Effort = success

A more apt title, for this post, might have been "Everything comes to he who waits"? A session on the Royal Military Canal, today, was the precursor for my February challenge. I'd not done much more than keep an eye on the BBC weather app, pertaining to what was occurring around the Hythe area. Wind strength/direction, sunshine/cloud cover, temperatures and moon phases don't figure in my Pike angling. The single most important factor is water quality/clarity and, for me to have any chance of success, lack of rainfall is key. Thus, I'd been keeping abreast of rainfall predictions and come to the conclusion that today would be worth a gamble. With the benefit of last winter's campaign logged clearly in my diaries, it was a very simple task to pick a section where I felt confident of some Pike action. All that was required is for the Pike to have read the same script!

There's gold at the end of them RMC rainbows.

On my way by 05.10 hrs, I was pushing my barrow along the tow-path little more than an hour later. Three baits in position less than two hours after leaving home and I was feeling confident. Three hours, and two leapfrogs, later and that confidence was definitely on the wane. It was 10.40 hrs when I rang Bev and almost immediately my right hand alarm signalled a take. What a total pig's ear I made of the situation and missed the fish completely - didn't feel a thing! Bait quickly repositioned, it was less than ten minutes later that the same rod was away again (almost certainly the same fish?) and this time, no phone involved, I went through the drill and set the hooks. Game on!

I knew it was a decent fish, the fight being dogged yet not spectacular, and within a couple of minutes it was in the net. Once unhooked, the scales revealed my prize to be a smidge under 21lbs and a very nice way to get the project started. Really thankful that I've now got that intervalometer gizmo, although there's still a long way to go before I'd say it was performing to the level required - operator error, on my part, without question. I remained on the bank for another three hours - not another bleep from the alarms. It would seem that if I'm to salvage anything from this dismal 2022/23 season then the RMC is where it will happen?