The Pads Lake - Small Pond Carping 2014

 

09/08/14 - The Pads  Lake is a small one acre pond located in the heart of Kent tucked deep within thick woodland. It is covered in blanket weed, beds of lily pads and is surrounded by strange terrain that resembles something out of a fictitious novel. There are high mounds of bracken covered rocks with small waterfalls bordering three lakes staggered on different levels from small to large. The area is home to many deer and is so desolate that not even one bar of reception on your phone is a possibility unless you have a twenty foot T-mobile radio tower packed in your tackle box. The surroundings are magic and it is a real gem of a water that offers some great fishing to the few that angle it each year.

 

I have been fishing some hard waters recently and have tallied up the blanks and so this was a great opportunity to get a bend in the rod with some old English carp. The Pads is stocked with around forty carp including commons, mirrors, leathers and some cracking fully scaled fish that range from six to twenty pound plus.

My fishing mate Jamie and I pulled up to the lake during a warm Saturday with the intention of doing a quick overnighter and some floater fishing during the day. As we walked around the lake is was evident that carp were present and some of the larger weed beds held three or more basking in sun. The tactics were to be free lined mixers cast passed the fish and dragged back gently to be perfectly positioned on the weed close to the carps mouth.

It didn't take long before Jamie had caught a great looking common around 10lb and it was an old dark fish. Two hours later I followed this up by accidentally catching the same fish. I had been walking around the lake trying to find a feeding carp when I spotted a nice common near the margins. I crept into position and cast my mixer past its mouth and it sank slightly behind the fish. I then twitched it and the hook actually caught the fish in the mouth. She didn't fight and just surrendered to the net. It must be the first time someone has foul hooked a fish in the mouth, absolutely incredible.

Unfortunately we had no more fish from the surface that day but as night approached we cast two rods out to the far weed beds and baited with some boilies. At around 3am my rod screamed into life and I caught another small 10lb common. The fish weren't the biggest but they were lovely looking and in perfect condition. It was a great session and remedy for all those blanks.