So there I was driving down the A21 this morning at about 7·30am with snowflakes mingling with the rain and the car's thermometer showing just 4°C , I really was starting to question my sanity.  I may not have been fishing since before Christmas, but surely it would have made more sense to turn round and return to a nice warm bed.

At 8·30am in the car park outside the lodge at Elphicks, I met up with 2 familiar faces, Dave the Fish and Colin. So day tickets paid for we drove up to Sandwich Lake where a brief look confirmed that it was going to be uncomfortable to say the least with a raw wind blowing from left to right lowering the temperature even more.

A stroll along to Kettles Lake next door revealed a slightly more sheltered area, with some trees offering a modicum of shelter from the wind, so despite none of us having fished it before we decided that Kettles would be todays venue.

As we set up Dave made a beeline for the snack wagon, returning with 3 welcome piping hot cups of tea. Colin to my right elected to fish a maggot feeder to the point of the island at around 25mtrs, While I went for a pole approach at about 11mtrs which offered a depth of around 4feet, and Dave to my left went for the pole at around 9mtrs offering a similar depth to me.

Given that the water still had a good bit of colour and that I knew the stocking levels are high on all the lakes, I kicked off with a large pot of 3mm green swimstim pellets and another of maggots, aiming to fish either 6mm swimstim hookers or double red maggot over it at dead depth, while Dave went for a little and often approach trickling feed in with a kinder pot.

Sport for the 1st hour was non existant for both Dave and I, while Colin managed a couple of small Roach on the feeder. I was convinced that things would pick up and was catapulting alternate pouches of pellet and maggot in an effort to make something happen.

Dave was using his new Platt-Forms box and was at least happy that it wouldn't be getting muddy as the swims at Elphick's are all covered in Astroturf.(there was an awfull lot of blue in evidence on the day though, including his car, leading me to wonder whether he's trying to take Matt Nutt's title of "Little Boy Blue" )

Colin strolled down for a chat and right on cue my float dipped and the 1st fish of 2006 for me in the shape of a net Roach had me off and running, quickly followed by a nice F1, Things were starting to look up.

Dave was having one of those days, bumping a couple of foul-hookers while trying to fine tune his presentation as a constantly changing wind made things awkward.
Colin plugged away on the feeder finally getting among a few small Carp amongst the Roach and Rudd that were coming at regular intervals.

Dave popped along for a chat and on cue my float dipped resulting in a far from seasonal Tench pulling the elastic from my pole and soon gracing my landing net, much to Dave's delight.

Things seemed to get better and better for me as I kept banging in the feed. 5 Bream around the 2 - 2½lb mark along with a male Tench and another chunky F1.........

........mixed in with the Roach and Rudd, there was even a Bleak!!!

All of which kept me busy and warm right up to 3pm when I decided to call it a day as a few flakes of snow started to fall again.

Dave managed to get amongst a few Roach and at least 1 Bream that I saw, and with Colin still sneaking a few out on the feeder decided to stay on for a little while longer.

All in all a rewarding day, with good company in hard conditions, and a nice if somewhat belated start to my fishing year.

Well MrsM told me that she would be working today,so i decided that I'd grab the chance to pop down to Elphicks and have a session on Sandwich Lake and see if i could get a few species for the Maggotdrowning.com Fishing Race .

I arrived at the lake at about 9am and although it was dull and overcast it felt quite mild. I have to say that i was happy to see pegs 10 & 11 were empty and plumped for peg 11 as it allows you to fish 11mtrs to the overflow stack which is the only real feature on the whole lake apart from 1 small island.

PEG11....

I know this swim pretty well, so the set up was pretty simple, Just the 1 top kit with white hydro with the rig consisting of a Drennan Lake carrying 3 no6's and a no10 and a size 20 PR24 all mounted on 0·12 Silk Shock Ultegra to fish at dead depth (about 4½ft).
Bait was to be 6mm expanda's with micro Halibut pellets for feed. I also had some sweetcorn for a change bait.

3 good pouches of pellet and about a dozen expanda's set the table, and 1st put in the float buried and a Bream of about 2½lb was safely banked.

1st Bream....

By the time that Vince arrived at about 10·30am I'd managed about a dozen Bream,a small Common Carp and 4 Tench one of which was the reason for me choosing Elphicks for the days fishing.

A Golden Tench....

A lovely looking fish, not huge at just over a couple of pounds, but very welcome all the same.

Vince set up on peg 12 to my left eager to christen his new pole, as i found a few nice Roach that took a fancy to the expanda's.
It was easy fishing for me, just a question of loose feeding a pouchfull of micros after every fish. The Roach eventually vanished but not before i'd managed to get about a dozen of them, with the largest weighing 1¼lbs.

Largest Roach....

