Can't miss a trick...

Today, or rather this afternoon, Tim was on an early shift. That meant he would be home by about 15:00. Sue and I filled the van with tools, and some fishing gear, and set off for Maidstone. We needed to do a small job on the jetties that involved removing some redundant ladders. One of them had come loose a couple of weeks ago and initially we were going to strengthen the mountings and re-fix them. In the end, it was decided that as nobody was using them, the simplest course of action would be to remove them.

This we did with little effort, for once, other than dropping a spanner into the murky depths of the Medway, the job went very smoothly. The spanner will be retrieved (hopefully) next time I am down there, using a magnet and a length of cord. You never know, we might even find a lot of stuff we don't expect.

After we had finished, we took a walk across the foot bridge into town and bought fish and chips for all of us, as by this time Tim's other half had arrived home from work. As soon as the food had been devoured, Tim and I turned our attention to getting a spot of fishing in. It was now getting late and the heat of the day had relented slightly but so had the light. We got about an hour in before it became too dark to see what we were doing and being Friday night we were visited by the 'disco' boat, twice!

Full of old fuds, like me, it must have been somebody's leaving do or anniversary as the music was audible and reminiscent of my youth when clubs were called discos. We managed to catch a lot of small silvers on our tele-poles, mainly dace, with a few roach thrown in. Fishing was close in, to avoid the river traffic, and we were catching high up in the water using a few maggots that Tim had in the fridge.  Even this close in the water is still deep; 8-10 feet a few yards out. Not the most scintillating of sessions but great that we could get an hour in, at the bottom of Tim's garden.

Ralph.  

Too hot to sit at a fishery all day...

Road trip around the Kent countryside in search of tackle shops in the luxury of Tim's air conditioning - Sorry, I mean 'climate control'

Tim and I decided to abandon a trip to Monk Lakes today, on the grounds that we might just end up cooking ourselves in the sun. Instead we decided to stay at Tim's place and have a lazy day visiting the local tackle shops we had not checked out yet (since Tim moved to Maidstone), trim some of the willows, that are getting in the way, and spend a few hours fishing in the river at the bottom of his garden.

To be honest we did more mucking about than fishing. I had recently managed to get hold of a second hand Preston X5 seat box for twenty quid! Okay it is the old version with blue fittings but for that money I couldn't say no. I was only interested in the drawer section to upgrade my old seat box to a five-drawer model. I rebuilt and cleaned up what was left to make a second box (X3) for Tim. With the same lot came an 8.5m margin pole, again for no money, which I also passed on to Tim. As Tim had never pole fished or had a seat-box before it was a bit of a struggle to get him set up and fishing. The pole turned out to be very difficult to use off one of the jetties due to the over hanging trees, deep water and an abundance of tree roots close in.

We got the basics sorted but decided it would be much easier to continue this exercise at a commercial where we had a bit more room and fewer trees! By now it was mid afternoon and Tim got a rod out and rigged a ledger. Patience paid off and he managed to catch a couple of small (not tiny) roach. This made Tim's day as he had never been successful with corn before... He is still learning and enjoying every bite.

Now, either that is a big net or a small fish - Tim insisted it was a big net!

While Tim was fishing I had spent a couple of hours just watching the water. Throwing in two or three maggots close in attracted a flurry of excitement as a good number of dace moved in. I put in a small handful and the water erupted. I had been fishing a swim feeder earlier with heavy gear as I know there are some big fish out there. The heat makes me lazy and I could not be bothered to walk back up the garden to completely re-rig, so I removed the feeder and hook length from the 12lb line and with a loop-to-loop connection I added a ultra light hooklength with a size 18 B911 hook. One white maggot was impaled on the hook and slowly allowed to sink into the water. Almost instantly I had a fish. I could have sat there an pulled dace after dace out of the water all between four and five inches long.

I have not caught so many dace in one go before. I think next time I will use a lighter set up and a small float, as most of the fish had taken the bait in and I had to use my fine disgorger to free them. I think a float will enable me to strike before they have a chance to devour the bait.

All in all it was a good day and it was not too hot sitting there under the trees.

Ralph.

Cypry Angel Pool

627 drops of rain, and that was our 'downpour'

It does not get much better for a day at a commercial. I know commercial fisheries are not everybody's cup of tea, but for me, with limited choice locally, this is brilliant. Twenty minutes away (well at 06:30 it is!), well run with friendly, helpful owners and no silly rules. Yes there are some rules but they all make perfect sense and accommodate pleasure anglers like me as well as providing a good venue for the carp guys.

