I had to check the weather forecast more carefully than normal before my last trip – with the price of fuel the last thing I wanted was a 200 mile trip having to be aborted due to the lake having a lid on it!

In the end it looked like it would be ok as though the wind-chill would make it feel like -4 Celsius, temperatures would only drop to just below zero!

The plan was to arrive the night before and get set up ready for a dawn start – much nicer in my book than getting up at 4am. I was trying red pinkies on one of the two hooks on each rod – I just thought a smaller bait than two red maggots might attract more interest. It was interesting to note that when I dropped a feeder containing pinkies and red maggots in the margins, the pinkies travelled much further from the feeder giving a nice spread on the gravel. I hoped the roach would think so too! To add a bit of pulling power I added a dash of Sonubaits Pineapple flavour to the pinkies and red maggots.

One or two roach had come out the day before but with temperatures falling I knew it would be hard going. So it proved and the morning period, which usually is the best time, passed with 5 anglers all failing to register a bite. Just after mid-day the angler next to me had a fish of exactly 2lb. He packed up soon after so it didn’t take a second thought that a move would be wise.

All was quiet until 4 o’clock when my mate Dick had a 2-1 and within 5 minutes I had my only bite of the day – a 2-4 roach in lovely condition.  It came on the normal bait of two red maggots – so much for my pinkie theory! Its odd how anglers with hookbaits miles apart each get their only bite of the day so close to each other. It appears there must be something that triggers a very short feeding spell in fish in different shoals.

Whatever triggered the bite on my first day failed to work on the second day, the highlight of the day being a stunning sunrise which reminded all of the anglers there that catching fish is only part of what keeps us going.