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Mid Kent Fisheries
Chilham Mill
Mill Lane
Chilham
CT4 8EE

Tel 01227 730668
Fax 01227 738894

Fishery focus – Mid Kent Water's ‘Loggies Lake’

It had always been a dream of Chris’s to create a carp fishery to his exact ideas using his past experience and knowledge gained over the years. Chris and his team are very experienced when it comes to fishery management, stock control, weed planting and fish rearing so all of this was put into practice for this, their latest project.

With the rising demand for Carp waters, and in the hope of relieving some of the pressure off existing waters on the ticket, Chris decided to reform and dig two of the existing lakes into one, managing the project throughout and making sure that it was completed to his specifications and requirements. The two waters were hardly ever fished despite holding a very good head of specimen Bream, Tench and Carp and they were becoming over-grown and neglected by the members. The decision was made to use this base to form the new water and with the support and backing of Mid Kent Water , Chris was given the go ahead and plans were drawn up, contractors agreed and dates set.

Over the next 8 months, the ‘Nook & Cranny’ and the ‘Triangle’ were drained, the stock removed and the contractors moved in to re-shape not only the outline but also the nature of the lakes bed and features. This new Lake has been planted and re-stocked to provide an environment that is great for the fish and a pleasure to visit. With their expertise in planting, the Lake looks like it has always been there!

The result was a 10-12 acre water with varying depths between 3 and 15 foot, 4 small islands, plenty of gravel bars and gullies, 4 bays and loads of features in every swim. A car park was placed at each end and with several swims on the road bank fishable from the car; it was bound to find favour with a lot of the members, old and new. It was restocked with about 190 carp including about 40x20’s up to about 27-0 and one of these has just been banked at 31-14, a cracking Common and the new lake record.

All of the swims are stoned and the ones on the road bank are dug out and protected with concrete fencing making all swims very comfortable and clean. Bank side vegetation has been planted and judging by how Chilham Mill has come on in 5 years, it won’t be too long before this is a very pretty looking lake to fish. Some parts of the new bank line are the old, existing banks so there is reed lined margins and some trees, and during the warmer months, the fish do come very close to these features.

So lets have a walk around this venue and I’ll try to give you enough information to get you started and into a fish or two. Standing at the main car park as you come to the lake from the gates, we look along the road bank where the dug out swims are to our left. The first 3 all fish more or less the same, perhaps the first swim has a minor advantage as it can fish the water in front of the car park as it’s the closest one to this area and there are no swims here. The one problem that we have to watch is the over-head power lines as these are lower and closer than they first appear when you stand in the swims.

There is a gravel bar at about 45-50 yards, which is well fishable from this bank and is the main feature where fish get caught from on a regular basis. The first 2 pegs are in-line with the islands but the cast is a very difficult one and is only possible by side swiping the cast, not for the faint hearted. It’s not far but again, the power lines do claim any cast’s that are too high so watch out. There is some marginal cover, especially the tree to the right in the first peg and during the warmer months, those that try it close in do catch the fish here.

Moving down to the two swims where the road narrows and is fenced off from the lake; these are great swims all year around. In the warmer months, the reeds are quite thick and go out for some distance. I have caught from the edge of these in the winter too so always worth the 4 th rod in the winter. The cast is now slightly easier as the power lines run away from this bank at an angle so you can reach slightly further out without any problems and the middle of the lake is achievable but again, with care.

We still have the bar at about 45-50 yards and for those that can cast under the power lines and that little bit further, there is a gravel area that runs between the islands and the car park at the bottom end. This area is shallower and is where the two lakes became joined when dug out and is a good area in the warmer months especially.

The last three swims on this bank are now into the end bay with the car park opposite, which comes out to a point into the lake. As there are no swims opposite or around the car park, the first swim can cast over to the point and this seems to be a very productive area. The fish travel around this point, to and from the small bay behind this car park. You have plenty of other features here too with gravel bars and deeper water as well as being able to get to the gravel channel halve way across.

The last swim has all of the end bank and what a swim this can be. The end bank is all reed lined and has varying depths all along it with deeper water closer to the swims bank. A very popular swim and you can see why when you stand in it. Some people do feel a bit out of it here as you have nothing else really but with about 45 yards of reed lined bank all to yourself, you are always in with a chance.