The new venue is little known and tucked away in Bexley. It has been open since September last year and is now just beginning to flourish. The plants are all growing well, even in this weather with the help of the owner literally giving them bucket loads of water.

Today the weather was forecast as being warm with sunny spells. As I was loading the van this morning, the rain that did not appear yesterday, made an entrance. 627 drops (approximately) and that was it. Just enough to make all the cars look really filthy, The dust that has settled on them over the past few days was mixed with these large drops of water and then left to dry in the baking heat. Thanks a bunch!

I drove to the venue and was there by 06:50. Parking is a bit tight so I took the opportunity to turn the van around before the car park filled up. To my astonishment, when I left, the car park was empty. There did no appear to be anyone doing an all-nighter. This can only be down to lack of awareness. This place is ideal for the carp guys who live in South East London and Kent, and this time of year, the pleasure fishers looking for some dawn tench action...

When I arrived, the gate to the office and lake entrance was locked and a note saying to ring the number on the notice was followed. The code for the combination lock was given, and I let myself in. Apparently this number is changed frequently, for obvious reasons. I made my way to the gate into the lake where another combination (which is given as a text message, once the owner knows who you are) let me into the lake. It is a bit of a trek to the lake but it was all made so much easier by Sue (the missus). No, she did not act as my caddy, she suggested I took my little barrow. I had planned to carry my small amount of gear, but the barrow made light work of it as I negotiated the paths.

My 'minimum gear' therapy is obviously working, I had very little gear with me today but did not need anything else. This, I think in part, is down to having a plan for the day. That plan was to take just a float rod, a feeder rod and a tele-pole. I also decided to make up the rods on the bank so the cumbersome rod bag was not needed. The other big saving on porting gear was the insistence that only fishery nets, unhooking mats and weigh slings are used. None of these items are to be brought onto the fishery. Each peg is equipped with these items for use by the ticket holder.

The landing net is huge, but smaller nets are available if you need them. However the fish in the lake seem to be either 'swingable' or are huge, with only a few in between. At the moment there are a lot of fry about and an abundance of small, one-year old mirrors. I also caught rudd, roach and small crucian carp.

Today was all about pleasure fishing. I had a whole day to sit and fish at my own pace. As mentioned earlier, I had not made up any rods in advance. The first job, however, was to wet the ground bait. I was planning to use my own Two Dog groundbait, as a feeder mix, with the left over bits of Bacon Grill (left over from punching out my hook-bait) riddled in. The Two Dog does not need much water added, as it is already damp from the 'juice' from the hot dog sausages. You can find my basic recipe for the Two Dog groundbait HERE.

Two Dog groundbait and Bacon Grill - works every time

While the groundbait was soaking up the small amount of lake water added, I made up a feeder rod with a small flat-backed feeder. I prefer the 30g version of these but over the past few years I have acquired several 15g feeders when I have bought the odd second hand 'lot'. Personally I find these too light for my style of fishing and have just put them to one side. Recently I have been experimenting with adding weight to these lighter feeders to make them up to 30g. Today I decided to give one of my modified feeders a go.

I finished rigging the rod and riddled my groundbait while also adding some of the Bacon Grill trimmings. I loaded my modified method feeder and added a 9mm punched piece of Bacon Grill to the hair of my size 12 hook, on a four-inch hooklength. Knowing there are plenty of big carp in this lake, I was fishing heavy with 12lb monofilament line and 6lb hooklength of similar material.

Today's swim. The red oval is showing where there are some reeds growing on a submerged island. The lake is full of features to fish to. I think I might just go 'carper' next time and put a couple of lines out in the channel just behind that submerged island

I picked a spot and cast to it. Plop! I am at last getting better at this casting lark. Not good, you understand, just better. I tightened up to it and put the rod in the rest and across my knee with the bait-runner on. I picked up the float rod, that I had already fitted the reel to, and started to thread the line through the eyes. I had only got to the third or forth eye, when the other rod was screaming as the bait-runner was paying out line. It had only been in the water a few seconds.

One of many (very many!) perfect little mirror carp

The result of this immediate bite was a small mirror. An exact replica of a full sized (proper) mirror carp but smaller. Small it may have been but these little fish put up a spirited fight for such a small fish. I returned the fish, re-baited and cast to the same spot. I set the bait runner, placed the rod in the rest and across my knees, as before and picked up the float rod. As I had put it down, the line I had already threaded through the first few eyes had dropped out, so I started again. I got to the third eye and the other rod was giving out line again. The float rod was abandoned again and another mirror was landed and returned. That is two chucks and two fish in no time at all. Thinking this must have been just a stroke of luck, I sent the feeder out again and this time I had not had time to pick up the float rod before there was another fish on.

