advice for kent

[akronbranch]

Hi all was wondering if you could advise me on a good day ticket lake in kent.

it will be for myself (not fished in about 20 years) and my son 15 who has never been. so would like a lake where he has a good chance of catching as I don't want him to be put off on his first trip out. or at least increase the chance of him catching.

based in medway area and our generic search engine has thrown up

Buckland lake
monk lakes
mouse hole

any ideas appreciated

[s63]

I'm in a different part of Kent, you have a good choice available in your area, near me in Whitstable is Lavender Farm just off the Thanet Way, great for kids and newcomers with a healthy stock of roach, rudd and small carp, great fun on a whip.

Open from dawn til 7pm and only £7 for the day.

Find them on Facebook.

[chrissh]

Monks lakes it got a tackle shop café, toilet … the smaller pond at the top are full of fish guaranteed to catch on them float fish maggot under the rod tip

[fishing4luckies]

If you want a 100% cast iron copper bottomed guarantee of catching then take a look at Chart Fishery

You simply cannot fail to catch there.

Simple cube of meat on a size 10 hair rig will do it. Or anything else you can think of that can be eaten. Jelly babies, lumps of twix, grapes etc etc. I've even caught on a chunk of hair rigged cucumber there.

Read the rules carefully though - the bailiff is quite strict and there's a no boilie rule.

[s63]

^^^^ I can second that, why you'd even need boilies when the fish are so many and take just about anything offered is a mystery to me, all you need are strong arms and a good boredom threshold.

[akronbranch]

thanks I will give them a try might start with chart just have to make sure I have all I need tackle wise. and give monk lakes a try next time

[s63]

You won't need a landing net at Chart, you must use the one supplied. I used a pellet waggler rod loaded with 6lb line and stopped fishing when I'd caught 50 carp!

[fishing4luckies]

Pretty much any rod will do at Chart on the main coarse lake. I've fished with a Drennan Silverfish 13ft float rod, a lightweight competition feeder rod with a 1oz tip and and a 1.5lb TC Avon style rod. All worked fine.

As S63 says 6lb line is fine as long as you set your clutch properly and play the fish carefully you shouldn't have any problems.

Either buy or tie some hair rigs, thread on some bait and 3/4oz of lead and away you go.

If you put in a whole day you can easily reach S63's tally of 50 fish. You could double that on a good day there.

I think that the coarse lake holds fish that average 6 - 8lb with the biggest coming in around 12 - 15lb.

There are also some 'surprises' in the lake - 3 rather ageing Sturgeon that come out at least once a week it seems.

As far as hotspots go I would say that anywhere that is not dry land is bang on.

I've never known anyone to blank there.

Be sure to let us know how you get on, with plenty of photos.

[akronbranch]

thanks for all the advice
just been checking the rules and they state

•No fixed leads or bolt rigs (lead clips are ok)

does this mean my 3/4 oz lead can not be fixed directly to the line and must be attached via one of these fangled lead clips ?

or can I just use a running rig

this is at the bottom of the rules page

Due to some anglers taking liberties with the rules, when you are fishing at Chart (either lake) you WILL BE “RIG CHECKED” AT SOME TIME DURING YOUR VISIT. This applies to ALL anglers. (including matches) We are particularly looking for BOILIES,(this includes pop-ups) BARBED HOOKS, ANY TYPE OF LEADERS, (Silicon, Tungsten, Leadcore) & Braided mainlines & Fixed leads. If you are not happy with this, you have two other options, 1st, you can fish somewhere else, 2nd you can buy the lakes and change the rules to suit yourself

as I wish to fish here and cannot afford to buy the lake don't want to get in trouble

[fishing4luckies]

Use a running rig. You can either thread your lead on the mainline and then use a buffer bead above the hooklink swivel or use Korum Feedabeads so that you can change leads quickly if you need/want to. Or you could clip a feeder on although there's no need for a feeder at Chart.

Buy a pack or two of Korda ready tied barbless KD rigs and you'll be fine. Just don't put a boilie on it. Pellets are fine - even huge ones. I've used some monster 22mm Halibut pellets there and they were fine about it.