Maggots, corn, little plastic fishes...

... Oh, and Tim!

A long lens Paparazzi picture taken from the other bloke's balcony    

Have you ever dreamed of having private fishing on tap at the bottom of your garden? I know some of you may have this luxury, but for me, a life-long Londoner it would be marvellous. To discover that my brother (Tim) has just moved into a posh block of four flats (I know, they call them apartments these days!) that has fishing rights at the bottom of the garden is like a dream come true. Now, you know how I have always admired my good looking little brother...

Not only that, the jammy little beggar has a gated entrance and the biggest single garage I have ever seen. This means I can drive around the back and park out of the way in total security. Now here is the unbelievable bit, none of the other residents fish! This means we get the two wooden jetties and the concrete mooring to ourselves. How is that for a result? Today was the first chance we have had to get out there as Tim is doing night shifts at the moment and is asleep during the day - Whimp!

One each? - You can have the one with the trees

It is a thirty-mile drive from here but it an easy one, straight out of town on the South Circular and head for the M20 via the Sidcup bypass. If the South Circular is clear it is well under an hour's drive. If it weren't for all the speed limits, that have been continuously lowered over the years, it would be even quicker. It was suggested we arrived at 10:00, halfway through the day at this time of year but the poor old bloke has to get his beauty sleep, even though, as I have already said, he doesn't need it.

Okay, I'll stop grovelling...

There is one drawback to this venue. As can be seen from the header picture, 'er-in-doors has eyes on us if we are fishing from the jetties. However, there is also a concrete mooring just behind the trees to the left of where we were caught in that long-lens photograph taken from the balcony. Did I not mention, this flat has a balcony looking out over the river too.

Sue and I arrived just about 10:00. Sue and Tim's wife, Kay, both went off to collect their Mother-in-law. Meanwhile, I had realised that my latest family of maggots had been left behind 'chilling' in the fridge. No problem, on top of everything else, this place has a really friendly tackle shop a few hundred yards away! Without further ado, we marched off to the shop and purchased a pint of maggot that he was happy to double bag for us to take away. At £3.25 that is a good buy down here. My 'local' tackle shop in London will only sell them to you in a bait-box, and they are £3.40 a pint.

I must give the shop a mention, Phil, who owns and runs Nick's Tackle (you will have to pay him a visit if you want to know why it is called Nick's tackle and not Phil's Tackle) is a really friendly and helpful bloke. His opening times and other details can be found on his Facebook page, HERE. If you are in Maidstone, make sure you pay him a visit. I am sure Tim and I will be in there a lot. He had a good knowledge of the local fishing and gave us a good idea of what we might expect to catch and a few tips on how to encourage the fish into our small piece of the river.

Neither Tim nor I, have any experience of fishing a river of this size. So far my only experience has been in the Great Stour as it winds its way through Canterbury and our small local river, The Pool. This is an entirely different river. For a start, there are boats and canoes to contend with, and it is deep; surprisingly deep. A few feet off the jetty it must be twelve foot deep. For simplicity, we had a little poke around the jetty and the mooring with our dropshot rods. Nothing much happening there although we did get a few tugs on the line. Eager to get a fish on the bank we rigged a couple of tele-poles with rigs deep enough to find the distant bottom. Due to the trees, it is hard to cast a rod and line at the moment so a spot or gardening will be required. They also become a problem with a tele-pole as the rig is so long and telescoping them in half (as we usually do) does not leave enough length to swing or net the fish very easily. We will have to invent a new technique to use here.

It is early days at the moment, but we are having fun investigating the potential of this great opportunity. We managed to get Tim set up with a line in the water, fishing sweetcorn. While he was doing that I rigged a second tele-pole and started fishing using a single white maggot. Almost immediately I had a bite. Tim was not amused. It was at this point I realised my camera had no film (card) in it. The fish went back in without getting its moment of fame and I re-baited my size 18 hook. As soon as the rig settled I had another, and another and... Tim was now really not amused. I offered to swap poles so he could have a go. We did. I then caught another fish in his swim. I did promise I would not rub it in.

After a good bit of fun with the poles and Tim catching a few fish, the 'girls' were back along with Mum. Time for a break and a spot of lunch 'in the grounds'.

This day was only getting better. The fishing had not been great by some's standards, but we were just happy to catch a few small fish. Phil (from Nick's Tackle) had told of some big fish in the river, colossal river carp and bream to ten-pound plus. I really did not want to catch any of those today on light tackle and small nets. I needn't have worried, we were not going to be breaking any records today.

Tim, got one yet? - Shut up!

After lunch, it was back to the task at hand as we set ourselves up on the concrete jetty. Here we had fewer restrictions from the trees. The water was almost as deep, and we were catching fish easily on maggot. The corn was not doing it today.

This bit goes through there, and this bit will pull through here...

Even on the concrete, trying to avoid the trees was a bit of a pain until we got used to where they were. The odd tangle was quietly unravelled by me, much to the bewilderment of the other bloke who kept saying that he liked the new calm, Ralph. I have felt a lot better over the past few weeks, and I have taken on a calmer approach to life - much to my little brother's delight. He keeps telling how much he is enjoying the new me. I wonder if he will change his mind if I throw him in? The weather was glorious, and we got to have a real old chin-wag about all sorts of things that have no relevance here. Suffice to say, it was a very pleasant afternoon.

Now the good bit 

Unlike a commercial venue, there is no closing time, so after dinner, it was back to the mooring for a good session of dropshotting out into the river now the boat traffic had subsided. We both caught a few perch but nothing to write home about. But it was great fun casting huge distances with these short rods. Long retrieves, with a bit of movement, imparted into the lure and the odd stop, seemed to work the best. Tim managed to find the odd snag, and without exception, we were able to 'ping' the line loose, one of the advantages of using braid. This was Tims first go at dropshotting, and I think he is fairly keen on it.

There is a lot to discover about this stretch of The Medway, but we know there are some very big carp in there - we have seen them. I think this summer will be a learning curve on this water, but I am looking forward to winter this year, there is some very big pike mooching about. Someone caught a decent size one in the Town Centre last week. This is only the start of this journey...

On Wednesday I will be off to Beaver again. I did contemplate fishing for some of the bigger fish, but I have had a change of heart,  and I intend to spend the day float fishing with rod and line on Eden Pond. Just me, my chair and a minimum of tackle and bait. A box of maggots, some corn, meat and maybe a few worms. You never know, I might catch a decent sized perch or roach.

Ralph.