At this point I was beginning to wonder why I had bought a two-rod ticket. The fish were going crazy for the Two Dog groundbait/meat combination (as they always do) so I put the feeder rod to one side while I tackled up my float rod. In an effort to slow down the bite rate on the feeder I baited it up with corn on the hook and recast. This worked, after a fashion, as the bites slowed down to about one every minute or so. This gave me a chance to get the float rod out on some lighter gear and a smaller hook.

My first crucian. They can only get bigger from here...

The float rod was baited with a single white maggot. It had only been in the water a few seconds when the float tip disappeared with intention, no messing about, straight under. As I struck, it became obvious that this was not just the usual tiny roach that plague my initial casts of the float rod. This turned out to be a very nice looking little (not small!) crucian. Actually I think I can claim this little fellow as being my Personal Best, as I am not sure I have ever caught one before.

I had only been fishing about half an hour and the fish were combing thick and fast. The feeder line was producing all sorts of variations of small mirror carp all morning. Then in the afternoon I put a couple of pieces of corn on the hook and cast the feeder out. It went quiet for the first time all day. Then after a good few minutes, the top swung around and the runner was screaming. I was into a bigger fish. After a longer tussle than I had experienced all day, I landed a nice small common of maybe a couple of pounds. It looked really small in the giant net sitting on the huge beanie mat, but I was happy.

The biggest fish of the day, looking rather small in the giant net

The float rod was catching all sorts of very small fish, some of them were only an inch or so long, but perfect replicas of their bigger brothers and sisters. Every now and then the float rod fishing got a bit more interesting as another small mirror would take the bait and then it was a bit of a struggle to convince him (or her) to come and join me on the bank. One such fish was covered in weed as I came to unhook it so I dunked it in my bucket of water to wash it off. As I did so, I lost my grip and it swum off into the bucket. Well, have you ever tried to catch a small fish in a bucket of water with your hand? I can tell you it is almost impossible. It is like trying to catch a bar of soap with fins. In the end I returned it to the lake by lowering the whole bucket into the water.

And now the low point...

I did learn something today the hard way. I managed to keep a tub of lob worms alive at home for over three weeks. They were fine living in the fridge with a single feed of mashed potato. I had them sitting on my bait waiter with the lid off but resting on top. I had a small hand towel resting over them in an attempt to keep the sun off. By lunch time I had not got around to using any and noticed one had escaped and was laying motionless on the tray. It was dead. I looked in the pot only to find that all the others were also dead. The weather had been so hot, the tub had warmed up, even under the towel and done for my little mates, who I was getting attached to. I had no idea that such a relatively small rise in temperature would be so devastating to the worms.

Sadly the worms were not the only victims of my bad care. Just after I had discovered the worms had died, I realised the maggots were rapidly expiring too. I have never seen this happen before and I have fished on some warm days but today must have been warmer than I have ever fished before. I moved the maggots into the shade of my chair and riddled them to discover that three quarters of them were dead. I know they are only maggots and worms and they were going to be drowned or cut up and fed to the fish, but I had not intended to cook them alive! If it is hot again, next time I go fishing, I will keep the live bait in a cool box. Lesson learned.

The better stuff 

The lake has a good selection of water fowl including a family of mischievous ducklings that have not yet got the hang of fishing line and floats. One little fellow got the surprise of his life when the piece of sweetcorn he attempted to swallow just happened to be the tip of my float.

'The Hump' peg No.6 - that'll do

The swim I was on was called 'The Hump'. The reason for this became apparent when the geese in the middle of the lake appeared to be standing on the water!

Say hello to my friend for the day - Lola

One of the nice things about this place is that it is family run and although it would be fair to say I am not a dog-lover I found a new fried in the shape of Lola, the family's spaniel. A very nicely behaved dog that does not pester for food or attention but is happy to just sit with you and keep you company, while attempting to catch the odd flying invertebrate, usually with little success.

All-in-all I had a most enjoyable day and I will be back very soon.

Ralph.    

New venue tomorrow, Cypry Angel Pool, Bexley

August '17, just before the pool opened.
Cypry Angel Pool opened its gates at 6am on the first of September 2017, after
(to quote the owner) five years of frustration and eight months of crazy graft.
Great photograph taken from the owner's FB page, I hope you don't mind!

Yes, I am off to a new venue tomorrow, Cypry Angel Pool in Bexley. The lake is new, only being dug in April last year and opened on 1st September. I did take a look soon after it opened and found it was sparse and just looked like a hole in a muddy field at the time. I picked a time when there was nobody about and not wanting to take a liberty, I left.

