Bread and butter Piking

I returned home at 13.00hrs, Wednesday, having completed my third RMC Pike session of the winter and, what d'yer know? I only went and caught a couple of small "doubles". My first success, thus far, into the 2023/24 RMC dalliance. 11 lbs 12 oz & 12 lbs ain't likely to cause many ripples within the Kent Pike angling scene, yet they were certainly more than welcome visitors to my unhooking mat. 

The first of the brace. 12 lbs exactly

The canal is in a sorry state, heavily coloured and being run off due to the tidal situation down in the Willop basin. No big deal, since the venue is no longer required to act as a defence against a French invasion, it now functions as part of the Romney Marsh flood prevention system. My kit is well capable of being tweaked to cope with running water situations and the large amount of floating debris meant that I was kept busy, tending to the rods and repositioning baited rigs due to the false alarms caused by the situation. 

Number two - 11 lbs 12 oz. Sadly this fish has a damaged gill raker,
which is just visible above the pectoral fin. A sure sign that a previous captor
had absolutely no idea how to unhook a Pike. Yet another demonstration of the
influence of social media on complete Muppet brained goons.

Another brilliant morning out in the wilds, and more really nice conversations with dog walkers who passed me. One was particularly pleasant as the guy, who I think is called Rob, told me that he'd stumbled across this blog due to some random Google search and wondered what the attraction of moths was? We had a lengthy chat, establishing that he had nearly sent his daughter to St. Faith's in Ash, the school that my Mum & Dad founded way back in the mid 80's It's a small world. Then, just as I was thinking about calling it a day, Baz turned up. He is a regular visitor to this part of the canal, and we are of similar age and mind-set. We had long chat about our fishing exploits, Baz is a regular visitor to Beachborough Lake where he does a fair bit of Carping. Once Baz had said farewell, it was time to pack up the kit and grab a couple of record shots of my fish. I do this to help me check for recaptures and, thus, establish individual growth rates..

Despite all the false alarms, there was still plenty of opportunities to look at the local birdlife. A Great White Egret flew west, just after 08.00 hrs, then some minutes later so did a group of three "Grey" geese. I was re-setting an alarm and failed to get a positive id, although my gut feeling was they were Bean Geese? Still, just one of those things which keeps us on our toes. I could easily claim them, it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference to anyone else on the planet, yet I know, in my heart of hearts, that I'd be lying to myself and that won't happen! Four Common Buzzards put on a fabulous display, right over my swim, but I already had the camera set up to do my selfies, so missed the chance. A lone Stonechat was a rather unusual sight, out on the marsh, and I was kept well entertained by a Goldcrest which was feeding in a Hawthorn right besides my left-hand rod. As I pushed the barrow back towards the van, I added Little Egret and Raven to my morning's tally. It was a very enjoyable session indeed..