Decided to brace the weather and go wet a line and catch a few Bream, and any thing else that might come along today. I set off at about 8.00am and headed for Elphicks Fishery in Horsmonden, Kent. I arrived at the fishery and chose to fish Sandwich Lake which is the smallest lake on the complex and is regularly used for matches it contains mixed species including a decent head of Bream, the lake is square in shape and features a decent sized central island. As the wind was really strong I chose to fish the right hand bank with the wind over my shoulder which would also aid me if I decided to chuck a feeder to the island, I took all my gear to my peg and weighed up my options, since the wind was really strong I chose to just set up my 11ft 6 Bream rod which I would use to fish a small feeder to the island shelf which was a fair chuck made harder by the changing wind.

My set up for the day was my 11ft 6 rod coupled with a 2500 series shimano reel loaded with 6lb main line, I chose to use a small Garbolino method feeder, fished in-line with a korum quick change bead, and a 5lb Fox micron hook-link of about 5 inches which onto I tied a Preston PR36 size 14 hook using the knotless knot, making it a hair rig setup.  I decided to fish the method feeder; the main reasons for this are 1) the fish in this lake respond well to this approach & 2) It enables me to present the hook bait inside the ball of feed, or just away from it, depending on how bites dictate.  My bait choice for today was 2mm Sonu baits Fin perfect feed pellets, fished in conjunction with Sonu’s new paste pellets in the bacon grill flavour and some yellow sweetcorn as hook baits. To allow the feed pellets to bind to the feeders frame work I cover the pellets in water and allow them to soak until the water has completely gone; I then dust all the pellets with my secret Additive and they are ready to go. I test the consistency of the pellets is right by squeezing some pellets onto the feeder and gentle tapping it, if the pellets do fall off with ease, then they are too dry so I would then add more water until they withstand this test.

Right onto the fishing. I loaded the feeder and baited the hook with 3 pieces of sweetcorn on the hair, and cast to the island which wasn’t to easy with the wind but I managed to get up to the bottom of the island shelf, which is about 2-4 ft from the bank, this is usually a good location as the Bream feed at the bottom of this shelf, as when people fish tight to the island some of the bait rolls down the slop and settles the base of the shelf. Within 60 seconds of the feeder hitting the bottom, indications where already showing on the tip followed shortly by a sharp pull-round (unlike a Bream bite) the fish came towards me quite easily until a few feet from the bank, then it came a live and my thoughts where confirmed, I had hooked a Carp. After a couple of minutes I landed a pristine mirror carp of about 3lb, which I was happy with but I still wanted to catch a few Bream; I re-baited and cast out again, after a minute or so again tip flew round and I had hooked another fish which yep you guessed it another carp! This time a mirror, obliviously I had a swim with several feeding carp in it which where keeping the Bream off my feed.

After several more Carp it went quiet. I re-baited again but this time with one of the new Sonu Paste pellets; these are a new idea from Sonu Baits and are unlike anything currently available from bait companies, they are a pellet made of soft paste and come in 3 flavours Bacon grill, fishmeal and halibut they are about 8mm in size so ideal for the feeder, being made of paste they can be reshaped or moulded around another bait; so with the new bait on the hair I cast out into the strong wind again, within 10 seconds I was getting several Sharpe taps on the tip which I decided to hit, I struck and began to reel in the hooked fish which this time didn’t feel like a Carp and I was right it was a lovely clean Chub of about a 1lb which must have hit the bait on its descent to the lake bed. I cast out again this time I had another chub so I added a piece of corn to the paste pellet hook bait this time and re-cast after a couple of minutes the tip swung round again and I struck after a quick battle a massive F1 (3lb+) carp which was loaded with spawn hit the net, the Carp where back I continued to catch a mixture of mirrors/commons/F1 carp by casting up and down the shelf until about 1.30pm in the afternoon when finally I hooked into something different this was a lovely slow arching of the quiver tip which I hit, ‘’yes’’ I said to myself as the fish came to the surface ‘’it’s a Bream’’  I had finally caught what I originally came for the next cast was meet with another Bream taking the bait.

Since the day was starting to fade and the weather got worse, I decided to see if the Carp which I had been catching were laying in the shallow water tight to the island, I cast out tight to the island this time with double corn and paste pellet combo (sandwich style setup) the feeder had hardly been in the water 10 seconds and the rod came flying out of it’s rest I grabbed the rod and pulled into the fish, a tough scrap followed but ended after a few minutes with a fin perfect common of about 6lb. I was right the t Carp were also feeding in the shallow water I continued to fish the shallow shelf around the island I continued to take several more carp and Chub from the swim before it died again.

Since the swim had switched off again I thought time for a bait change so I delved into by bait bag and grabbed a packet of the new Sonu Baits S pellets in Green lip mussel and crab flavour in 8 mm form, I hair rigged one of the baits straight on and chucked the feeder back out after a few minutes I had no indications so I cast again, but this time to the bottom of the island shelf and within a few minutes the tip went round and I had another nice 5+lb carp on the bank which was followed by another and another. I had found the Carp again and was catching well on the new Green lipped mussel and crab pellets. In the next few casts I started to have the odd better fish which where in the 5lb bracket the pellets where clearly starting to sort out the bigger fish, I went on to have a few more better sized fish until the smaller sized Carp returned so again I switched baits I decided to go back on the paste pellets tipped with corn.

I decided to switch back to the Paste pellet and corn combo, but this time I decided to cast out of my baited area by a few feet to see if any bigger fish were sitting just of the main feed area, my assumptions where correct straight away I caught Carp to 3lb.         I continued to fish just off the main baited area but alternating from one side to the other of the baited area; after a couple more casts I had a thumping bite which I struck into to be meet only by solid resistance  followed shortly by a fish wanting to take line, keeping the rod low I began to take line back from the fish only to have it taken back which I had to give as I was only fishing with a 5lb low diameter hook length and this fish was clearly larger than that, over the next few minutes this tussle carried on but eventually I got the fish to netting distance, at last I got the fishes head up and I was chuffed a lovely looking mirror scraping double figures graced my net after a quick picture I returned her to her home. I carried on for another half hour taking a few more carp I decided to pack up as I was now knackered by the work out I had endured during my day which started as a days Bream fishing but turned into a Carp bagging session never mind I still really enjoyed it.

To conclude I really enjoyed the day considering the crap conditions and managed to learn a few things that I will put into practice again on my next outing. I ended the day with approx 80lb+ which was made up of 35+ Carp, 5 Bream and  4 Chub so all in all not a bad day. On the Bait side of things I can confirm that not only are the new additions to Sonu’s brilliant bait range fish catchers but will on this evidence go on to catch some anglers very large bags of fish and not just Carp as today’s results showed.

Gary 

  www.alltackledup.co.uk