This week I had reason to be in the location, so I decided to make another visit to see how it looked now. What a difference nine or ten months can make. The place has dried out, and the drive now has a good covering of gravel to make it far easier to access. This time I managed to talk to the owner, and he seems a straight up and down sort of bloke who says it as it is. I like that, at least you know where you stand.

The venue is primarily a carp venue, but it does have a head of other fish, including the usual suspects, and some tench and perch were mentioned. There is also a lot of smaller carp. As I am not an out and out carper, I will be float and feeder fishing. The rules state barbed hooks only, but that is for carp fishing. Dean, the owner, said he was happy for barbless hooks to be used up to a size 12.

I am looking forward to the day, mainly because it is local - only about twenty-five minutes away. It seems like it will be a nice day and not too hot. I will post a new blog about how it goes over the weekend.

Ralph. 

One rod and low water...

Eden Pond. Fishing close in (the arrow points to the float tip). The water was just twelve inches deep!

Every now and then I get so fed up with trying to work out what type of fishing I am going to do. As I came into fishing late in life, my introduction to the hobby was an 'in-at-the-deep-end' experience. Most people seem to have at least dabbled with a simple rod and the odd worm as a kid. Even if they did not continue to fish into adulthood at least, they had some sort of experience of basic fishing. I, on the other hand, at the age of 58¾, was presented with a myriad of rods, reels and tackle that seemed absolutely overwhelming, and in some areas, nearly four years later, it still can be.

Simple bait for today

Today, I was determined to keep it simple. Just a float rod, reel, some tackle and simple bait; maggots, worms, bread and sweetcorn. I took the sweetcorn as I wanted something that would deter the smaller fish. Otherwise, I would probably spend the entire day catching small roach/rudd. Not that I dislike catching the smaller fish, but it could become a shade boring for the whole twelve hours.

For some reason, of late, the M25 has become a car park in the mornings travelling clockwise around the southern section. I think there must be something going on a bit further around, past the turnoff I take for Beaver. Whatever the reason, it is adding fifteen minutes to my journey. I did make it just before the gate opened this morning, but I was at the back of the queue. As Luck would have it, the people in front of me were all fishing on lakes other than my target for the day, Eden Pond (again!) I fished Eden last time I was here and had a good day. This time I wanted to try the other end of the lake.

The van tucked away next to the lake

I drove the van under the pipe and parked it tight against the hedge in my usual spot. I had a walk around the pond and, sure enough, there were those give-away tench bubbles, a couple of patches of them at the far end of the pond. Spot picked, I loaded the barrow and walked all the gear to my chosen swim in one go. I probably could have carried it all in one go, but why struggle when the barrow was in the back of the van ready and waiting? Maybe I am just getting old.

The day had promised to be fine and sunny, so I set up in a shady spot under some trees. This was not going to be a problem as I had no intention of over-head casting. A simple lob out, of a couple of rod lengths at most, was the plan.

I had not made anything up beforehand as I was only going to float fish with one rod. As I sat in my chair and started to tackle up, I realised that this was not the warmest spot on the lake and the hoodie was applied to my upper body for the first time in weeks! A simple waggler rig was all I needed for today. I took care to plumb the depth, several times as the 12 inches of water seemed low even for this pond. I was correct, so I eventually baited the hook with one white maggot and lobbed the tackle into the water just beyond the rod tip. No sooner the float had settled it took a dive, and the rod was bent double. I was frantically trying to release the drag, but it was too late. The rod straightened and the fish was gone. The line had broken just above the hook length, and the float was floating free, luckily, just in netting range. I know, I should have loosened the drag before I cast, but I didn't. It is not the first time I have done that either, and it probably won't be the last. I must try harder.

The first tench of the day - the plan worked!

I re-rigged and re-plumbed, as I still could not believe how shallow it was, but it is right, it is only 12 inches deep at the moment. The maggots were encouraging the small roach to have a go, and they were slowly getting bigger but not by much. I changed bait and hook size to half a worm and a No.12 hook. I am still not keen on cutting up worms, but needs must. This was apparently the way to go. No sooner the float had settled, it disappeared. As I struck, the rod took on a healthy bend, and it was fish on. This time it was a decent fish. Not wishing to risk losing it, I played it until it was starting to ease up and just managed to lift its head and into the net it went. Yes! A nice sized tench.

