At first light today there was a thick frost, so bad I had to scrape it off the car so that I could take my wife to work. But I didn’t mind doing that because it was then ready to go fishing when I got back to pick my tackle up. 
My mates Dave Colclough and Eddie Bibby were already fishing the local lake with their sights set on tench and bream. The lake holds some decent ones to almost double figures, but I didn’t hold much hope after such a sharp and heavy frost.
My fears were well-founded as it turned out, for when I arrived to join them at about 10.30am I heard that the overnight carp anglers had caught only a low double between them and had one other run. Neither Dave nor Ed had had a bite, with Ed float fishing with his new 20ft Leeda Match rod and Dave fishing two rods on Method Feeder and boilies.
I too fished boilies on the Method, as much as anything because I wanted a relaxing few hours on my chair while I read my book and dozed off. I’d had a hectic week and just wanted to wind down.
I did that all right. I had one bite – a short run and then a drop-back – at 3pm, but my strike met no resistance. By 5pm we’d had enough and packed for home. In spite of the lack of sport we still enjoyed it. We didn’t expect to catch anything after such a hard frost, and in that respect we weren’t disappointed.
It’s the show at the NEC next weekend, so I hope to see you there. Maybe I’ll take your picture and you’ll end up in the Diary. But don’t let that put you off!
