Well what can I say, as the title suggests i’ve bagged myself a new UK personal best.

The story behind the capture really starts last Monday.  My son Jake is doing his school work experience at Mid Kent Fisheries, therefore I have been collecting him at 5pm, which seeing as I finish work at 3pm has given me a couple of hours to fill each day.  Next to Mid Kent’s office is Chilham Mill, at 30 acres it is the jewel in the crown of all their waters.  To fill my time I’ve been walking the lake with a couple of 8ft stalking rods, a net and a mat and asking Jake to come and find me when he has finished for the day.

Although I haven’t had success on my stalking trips I have had the opportunity to have a look in a couple of the more neglected swims on the lake.  With the first decent SW wind in what seems ages, one of these little swims was right on the end of it and looked lovely so I spent a bit of time stalking this area and generally keeping an eye on it.

 Friday came round and I was up at 4am sorting my gear and getting a list of chores completed before setting off for the lake at 5ish.  Chilham has a signing in hut, on arrival I was pleased to see the area I fancied from my stalking trips was free so signed out swim 17.  Even though I knew where I wanted to be I still went for a walk round the lake just to check I had made the right decision.  Apart from a few shows in swims that were already taken I didn’t see much else to go on so stuck with my initial choice.

As I had a rough idea of the swim I didn’t bother with a marker and just cast a light lead around.  Sure enough I found what I wanted, a nice clear area in amongst some light weed about the size of a snooker table, just enough to squeeze a couple of baits onto.

On Chilham I’ve always had success fishing small baits over Hemp and particles, on this occasion I thought I would bring along some ground bait as well.  The new Boilie Crush ground bait is full of fishmeal’s and bits of as the name suggests crushed boilie, being sticky if over wetted it can hold a lot of particle too.  So I mixed up 2 bags of Boilie Crush and added a tin of Hemp n corn to it as well as some crushed 15mm White chocolate to have some bigger bits in there too.  I suppose in total that equals up to around 50 balls and 6 or 7kg of bait.
 
In went half the bait, I was only fishing around 30yrds so it was a good throw but no need for a baiting spoon on a pole which is what I would have used if fishing any further out.

I was fishing by 8 with a couple of solid PVA bags filled with ground bait and 2mm ‘S’ pellets with a pair of 10mm white chocolate boilies on the hair.  By 10 I had already had a few savage liners pulling the bobbin up to the butt before dropping back down again.  At 12:30 Jake and Elliot the other work experience lad walked up on their lunch break to see me, whilst with me a rod on the baited spot took off and I was on it in a flash.  In and out of weed beds she went but was soon scooped up.  There is an algae bloom going on at the moment on Chilham which means you cannot see more than a few inches into the water, initially I didn’t see the size of her.  It was only after sorting the mat, scales, weigh sling and camera etc that I had a good look in the net.  I rolled her to one side and recognised her as “Chillys” one of the biggest residents.  On the scales we recorded a weight of 40lb 4oz a new UK PB by just 2oz.  

The rest of the session remained quiet apart from more liners which I had fully expected to turn into takes.  Thinking about it now I believe my line markers may have slipped meaning I was fishing a few meters beyond my baited area, something to remember for next time.  I should have picked up on this sooner what with all the line bites, I must have still been in a daze.