Getting started

 It was just after 07.15 hrs, on Friday morning, that I was finally able to cast a baited rig into my selected section of The Stour. With little more than three hours at my disposal, I had already decided that I would leapfrog the rods back towards my van (thus upstream) at hourly intervals. This is exactly what I did, but without any joy, on this first foray. It was a fabulous session, with so many positive learning opportunities as I went through my repertoire of bait presentation gambits. 

In the time that I was on the bank I probably covered 200m of river. I was fishing to features, which were obvious because of overhanging trees and similar signs, Only once did I see any fish activity, although it was fairly blatant when it occurred, I did have one "possible" pull out of the clip, but it didn't develop. A new project, on a totally new section of river, what's not to get excited about? 

As I said in my previous post, I'm not down there "playing games". 50 lbs b.s. braided mainline, Marlin Steel, seven strand, wire traces and size 2 or 4 Drennan/Partridge "doubles" in conjunction with big, heavily flavoured and/or dyed baits, with the option of additional buoyancy. Bite detection is via "back biter - type" alarms which are manufactured by my brother, Sye, specifically for the situations we seek to explore.  OTT? Quite possibly. What I don't want is a situation where I feel under-gunned.

The real highlight of this first session was a conversation with a fellow C&DAA member who turned up at around 10.00 hrs. He was also targeting the Pike and was incredibly generous with his advice as he recalled the successes of the past six seasons at the venue. A very similar vintage to myself, I guess, he had nothing to prove and was, as a result, totally honest with his opinions about the river and what lies ahead for me as I chase my goal. I don't know his name yet am very grateful for the conversation we enjoyed.

I'm back down to the river for a couple of sessions over the next two days. Monday will be very similar to my previous foray, yet Tuesday has a window of opportunity which might allow a full day? It all depends on the school run requirements of the grand-kids. Either which way, Tuesday is also the Canterbury/Thanet PAC regional Christmas bash, so something very much to look forward to. Now that The Stour is in a condition where I feel confident to present a bait, I'm really excited about the prospects of achieving my target before the end of January.