One of many skimmers. A beautiful looking fish, as they all seem to be in this pond

I continued with the worm for a bit and caught a few skimmers and not much else. I tried the corn and nothing for a while. Then the feeding looked like it was paying off, tench bubbles on the surface in two or three locations. I took the line out of the water and re-baited, watching the bubbles moving about but within the same area. After selecting a nice piece of sweetcorn (I tend to go for the pieces that have been cut, so they are about half the size of a full kernel) and re-baited the hook. A gentle lob landed the rig right in the area rich with bubbles. I fed two or three pieces of corn over the top, and a few seconds later I was into another tench.

A slightly bigger tench this time

This went on for a short time, and then the swim went quiet. I decided to move to the other side of the pond where I was trying to get into a patch of lily pads, between the reeds, where I had seen some bigger fish topping.

From the other side of the pond, I could see some bigger fish topping (red oval) I was trying to put a bait close to the lilies without much success as casting is hindered by a hedge directly behind me. Good pole fishing spot, I suspect

There are a few larger carp in this pond, and it would have been nice to get one. However, casting is hampered by a high hedge on this side of the lake that is directly behind the peg. The chuck is a little too far for my skill at under-arm casting. By now the sun had become much stronger and had burnt off the cloud cover. It was getting far too uncomfortable, so I decided to decamp to Jeff's Lake and take a look at what was going on over at Maze Lake, on the way.

Just because you blanked, there was no need to fill it in...

...really there was not!

Maze Lake is a funny lake with a sort of wrap-around backwater that leads to nowhere. It is somewhat overgrown, and I am sure it provides a 'safe' place for the fish to hide out. The bank along there has been eroded and it is just not being fished. The guys made the decision to backfill this section forcing the fish back into the main part of the lake and providing an extensive grassy bank that would be easier to maintain. They have already in-filled about half of it, and it is all looking strange at the moment. That side of the lake is closed as the trucks delivering the fill-soil are going back and forth all day.

A complete contrast - Jeff's Lake

Inspection (being nosey!) over, I headed off to Jeff's Lake for the last couple of hours of fishing. Still only working with my float rod, I started off by feeding a few maggots and a small nugget of groundbait, laced with chopped worm and maggots. The float went in and instantly I had attracted the attention of the smaller silvers, all taking the bait on the drop. To deter this, I rearranged my shot, so I had most of it about six inches from the hook to get the bait down to the bottom as quickly as possible. This seemed to work - I caught a small skimmer instead of a roach! Again I changed to sweetcorn. This resulted in a good head of F1's, the usual quarry for this lake. Mind you, they have grown here. I was catching 2-3lb fish one after the other. I thought F1s were not supposed to grow much bigger than that, although I have heard claims of 5lb fish being landed. I will not bore you with more pictures of Jeff's Lake's F1s, but there was an unusual pairing crossing the lake, later in the day.

Was the snake shadowing the duck? I suspect it was the other way around

I assume that is a grass snake (?) swimming across the lake. I wonder if the female mallard was just keeping an eye on its progress or it was just a coincidence that they swam across the lake together.

With that, it was time to head home. A nice easy clear up and a pleasant drive home made the day one of the ones to remember. Nothing startling just steady fishing and experimenting all day with lots of fish to keep me company.

Ralph.          

Two blokes go fishing...

Tim was catching lots of these nice little perch and a few roach of similar size

The other bloke had just finished his last night-shift after a run of three weeks of them. He didn't get home until 06:30 this morning. I had a few things I needed to sort out after a trip to Welwyn Garden City yesterday, to collect some second hand fishing gear, but that is another story! I arrived at Tim's place just about mid-day after sitting in the traffic in the Maidstone one way system for what seemed like an eternity. Coming from London, it is necessary to turn left, just before I really want to turn right into Tim's road and do the obligatory tour of Maidstone before landing up where I started, just to be able to now turn left. Don't you just love the town planners?

Tim let me through the gates to our private stretch of the river (Sorry, can't help rubbing it in!) and I parked up in front of his garage. The drive is only just big enough to get the Transit round the corner at the bottom of the ramp - I told him to get a bigger place. No point in having private access to the river if I have to work hard to get the van in there... I dunno, can't get the brother's these days!

First job was to walk down the road and buy some maggots. Yes 'walk' down the road, the tackle shop is a few hundred yards away. If I had written a brief for a place to live, this would have been it. We strolled back to the river and put the maggots to one side to warm up while we got the dropshot gear out and had another go at fooling the perch. Again, just like the last time, straight dropshotting off the jetties was not working. We were getting knocks but I think we need to try some smaller hooks. I had lots of ideas I wanted to try out but, I think I had confused myself and decided to keep it simple. After all, we have plenty of time to experiment. 

