Claygate Lake Sophie. 18th May 2013

#21

Next week could be a bit difficult to fit in a survey. Ive got a funeral tuesday, collect new glasses on Thursday and dentist Friday.
I could always check to see if there are any matches on it on bank holiday Monday.

What days do others have free

#22

I have 18th December free

#23

No good Clive. How about the 25th December.

#24

Monday may be okay.....will struggle any other day

#25

Would love to Dave but the "W" word gets in the way

#26

Don't see a problem, you're not doing anything on Wednesday

#27

There are no matches there on Monday so how does that sound. The workers wont have to worry about having a day off then.

#28

Right after a lot of changes of mind we now have a plan for Monday.

It looks like it could me
Me
Terry
Gino
Possibly Simon and Tony

PLUS Gladys may make an appearance.

#29

See you there

#30

Wont be there until 10 am and Tony will be half an hour after. Get the teas in.

#31

Practice,recce, bulls up completed.

Good day had by all, if Peg 11 is allowed in play by Dave fill your boots. You could catch fish just looking at the rushes on the opposite bank. Si fished it well catching on nearly everything at 11m.

Lessons learnt today:-

1. A pole will not fit together unless each section is level b4 putting in place or you will slightly crack the number 5 section of your pole. ( keith, Dave said you know a good Pole fixer where you live and your looking for someone to carry your kit!!!!!)

2. If you make some secret gooey bait up, have a secret gooey person at hand to deal with it and put it in the lake, caused a right mess.

3. When stuck in the tree on the opposite side of the bank, do not pull your pole back in anger as it will damage your number 5 section even more, just b4 it pops out completely leaving you top sections of you pole floating in the lake and you holding the other sections. Advantage, you now have two poles, disadvantage you cant use either!!!!!!.

4. Once pole rescued remain in the middle of the lake and margins and have no more dramas for the rest of the day.

All lessons taken on board, good company and weather made for a great day.

see you there on the 18th

#32

Dave

if you can find a place for Tom it would be great

#33

Lovely sunny day and NO WIND

, plenty of fish caught by all of us but surprisingly very few silvers. No doubt it will be totally different on the 18th

#34

Gino

Have a look here, I have heard good reports from them.

http://www.advancedpolerepairs.co.uk/index.html

I personally use Scott at EPR but can take about a fortnight.

http://www.polerepairs.co.uk/

What I would do though is check with your local tackle dealer, they nearly always have someone who does repairs.

#35

I think i surprised a few people when I showed them that my pole does actually have a useable no 8 section to make it 11 metres.
They wouldnt believe me when I told them that the other 2 bits were only to show off the manufacturers name and to protect the smaller sections. Why else would they include them.

#36

Thx Kieth

I'll have a look and see if I can get it sorted, cheers.

#37

Now for the important stuff..... FOOD.

There appear to be 3 options.
1) The burger van on site run by Fingers ( Dont ask

) or his girlfriend.

2) There is a well known transport type cafe on the A20 often used as a meeting place by bikers. Oakdene Cafe, London Rd, Wrotham TN15 7RR. It is about 12 miles from the venue. http://www.oakdenecafe.co.uk/index.php

3) There is also a cafe in Yalding halfway along the canal road on the left. I cant find much info apart from the address.
Yalding Cafe
Hampstead Lane
Yalding, Kent
ME18 6HH

Gino and Simon were going to look in on the way home on Monday so may have more info.

#38

Next comes the fishing.

I think we were all surprised with the make up of our catches on Monday. We were expecting mainly silvers and F1s with a few carp as well.
It didnt seem to matter where you set out your stall to fish , margins, down the track or tight over there were plenty of bites mosty carp up to 7lb. Terry was on meat Simon fished hard pellet and corn, I was on maggot and Tony as usual used virtually every bait in his bag.

The one downside to the place is the pegs are VERY VERY tight. ( Cashmores would feel right at home here.) I did pace some out, some were 8 paces and a few were 6 paces.
The lower peg numbers were mainly 11 metres to the far side thought from peg 20 ish it widens to about 12.5. I will try to peg it missing every 3rd peg so almost everyone will have a space to one side. ( if anyone is pegged next to Al be careful he doesnt lean over and feed his fish from your baitboxes )

#39

Echo Daves comments although I would say the bigger fish were from closer in as often is the case....didn't see the cafe but Yalding is close.....If everyone is eating and relying on Fingers we may start at midday

#40

Dave

Is that my Tom as a possible, as he is available if you can fit him in.

Looked at
Coxheath Cafe on the internet
.
2 Elmfield Court, Heath Rd, ME17 4PR

Tel: 01622 743366

shown as only 11mins from the lake using RAC route planner, I'll give them a bell to make sure its open on a saturday and let everyone know on here, if you like?