It came around a bit too quickly this year and caught me slightly off guard, but still my sleep was fitful on the night of the 15th.
Opening Day really is a bit special. So much happens in three months, and though the first fingers of spring were gently gripping in mid March, you step back into a different world come mid June.
Hugh came down from London for the event, and we were meeting Ben and Bertie (age 6) on the bank. The journey to the lake was glorious – so much so that we changed direction in order to pick up a more scenic route.
Bertie nabbed the first fish of the season – a roach of 4oz or so – before Ben managed one a fair bit bigger. The pike were voracious, the grass snakes a distraction. Cath and Bader were welcome lunch guests and the afternoon a lazy drift in the sunshine.
By teatime I was getting slightly anxious that I had yet to catch, and by dusk, after three lost fish and some rusty striking, I feared a blank.
I needn’t have worried – a late brace of tench rounded the day rather nicely – and Hugh too found a tinca. A pretty much perfect start then – the finest of company and the finest of early season fish.
Kevin Parr 
Just a perfect day,
Drinking tea by the lake,
Spying on patrolling chub,
Casting on the button.
An escape route for the treecatcher,
A jackpike provides some fun sport,
And then later,
Silently waiting,
out of the silent, still, swim
lurches a buckling tinca
Shiny, slimy, summer perfection.
You reap just what you sow.
Well said Captor o’ the Trees…..
….it was a rather lovely day.