Chatham (Rochester Civic Centre Esplanade) 11/05/03
GR:
HW : 7.00am (ish) Showers with a SW wind force 4-6

Got up at 3am …….. kept thinking I must be mad, and wouldn’t stamp collecting be much more fun!!!!
After a cup of coffee and a stiff talking to (by myself), loaded the car and set off for Rochester…….
As I drove down, first light started occur around 4.30am, and by the time I arrived just before 5am, a reasonable amount of the night gloom had lifted, allowing me to set up one of the match rods to float fish with off the slipway, until the tide had risen sufficiently to allow me to fish off the steps directly.
It was a lovely clear and sunny dawn, with only a breath of wind, just stirring the surface of the almost mirrored water……

By 6.10am I was able to set up the breadbag down the wall, and by 6.30am a second rod with a self-hooking rig, and started float fishing off the steps with the other….. very shortly after, the float bobbed under, but rather than the monster mullet I was hoping for … up popped a thumbnail size shore crab!!!!!!!!!!

The morning continued to be sunny and bright, but with a nip in the air with the wind blowing straight up the river, and into my face ……. By 9.30am, the sun was gone, and grey cloud was all that was to be seen…… followed rapidly by intermittent rain and showers, and a stiffening wind, that made the waters somewhat choppy…… and as for the wind chill!!!!

10.40am managed to let the float drift in the current, along the retaining wall towards the main flow…. Unfortunately in doing so, managed to get myself snagged on the submerged weed below the waterline … after some pulling and jerking, and finally going up onto the retaining wall itself, I managed to pull free, without loss…… and just to add to the fun, the wind and chop started to increase yet once again……

11.15am, managed to pull up yet another pin sized crab …… with the wind blowing as it was, I decided to swap the waggler I’d been using to a Loffer 2 Swann in the hope I could get around the worst of it …… with limited success ….. but still no sign of any fish…….

By 11.45am, the water level had dropped away from the steps, and it was decision time ….. was I going to hang around for an hour or so, before I could move onto the sunken wall, or get in the car and go home, and generally thaw-out in some comfort ……
Decided to give Leon a call …… when I suggested I was thinking of packing it in and going home, rather than hanging around, and stay for the fish-in Leon had organised, the voice of disappointment that came back from the other end of the line, told me I should perhaps reconsider …..
Leon suggested I come over to Sun Pier, which was more sheltered from the prevailing wind …… somewhat reluctantly (I was already dreaming of a hot toddy and bed at home) I agreed to do so ….. and so I packed up, but not before looking over what exposed wall areas where available, for any signs of lip-marks ….. there were none!!!!!!

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