Andy Spreadbury's Fishing Blog

Most of my thinking and preparation for fishing sessions is done at home where copious notes fill my Diary. Here are just some extracts on the madness that is my mindset away from the waterside!.. Thursday, 17th.May A new Strategy This is the spot I found on my walk after I packed up last time. On the sketch map Ken Crow the Fishery Manager gave me it’s marked as ‘White House Point’; on the Ordnance Survey map of the area however the nearest place is marked as ‘Betty’s Plat’. A Plat is described as ‘a piece of ground’, so this area must have been Betty’s Bit in days gone past. Betty’s is the green bit shown in the vicinity of ‘Keeper’s Cottage’ on the OS. It’s a bit of a stomp from the car park at Estate Yard Bay and there are some soft and rutty bits on the way, but it’s mostly flat all the way through the wood. The hardest part is when you exit the wood and leave the path and go across the rough ground out to the headland. This is tough going and being as it’s ri...

Tuesday, 15th.May Bough Beech, Pete’s Bay 12.30 So I’m back at the res. For a 24 hr. session, continuing from where I left off after the last session. Ten feet at 11 wraps, bottom smooth. Catapulted bed of 18mm. Pokernut boilies which have been given the H-DEC treatment. Three baits fished tight together - all ‘Snowmen’ presentations on ESP ‘Ghost’ fluorocarbon ‘D’ rigs. The left-hand rod has a yellow ‘topper’, the centre rod a white ‘topper’, and the right-hand rod, a pink ‘topper’. My ‘Tarby Specials’ and Pokernut pop-ups didn’t arrive unfortunately so I am using ‘Northern Specials’ instead. It’s sunny and warm again with a northerly wind blowing into the bivvy which is cooling things down a treat. If I put my hand on the skin of the bivvy facing the sun, it’s roasting hot! I’m even more confident than last time if anything as days spent at the reservoir are adding to my knowledge and understanding of the place and this can only help to put a fish on the ban...

Tuesday, 8th.May Bough Beech, Hilder's Point, Pete’s Bay 14.00 …And the rods are finally on the dancefloor. Once again, there were road traffic accidents on the M20 - again bringing the roads around Sittingbourne to a grinding halt. Even on my way out to the motorway I saw the remnants of a three car rear-end-shunt, the forlorn occupants standing beside the road, air-bags in their vehicles gone off, waiting for the emergency services to arrive. (No-one seemed hurt so I continued on my way.) The drive to the reservoir is through some of the prettiest parts of Kent, at this time of year at their loveliest. Fortunately, I arrived without mishap and drove straight round to the ‘Estate Yard’ on the West Bank of the res. One angler was fishing - a Bream angler, who reported he had seen a carp that very morning, not twenty yards out from the bank. Good news indeed! I had a bit of a walk along and round into the next field to what is known as ‘Hilders Point’ on the edge of...

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 an...

Wednesday, 11th.April Bough Beech, Three Trees 13.45 So I am set up for my first session of The Challenge at the reservoir.The only sounds I can hear is the rat-a-tat-tat of a distant woodpecker, songbirds singing, and the occasional plop of feeders entering the water down the bank to my left. Bream anglers are plying their trade, practicing for the many prestigious matches held here. This is a positive sign. All along I have been worried about the insignificance of my baits and baiting in the vastness of the reservoir’s 300 acres and have always thought a concentration of food was more likely to encourage all fish to feed, as not. I also met another syndicate member on my way in this morning - Arthur. A most genial character who didn’t mind sharing his plans which involved pre-baiting the very spot I was fishing. He has been trickling in bait for the past couple of weeks and intends to keep this up in the hope carp may visit the area regularly. This is right along the lines...