Tuesday, 24th.April, Bough Beech
The Dam, (First Steps)
16.15 Finally set up (and here at last) after an horrendous morning. I originally intended to set off straight after the kids had all gone to school at about 9.15, but just as Christine and I were having breakfast came the news of total and utter pandemonium on the local roads. Not only were there serious accidents on one of the major roads out of Sittingbourne - but three!A bad two car pile-up on the A249 (my main route to the reservoir) had caused the police to shut the dual carriageway in both directions causing all the traffic to use the only other way through - via the tiny roads and villages. Unable to to cope with such a huge volume of traffic, every road around the town was gridlocked; nothing could move in or out. I had no other option than to wait until things sorted themselves out so consequently didn’t make it here until much later.
It is extremely sobering to contemplate that while I was chuntering and complaining about the state of the traffic and the roads around Sittingbourne - a family was being given the news that one their number had been killed at the scene. Not for the first time have I had cause to be thankful that I am actually able to go fishing - whilst others are given such awful, terrible news.
Compounding this were incidents on the M20 and M2 motorways - both having a knock-on effect on traffic locally. It’s astonishing how often the hand of Fate strikes not once - but multiple times, all at once, in totally unconnected circumstances.
16.35 It is dull and grey and a little too windy to my taste but there again we can not do anything about that. It is blowing left to right along the dam and after recent glorious weather, must be doing much to warm the shallow water. I am fishing at my ‘standard’ range of eight wraps which puts baits into eight feet of water. The slope of The Dam concrete is very consistent so I can predict quite accurately, depth and bottom, consistently. Talking of which, the concrete apron of the dam is not so bare and sterile as you might think. The water level drops from May onwards, allowing terrestrial plants to grow in the joints between the slabs, Plants also take hold on the surface in the accumulations of dirt and wind blown dust - it’s amazing how little plants need to take hold and root. Consequently, when the water comes up in the winter there is submerged flora which whilst not growing as such, is not dead either. These plants make homes for invertebrates and Molluscs such as snails (both aquatic and land) to live on. These colonies of carp food make the dam surface an attractive proposition for fish and it is not surprising carp are caught here.
I rehearse in my mind what I will do when it finally happens - getting to the rods without falling over and down the steps, picking up the rod - the line tearing from a frantically revolving spool, and my hand clamping around it to stop it, and the satisfying thump on the rod as a carp makes its bid for freedom!
I wait as we all wait, we who go in search of these ‘treasured trophies’. I wait, but the waiting seems so hard. I know that one day it will happen as it has happened on so many other waters in days long past - but I want it to happen so desperately - on this water. Today. Now.
Our ‘trophies’ are measured not by their size but by their worth; by their meaning. Although I have fished here only once before it already means so much. To get one at all would be awesome. So I shall carry on waiting. As long as it takes.
18.15 The water temperature is plummeting - it’s gone down to 12.2 - half a degree in just over an hour. This can not be good. 19.15 WT down to 11.8. That’s a fall of one degree in two hours. Can’t see anything feeding under those conditions. 21.00 Very windy. Bivvy sides noisy with all the flapping. No action - not even from a Bream. Forecst of rain tonight. It feels very remote and isolated on the Dam. There is no one in the vicinity, near or far, all I can see are the lights from the Draw-off Tower. I wonder if there is anyone there at this time of night?Wednesday, 25th.April
The buzzer to the middle rod has ‘died’. Dead batteries - and I have no spares. For months now I have been meaning to put spares in my kit and I have repeatedly forgotten all about it. I now pay the penalty… Fortunately, I have a ‘self-contained’ ‘Mini-Micron’ I can use and whilst it doesn’t work with the remote I have turned the volume up to max. So I can hear it behind the Dam Wall steps. In fact, I should think they can hear it in Edenbridge!
Polaroids on, this is good ‘seeing’ weather and my elevated position at the top of the wall gives me an advantage, fish-spotting wise. Water temperature starting to climb in the sunshine, 11.3.
This is quite a rapid rise in temperature considering conditions are not that warm and there is a cold wind. My explanation for this is that I think they have turned on the aerators near the Tower - there are visual signs of water disturbance over there and this great mixing of water layers will have a dramatic effect in the water column. In hot weather this is bound to be significant.
Win or lose - blank or successful, I am here doing it; giving it my best shot.
09.15 Repositioned the zig and set it at exactly three feet down. 10.45 Tactical changes. Leon (Bartropp) has often made the point about fishing with Confidence - “Stick with what gives you the most confidence”, and I am sure he is dead right. Better than any bait or new fandango rig, Confidence catches more fish than anything. For this reason I have gone on my favourite bottom bait rig. This is the rig I have caught a hell of a lot of my biggest fish in France with and I know it works for me. It is a simple ‘D’ rig (a la Danny Fairbrass) tied with 15 lbs. ESP Ghost. On one rod I have tied it fairly short and popped it out ten wraps with a pva sock of six boilies, the other is slightly longer and is cast at eight wraps plus two yards. Each has a ‘sighter’ - the shorter rig with the sock has a yellow buoyant corn, the longer rig, three quarters of a pink pop-up. This latter is fishing the hook lifted slightly off the deck; I noticed that each time I reel in, the hook point catches on the concrete, turning the point over, and I am having to change the hook each time, so hopefully this will overcome that.
