The start of a new adventure

Well before dawn, tomorrow morning, I will have made my first cast as a member of the syndicate water; where we held the John Roberts Memorial match on Jan 4th. I'll probably have to pinch myself, just to ensure I'm not dreaming? My talk/slide presentation, on Monday evening, to the Canterbury/Thanet PAC gang seemed to go OK and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, with Benno and I signing up, there are now seven of us with membership of this stunning venue. My ticket only allows me to fish on nine occasions between now and March 14th, so sharing info and experiences with the others will be a very useful aid to the learning process. The Pike that we are targeting aren't particularly huge, yet they would certainly compare very favourably with Scottish fish from an aesthetic angle.

With our membership confirmed, last week, Benno and I had a look around the
venue on Saturday morning. The lake was partially frozen yet allowed us to explore certain swims
with a "Deeper Pro". I had my camera kit and binoculars to hand and grabbed this
shot of an Egyptian Goose with a drake Tuftie, a Great Crested Grebe and a "red-head" Smew
for company.

I know that my personal efforts will revolve around the Pike and those problems which will need to be overcome. However, I am already aware there are also some very nice Perch in the fishery which could well provide a distraction, via a "snide (rod) on the side" approach? Andy L. showed me a photo of a 3 lbs 14 oz fish that he'd captured from the venue and it was awesome, plus it beats my PB by over 1 lb! So, whilst tomorrow will see me direct all my effort in the direction of Esox lucius, there will be a point where Perch enter the equation?