We spent a good few hours fishing the river, while listening to the Footie. There was hardly any flow on the water and at times it was like a mill pond. Lots of fish were showing and several jumped clear of the water. After the dropshotting I decided to have a go at slider float Fishing. I was playing with that while the other bloke opted to try the waggler in a spot he found that was only six feet deep. The slider float was a bit strange and did not sink as I thought it should. Thinking about it, maybe I should have used a heavier ledger weight. Some more research prior to the next session is required here, me thinks.
 
Cheesed off with the slider float fishing, I tried catching up-in the-water using a float and a slow sinking bait - single maggot. I could see the fish but they were just looking at the hook bait. I then thought I might as well have a go at feeder fishing using a swim-feeder stuffed with maggots. I have never tried this before. I persevered with this for most of the afternoon, changing my hook length from time to time. I discovered that if I dunked the feeder in a tub of water before casting, the maggots quieten down a bit and fewer were skydiving in a bid for freedom on the way to their destination.

Tim was catching fish, I was not. It was so hot, even in the shade, that the magic was wearing a bit thin as Tim was continually announcing "Got another one!" It is hard to smile and congratulate while grinding one's teeth.

Around 19:00 we wandered in doors where Tim's better half had cooked us some dinner. Fish and chips! I am wondering if she thought this was funny. After dinner we wondered back out into the garden (as you can when you have a river at the bottom of it - jammy beggar!) and decided we would  try a spot of dropshotting again.  Again, neither of us caught anything except a really nice snag that broke my hook and kept my wriggly plastic worm.

It was so hot out there that we did not get around to fishing off the concrete jetty and to be honest, the footie was distracting us somewhat. At the end of the day, I tried several different techniques and while Tim was catching fish, I was not...

Plenty of time to get this sorted. In the meantime, Tim will be feeding the swim regularly to encourage the fish to come and play. Next time, I hope it is a bit cooler as it was very warm there yesterday. So much so I was not feeling 100% at one point and went back to the garage for a cool off! Roll on next time.


Ralph.

Road trip - what a disaster!

Sue looks into the distance awaiting the arrival of the man from the RAC.

Have you discovered Facebook's Market Place yet? It is a sort of cross between eBay and Gumtree. It is the free selling section of Facebook. People list all sorts of things and usually price them. There is no sophisticated checkout, and most items are intended to be bought locally and collected. I searched the site for fishing gear and found all sorts of things, but the prices are insane. A couple of weeks ago there was an old X3 Preston seat box for £30.00. It sold within minutes of it being listed. I discovered a notifications sign-up, so I signed up for fishing alerts.

While I was sitting at the dinner table the other night the phone bleeped, and it was a notification of a listing for an X5 box that was of similar design to my X3. This time it was the princely sum of £20.00. I indicated I was interested. I got a message back to say somebody had got there first and was coming to see it the next day. Thinking that was the end of that I dismissed it and got on with life for the following twenty-four hours.

Ding! The phone went again, this time it was the seller saying the person who had said they were coming to have a look had not turned up and was I still interested? Yes! It turned out there were several other bits for sale, and I asked for a price for the lot. A price was given, and a haggle was done. I ended up buying the box, an 11.5m margin pole, a Carp-Porter box trolley, a rod pod, a huge umbrella with side skirts that zip on and a lot of other smaller stuff. I will show some of the bits as I/we get around to using them. I say "we" because the box now an X3, as I have upgraded my box by swapping over the drawer sections and will been given to the other bloke, along with the 11.5m pole and various bits of tackle.

That aside, the drawback of buying this way is the fact that it has to be collected. A small price to pay if, as this lot was, the lot is a bargain. Listed as 'local' it was actually in Welwyn Garden City. That is fifty miles from us, but it is all easy road and should be no trouble, mid-morning.

How wrong can I be!

The traffic getting there was just one hold up after another, and our sat-nav sent us off down a blind alley where we had to turn around in a space barely wider then the van is long. During this operation, I heard a hissing noise but took no notice as everything felt okay and the noise had stopped. Assuming the noise wad emanating from a remote source, we carried on to our destination using Sue's phone's built-in directions app. We arrived at the destination at 15:00, we had left London at 11:30. After collecting the fishing gear, and loading it into the back of the van, we noticed the rear, near-side, the tyre was looking a bit soft. No worries, I'll change it. Not that simple on a big van, sitting on a gentle slope. The picture at the head of this blog is of the spare, after being fitted... Before you say I should have checked it, I did, and I made sure it had plenty of air in it by pumping it up to 60psi.

