying myself.

As the afternoon session started I was back on the meat. This time I caught my best carp of the day a 9 lb 14 oz specimen. As a bonus I also nabbed a bream, they were back!

My last fish of the day was caught at 15:47 and was also a carp. This one had a liking for pellets and weighed 6 lb 9 oz.

I lost very few fish during the day so the problems I had with the carp on my previous outing must just have been down to one of those days. In the end I caught 16 fish, most of them carp. A good and enjoyable day.

2014 20 July 27th Nursery Fields, Edenbridge, Kent

Today was going to be another afternoon/evening session at the club's mixed fishery at Nursery Fields in Edenbridge.

I arrived at the fishery at around 2:30 pm which I hoped would give me at least 6 hours fishing time. The weather was very hot and so I was surprised to see only three cars in the car park. I mean it was a Sunday.

Usually I go to the top of the lake and spend the afternoon and evening sitting behind two buzzers but today I thought I would concentrate on one rod and fish the waggler. This was mainly to see if I could tempt the lake's carp into feeding a little closer in.

With only three cars in the car park I wasn't surprised to find my swim unoccupied. I set up the waggler rod, plumbed the depth, mixed the ground bait and was ready to make my first cast at 15:30.

Instead of the usual mixture of hook baits, I decided today to concentrate just on meat. I was really just going for the carp today. If I got a good tench or barbel then that would be a bonus.

I didn't have long to wait for the first bite. The float went, I struck and off went the carp for a run. When it got to the reeds on the far side it turned and spat the hook out! I was gutted but none the less I re-baited the swim and cast again.

Unfortunately the above scenario repeated itself a further five or six times during the session. I knew by the end that I must have been doing something wrong. I normally miss a couple as I suppose does everyone else but I was getting the hook spat out every time.

When I got home I contacted the Maggotdrowning forum for some assistance. See the link below for their response.

http://www.maggotdrowning.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=174387&SearchTerms=HELP

I did manage to catch 16 fish during the session, they consisted mainly of bream and tench however I did catch one barbel right at the end. As for the carp I did land one!

So, in conclusion my plan did work as far as getting a good number of carp to come in and feed on the meat quite close in, the down side of course was that I couldn't land any!

I will try this tactic again, taking on board the help I've received and see what happens.

2014 19 July 18th Hare Lake, Gabriels Farm Fishery, Edenbridge

Today I thought for a change I would make a return trip to Gabriel's farm to see how the fishery performed during the summer months.

The fishery doesn't open until 7 am so today I had a bit of a lay in! Anyway I arrived at the gates at 6:50 to find them already open! I drove the mile or so to the lakes to find a couple of cars already there.

I had made the decision to fish Silver Lake today but when I got to my favorite peg the reeds that were just in front of the platform in May were now so thick it would have made retrieving any fish caught very difficult. Because of this I decided to try my favorite swim on Hare lake instead.

I was set up and ready to make my first cast at around 7:40. Unlike the previous week today was going to be a hot one as already I was down to my t-shirt! That's the British weather for you!

I started on corn over a ground bait mix of crumb, meat, pellets, corn and hemp which was fed close to the reeds on the far side. I was rewarded in the first hour with six fish made up of rudd, roach and bream.

The second hour was a bit slower, only three fish made the virtual net. A bream, a roach and the first carp of the day, albeit only about 1.5 lb.

The third hour brought in 8 fish, two of them carp (around a pound) and the other six were roach. They all fell to a piece of corn.

The next hour was the quietest so far with just 1 small roach falling victim to the magic corn.

As I entered the lunch period the sun was really beating down on me so for a change I put my umbrella up to protect myself from the effects of its rays. Two bream and a roach made the virtual net in that hour.

I decided after lunch that it would be a good time to switch hook baits. I had prepared some small cubes of meat the night before and now was the time to give them a try. I was rewarded with 2 roach and a carp of 1.5 lb.

For the next hour I switched baits to small hook able pellets. No surprise what I caught, three more roach in the 2 to 3 ounce category.

I went back on the corn in another attempt to catch something other than a roach. Well I sort of succeeded as I managed to get a bream and a roach.

By the time I packed up at 17:30 when the sun had finally taken it's toll on me I'd added another two roach to the net making the day's overall total 33.

In conclusion, it was another day where I either I han't really succeeded or the lake is just top heavy with roach of 2 or 3 ounces.

2014 18 July 11th Chittenden, Edenbridge

Another midweek trip to the club's carp lake at Chittenden.

I was up at 5 am and out on the road by 5:45. Everything was going smoothly until I approached the gate at Nursery Fields! Oops wrong place! I turned the car round and somewhat red faced headed back towards Chittenden.

When I finally arrived, there was one other car in the parking area. I could see that the owner was situated on the far side of the first island. In terms of the weather it was just beginning to spit with rain.

I unloaded the car and made my way down to the bottom of the lake. As I made my way down the rain began to get noticeably harder.

Setting up in the rain is not much fun however as I had no choice so I got on with it. I was ready to make my first casts at around 7:30.

By the time I starting fishing the rain was really coming down so even with the umbrella up it was very difficult to write notes for this report and keep the notebook dry. I decided therefore to just keep a tally of the total fish caught for the day and how many of them were carp.

As regards setup I made a decision at the end of my last session at Chittenden that I would use 6 lb main line and size 14 hooks on the waggler set up to lessen the chances of losing good fish.

Corn was my initial bait of choice on the waggler and 15 mm strawberry boillies were my choice for the feeder rod.

The corn attracted the bream very quickly which I took to be a good sign. They were all in the range 0.5 lb to 2 lb which for me was very good.

After a couple of hours the bream seemed to disappear so I decided to change to halibut hook able pellets.

This change seemed to work well as I managed to catch my best carp of the day and a double at that (10 lb 2 oz).

This mirror was caught at 9:15.

This one was caught at 10.06.

This one was caught at 10:42.

This one was caught at 18:12.

There was a let up in the weather around 3 pm which to be honest saved me from packing up at 4 pm. I stayed till 6:30 pm in the end. However despite the respite in the weather I was still cold, dirty, wet and miserable.

By the time I finally packed up I'd caught 37 fish of which 17 were carp and the other 20 were bream.

Aside from the weather I'd had a good day. My plan to beef up my terminal tackle worked as I only lost 2 or 3 fish during the day.