With our preferred venue of Chilham Mill not being included this year my brother Colin and I selected Farlows for the first round.

Neither of us had fished at Farlows before but knew of the lakes reputation and stocking and felt it would suit our style and approach.  We arrived Thursday afternoon to give ourselves plenty of time for a good look round the place and spent a couple of hours watching for signs of carp.  Unfortunately we did not see a single thing, quite incredible considering the lake has plenty of carp to look for.

Friday morning and we were up early for another look round prior to the 9am draw, yet again we failed to see any signs so our swim choice was going to be on instinct combined with all the information I had gathered from trawling the internet.

It is normal for us to come out way down the draw not giving us much choice, this time however we had all the choices available as we came out the draw first so plumped for a swim called Boggit and Leggit.
 
In front of the swim are two islands giving us loads of features to fish too.  The 12 noon horn started the match and within 30 minutes a few carp had been landed.  At 3pm I received a fast take and after catching up with the fish had to bully it away from some snags before getting it under control and eventually in the net, a mirror of 15lb.  Its always good to get a score on the board, even more so when two hours later the same rod produced a 10lb common.   It became apparent that the nearer you got to the island the more likely you were to receive a take.

We both fished solid pva bags filled with 2mm ‘s’ pellet feed, using bags means you can clip the trees and bushes and not get caught up as the hook is hidden in the bag.  Its not a nice way to fish to be honest as it is extremely difficult to be accurate as the advantage of the bag can have its drawbacks.  Firstly, a heavy bag means more stretch in the line making deadly accurate casting difficult, you had to be within a foot of the island to get a take. Secondly, as we found out when darkness came the bream came alive and do just love the ‘s’ pellets.  I was up all night recasting to a clip as I landed bream after bream hoping that the next take would be a carp. Sure enough at 6am on Saturday morning a big drop back had me winding furiously and catching up with the carp that had made a beeline for a snaggy margin to my left.  Despite my best effort I couldn’t gain control in time and the carp made the safety of the snag where my hooklink parted.  Due to the nature of the swim I was gunned up using 20lb Subline with and 18lb hooklink, you really can’t take any prisoners when fishing these snaggy lakes.

Whereas I had been fishing tight to the islands, Col had been fishing over a spodded area of Sonu Hemp n Maples and 4mm ‘s’ pellet feed, later Saturday afternoon one of Cols rods was away resulting in our biggest fish, a common of just over 20lb.

Saturday night started the same as Friday night with a succession of bream.  After a bream at 10pm I decided not to recast to the island and drop a bait in the margin to my left that I had primed for the past day with a tin of Sonu Hemp n Corn and a few Eliptical pellets.  The rod was right next to a fallen tree so I had to fish with the clutch set tight and a couple of rod rest were used to prevent the rod being taken in should I get a take.  Sure enough the rod was nearly ripped from the rest just 30 minutes later, clinging on for dear life another common was soon in the net, this time 18lb.  Seeing this Col put a rod in his margin to the right and at 3:30am he also had a take but unfortunately this time the carp won and shed the hook.  I was really expecting another take so figuring something was wrong I repositioned the bait at the same time Colin lost his fish.  Its making changes whether it be day or night that can make all the difference.  It was 10 in the evening that we changed our approach and this had got us a couple of extra bites.  Midday Sunday came and alas no more carp for us.  With hindsight I think that a lot of the fish moved away from the island pegs what with all the lines and out into the safety of the open water.  Another lesson learnt and stored away for future reference. 

On this occasion our four fish for 65lb was not enough to put us in the top three, we came fifth, a couple of pound behind forth but well behind the 150lb that was needed to qualify.  We watched as two pairs side by side down the other end of the lake in open water caught twelve carp each for near 200lb.  Well done to those who qualified, we watched some great angling all round.  Roll on 2012 for another go.