After my plans for today changed at the last minute I decided to take my daughter, Jessica-Rose, fishing for the afternoon at Hartleylands Farm, Nr Cranbrook in Kent.

Upon arrival we saw there was match on the Reservoir and Nicks Lake was pretty busy so we decided to fish Peartree Lake. For some strange reason there was no one fishing the lake so we had the pick of the pegs and chose 23 and 24 in the corner near the road.

After reading Omega Mike's reports on the floating feeder I had decided to give it a try and set it up as described on his website with vitalin for the feeder. My daughter was going to fish paste over pellet in the margins on boths sides.

Casting across to the island the feeder barely hit the water before I was into my first fish a hard fighting common of around 3lbs. This was quickly followed by it's twin brother a minute or so later. Meanwhile my daughter had already got the fish feeding and was steadilly catching Carp to around 3lbs and Tench around a pound. The day continued with fish after fish coming to the floating feeder, I'd read the method was good but this was incredible.

By the time I packed up 5 hours later I'd caught 93 Carp to 8lbs (the majority being around 2-3lbs) and 11 Tench. I tried to keep an idea of the weight of each fish as I caught and would guess the total weight would have been somewhere around 210lbs. A fantastic days fishing on a totally new method to me, what made it even better was that Jessica must have had close to 80lbs herself from the margins, her largest a common of about 6lbs. Having actually stocked this lake when it first opened I was amazed at how quickly these fish have grown, those 3-4oz ghosties I put in are now stunning looking fish the best I had was around 4lbs and in pristine condition.

I'm definately going to give the floating feeder a go in a match sometime soon, it might just do the business at Lemington if I manage to draw the right peg.

Speaking to a few anglers before I left it seems that the whole venue had fished really well with quite a lot of ton plus bags from Nicks too.

Must get back again soon,


Vince