The spare was softer than the tyre I had taken off. Nothing for it, with five wheels of which only three were serviceable, I had to call the RAC. Well, the bloke was great, helpful and willing try a few things to see what he could do. The problem turned out to be perished valves on both wheels. The Guy from the RAC took the original wheel and tyre away to have a new valve fitted at a local tyre specialist, and within half an hour we were on our way home.

Back home, it was time to have a cool off and inspect what we had collected. The box was in a far better condition than it looked in the photograph (Makes a change!) and although the seat is a bit tired, it is perfectly serviceable. I will write another blog about the box upgrade and the making of another box for the other bloke.

Just pleased to be home and a shout out for the RAC, without whom we would still be in Welwyn Garden City.

Ralph.

A good day on Eden Pond

My chosen swim for the day

Unusually for me, I was sound asleep when the alarm woke me at 05:00 this morning. Normally, I am awake, waiting for it to go off. For a split second, I considered rolling over and going back to sleep. This was not an option as nature was reminding me that I needed to get rid of some of that water I had been drinking yesterday in all that heat. To say I am relieved I did, has far more meaning than the quick visit to the little boys room!

For the past few weeks, the M25 has been slow going, clockwise, all along the stretch leading up to the A22 junction. There seems to be no reason for it, but it can add ten to fifteen minutes to the journey. Not that much of a problem usually but today I was aiming to get on Eden Pond. The trouble with being a little late is that all the early-birds get the pick of the swims. As Eden Pond is a small water you really want to be first there. Talking to Andy (head honcho) he said that there was only one guy showing any interest in fishing it today and he was not sure.

Alone again, naturally... Sounds like a song title. I had Eden Pond to myself, all day

I paid my dues, just the one rod today, and bought a tub of maggots with the intention of targeting a few perch at some point in the day. A short drive around the other lakes and off to the far-reaches of the fishery got me to Eden Pond to find no one there. Great. I parked the van behind the hedge that separates Eden pond from Daughter's Lake. Daughter's Lake is closed at the moment as the fish are spawning. That means it is very quiet down there today, making it ideal. As the day went on, nobody else arrived, so I had the place to myself.

The day started off on the cool side, and I was sitting there with a jumper on. As the sun rose above the trees the temperature in my little corner of the lake began to rise but being in the dappled shade, it did not become uncomfortable, once the afore mentioned garment was discarded.

I started fishing with my favourite float rod, an old, thirteen foot, Silstar that was given to me by a fellow member of the Maggot Drowners Forum. This is an early carbon fibre rod that has had a reel-seat whipped onto it. Fitted with a modern Greys FD reel, it makes a very comfortable pairing. I was using four-pound line, as there are some bigger fish in here. I was after the tench, and I would like a bigger roach.

The maggots are getting on a bit now and were looking somewhat sleepy. They were in the pre-caster stage where they become smaller, and their food sack had all but disappeared. I plumbed up (realising I had stolen the other bloke's plummet as we packed up on Sunday) and discovered the water was no more than two feet deep for as long as I wanted to cast. Entirely different to the Medway on Sunday, where three foot from the bank the depth of the water was twelve feet plus! My own plummet - the last one I had left - was looking a bit sad, wrapped in electrical tape, but it lasted the day out.

Maggots seemed to favour the smaller roach, and I caught lots of those with a few around eight inches long. I changed to sweetcorn, and the bites slowed up considerably, but the fish were bigger.

I caught my PB (so far) roach today. Very Happy!

I caught the largest roach I have ever caught, not huge but far bigger than the usual stamp of fish I catch.  At this point, I decided to give the bread a go. I had some bread slop I had mixed, using rainwater, the day before. This I balled into the swim, and while waiting for the initial commotion to die down and the bigger fish to move in, I dug out some bread, my bread box and some punches. I started off with a small 6mm diameter punch which made a nice firm disc. I hooked it directly on to a size 14 hook and cast.

I had to use the bigger net for this one - good fun on the float rod it weighed about 2½lb

The bait had hardly hit the water when the tip of the rod whipped around, and I was playing, what for me was, a big fish. This thing was giving it some and heading for the reeds. I managed to keep it out in the open water, and when it showed itself, my suspicions were confirmed. It was a decent sized tench. In fact, it too turned out to be the biggest tench I have caught so far. At around two and a half pounds, it was not a monster, but I was happy. I continued to fish using bread and tried all the punch sizes I had to hand and settled on the 8mm one as being the most effective for most fish. I caught lots of bream, several more tench plus the odd greedy roach.