Water temperature climbing steadily, now up to 13.5.
12 Noon Just had lunch. Disaster struck! No not on the rods - but on my lunch! Cooking a ‘Rustler’ Burger-in-a-bun, got the cheese nicely melted and ready to go in the bun when the whole lot slipped off the stove and turned upside-down on the grass! Got most of the grass off the cheese but I have to say it added nothing to the taste!. Good lunch choice though; will have that again. Very quick and easy to do.The weather has closed in again. Heavy rain is falling. Showers forecast until the evening and the wind gathering strength too. Glad I’m not over in the ‘Three Trees’ unlike a member who has set up there this morning, plotting up with what appears to be one of those monstrous ‘Euro’ bivvies.
Pretty miserable right now.. Getting a right old battering with the wind!
14.15 Fortunately, the sky cleared and the wind eased a little and it has given me an opportunity to review and re-assess.I always knew that fishing the res. Was going to be a learning curve - I’d been assured by those who know that it is unlike anywhere else I would have fished before. They weren’t wrong.
I had seen photos my friends had shown me and always wondered why their rods were propped up ‘beachcaster’ style. Now I know why…
This afternoon I became aware of the massive amounts of crap accumulating on the lines. This is water-borne algae and general crud blown along by the wind, the effect of which is to make the lines stand out like washing lines! This is obviously an unsatisfactory state of affairs, only to be dealt with by fishing with the rod-tips high in the air, this side of the dam wall. I have only ever fished like this on the rivers in France although my good friend Phil does it all the time…
I attempted to reel the left-hand rod in and snagged it (once again) on the bottom. I ended up pulling for a break and lost the lot. With this in mind I tied up fresh tackle and replaced this rod with a multi-rig. This will keep the hook-point off the bottom where hopefully it will not snag on anything.
15.00 WT recording 15.1! This is in only a few inches of water and although it doesn’t reflect the actual temperature two or three feet down, it indicates the trajectory the temperature is going. Got to be good - and good for my zig set three feet down. 16.00 I’ve hit a bit of a low point (as I knew I would eventually on here) - I just wasn’t expecting it so soon.I’m not happy with how I’m fishing, that’s what it is. I don’t like fishing my rods over the dam wall like I’m on Deal Pier. I’m not sure whether to fish my bottom bait rigs or the multi-rig. The confidence I had previously has drained away somewhat and to be honest, the way I’m fishing right now I can not see myself catching anything at all.
I think there is a severe danger at this point of reverting to a Ronnie Rig or other random selection for no other reason than it’s straw-clutching. After all, everybody uses the ‘Ronnie’ so it must be alright. I’m grasping at something - anything to try and elicit a bite.
It is still very early days. I must concentrate on a simple approach (one that I’m confident in) and don’t over-complicate things. I must use a tried and trusted rig and bait combination.
16.30 Being pro-active… I have replaced the the multi-rig with a 360 pink Northern Special, trimmed down so that it sinks under its own weight. Already a modicum of confidence has returned. I know this works; why use anything different? Will persist with my bottom bait rig because I know that works too. 18.15 About to enter the final night of the session and I have to say that my previous doubts and uncertainties have disappeared somewhat.It occurred to me that the carp in here do not know a lot about boilies and the general consensus is we should all use a lot more to encourage them to pick them up. If this is the case, the use of colourful pop-ups may not make a lot of sense since it is doubtful if they will recognise them as food (although I am far from certain about this). For the final night I have 2 x 15mm. Bottom baits on a ‘D’ rig and 1 Northern Special pop-up fished on a 360 rig. The third rod is still the black ‘Water Boatman’ zig fished three feet down.
I believe I’m covering all bases here; it’s just a matter of seeing what produces a fish.
19.30 WT 11.3 degrees.Thursday, 26th.April
06.30 A disturbed night; freezing cold, spent dealing with an infestation of mice in and around the bivvy!It started with one lone individual who managed to get inside my rubbish bag, but before long, when I turned the headtorch on, there were loads of them, scampering about all over the shop! Bold as brass, they just stood in the torch-beam looking at me as if to say, “What have you got to eat then?”. Must be a nest of them nearby.
Fish-wise the night was utterly quiet; not surprising since there was a bright moon and the stars were shining brightly. Clear and freezing cold. Just before dawn however I started to get a series of double-bleeps on the bottom bait rod and left it alone thinking it was a Bream. These bleeps continued until daybreak and believing it was a Bream I left it alone hoping it would divest itself of the hook - which it didn’t. Finally, I reeled the thing in - a fish of about a pound - an insignificant example of its kind, but nonetheless my first fish of any species from the reservoir.
[Postscript: I packed up early and drove around to the ‘Fisherman’s Hut’ on the West Bank of the reservoir. Should have come here in the first place. It looked gorgeous, with all the Bluebells now out in the woods. If conditions permit, I shall head for here next time.]
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