We then have to walk past the car park and the other small bay before we come to the far bank where the swims start again at the dead tree. From this bank, the power lines are slightly further over so the middle of the lake is reached quite easily. There are some small gravel features in front of these swims and these are easily found with the marker rod. The margins are quite deep and I have found that bait spodded to a marker will draw the fish to the chosen area at any range or depth.

We then come to the swims that sit in front of the islands and these are very popular choices with so many good-looking features to fish too. The first of these swims sits to the right hand side of the islands as we look over and the next two sit in front of them. During the warmer months, the vegetation around these islands is quite thick so a bait tight to these is normally taken quite quickly. There are also weed beds and reeds at about halve way and again, another good starting point for one rod.

As we move along to the next peg, we are now coming into the small bay in the southwest corner and this can hold quite a few fish due to the pads and weed. You can still get a rod over to the left most two small islands and the small gap between them produces quite a few fish.

As we walk around this bay, we come to the last swim, which sits out on a point facing the side of the islands. It is only a short cast from here to get along side the islands but you also have the entire bay to your left. This is quite a big area with no other swims that can fish into it. It is only about four foot deep but is excellent during the warmer months and I have seen fish in there during bright winter days too. Watch the margins here as they do come very close looking for food along the reeds and marginal plant life.

As for methods and baits for this new, prolific fishery, most sensible approaches will work well. I have done extremely well fishing the method with either a14mm Activ-Maple8 bait or two 10mms. Small pop-ups work well and this method seems to work all year round, feeding more balls of mix in the warmer months and slightly less, but slightly looser balls during the colder months but with plenty of added smells such as Mainline’s ‘Activator’ or their Corn Steep Liquor.

Pva bags of mixed pellet work very well and a lot of big hits were taken by spodding lots of pellet and crumbled baits and then fishing a small bag over the top. I have found small, bright pop-ups best such as Mainline’s 14mm Hi-Visual Pineapple, Fruit-Tella and the new, white, Milky Toffee.

During a recent outing in January to compile this review, it was bright but windy during the days and quite cold at night with lots of rain and did not look too good for any action. The lake had been fishing very slowly for about 2 weeks but I decided to still ‘ball up’ the method area in the hope of getting them on the feed.

I fished two rods on the method, one with a 14mm Activ-Maple8 bottom bait and the other with 2 halves of the same bait. The other two rods were fished with bright pop-ups and small pva bags of mixed Response Pellet, Hemp Pellet and a new, soon to be released, Carp Pellet, all covered in the brilliant Hemp Oil that Mainline produce. I wanted plenty of smell and attraction with as little feed as possible.

I started off with 12 balls of my method mix that I had made slightly looser by adding more brown breadcrumb, some hemp oil and more Activator additive and this was fed with the spod rod and pult cup to about 50 yards where the gravel drops off. I put one rod onto this and one just short, slightly of the main feed area. The main area was topped up with another 8 balls every 4 hours during the day and when ever I was up during the night. It may sound like a lot during the winter but it is full of nothing really and disperses into the water leaving smells but little else.

This particular method mix was made using 50/50 brown breadcrumbs and Mainline’s Activ-Maple8 base mix, quite a new mix for me but one that was proving to be one of the best yet. To this I added a few handfuls of prepared partiblend, a few Response Pellet, some crushed Hemp Pellet and a few handfuls of Activ-Maple8 boilie crumb.

Nothing came to this for the first day and night but the second night saw 3 takes, all over this feed. The bags were fished one very close at the tip of the reed bed and the other at the same line as the method rods but further right and just with a light scattering of small, chopped Activ-Maple8 baits and a few mixed pellets, about 6 spods in total.

All in all, a very pleasant water to fish and with so much potential for the future. There are plans to stock a few 30lbs plus fish soon and with the new stocking breaking this magic weight already, it looks like Chris’s dream is a reality already. There is a chemical toilet on site and there is a good solid path all away around the lake. An ideal water for the dad & son outings and although the fish are not as naive as some people think, a good chance of action all year round.