I hadn't even got to the river when I had to kite away from the footpath, sneaking as well as I could having plopped the gear down, I got as close as I dare, they are common place around here but to get a shot of a red kite on a tree would be a good start to the day.
I wasn't sure if it was my size 10 waders stomping through the high grass or another kite that flew close but it took off, one kite soon become two, then three, as an aerial ballet took place overhead akin to a WW2 dogfight, naturally I snapped away and of course I missed every shot, at least I got one of it on it's perch and given the amount of bleak in this part of the Thames it may be the only perch I see all day, see what I did there? Let's go fishing.
This was a new stretch of Middle Thames for me having only fished the weir upstream many decades ago, it looked good with chublets visible and plenty of swirls on the surface, I knew these were likely to be bleak but it was a stark contrast to the lifeless looking Kennet I fished a few days ago, I was eager to get going and picked a good looking spot between some trees.
I was less enthusiastic when my first handful of feed hit the surface and was immediately smashed by a shoal the silver hordes, even by bleak standards this was impressive and showed far quicker reactions than I had with the camera ten minutes prior. I set up a heavy stick with bulk shot but even with caster it was all blade bleak save for an initial first cast roach.
A regroup and move was on the cards and I'm glad I did, ok it looked like bleak everywhere, figuratively speaking of course, the weather was glorious the river looked great, walkers, joggers and the odd boater were enjoying the river, so I stayed positive, then I got to this spot, I just had to fish here.
Normally old pillboxes have some bad graffiti but this was art, Vera Lynn and two brave yet happy soldiers either side flanked by poppies, kind of puts bad fishing days into perspective doesn't it? The other side has a drawing of a spitfire which made me think of the red kites earlier. Then a military helicopter crossed low behind it showing the contrast of old and new.
Vera looked on as I balled in two lumps of mashed bread in my new swim as a change of tactics, this was instantly hit by bleak but it's a much better bait to have on the hook, I started on a crease two rod lengths out which was a good 10-11ft deep.
First cast the float bobbles around like a lunatic, I wait for a proper bite and naturally the first few fish are chublets but it's a start, then I get a silver fish, not a bleak this time but a cute little silver bream.
The bleak were still causing problems but I was able to get through to a few roach now and the chub were starting to get a bit bigger.
There wasn't too much boat traffic although every one noticed the pillbox art as did the walkers behind me, this saved me from being the topic of their conversation like we often are when fishing, so it was nice to just blend in unnoticed as I netted a slightly larger silver bream.
A reed warbler fluttered back and forth between the vegetation that offered me a sun trap as by now the wind had picked up but it was the perfect direction upstream and across helping me to edge the float through picking up slightly better chub which was fun.
I then thought I spotted a deer in one of the gardens opposite as I just caught a glimpse of something dark disappearing behind a bush, only for it to emerge as one of those robot lawnmowers! "Times have changed" I said to Vera, clearly in need of a swig of water.
When I wasn't seeing imaginary deer or talking to our Vera the roach were decent size but I imagined a lot of the bleak bites I was getting were smaller roach, although by now I was on an even heavier float as that wind I was lauding earlier got a tad too blowy.