The dissapearance of the Roach however, only meant that the Tench and Bream had returned.......... Well they had for me, Vince was having one of those nightmare sessions where no matter what he tried all he could do was watch me land fish after fish and pray that his own float would finally vanish.

A typical peg 11 Tench....

Vince finally got a Bream, but i'm afraid this only proved to be a stray that had somehow mistaken peg 12 for peg 11.
Meanwhile Mr Pheasant had come down to have a feed on my redundant sweetcorn...................................

The only real fly in the ointment was the fact that as the day progressed it was getting colder and colder.
Still the regular pouches of micros kept the fish coming for me, among them 1 small Mirror and and a Crucian Carp

By 3·30 however even my fish were reluctant to feed as it had got colder still, and poor Vince despite trying some of my corn and expanda's and different rigs couldn't buy a decent bite, so we decided to call it a day.
I finished up with 25 Bream to 4lbs, 11 Tench to 3lbs including 1 Goldie, a dozen Roach to 1¼lbs and a Common, a Mirror and a Crucian Carp.
As we were pulling out of the car park Vince told me "Your boys (CHELSEA) are losing 2-1 to Wolves" with a large grin on his face.
Well by the time I got home the final score was CHELSEA 5-2 WOLVES
Kind of sums up mine and Vince's day.

Well What a Weekend!!!!!

Saturday:

The Southern Intersite Match.

This has been pretty well detailed elsewhere, so I'll keep it brief.
I drew peg 72 on the big lake at Willow Park. You really need a good ripple on the surface, and the Culvert bank pegs were flat calm, so I knew it would be a grueller.

Looking across to the Bungalow bank from peg 72....

Pole at 12mtrs with the float at dead depth and dotted right down was the order of the day for a bag of small skimmers, roach and perch.
Onto the scales at the end for a weight of 11lbs 11ozs.
Only good enough for last in section.

11lbs 11ozs of hard earned fish......

Sunday:

Hawthorne AC club match.

Elphicks Fishery, Sandwich Lake.

Up at the crack of dawn again, and 19 of us met up for the draw, with peg 18 sticking to my hand, I have to say my heart sunk.
Peg 18 is in the far right hand corner as you look across from the car park bank, and Alan & Loz (who fished that peg on an MD's mini fish-in) will vouch for the fact that the average depth is about 18 inches.
Still got to make the most of it. I only set up 1 float rig for the pole fished dead depth (yes all 18 inches of it!) to fish pellet over pellet, with white hydro in the top kit, and I set up my feeder rod.(well I put it back in when i got home the previous night )

Looking over to the car park bank from peg 18....

Yet again flat calm conditions and warm sunshine turned it into hard work, but slowly I managed to get a few bites and put a few fish in the net.
Those that have fished it will tell you that Sandwich lake is a bit of an aquarium with such a wide range of species in it that you never really know what you're going to catch next.
Well by 1pm the pole line had dried up, so it was out with the groundbait feeder with hair rigged meat on the hook which managed to keep the fish coming till the end.
It was a real mixed bag that I took to the scales, Common & Mirror Carp, an ornamental Fantail, Crucians, Roach, Perch, Skimmers, Chub and green and golden Tench.
Nothing big, but they took the scales round to 35lbs 6 ozs, Good enough for 2nd on the day, and a nice way to end a busy weekend.

 

Maggotdrowning.com

 Day Out.

This all started out with Geoff asking me a couple of months ago to suggest a venue that he could visit on a free weekend.
As with all harmless requests it soon turned into a mini Fish-in, as when I suggested Elphicks, Geoff realised that he could tie it in with a visit to Mum in Hastings.
Wey Back (Mick) had just joined MD's and Geoff had established that they had fished in similar areas in the past,and Beebs (Steve) was soon roped in to join the party .
So a thread was posted on the "Fishing Talk" forum (For Wey Back or Beebs) and as these things are prone to do, it developed a life of it's own .
Soon NoFinPhish (Jason) had decided to accompany Beebs and Martin found himself available to have a crack at a new water. Alan P (Eastangler) then decided that it would be a nice day out for himself and his son Loz P. Newbie Dave the Fish liked the look of it as well and joined in, so we all decided to meet at 7am in the Car Park.

Geoff stayed at my place overnight, and we set off at 6am towards Elphicks.  6.30am and we have come to a grinding halt on the A21, and there we sat for the next 3 hours caught in a 5 mile tailback.

During all this chaos Dave the Fish managed to save a young lady's blushes by hastily erecting his brolly to shield her as nature called, and as she told us after "It was the most impressive 50 inches" she had ever seen . Meanwhile mobiles were ringing to find out where everyone was, or more correctly wasn't .

