8am till 15.30
The rivers opened! After the rain we had last week, I thought they were going to not be fishable. Having checked fb when I woke up at 5 am ish, Barbel had already been caught on the Swale. Is this to be my season for a Swale Barbel? Only time will tell.
Today's plan was to meet at the boat, get it in the water and have a few hours with little lures for perch. Fortunately, Ellis was able to launch the boat last night. Today's new plan was to have more hours with little lures for perch!!
Loading the boat, it took us a while to remember what rods went where, what bits of kit fitted in which cubby hole and generally get back to boat fishing. It was not long till we were off on the river, ready to try and catch our first river fish if the season.
The river was high and very coloured, but certainly fishable. We headed off to our usual spots. First spot and a few casts in, we had both had bites. It seemed we had not forgotten everything we knew!
The bites suddenly turned into a catch, and we had our first fish. The old faithful perch. I was off the mark.
Ellis then joined in with a perch or two, and the boat was full of smiles.
We went to spots that we had fished before, they all looked different, due to more water and the vegetation. Not sure we had fished this early in season last year. The water coming in from the Leven was very very coloured and caused a very dirty looking washing machine effect on the main river.
Soon the drop shot king was in again, but this was a different sized perch....
I lost at least 5 fish, mostly perch that we saw. I must be rusty. If rust was going to be a problem, the downpour that started would be the culprit. Within seconds it went from nothing to buckets being poured over us. We had to drop the rods and shelter in the cabin. At 11.50, this proved to be a perfect stop time for lunch, so no fishing time was lost!!
Fishing a new spot, Ellis lost a fish that then surfaced right at the boat. He cast again, this time it followed right to the boat, but turned away. He did not see it clearly, but it was a much bigger fish than we had been catching and was either a chub or a perch. There is always next time, but for today, it was the one that got away!!
Watching the match men as we went past, it seemed they were catching a few early season fish too. Just looking at the results, 45lb won the match. A very decent weight, I would be happy for that when we do the " keep net, match style" session on the Tees. Watch this space!
Time was ticking away and we were approaching a spot we both really like. Lots of snags, but great fishing potential. Ellis had previously commented how we had not lost much tackle today, this was a curse and was about to change!!
Drifting past the area, we cast near the snags. Several tackle changes later, I had a bite as the lure reached the boat. The fish came Off!
Next cast, straight near the tree, and wham. The lure was nailed. This was another of those different shaped perch.....
Big smiles all round. We had set out to wet the boat, dust off the gear and catch some fish. Several perch, a couple of pike and a civilised sit down lunch. I could get quite used to this fishing life.
You may be asking where the title comes from? On our final drift over the snag swim, we were both poised for double figure pike as a double hook up. What we ended up with was me on one side of the boat snagged, and Ellis on the other side snagged!
Me chuckling to myself as Ellis proclaimed "simultaneous snags!" he has a way with words that man!!
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