We arrived and set up camp a few hours before the off. Whilst sitting back we proceeded to pretty much hand feed Monster Rudd with floating bread, it really was a case of sitting on our hands until 12am. When the time came, we were both ready to go. Wink decided on casting out his ledgers and hitting the sack, but I fancied having ago at the Rudd straight away. First cast my float fished bread had hardly settled before the float had gone, and within seconds of the season starting I was attached to a big Rudd. Unfortunately it came adrift and left me sitting back in my chair totally gutted. Not to be beaten, I made another cast; a damn good decision too as it turned out, as I netted my first Rudd of the new season at 3lb 2oz! This was exactly the start I had hoped for, and after a brace of 2lb+ Rudd I hit the sack for an hour.

On waking I decided to go try and stalk some Rudd with floating crust, but the lack of Rudd was very apparent. I think the shortage of Rudd probably had something to do with the sheer amount of Carp, and seeing as though one of my seasons targets was to stalk one of the surface it had to be attempted! I just so happened to have a rod set up at camp with heavy line and a big hook for just this, but no matter how times I tried to use it the Carp kept shying away. My Rudd rod was kitted up with 6lb line, a little light but I had to see if it would make a difference. I made a cast just beyond a cruising Common, and within seconds I was attached to it motoring down the drain. After a bit of running around I soon had it in the net; not a monster at just under double figures, but a target obtained non the less.

After seeing that we were obviously camped out in a spot without many Carp, we decided to move to a spot with better potential; I had caught a few nice Rudd by now and was only to happy to do so. The next swim was pretty similar to the rest of the River, but we were drawn to it after spotting big Carp and Rudd prior to the season starting. After the first night and day I slept all of the second night. Around mid-morning Wink had a steady take on a 10mm boilie and was soon staring down at a fish he should of got a photo of last season; a 2lb 10oz Rudd. Later that afternoon I landed another cracking Rudd of 2lb 14oz. All in all it had been I cracking start to the season with a total of eleven 2lb plus Rudd caught between us, with the biggest going 3lb 2oz. The carp had proven extremely scarce, but they would wait!