Well the Traffic finally moved and Geoff, Dave and I finally arrived, just in time to see Beebs landing a nice Carp of 13lbs weighed by Martin. Introductions were made and swims were picked and finally we were ready for the off. Due to the recent dry spell the lake was a good foot below it's normal level and all those that had chosen the far side platforms could find was about 18 inches of water. I took advantage of peg 11 being free and had about 3 feet on the pole line.

Sport it has to be said was far from hectic, but everyone was getting the odd 1 or 2 examples of the various species that inhabit the lake.
I had got off the mark with a Tench of about 3lbs and a few Rudd caught on an expander pellet. About noon Joe32 put in an appearance as agreed to collect some tackle that various members of the site have donated to help him get a youth project off the ground. This was taken as an excuse to adjourn to Sally's Reel Food Bar in the car park for another round of chat, tea's & burgers.

As with all these sort of days, fishing seems to take a back seat, but during the afternoon I managed to bring my total upto 12 Tench (6 green & 6 golden) with a few skimmers thrown in for good measure.

Meanwhile Geoff had got himself a nice Golden Orfe and was adding to his species count..........

Martin was coming to terms with a peg considerably shallower than he is used to on the drains,as was a pal of his (Reg) who had come down with Martin for the day.

Wey Back and Dave the Fish were engaged in various states of relaxation as this whole get-together thing with the Maggotdrowners was a first (but hopefully not the last) for them .........

Alan P and his son Loz were suffering with a definite lack of water in their swims and so moved onto the next Lake (Kettles) in the afternoon and things picked up a bit for them with Alan finally being able to christen his new pole. though young Loz took things easy as he was suffering a headache.

Beebs having had his generous gift for Uncle Geoff refused (A Welsh Baseball Cap ) split his time between the 2 lakes while Jason soldiered on.

All too soon it was time for me to leave so I made my way around and bid my farewells. As usual the fishing seemed to have come 2nd and in truth the lake didn't fish as well as it can, but it seemed as if everyone had enjoyed themselves, and Uncle Geoff even managed to add a Crucian to his tally as i bid him farewell.

Me? I had a blast, Thanks to all the lads that came down, Hope you all enjoyed yourselves, we must do it again sometime.

Well as Maria had to work late today I thought I'd grab the opportunity of a few hours down at Elphicks,and see if I could catch another couple of species for the Maggotdrowning.com Fishing Race.
I had a leisurely drive down and after stopping for brekkie arrived about 10am.
A quick chat with the lads in the onsite tackle shop confirmed my worst fears, as it hadn't been fishing well,and with heavy rain yesterday, and more showers promised for today + a falling barometer, things didn't look too promising .
I drove up to Sandwich lake and was greeted with a howling wind and the first of the many showers to come. Comfort being the order of the day I chose peg 11 as the wind would be at my back .

The plan of attack was to feed a few micro pellets and a pinch of damp pellet crumb + 3 grains of corn every put in, to the left of the concrete overflow at 9 mtrs in about 5 feet of water using a rig consisting of an 8 elastic and a Preston 4x14 durafloat shotted with a bulk of 10's on 0·10 to a 0·08 hooklength ending in a size 18 PR24 fishing a single grain of corn.
The three lads fishing the bank to my right were all on the feeder,but were only getting the odd small Roach.

Well it was a very slow start and after an hour without a bite I was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen, when all of a sudden the float slid away, Strike! NOTHING....... MISSED IT!!!!!!
Back out and 5 mins later it went again, This time I connected and was relieved to feel a pleasing resistance, and a minute or two later there in the net was a nice Bream of about 3lb.
After that I didn't look back as slowly but surely one after another came to the net in the course of the next 4 hours. The smallest was about 2lb while the largest may have scraped 4lbs.
All in all I had 28 of them.

A real nice session,given the conditions but the real icing on the cake was the 3 Tench that decided to add themselves to the mix.
Firstly this one at about 3lb spiced things up....................... 

but the last one was the clincher in an already good session, My 1st Goldie of the year ...........................

So there you have it........ 5 hours & 70lbs+ from what some may call a "Commercial Puddle". A decent days fishing, given the conditions.

Well back to Elphick's today for another go!  As I said in my previous report, today I would be accompanied by Fred
(one of only two founder members of our club,which is celebrating 40 seasons this year ). However a couple of phonecalls from him and we were joined by Peter W, Ron & Roy. Sandwich Lake was selected again (Remember....No Carp ).

Well what a difference two days makes  !!!! After yesterdays torrential rain down here in the SE, The level had risen 3 inches putting the platforms on the other side under water. A clear sky and a biting cold NW wind greeted us as we made our way to our pegs. As we tackled up the wind seemed to increase. It was obviously going to be awkward to say the least .

Here's the lineup (front-back) Me (taking the pic ) Fred, Pete W. Ron & Roy......

