A good start to the year!

Although today was not my first trip of the year, until now I had not been able to dedicate more than an hour or two at a time to my fishing since Christmas, mostly due to work. However this week I 'm not complaining about being a secondary school teacher as it's half term and I'm making the most of it!

After considerable debate with myself about where to fish I settled on Littlebourne following the advice of some friends on a fishing forum. As the sun came up over Birch lake this morning I made my first casts, sat back and appreciated my surroundings whilst waiting for my first bite.

First fish of the year: 3lb 14oz Tench!

I started off with one rod fishing maize in the margin and one on pellet mid-water over some lilies which have died back for the winter. It was this rod that went first at about 10am. The take was strange, shaky and intermittent. This tench was the result, hopefully I will see a few more of these this year!

After the rod in the margin had been sat there stationary for a few hours I brought it back in an changed the bait to luncheon meat. This was clearly a good move as 30 minutes after I recast it went screaming off with this 14lb 10oz common carp!

Mid afternoon the same rod went off again, same bait, same spot. This time a 14lb 7oz mirror carp.

As I was returning the mirror to the water it hung around in the recovery sling long enough for me to get my phone out of my pocket and capture it swimming off safely.

After that it went quiet and got very cold! I decided to quit while I was ahead as in the past I have gone on to ruin it with a funny five minutes or even as I call it 'happy hour' where one bad decision or rushed action follows another and ends up with poor casts, spooked fish or even lost tackle. Today this was not going to happen. Everything had gone perfectly and that is how I will remember it!