New season - Afloat in a boat

The new seasons start was at 12:00am clock sharp, the rods in at the chime of the church bell. An invite from Andy saw me as a guest on his newly renovated boat positioned securely in the middle of the Warwickshire Avon in time for the kick off.  Where I cast a hopefull pellet into the dark waters and sat back to wait for the tip to wrap around....

Despite all the planning and pre baiting it was not about to bear fruit and we gave up after a couple of hours inactivity to get a little sleep in time for the dawn chorus, when we would hit the river again with float rods.

We headed out toward a weir and floatfished for silvers for a while, before deciding to try for some of the big perch near the bridge. First cast for me and a surprise Zed of about four pounds that put up a hell of a scrap - for a Zed anyway.  Then straight after Andy was in with another, and a new 7lb PB for him, a beautifully dark immaculate fish it was too.

My next take saw a 12lb 2oz Pike landed, before Andy followed shortly after with a Jack to keep the score even.

We paused for morning coffee and breakfast, then headed back on the river for more predator action. It was Andy who managed another small zed and pike, whilst my rod failed to find any more takes. By 10am though, we were all fished out and called it a day, happy but shattered by the lack of sleep.  The perch fishing was a bit of a let down, it would have been nice for us both to get the predator Royal flush, but they just didn't show today.

All the same it's so good to be back on the river.