I trundled down the M25 to Tanyards Fishery in Uckfield, a lovely, idylic day ticket water fishery where you can really hone in your skills on the many lakes on the complex.
The day didn't start the best as it took me double the time to get there as the M25 was being the M25 as per usual which kinda gave me time to decide what I was going to do for that day.
Once there I went on to Course Pool 2. It can be heavily fished so tactics were important. There are some features to the right i.e. lily pads and in front of me a bank of reeds.
After watching the lake for some time and talking to a few of the locals, I gathered that the back island was very shallow, about 3ft, I also noticed there were a few decent sized Carp splashing about at the back feature so I decided to plonk a ledgering rod there as I knew they were high in the water. I stuck a 2.5ft zig rig out with a pop up (Munch Baits 'The Compound').
Now for rod two. I could see that although the lilies to the right of me looked good, I could see no movement at all and the only other place that looked okay was straight in front of me about 20 feet so I decided to get the 'ole float rod out and method feed. I was using simple pellet with a cut down (Munch Baits 'PH1' boilie).
I was feeding my method feeder every few minutes with pellet, just topping the swim up with boilies and pellet and within 10 minutes, my rod went. It was a lovely Carp, only a small one, I didn't weigh him but I'd say about 6lb. I continued this tactic throughout the day catching another 5 on PH1.
In the meantime, rod number 1 had been in different spots all day and nothing. I also noticed that the only other people that were catching were two old blokes to the right of me (my Dad and hes mate Steve ;-)) but I've nicknamed them two the 'Bream Boys' as it was one after the other (#slimeynet). My Dad did have the odd Carp, which I noticed were coming from where I'd had the method feeder so I dragged the ledger into the same spot, changing over to a bottom bait.
There was a lull period of a few hours where there was nothing coming out, no signs, nothing. Afternoon siesta probably and as the mid afternoon approached we decided we were going to go home.
But...
'Beep beeeeeeeep', the ledgering rod finally came good and raced off. I have to be honest this little bullet gave me a right run around and took me a good ten minutes to bring him in. He wasn't massive but was a great little fight. We did weigh him and he came in at 15lb 6 (caught on Munch Baits 'The Compound').
I'm not sure if my tactics were spot on or not to be honest.
It obviously was better in closer and the method feeder was a lot easier for judging the bites and, to be honest, it's a lot more fun than just sitting behind a rod for hours doing nothing but one thing I do know is method feeding is underrated and I will be using it more often.
And for a little 6 hour session cant all be bad 6 carp
The bait I was using did give me an edge I have to say, although my Dad did have Carp, his Carp were smaller and he was getting infested with bream whereas I only seemed to have Carp and of notably bigger sizes.
Onwards and upwards..I've a week booked off at the end of September. Hmmm where shall i go? (Deep movie voice) Coming to a day fishery near you!
The day didn't start the best as it took me double the time to get there as the M25 was being the M25 as per usual which kinda gave me time to decide what I was going to do for that day.
Once there I went on to Course Pool 2. It can be heavily fished so tactics were important. There are some features to the right i.e. lily pads and in front of me a bank of reeds.
After watching the lake for some time and talking to a few of the locals, I gathered that the back island was very shallow, about 3ft, I also noticed there were a few decent sized Carp splashing about at the back feature so I decided to plonk a ledgering rod there as I knew they were high in the water. I stuck a 2.5ft zig rig out with a pop up (Munch Baits 'The Compound').
Now for rod two. I could see that although the lilies to the right of me looked good, I could see no movement at all and the only other place that looked okay was straight in front of me about 20 feet so I decided to get the 'ole float rod out and method feed. I was using simple pellet with a cut down (Munch Baits 'PH1' boilie).
I was feeding my method feeder every few minutes with pellet, just topping the swim up with boilies and pellet and within 10 minutes, my rod went. It was a lovely Carp, only a small one, I didn't weigh him but I'd say about 6lb. I continued this tactic throughout the day catching another 5 on PH1.
In the meantime, rod number 1 had been in different spots all day and nothing. I also noticed that the only other people that were catching were two old blokes to the right of me (my Dad and hes mate Steve ;-)) but I've nicknamed them two the 'Bream Boys' as it was one after the other (#slimeynet). My Dad did have the odd Carp, which I noticed were coming from where I'd had the method feeder so I dragged the ledger into the same spot, changing over to a bottom bait.
There was a lull period of a few hours where there was nothing coming out, no signs, nothing. Afternoon siesta probably and as the mid afternoon approached we decided we were going to go home.
But...
'Beep beeeeeeeep', the ledgering rod finally came good and raced off. I have to be honest this little bullet gave me a right run around and took me a good ten minutes to bring him in. He wasn't massive but was a great little fight. We did weigh him and he came in at 15lb 6 (caught on Munch Baits 'The Compound').
I'm not sure if my tactics were spot on or not to be honest.
It obviously was better in closer and the method feeder was a lot easier for judging the bites and, to be honest, it's a lot more fun than just sitting behind a rod for hours doing nothing but one thing I do know is method feeding is underrated and I will be using it more often.
And for a little 6 hour session cant all be bad 6 carp
The bait I was using did give me an edge I have to say, although my Dad did have Carp, his Carp were smaller and he was getting infested with bream whereas I only seemed to have Carp and of notably bigger sizes.
Onwards and upwards..I've a week booked off at the end of September. Hmmm where shall i go? (Deep movie voice) Coming to a day fishery near you!
