Sun and some fun

Benno, Luke and I had a session on the RMC, this morning. It was a lovely day, light winds and a decent amount of sunshine - it couldn't be anything other than enjoyable. The section we'd chosen didn't allow a lot of space, so we fished two rods apiece instead of our normal three. The banter was good and we had much to chat about - Scotland is just over ten weeks away. Bait, methods, tackle and tactics all got an airing and soon the subject of Barbel came into the mix.

Luke in action - Benno waiting with the net.

We are all prepared to go back to that bloody river - why? Luke didn't do too badly last year, his first season - he took four fish, two doubles (10.04 & 10.08) and a nice bonus Chub of 5 lbs 12 oz, so two new PBs. I had a nightmare, yet managed to winkle out two doubles (12.10 & 11.04) whilst Benno didn't take a single fish. I think that the reality is that we simply can't ignore these fish because the river is very likely to turn up a huge specimen in the next season or two.

A cracking pike of 18.04
Luke's best fish from the RMC by some margin.

At 09.20 hrs, one of Luke's rods was away and resulted in him landing his best ever pike from the canal - 18 lbs 4 oz. It was a beauty, but absolutely covered in lice - showing that these fish have been laid up for some time. It was the only fish of the session, although Luke did miss another bite whilst Benno and I were to endure eel activity as our Sardines and Blueys took a hiding from the slimy pests.
Birding was reasonable, at least four Common Buzzards, good numbers of Fieldfare and a maximum count of seven Yellowhammer - a very good record these days. One Great White Egret and at least six Little Egrets were seen during the morning, a sign of these modern times. I had high hopes for a Tree Sparrow sighting, but had to content myself with House Sparrows, two Great Spotted Woodpeckers and an assortment of Chaffinches, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits. Time past quickly and we headed off home very pleased to have seen such a nice fish, it's been a long time coming!