Mission Five-One

The alarm sounded at six, signalling my first Thames perch mission of the season - but a horrible cold kept me hitting the snooze button every 10 minutes for three hours.

With limited time I couldn't afford to miss a trip to the river, I decided to stay closer to home and try to bag the 5lb 1oz of barbel I needed to break the 100lb mark this year.

And a 4lb 8oz fish (above) on the first cast was a good start, nearly there... A few swims later I connected to a 5lb 1oz fish (below) - Mission accomplished!


A move further down the river I had a fish about 7lb, which managed to escape from the landing net while I was sorting out the scales and camera - I know, photo or it didn't happen!

Then the rain came, soaked through and snotty I headed for home. Perch mission postponed until next weekend...