Monk Lakes - Bridges Lake - 7th April 2009

Well what a day !!

I asked last night online for some suggestions as to where I should fish today. The only person to reply was BillG who said I should go to Monk Lakes and have a bash at the Bream in Bridges Lake. So after taking the mother in law to the hospital for an appointment I packed the car and headed off to the fishery. I arrived around 1pm, paid for my ticket and drove round looking for a comfortable peg to fish. Whilst the sky was quite clear with some bright blue patches there was a steady breeze blowing which made the temperature feel much colder.

I settled on a peg on the end the 2nd island, on the right hand bank, which meant the wind was off my back. As you can see it was an easy chuck to the island so I started on the feeder baited with double hair rigged corn. Before casting I baited the pole line at 8 metres with 2 large pot fulls of 3mm skrettings pellets and a few grains of corn in readiness for later.First cast on the feeder the tip wrapped round and a bream of about 2lbs was soon netted.

Soon afterwards his brother was on his way to join me.

I baited again, this time with 3 grains of corn and soon after I had another wrap round. This time I just had to hang on, the clutch screamed and what appeared to be a huge carp tried it's best to get round the back of the island. Unfortunately I had to tighten down to try and stop it and then everything went slack, the hook had pulled. I suspect it was one of the larger residents of the lake, they run to over 30lbs in Bridges.All the time the pole line was fizzing like crazy so I put the feeder rod behind me and dropped in with a grain of hair rigged corn for bait. Immediately the float buried and Bream of around 3lbs came to the net. The next 2 hours continued like this with bream after bream finding a liking for the corn. After the two hours I'd caught 27 of them, all 'peas in a pod' weighing about 2lbs. By now the wind had change direction and I was really feeling the cold so I took the opportunity to get my coat from the car and visit the loo. Before leaving I potted in another couple of pots of pellet.Suitably refreshed I shipped back out and waited. this time it took a bit longer for a bite but when it came the strike was met with with something altogether different. The 12 elastic streamed from the pole and the fight was nothing like before. After a minute or so I slid a barbel of around 3lbs in to the net. It was in immaculate condition and fought like crazy.

Next put in and the float buried again. This time it felt completely different again and very soon this was sitting in the bottom of the landing net.

It seemed the change of wind direction has brought in a different range of fish and the bream and all but dissapeared. For the next hour all I could catch was tench or barbel, almost all the tench being the golden variety with exception of one.

For some reason things changed again with the next ten fish all being bream of about 2lbs.After a few more golden tench I baited again with two more pots of pellet. This had the effect of bringing in some better fish, firstly a decent golden tench,

and then a real elastic stretcher, this barbel which just didn't want to give up.

I carried on for another hour and a half and continued catching well before it completely died. I couldn't buy a bite and was getting a little puzzled, then I found out the reason, the carp had woken up and pushed everything else out.This was the first and smallest of 3 that I caught, all on the pole, this one went 8lbs 6ozs

Unfortunately the camera died after this pic, guess which pillock didn't charge the batteries last night I carried on for another hour catching a few more smaller carp before hitting in to what what turned out to be the biggest of the day. A 19lb 4oz beauty that really tested my Maver 101 pole to the limit. The guy in the next peg had a camera so took a couple of pic's which he said he would e/mail to me so when they arrive I'll post them here. I decided this was a good time to pack up so I chucked the feeder out onto the pole line while I cleared everything away. Having almost got everthing sorted the tip slammed round and the reel churned and there was obviously something substantial on the end. After a few minutes i slid another lovely looking mirror in to the net, this time it weighed 11lbs 12ozs. Again the guy in the next peg came and took a couple of photo's before going back to his peg, no doubt cursing my luck as he'd been there all day fishing with boilies and hadn't had a touch.

My final tally for the day was:

2 Green Tench,

14 Golden Tench,

37 Bream,

11 Barbel,

and 2 Mirror Carp.

At a rough guess I must have had somewhere in the region of 200lbs of fish, all in pristine condition. They really are a credit to the fishery management.

My next day out is a match on Good Friday at Hawkhurst Fishery with the Maggotdrowners, I hope I catch a similar weight, but this time they will almost all be Carp.