My retirement RMC Pike journey

It was back in the winter of 2011/12 that I first cast a dead bait into the Royal Military Canal. At this point in time Benno lived in Sandgate and the canal started just along the road at Seabrook. Over the next decade I, along with Benno and a couple of his mates, explored the Pike fishing along the banks from Seabrook in the east, all the way to Iden Lock (which is in East Sussex) in the west. That's around twenty miles of water, so there was plenty of scope for exploration and learning. Although we certainly caught some nice Pike during this period, including several twenties, I never felt that we'd come close to cracking the code.

Benno with his first RMC twenty - December 2016 near Iden Lock

It was 3rd December 2020, so during "Covid" that I finally stumbled upon an area which got me excited. On the day before my sixty-fifth birthday I managed to land two Pike, and at 22 lbs 6 oz and 19 lbs 5 oz they constituted the best brace I'd caught from the venue. Work within the Fujifilm digital ink department was off the scale, as we were manufacturing the medical grade ink used by Pfizer, Astra Zenika and Moderna for their vaccine labels and instruction leaflets. However, this was all about to come to an end for me when I had a major fall out with an egotistical half-wit, within middle management, that resulted in me opting to retire in April 2021. In hindsight, the best thing I've done, workwise and not too bad from an angling perspective either?

So without having to worry about work, or holiday entitlement, my ability to get out on the bank was virtually limitless. I obviously have family commitments not only to Bev, but also the grand-kids, so didn't morph into a time-bandit. Sessions remained relatively short; four or five hours being the norm, yet I could get three in per week if conditions suggested it would offer a decent chance of a result. In the run up to the 2021/22 Pike season I set myself the target of landing three twenties, something I'd hadn't managed since the 1986/87 season. On top of this, I also wanted to land twenty doubles, so it was quite a high bar I'd set myself. I got off to a flyer, landing five doubles, including a brace of eighteen pounders, before the end of October.

21 lbs 1 oz - the photo kindly taken by Kevin (a dog walker)
13th January 2022

This trend was to continue right through the winter and I ended the season with a ridiculous tally of twenty-one doubles and five twenties. I'd certainly never experienced anything like it in my entire life. One unexpected side effect of being down on this particular section of the canal was the friendships established with complete strangers who were also using the canal for their own reasons, be that walking the dog(s), jogging, cycling or simply having a stroll. You need to remember this is post lockdowns and folk were beginning to realise just how important the freedoms, we'd previously taken for granted, really were. If there is anything positive I can take from the pandemic then it was a willingness to talk with others about subjects which previously wouldn't have been discussed. Mental health being a particular area which had been avoided by "proper" blokes! Certainly within a factory environment. 

13th February 2023 and the best Pike of season two. 21 lbs 3 oz

I got a bit distracted at the start of the 2022/23 Pike season and didn't actually bother until mid-January. However, over the course of eight, and a bit, weeks I managed to land another eleven Pike over double figures, of which four were twenties. Happy days. One thing was becoming very clear by this time. The Pike in the canal appeared to have a glass ceiling of around twenty-two pounds and it was a very rare individual which managed to push through this barrier. This echoed something I'd been told, way back in the early 1980's by Lester Strudwick. He was a fellow member of the Tring Syndicate at the time and also a member of The Carpike Specimen Group. Even back then, a twenty was a big Pike, but for wild fish to attain weights in excess of twenty-two, or three, pounds required exceptional circumstances. So you can imagine my utter surprise when I crossed paths with a Romanian guy, who lives in Ashford, who was lure fishing the same stretch as I was on. During our conversation he told me that he'd taken a twenty-eight pounder from very close to where I was set up." Oh yeah, of course you did" was my immediate thought, but he then showed me some photos (and a set of scales) to confirm that, indeed, it was genuine. We've met several times since and it turns out that he is an exceptionally gifted lure angler with the same catch and release ethic as all other real Pike anglers.

The first twenty of the February brace - 20 lbs 8 oz

At the start of season three (2023/24) I now had the added drive of knowing that the chosen section was capable of turning up a very big fish, so I began in November determined to search for one of the elusive canal monsters. I was doing okay and by the end of January had landed fourteen doubles, but nothing bigger than eighteen pounds. It was around this period that Bev's cancer was to become the central focus of our lives, yet on 1st February 2024 I managed to land two "twenties" in a session for the first time in my life. 20 lbs 8 oz & 23 lbs 6 oz, this brace finally allowed me to replicate something my brother Sye had done on The Hampshire Avon way back in the 1980's. With the cancer treatment taking centre stage, my angling was little more than folly after this. I still ended the season with those two twenties and twenty other doubles, so not too bad plus the biggest fish was my new RMC PB!

At 23 lbs 6 oz - my new RMC PB by over a pound.
Cracking fish, but still not above that "glass ceiling"

So now it's the beginning of the 2024/25 season and things are very different at home. Although Bev's cancer treatment had been successful, the anxiety side effects were causing major issues with her mental and physical health. All of a sudden, under these circumstances, you get to realise just how unimportant Pike fishing really is? To be fair, I did get off to a decent start in October, landing a lovely fish of 17 lbs 10 oz on my very first visit, but my heart really wasn't in it. 

28th October 2024 - my first bite of the new campaign 17 lbs 10 oz

The weather impacted massively on the November/December period with EA flood prevention efforts ensuring that the canal was a filthy mess for the majority of the winter. I then got distracted by the syndicate lake, something I now regret. After input from Macmillan Cancer support, in Kent & Canterbury Hospital, we'd been registered to adopt a dog from the Canterbury Dogs Trust, in Chestfield. On 8th February Bev's companion, Bruno, came home and the whole world turned on it's head as a result. I've never owned a dog, so everything is new to me. But with Bev's anxiety levels back under control it was possible for me to start thinking about a return to the RMC. It was never going to be that simple, as Bev now has a trapped nerve in her back, thus reducing her mobility. Taking Bruno out for exercise has been my main priority recently, although I knew Bev's situation was on the mend and thought I might get one last session in on Thursday 6th March. I did and this produced a lovely Pike of eighteen pounds which I felt would be a fitting finale to the season if I were unable to get back again. Thankfully the angling gods were smiling down and, late on Sunday night, I realised that there would be an opportunity for one final visit on Monday. I am no great believer in "karma" or any such other nonsense, yet what occured on that fateful morning will stay etched in my memory for the rest of my days.

25 lbs 7 oz of angling heaven.
It's not the heaviest Pike I've ever caught but, it is certainly the best one, by a country mile.

The glass ceiling was well and truly smashed by the capture of that magnificent Pike. I've now landed fourteen "twenties" from the RMC, twelve of which have been since I retired. It is my desire to chase the unknown which will keep me enthused to return to this historic venue until my age and health says otherwise. So this might be the final chapter, but it certainly ain't the end of the journey?