If you have been following my blogs you will know that I decided to spend a lot of time this winter on a massive 160 acre gravel pit, with not many carp in it!

I guess I must have first started fishing Westbere lake around 1980, back then my friends and I would spend the summers after the bream and tench and in the winter we would do a bit of piking. I remember that back then if you were not down the deeps before 5am on a winters morning you would not get a swim as all the who’s who of pike anglers would be there.  We used to catch roach livebaits for Jim Gibbinson and his friends and in return he would show us how to make our own pike traces and give us a few in exchange for the roach.

A few years on and after starting to learn how to catch carp over the river at Fordwich a number of us started to have a look at Westbere for the carp.  I recall that first season well, it must have been 1988.  We baited up with peanuts for a month leading up to the glorious June 16th, despite our best efforts we had not seen a single carp but just picked an area that felt right, thats hard to do on a 160 acre gravel pit.  After several beers in the Yew Tree in Westbere village we made our way back to the lake in readiness for midnight.  Well unbelievably by morning I had had 5 commons the best around 10lb, weight didn’t matter a jot, they were Westbere carp.  I reckon that first season I must have had 20 or so carp, nothing much bigger than about 15lb.  I never caught a mirror, they were all long torpedo like commons. 

Later that year I joined the Royal Navy Submarine Service so my fishing didn’t amount to much for the next 4 or 5 years.  On returning to civvy street Mid Kent Fisheries had just formed so I joined it at the beginning around 1992 I think, with all new waters to fish I didn’t look at Westbere again for several years until as a Bretts dug water it eventually came to be part of Mid Kents portfolio.
 
So coming up to date, this season ive been having another go back at Westbere where it all began for me.  To some the thought of trying to catch a carp out of a lake this size is a daunting prospect but having been brought up on big pits I don’t particularly mind it.  In fact I find I’m uneasy on the smaller waters which is why I don’t tend to fish the small 4 or 5 acre lakes, I do the odd night and then get itchy feet, I do like a bit of water to have a go at.  I had had a good summer catching quite a few Carp from Chilham including “Chillys” at just over 40lb but now just fancied something totally and completely different.  So since August i've been having a go back on Westbere, spending weekends all over the lake.  There is an out of bounds area in between the works and the yacht club, only the bailiffs are allowed in here, and sure enough its where a few carp get caught.  I don’t have a problem with it, if you want their job of patrolling a 160 acre pit spending more time walking and checking tickets than actually fishing then you can fish there too.  In hindsight moving about has probably been a mistake, looking back 20 years to when I caught before we just concentrated on one area. 

The lake is quite unlike any other Mid Kent lake, for starters you have the Frostbite sailing club. When they are out it pays to reel in as it’s easy to get one of them coming unseen round a corner, if you are fishing in the shallow water their keels can pick up your lines.  And then there are the Kings school rowers, being chased around the lake by their masters in speedboats.

And as for the weather, boy when the wind and rain pick up you know about it, I reckon you could surf on some of the white crested waves at times.

So autumn became winter, I had still not had a bite.  At last that horrible green algae bloom disappeared and the water started to clear.  The weed started to die and the pads started to break away.  Perhaps winter would bring a change of fortunes. With all the naturals going maybe I’d have more of a chance.  I've carried on regardless this winter, and been out in some very cold weather.  I did a weekend at the end of November when the air temp didn’t rise above zero all the time I was there.

It was a session in December that I finally spotted a decent mirror role, you just don’t see much down there so location is very difficult.  I woke up to find another hard frost, in fact it was so cold that cat ice had formed in the edge.  I was considering letting the bivvy  defrost and going home when I saw the mirror, so I was mugged into staying another night for nothing.

 Then the lake froze up, its takes something to freeze a lake of this size and it stayed that way into January.  The start of Jan the weather finally broke and I managed to get out for a couple of nights.
 
So it’s now February and this weekend I've been back to the spot on Westbere that I saw that mirror role in December, its all I had to go on as no one had anything to report what so ever.  Not that many had been down, in fact all through summer a busy weekend would be perhaps 5 anglers, so just the 32 acres each then!

The spot I had seen the carp previously was along a tree line in an area that during the summer is covered in pads, these are great areas to target in the winter.  Baiting up very sparingly with just a couple of spods of Sonu hemp n corn over each rod that I had spread along the tree line I must admit to feeling in with a chance.

Generally I do not reel in if I’ve been picked up by a coot (unless I’m bag fishing) as the way I see it unless they have actually nicked the bait its most likely that they have done me a favour by straightening out the hooklink.  I’d been having coot trouble all day so when I had a couple of bleeps I was expecting to see the bobbin drop after the coot let go, as that was the normal routine.  On this occasion however, the bobbin stayed up and the clutch let out a couple of clicks.  Even on picking the rod up I was looking out to where I was fishing waiting to see a coot or tufty, but no this time it was for real.  It’s funny how after several months of inactivity you go straight into your normal routine.  This one was different however, as all through the fight I was praying it stayed on.  At any other time if they fall off I’m not at all bothered and just carry on, but not this time.  And when I saw it was a mirror that really got my nerves going, having never had one from Westbere before.

Now im not normally one for getting all excited at catching a carp but must admit to letting out a roar when she went in the net as I knew full well that there wasn’t another angler within half a mile of me who would hear me.

Arran, one of the regulars was fishing down the deeps, after a few phone calls via 3rd parties I managed to get hold of him and he came up to do some pics.  Thanks for that Arran, its not far off a mile walk!  Here she is 36lb 1oz of rarely caught Westbere mirror.

The take came on Friday at about 4pm, a time iv had fish from other lakes at this time of year, almost last light.  Premier Paul, another regular came along in the evening to give his congratulations, he reckoned I could be in for another as it looked spot on what with the mild weather.

Sure enough, Saturday afternoon at 4:30pm this time, another did come along, a proper belting carp run and would you believe after all those years without a mirror it was another one, this time 18lb.  I didn’t get Arran but set the tripod up and did a self take.

So that’s a quick look at my 30 years of fishing Westbere, all coming to a head on a February weekend.