Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted

Off to a new bit of river that's a bit of a walk. Nearly an hour's walk, in fact, once I've worked out how to actually get to it. This is what most people call the far bank, as most choose to fish this stretch from the opposite bank, which has a road running along it.

A lot of them then cast all the way across the river to this bank, myself included on my odd forays along the other side. The far bank, which is the near bank to all intents and purposes today, is totally different to the other bank.

It has cattle living on it, for starters. A rough-haired, rag-tag herd that have munched their way not only through the grass, but seem also to have denuded the banks of the fringe of flag rush that grows in great waving regiments elsewhere along both banks.

That means the far bank's bare and open enough to leap frog the rods along it. I have a plumb about to suss the depths as I get set up a couple of miles from the car. Interesting discovery number two - there's a shelf that goes out where it's shallower, instead of the plunge into 20ft of water on the other side.

The wind's tricky and the floats need 2oz leads to keep the baits anchored. Wrong floats too, but I can't be bothered to change to big inline sliders for this afternoon's scouting mission.

A mate texts from another water. He's catching but off soon. I decide to stick it out and leap frog the rods along this stretch instead of moving into his swim.

Even if I don't catch today, I'll get to know part of the river I've been meaning and meaning to try.

This is what my pike fishing's now become - shorter sessions, trying places which might come good later on once we've had some rain and the system colours up a bit.

Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted, as Dick Walker once said. Or was it the Duke of Wellington.