Neil Maidment
Senior Member
A week or so ago Dave Taylor and I had a day out in the iconic Bridge Pool. It's local but the tides for the day dictated 4:30am alarms needed to be set for a pre-dawn meet up in the centre of Christchurch. We knew the tides would build until early afternoon and then very quickly "empty" the Avon into the harbour. It was Dave's first trip to the punt, I'd fished it several times before but not since the 1980's.
Setting up with the aid of the street lighting just ramped up the anticipation.
First challenge was to get into the punt! The first building tide of the day was already beginning to cover the fixed steps, even with my wellies on it was almost a "stride too far". Dave, on the the hand, wasn't wearing wellies but we eventually made it with all fishing (and camera) gear safely aboard.
Dave was first to see a bend in the rod, turned out to be a very sizable seatrout that never really got close to the net. The first of quite a few long distance releases! Seatrout dominated the day but we had a few very good sized dace and a single roach.
A superb day out in the best of company. Many old memories recalled and new ones made for both of us.
Setting up with the aid of the street lighting just ramped up the anticipation.
First challenge was to get into the punt! The first building tide of the day was already beginning to cover the fixed steps, even with my wellies on it was almost a "stride too far". Dave, on the the hand, wasn't wearing wellies but we eventually made it with all fishing (and camera) gear safely aboard.
Dave was first to see a bend in the rod, turned out to be a very sizable seatrout that never really got close to the net. The first of quite a few long distance releases! Seatrout dominated the day but we had a few very good sized dace and a single roach.
A superb day out in the best of company. Many old memories recalled and new ones made for both of us.