Elphick’s Fishery. Kettle’s Lake. March 11th, 2006.

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 for this session that we had arranged to knock the cobwebs off of our gear. 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 existent 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.

Elphick’s Fishery. Sandwich Lake. October 22nd, 2005.

Over several sessions fishing with a good friend of mine, Andy (The Hat) Spreadbury, it had come to light that he had never caught a Golden Tench. Indeed even when Andy has fished the next peg to me, I’ve caught them while they’ve managed to avoid Andy. Over the course of time it’s got to the stage where Andy’s catchphrase had become “Don’t mention GOLDIES“
Last week I sent him a Private Message on the Maggotdrowning forum asking if he fancied breaking his duck so to speak and finally catch one, to which he replied that of course he did, and like a mug I had virtually promised that it could be achieved from Sandwich Lake at Elphicks as I had never failed to catch at least a couple whenever I fished there.

So there I was standing on the steps of the fishery lodge at 8am when Andy arrived. Into the lodge to purchase our day tickets, and just looking at his face you could tell that Andy was up for it.

Up to the lake and the overflow swim was vacant, so I allowed Andy to have it, especially as he’d received a PM from someone who will remain nameless telling him to make sure he got it. I set up in the next swim to the left as the banter started to flow while we got ready.

The approach was simple, 11mtrs at dead depth feeding and fishing pellet, with a pouch of pellet every put-in.

Out I shipped and the float buried and after a brief fight the 1st fish of the day was safely in my landing net……………….
Andy’s face was a picture to say the least, and he went into full Victor Meldrew mode with a “I don’t believe it” well that’s all that was suitable for publication.

During the morning a few fish started to come for both of us and while I managed another 3 GOLDIES along with some Skimmers, all that Andy could manage were the resident Skimmers that think they’re Trout, leaping clear of the water whenever they’re hooked.

By 12 I was beginning to wonder if Andy was going to achieve his goal, but at 12·30 his elastic streamed out with something that obviously wasn’t a Skimmer. At the same time my float slid away and I was in as well, we both netted our fish at the same time, A GOLDIE for me and a GOLDIE for Andy.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!

The afternoon saw Andy fishing with renewed vigour, but another Goldie was not to be, a couple more Tench raised his hopes, only to turn Green as they saw the landing net, though I did manage another 3 bringing my total to 8.

During the afternoon a family of Swans payed us a visit, A particularly stroppy Cob with his Hen and 4 Cygnets, that weren’t far of being fully fledged.

As they worked their way round the lake, a couple of anglers noticed some line trailing from 1 of the Cygnets, but they couldn’t get close enough to remove it.

Meanwhile a few more fish were added between us, more of a variety, with some small stockie Carp, a Grassie for me and a Crucian for Andy amongst the ever present Skimmers, but they were fun to catch as they averaged out at about 2lbs a piece.

About 5pm I noticed that the Swans had moved to the next lake, but one of the Cygnets was missing, However Andy noticed it limping into the lake, and it swam across to our bank. I took some sweetcorn and sprinkled it on the bank and stood back.
Soon it found the corn and as it was tucking in I walked up behind it.
I was gobsmacked to see about 3ft of carp rig trailing behind it.
I placed my foot on the line, but it must have felt it and tried to waddle off. I knew it was now or never and managed to rugby tackle it and get it’s wings folded in. Looking up to Andy for some assistance I noticed him taking a photo of proceedings

When he came over we were both horrified to see that there was a large barbed hook embedded in it’s foot, Here’s the rig, Not the best of photo’s I’m afraid but the rig consisted of a size 8 barbed hook attached to heavy braid to a swivel,3ft of heavy clear leader (30lbs B.S.+ at a conservative estimate) spliced into about 8 inches of snakeskin or something similar.
Now whoever made that rig up knew full well what they were doing and decided to use a barbed hook despite them being banned on the fishery. The Cygnet wasn’t fully fledged, so hadn’t flown to another water to pick the rig up.

The whole time we were there no fishery staff came round to do a rig check so in my eyes are just as culpable as the angler that ignored the rule, but still doesn’t excuse it in the 1st place.

Surely if fisheries are going to put these rules in place, they should enforce them, and ban anglers that are found to be knowingly breaking them.

Luckily Andy had a pair of side cutters and we managed to cut the hook and remove the barbed point as it had come through.
Just in the nick of time as a very angry Cob came stamping and hissing up the bank. Off went the Cygnet to re-join it’s family apparently none the worse and it was soon feeding on our leftover pellets and corn as we called it a day.

So the day ended with plenty of fish caught, Andy got his GOLDIE and hopefully the young Cygnet is none the worse for it’s ordeal.
 

Elphick’s Fishery. Sandwich Lake. March 27th, 2004.

Well Maria 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. Vince had arranged to join me for the day to try out his new pole, so a bit of banter was bound to be on the cards.

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 pouch 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 just over a pound.

Largest Roach….
The disappearance 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 to christen his new pole, 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 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.

Willow Park Fishery Big Lake and Elphicks Fishery Sandwich Lake. September 13th-14th, 2003.

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. 

Elphick’s Fishery. Sandwich Lake. April 26th, 2003.

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 to 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.