How did you get on?

[Alan Whitty]

Been back to the crucian lake today, armed with a small bottle of wine, so a toast was offered, fished bread like Thursday, just two net skimmers and seven smaller versions, at about 11.30am I decided to have a go on punched meat feeding micros and 4mm pellet, talk about chalk and cheese, had 9 decent bream, 2 about 2lb 8ozs, the other 7 were from 3lbs 8ozs to 5lbs odd, two tench over 3lbs....very enjoyable apart from the icy wind that came from every direction possible...

 

[Ray Roberts]

I fished a lake that I took my grandchildren to in the summer. The car park is in a country park and you can’t get in until they open the barrier. So I loaded my car and headed for my local cafe, fed and watered, I headed for the lake, which is near Tonbridge. It’s got a few odd rules. Float fishing only, no alarms, no boilies, etc. I had some pre mixed groundbait that I had left from a previous trip and a variety of baits. I was surprised to hear voices from the lake as when I booked the previous night I was the only one. Two blokes were already fishing, thankfully not fishing the swim I fancied. If they wanted to chat, surely sitting next to each other would be a sensible option, but no, they sat on opposite sides of the lake and didn’t shut up until they left at around three. I fished a FreeSririt float rod and my favourite Shimano Twin Power reel. I usually do well here and twenty to thirty decent fish in a day isn’t uncommon. It was a lovely sunny day but an east wind added a bit of wind chill. I tested the water temp and air temp and both were 15c. A woodpecker was hammering away for most of the day. And some blossom was showing on some of the bushes. Mid afternoon a grass snake made its way across the lake towards me. It was one of the largest grass snakes I’ve seen. I pulled my landing net out of the water as I didn’t want the agro involved in extricating it from the mesh, as I had to do with one last year. When it reached my swim it came out slightly through a hole in the vegetation, had a look about and returned to the lake. I thought it was early in the year to see one. I ended up with four carp and five roach, obviously all on the float. No great size but the carp fought well. It’s funny but years ago if you had over 20 lb of fish on a day they weren’t feeding very well, you would have been made up, lol. I got back to the car and the battery was dead, great. The car park closes at a set time and if your car is in there they lock it in. The RAC came up trumps and after I explained my predicament had a van there with half an hour to spare. The RAC man diagnosed a dead cell and luckily had a new battery on board his van and saved the day. I was away with 15 minutes to spare. Brilliant service.

 

[@Clive]

Never mind the fish - look at that bokeh!

 

[ian g]

Eventful day Ray , can't be doing with chatty buggers

 

[Ray Roberts]

Eventful day Ray , can't be doing with chatty buggers

They were incessant, they stopped for a chat on their way out and were nice enough but,,,,,,,,,,,,