I had peg 10 again, but action was far from fast & furious. Corn & pellet both went untouched as the others started to connect with some nice Roach around the 6-8 oz mark .
After an hour a switch to maggot produced a series of lightning fast unhitable bites. However adding 3 inches to the depth of the rig to nail the bait down had the desired effect and I was soon rewarded with a nice skimmer of about a pound . Next put in and a bit more elastic comes out............ this was more like it , a nice Golden Tench weighing about 1½ pounds.

By now Ron & Roy had succumbed to the cold and forsaken their poles for the relative comfort of the feeder fished from behind their brollies. Fred & Pete W had come in close to try and sneak a few fish from the margins while I stuck it out at 11mtrs to pick up a dozen hard earned Roach and Rudd, the best of which might have just topped the pound!

Roy had managed 1 Bream on the feeder, but poor Ron was still struggling to prevent the dreaded blank. 
Fred was having trouble spotting bites in the choppy conditions and Pete W was still nicking the odd one from almost under his feet fishing caster. Me? I got another bar of gold about 2lbs this time

Towards the end bites dried up for everyone as the temperature continued to fall. We were all getting ready to call it a day as the cold started to creep into old joints   when down went my float and all of a sudden there was an awful lot of elastic heading for the other side of the lake.  Softly softly catchee monkey (or in this case fish ) and 9mins later (timed by Ron) the prize was in the net, A pristine Mirror Carp of exactly 10lbs..........

Did it count????? There aren't supposed to be any Carp in this lake. Of Course it did
Well that was all folks, a much harder day than Tuesday, but still some fish to be had, except for poor Ron...... Yes folks he had suffered the dreaded BLANK.

Well after my struggle at Mapledurham I Needed to catch a few fish to restore the old confidence. Looking out of the bedroom window at a grey leaden sky I wasn't in any great hurry to venture out, but then thought "Why Not" (It's nice when you have a week off and no decorating to do )

So after a leisurely breakfast it was of to Elphicks Fisheries, Horsmonden, in Kent. There are 6 lakes offering something for everyone, but the one that I was interested in is the fourth lake on the complex called The Sandwich. This lake holds virtually everything with one exception...... No Carp!!!!!!!!! The Sandwich is about 1.2 acres with a small island in the middle,and arriving there I had the whole lake to myself .

I picked swim 10 as it holds the only obvious feature (an overflow stack) on the lake apart from the island.

It's a comfortable 11mtrs to the stack, and from previous experience i knew that there is an even 4ft of water covering an area about the size of a table tennis table there.
Now knowing that there's a good head of fish present I went for a positive approach and put in 4 large pouches of 2mm pellets and 2 of casters and went straight out with a soft pellet fished 2 inches overdepth.
30 seconds later and the float slid away and I missed my first bite
Try a caster, float slides away, a gentle lift and Bingo a fin perfect Roach of about 8ozs gets me off the mark, and for the next hour I catch one a chuck, feeding a small pinch of pellet or caster in a kinder pot every time. The best of which I weighed at 1lb 2ozs . Then all of a sudden they appeared to switch off???

Well I'd already caught about 25lbs so decided to attack it again, 3 more large pouches of pellet and another of caster and back out with a soft pellet.
Nothing........... keep lifting the bait about a foot and let it drop, then after about 20mins the float lifted of it's own accord, I lifted into it and ohhhhhh  this was a bit better, a nice Bream of about 3lbs .
And so it continued for the rest of the afternoon, I had 27 Bream in total, the best one I weighed at 4lbs 12ozs, Mixed in among them was 1 Tench and 5 Carp???????? (obviously they didn't realise that they shouldn't be there) .

Some time ago Gray Catchpole put a photo in one of his posts showing a Golden Tench that he'd caught. Trev phoned me enthusing in his usual fashion, that he would love to catch one as it was such a glorious fish. Alas it was not to be as he didn't make it to the Welsh fish-in at Hazel Court (the venue where Gray caught his).

My last fish of the session, Need you ask? This one's for you Trev ......

So a great day, with confidence fully restored, In fact I enjoyed myself so much I'm going back on Thursday for another go, only this time I'm taking our club chairman Fred (He's one of only two remaining founder members of our club from 40 years ago) I'll let you know how we get on .

Down to Elphicks Fisheries at Horsmonden in Kent for a pleasure session today.
My brother in law Chris had phoned me during the week saying he wanted to take his 7 year old Fraser fishing. "Nothing too hard and plenty of bites please."

There are five lakes to choose from at Elphick's and after a chat with the bailiff in the lodge while we purchased our day tickets it was off down to Sandwich Lake (plenty of fish,and not a Carp in sight ).

Chris and Fraser both set up Wagglers on peg 9, while I set up the pole on peg 10. Chris was struggling a bit with trying to fish himself and keep an eye on Fraser as the wind was quite strong, but Fraser was soon into his first ever Chub ...............

 It doesn't have to be big to be beautiful.