Tuesday 13th March 2012.

Once the boys were dropped off at school we popped over to gillingham for some bait and munchies,today is the first fishing day of the year for me! back home we had a breakfast and then its off to shearwater,the fog was very thick,down to 20 yards mostly,once there it was great you couldn't see the float if you cast too far! today i was fishing with my cane rod and my 1890's reel and one of my home made floats.Within 20 minutes the float slid under the water as i picked up the rod i connected with a carp and 10 minutes later i landed a 5lb common carp it was a fish i had caught before,recognisable by a deformity in its mouth.The water fowl were a pain and were hard to convince to bugger off,4 hours 3 pies and a can of fanta later and  the rod was pulled from the rest and i just caught the rod as it near went in the water,this was a far more powerful fish and i did recall the rumours about catfish having been illegally introduced into the lake,but this just wasn't that big,none the less i fought for a good 20 minuted with 40 yards of line being stripped at times before i even got a glimpse of the fish,it was a mirror carp and incredibly no monster.After another 5 minutes it was landed a nice fish a real power house of piscatorial joy ,once photoed it was returned. Time to pack up the fog was thickening again and getting very cold,not the best days fishing i have had at shearwater but enjoyable and a chance to de-stress and at the end of the day that's what fishing is all about isn't it?