Well with Maria having to work today I’d taken the opportunity to pop down to Monk Lakes to fish Bridges Lake. Vince popped down a couple of weeks ago and had a real Red Letter Day, and Bill G went on Bank Holiday Monday and also had a memorable day. Bill was going to join Vince and I today but unfortunately his wife was taken ill forcing him to cancel.
So after dropping Maria off at work I popped back home and loaded the tackle up and with the sun shining from a blue sky set off. As I passed Brands Hatch however, the sun vanished behind clouds and by the time I pulled into the fishery car park it was dull, grey and windy. As I paid for my day ticket in the shop I received a voice-mail from Vince telling me he was down by the lake and had already sorted two swims on the first island on the right hand side.
After carting the gear over Vince settled into the swim to the right, leaving me with the one facing out into the main body of the lake with the wind blowing from my right. It transpired that Vince’s swim was the one that he’d had his good session on a couple of Tuesdays previously !!! was I about to get ‘Goulded’ ????
As we set up Keith(Disco)Driscoll and Steve(rookery54)Allen appeared, they were here to fish the Pads Army Charity Match and after a brief chat they set off for their draw. Vince was soon set up as he had all his rigs from his previous session on winders.
I started plumbing up with a pole rig and was a little dismayed to find nothing more than a couple of feet of depth wherever I looked, so back into the holdall and out with the waggler rod that was already rigged up with a 4AAA peacock insert waggler finished of with a size 18 Drennan Match Carp hook at the business end, and a few casts around found a nice consistent 4ft. Bait wise I’d just brought 6mm pellets for feed and some 8mm’s to band as hook bait with some corn for a change bait.
A couple of pouches of pellet were fired out to about 20 mtrs followed by the float which soon buried, the strike met with a pleasing resistance and I was soon putting the net under the culprit, a nice fit Barbel of 2½lbs.
A steady run of fish started to come to both Vince and I, with a few of the resident Chub mixed in with the Tench and Skimmers, well I call them Skimmers because they were silver coloured, but they were decent plump fish weighing between 2 and 3 pounds which are serious weight builders. I also managed my first Golden Tench of the year, always a nice colourful addition to the day ………
………… and it was soon followed by a second ………
By 12 o’clock the wind had blown the clouds away and we had glorious sunshine, though the wind continued to make things difficult setting up an awkward tow on the lake, forcing me to lay about 6″ of line on the deck and adjust the shotting to hold the float in place. I’d had a look on the feeder to see if that was a better option, but with it only producing a solitary Skimmer it was soon discarded.
Vince appeared to be having similar problems with the tow and with the wind full in his face started to struggle a bit as his catch rate seemed to start dropping off. My next fish was a little more weighty however as one of the lakes proper Bream put in an appearance, a nice slab that rolled the scales over to 5½lbs ………
One of the things about Monk Lakes is that with 7 lakes and a stretch of the River Beult it hosts a profusion of water fowl and throughout the day a family of Great Crested Grebe’s were hovering around the edge of my swim …………
Vince had one of those “See You Later” moments as he hooked into something that set of like a torpedo and didn’t stop, so strolled over for a chat to see how I was getting on, and just in time to do the honours with my camera as another proper bream hit the net, a shade larger than the previous one at around 6lbs……
Which was soon followed by an immaculate Common Carp of around 6lbs………
Meanwhile I had a visit from “Mother Mallard” and her brood which curtailed my fishing for a little while as I didn’t want to risk striking and launching one of the ducklings skywards ………
A little while later Vince received a phone call from his Brother meaning he had to leave as he’d brought round a floor sander for him to use, not without him getting one final fish though, but try as he might it was not to be ……
……… as his float steadfastly refused to go under …………
My next Bream proved to be my best of the day weighing 6½lbs, to give you some idea of the size, the net in the photo is a 30″ pan net, and the fish is just about as long as the net is wide ……………………
Vince bade me farewell at 3·15 pm, while I fished on for another hour, with another 6 proper un’s mixed in with a few Tench and Chub, to finish the session with 57 fish that must have easily gone 100lbs+, a really nice days fishing by any standards.
As I packed away Keith and Steve reappeared for a chat having finished their match. I subsequently heard that poor Keith had managed to break his no 6 section of his pole again when the wind blew it while packing up, so no wonder he didn’t mention it at the time !!!!!
So that was it for another day, Thanks to Vince for his company on the day. Next Up it’s the Marsh AC match at Pea Lane (Thanks to Steve Allen for some info on the venue) next Saturday, and as usual a report will be forthcoming here.
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