One of the smaller bream, but a nice clean-looking fish

I did have a bit of a go with the tele-pole, but the thing was not long enough to get to the places where pole fishing would have paid off so I went back to the float rod and continued to catch the bigger fish. I also tried some stuff my local tackle shop recommended. It calls itself Yum-Yum, but Yuck-Yuck would be a better name, it stinks! I tried it by dropping a few drops onto bread and punching it out. This gave a soggy bit on one side and a nice compressed white on the other. It hooked well, and I caught a good few fish with it, all seemed to be bream. It is too early to decide if it works or not but it did seem to.

Bread punched to 10mm with Yum-Yum soaked into one side

As much as I like Drennan products, I have decided I don't like their antenna-type floats. They fish nicely, but they break far too easily. I was only casting a few yards in an underarm sort of a lob and when I came to unhook my best tench of the day I noticed, yet again, the antenna was missing. I had a rummage around in the float tube and found a short crystal waggler that did the job for the rest of the session.

I have neglected my stock control over the past few months and find myself low on things like small weighted crystal wagglers, in fact, I could not find any with inserted tips of my preferred choice. I found myself so low on plummets that I was taping an old one up that had split. I also discovered I was running low on bait. A trip to our local B&M store is to stock up with a case of Plumrose Bacon Grill. I also need to buy some more Sweetcorn as I eventually used up my stock of tinned 'hookers' after last year's great sweetcorn survey!

Last fish of the day was a nice little tench

What next?

Now there is a question, where to fish next week. I may go back to Beaver, if Daughters lake is open and spend the day with a couple of carp rods out, trying to catch a big fish. On the other hand, I might be brave and try somewhere else for a change... I might even try a new venue.

Ralph.

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.   

Well, I am glad that is over!

Yes, my fishing famine April and May have finally come to an end and I an making up for it now with at least one trip a week. I have spent too much time worrying about life and not really being very productive. In fact, I am sure it was that making me feel ill. It is a vicious circle that can spiral out of control if you let it. A visit to the doctor a couple of months ago opened a can of worms and gave me the kick up the backside I needed. Instead of festering worrying about every last ache and pain, I now know what is wrong, and I can put it right, well at least keep it under control.

An almost total lack of exercise was my main downfall, sitting here for hours on end, in front of this screen tapping away at the keys was keeping my brain alive but doing nothing for my physical health. Now, all that has changed, I back fishing, and it is great!

This little 'mouse' turned out to be a bank vole

It is not just about fishing, either. It is about being able to relax and take in nature around the peg. The little fellow was almost tame, coming to within a few feet of me sitting there watching him (or her?) It was not until I got home that the missus got the books out and we discovered that the little creature was, in fact, a bank vole and not a mouse as I had first thought. I think this is the first bank vole I have ever seen, you don't get many treading the streets of south-east London.

Today is Saturday, and after lunch, I have been getting some dropshotting gear ready for tomorrow when we are off to spend the day with my brother, his wife and my 91-year-old mum. The 'girls' can do their own thing, or they can come and spend the day at the bottom of the garden with us fishing. Yes, the other bloke in this blog has only moved into a flat that has private fishing rights at the bottom of the garden. It should be exciting, and if it is any good I think my brother might be seeing a bit more of me!

Where next?

After tomorrow, it will be back to choosing a venue for next week. I am happy fishing at Beaver. I know I have not tried that many other places but with eight lakes and ponds to choose from, there is just about every environment covered. In recent weeks I have float-fished in Maze lake, feeder fished on Jeff's Lake and this week I was two-rodding it on the shallow side of The Majors Lake with a sleeper out on the island margin and fishing the short pole/tele-pole close in. I could spend the day with a couple of carp rods out on Daughter's Lake. I have never fished it before, and it was netted and restocked this past winter with some very nice looking fish. I now have all the gear I need to fish for the bigger fish so it would be an experience. I will have to take something to read, as I understand it there is a lot of waiting around involved. Having never done it before, it has to be a consideration.

Then again, I could spend the day on Eden Pond. This picturesque small water at the far end of the fishery is home to some bigger roach and tench as well as a few carp to make it exciting. I have fished it before, but somewhat half-heartedly. Set in very natural surrounding, it could be a good way to get some variety on the float rod.

After that, there will still be three lakes I have never fished. I think I still have a lot to explore at Beaver. Since my local lake (that I have only fished a few times) has put the day ticket price up to the same as Beaver, and considering there is only one lake and a small pond, the lack of facilities, bait restrictions and the no swinging of fish rule, no matter how small, I am not sure I will be going back there in a hurry.

I will try some other venues, and now the rivers are open I will be exploring some more parts of the rivers in Kent. For now, though, it is going to be a case of better the devil I know. A Fishing trip a week keeps the doctor away, at least I hope so!

Ralph.