Opening day

For various reasons, my opening day session had to be curtailed - but as we'll see, that might not have been a bad thing.

I was at the river by just after 5:00 and set up in the long glide that I've often fished on opening day.  The water level was about 3 ft lower than this time last year!  Bait was sweetcorn over hemp, tactic floatfishing.  Just as I was getting ready to start, another angler appeared who had obviously planned on fishing this same spot.  Finding me there, he decided to fish just 20 metres upstream - an odd decision given the miles of fishing to choose from.  Maybe he was hoping I would move on quickly.  He moved on about an hour later.

It was nice to be back at the river after close to a year without fishing - amazing that it could be that long.  It was a lovely morning to be out.  Loads of birds around, including my first sighting of a kingfisher this season.  But what there wasn't was any sign of fish in residence.  A steady search of the swim produced no bites whatsoever.

And then after about 2 hours, the elastic on my catapult broke and I was unable to set feed to the swim.  So that more or less ended the first session.

However as I was walking back to the car, I got chatting to another angler who was also packing up.  He said he worked for the Environmental Agency and had been involved in an electro-fishing exercise on a stretch of river a couple of miles away.  On the negative, this revealed a total fish population that was much lower than expected - probably why the chub are so large there at the moment.  But on the positive, there were apparently a good number of small barbel present (less than 1lb) and these weren't stocked fish.  And there were some other results that were of interest and which might result in me altering my season plans.  Without an earlier than planned finish, I wouldn't have seen this guy.

It rained most of the rest of the day.  Hopefully it won't rain so much that the rivers rise significantly.  My next opportunity to fish might be early morning next Friday, but then there are less chances until mid-to-late July when I might be able to fish an evening or two.

I have ordered two large sacks of hemp as the rats in our garage seem to have eaten their way through about 20kg over the winter (having chewed a small hole in the plastic container the hemp was in).  And I need a new catapult.

Plans for 2013-14

Last season was just about the worst fishing seasons I have ever had.

In June, the rivers were very high and I couldn't seem to locate the chub at all.  One five pounder was all I managed in the early season.

Then in July I contracted some form of "viral arthritis" in my right knee and for a period of three months was not able to walk freely.  This curtailed all fishing activity - indeed, for a time I wondered if I would ever walk properly again.  But it did clear up completely and ultimately, I recovered fully from it.

By the time I was walking well again, it was October and the rivers were in flood again.  But then I spent quite a bit of the winter in France and missed out on the few weeks that were ok towards the very end of the season.

The only plus from last year was that I did learn how to make videos and I was actually quite pleased with what I produced from such meagre raw footage.

So it is June 2013 and I am considering my goals for this season.

For various work reasons, I won't be able to fish much until mid-July, but then I should get a reasonable run into the autumn.  My initial goals will be chub on the Thames (as usual), with some attempts after barbel as well.  After catching my 15lber in March 2012, I haven't had a single barbel fishing trip. 

So one specific target - a 6lb chub from the Thames

Second target - 3 barbel from the Thames

Third target - a big river pike (greater than 15lbs)

I should be able to manage a very short trip on opening day morning - so after nearly a year without posting anything, I am off and running again.