Frost on the windscreen this morning was to be expected - ice covering my water for the day, was not, although had I thought about it, the very cold nights since the week end should have told me what to expect !
The ice was very thin, but it covered the whole water, so to fish at all I needed to clear a swim, which I did with a convenient 6' length of 3" square timber joist, part of a pile waiting to be used for repairs to various swims...
A ten minute spell of gently wafting this thing back and forth soon cleared an area a rod length out, so I realised I would be dropping the float into the cleared area, rather than casting. It crossed my mind that a Pole would've been most useful !
Tackling up, I noticed the unhooking mat was covered in a layer of frost almost immediately, so I knew I would need to keep the rod well above the surface if I was to avoid frozen rings, and should a decent fish bite, the loss of it and the tackle because I could not give line...
Strangely enough it wasn't that cold as the air was very dry ( unlike yesterday with it's damp, cold air and drizzle ) so it was reasonable comfortable to sit and fish - for the first couple of hours anyway !!
The catch, if you can call it that, consisted a 3/4lb perch, a 1/2lb roach, and a few small perch off the bottom, all on red maggots. I missed many fish because I foolishly waited for dips of the float to develop into a proper take, as when I did strike at a dip, I connected with a fish ! I again used a very light, strong smelling ground bait in minute quantities with loose kept to a minimum. The landing net froze to the unhooking mat which made things interesting when landing the perch !
A pal had one bite for a 1lb roach in prime condition which forced him to fish on for another couple of hours - all to no avail....
All things considered, a very enjoyable session with the odd blaze of sunshine raising the air temperature a tad for a couple of hours, and hopefully I shall do a repeat performance tomorrow, although looking at the forecast I may need to suffer temperatures below this mornings -2 degrees !
Perhaps I shall do a 9,30 / 2.30 instead...............................................
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