Angling-Adventures.co.uk

Well after a long winter we decided to venture back out to the lakes and get some lines wet. After a long discussion we decided that Orchard Place Farm was going to be the first victim to our adventures of 2010!. We arranged for Ricks Friend, Andy from Wales (aka Gayboy) to come along (what a drive he had to go fishing. Hardcore carper id say) and also Mike or Old Codger. Me and Paul met Andy at Maidstone services on the tuesday morning about 10am, a hour late due to the fact we had to stop for some supplies like breakfast at morrisons, a crate of beer, bottle of brandy etc etc. We arranged to meet Andy at Maidstone services due to the face that even with sat nav the lakes can be hard to find. Once we all met up we continued out to the lakes. By about 10.30 we pulled into the car park top be greated by 3 new lakes. These lakes are not ready for fishing as they have only been dug recently, the lakes have stock in them already with more going in on a regular basis. I have heard from a source that there is alot of 30's and some 40's in the lakes already. From what I understand out of the 3 new lakes, 2 are match lakes and one is a big carp lake.

we didnt bother to walk around the new lakes because it looked quite muddy and we could see the digger working at the end of one of the lakes. We decided instead to go straight to established lakes. Normally  we would drive around the lakes however, due to the recent bad weather the gate had been locked so it was a case of using the barrow to get all the gear around to our chosen swims. We all had a walk around the lake, we was supprised to see only 2 other anglers on the lake. We decided to fish the far bank of the lake 4. Lake 4 has had a few changes since the last time we fished it. 2 swims have been removed which means it is limited to just 8 anglers which I think is a good choice. 10 anglers on that lake would be too much i feel. 

We all decided as to where we wanted to fish (with the exception of Mike because he was due to arrive the following day)

I fished the red spots on the above image, Paul fished the blue spots, Mike when he arrived fished the purple spots, and Andy fished the black spots.

Once we had carried all our gear to where we wanted to fish a cup of tea was in order, so Paul put the kettle on (hes a good lad) whilst me and Andy went and started to set up. Whilst i was putting my bivvy up a string of profainties rung out from Andy. The ultimate tackle tart was not happy about something. He came stropping over still swearing and cussing. He explained that one of his rods had broken. Right between the top eye and the one below it. That was the start of his bad luck, the top section of a Century NSC is not going to be cheap to replace. Still like a true Carper (if its fair to call him that. He lacks alot of experience in Carp fishing so he was treating our little trip as a educational to learn new things and to hone others).  He continued to set his gear up. He gear consists of 2 (was 3) Century NSC rods, 3 Daiwa Basia reels, Solar Worldwide pod, JRC Quad bivvy and Delkim alarms, as i said he is the ultimate tackle tart. He was the first to get some baits out into the water. His chosen baits were, Mainline Fusion Boilies and Halibut pellet, Paul was the next to get some bait into the water. This was in the form of a spod. In his mix was Tares, Hemp, Crushed tiger nuts, sweetcorn and some Mojo groundbait I think. Only a couple of spods due to the cold weather were actually sent out. I also put 2 spods out over the corner of the Island. I had Hemp, Tares and parti blend in my mix. My main baits were Mainline Active 8 boilies, Mainline Pro-active Pineapple and Premier Baits Matrix boilies. I was about to put my rods out when another string of profanities was coming over from Andy. I could see his bait boat just sitting there bobbing around in the lake doing not a great deal. It had lost signal so he waited for it drift in to the side so he can recover it. A little testing later we found that for some reason after about 30 foot out it just loses signal for no reason (his day was going well so far). So a little laughing at his bad luck later I finally got some rods out in the water.

Mid-afternoon the owner came around for one of their regular walk abouts. A short discussion later we discovered that fishing has been hard with only a handful of fish coming out recently. Still we thought we might managed to get one or two on the bank but we didnt have high expectations. Just after she went back down to the other lakes Mike turned up. Now he wasn't coming on the Tuesday as it was his wifes birthday. I asked what he was doing there and he said it was simple, A soppy card and a fistful of shopping vouchers later he was out of the door. Being the gentlemen we all are we decided to sit there and watch Mike dragging his gear around the lake. Now mike has a medical condition which is a bit like Asthma, just more severe so really we should of gone and help him but we know he likes to push himself and dont like asking for help.... so we left him to it.

Mid afternoon I heard Paul shouting about someone being a spawny git so i stuck my head around my bivvy door to see his rod bent over and he was into a fish. A nice fully scaled mirror Carp was soon sat in the landing net. Whats spawny about that i thought then i saw the hook. He had hooked it through the tail as the rig hit the water.

As the day progressed into the evening it was time to get some food on the go. Stir Fry beef was on the menu (check out our new menu section). Paul was getting alot of beeps on his baits. The Green beast by DT Baits seemed to be getting the most action however, all the proper runs and fish were falling to DT Baits Oily chicken boilies (A Top boilie, nice and moist, smelly and tastes sort of like OXO)

Next into a fish was Mike, a chunk of salami in the margin brought him the sturgeon. This is the smaller of the 2 sturgeon and weighed in at 16lb 10oz. When i caught it last year it was around 14lb, the bigger one is around 22lb (21lb when i caught it last year)

Then I was into a fish. A screaming run from next to the island on one of Pauls Oily chicken boilies i stole. a near leather carp of 17lb 9. This mirror had the prettiest starburst scale pattern on the tail wrist.

Poor Andy was still struggling for a fish. I stole some more of Pauls boilies to try and get him on a fish but all he was getting was the odd beep. The only 2 runs he did have he missed completly. As the day progressed into the evening it was time to get the wok on again and get some food on the go. Chillie con Carne was on the menu which I quickly cooked up. As we sat there eating our dinner and having a laugh Andys rod started to beep again. By the time he managed to drag his ass over to his rods the fish had all but gone. This led to another string of profanities from his foul mouth.  That was the only action to be had that night and following morning until a hour before it was home time. Finally Andys rod went screaming off and he actually managed to get the hook to hold. The carp was a fully mirrored beauty, the fish fell to a Fusion boilie with a small bag of crushed offerings.

This was the end of the action for our couple of days until we was packing up and Andy had his last rod laying on the ground. Just as he was packing is other rod away his reel sprung to life and the braid was being peeled off the spool. Andy hit it and connected to what appeared to be a large mirror Carp. As he was bringing the fish to the net inexperience kicked in and he pulled the hook. If he was fishing with mono he would of problerbly landed that fish because of the mono being more forgiving. If you think that fishing with braid is the same as fishing with mono you are going to be in for a shock. Braid is nearly zero stretch and will not forgive you at the slightest. You also need to ensure you use a mono leader or at least 3 foot of rig tubing down the buisness end to protect the fish from cuts if it rolls up in your line.

If you do decided to go and give the fish at Orchard Place Farm fishery. Dont forget to tell the owner you found it on here!