An early start.

Little Cerys is becoming more and more active and demanding now and even though I'm finding time to squeeze in a few sessions I'm finding even less time to sit in front of the computer to write about them, the next few are a bit of a catch-up.

Three weeks ago I was having one of those sleepless nights, Cerys had settled down and was asleep but we kept being disturbed by intermittent barking from the dogs next door, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't block it out, when half past three rolled around onto the clock face I went for another pace around the house and noticed the sky starting to turn blue, there was some fishing planned for the next day and I had bait ready to go, so, what was going to be an evening session turned into an early morning stint and by half past four I had my first fish on the bank.

The venue was the Sowe just down the road (10 minute walk) and the first spot I fished was in the park just down from the Chase Hotel, it's usually filled with people playing football or walking their dogs but at this time of the morning everything was still and quiet. I fancied the run just down from a pipe that crosses the river and when I peered over the bank side overgrowth I saw a couple of silver flashes in the deeper run, I was using my trotting rod with red maggot as bait and on the second run through I had my first fish on, a lovely Roach. It only made five ounces but the condition was immaculate. 

First fish of the day

I moved around a fair bit and could have done with a machete to get to some of the parts I'd fished earlier in the year, this stretch isn't fished much. As soon as the dog walkers started to appear I headed back for breakfast, I lost count of how many Roach I'd caught but as the morning got lighter and warmer they disappeared and I started to catch more and more Minnow's and Gudgeon.