"You Must Be Mad"...

...Those were the words that were hurled in my direction by one of the locals, as I made my way back to the car. Given that it was -2C when I arrived and had only risen to 0C on leaving, coupled with the fact that I was fishless, I could kind of see their point!

The plan for the day was actually totally different. I'd got a free day and with the weather looking nice and settled (if cold), I fancied using up some old maggots and bread on the river. I'd decided on the Lido as it would be easy to access in the conditions and I quite fancied chucking a couple of feeders out from the sank bank area.

Well it all went belly up at 6-30am when I discovered one of our cats had pebble dashed the front room carpet again. The poor little fella had a case of the runs last week, but seemed to be over it. Not wanting a sick cat over Christmas, I had to cancel my plans and take a trip to Nuneaton, to be relieved of a few quid.

By 9-40am we were back home with a sulking ginger tom, albeit he had the last laugh by leaving a deposit in his box for us! Could have been worse - he could have left it in my slippers!

Anyway, it was too early in the day to write it off, so I decided I'd have a couple of hours of Piking. So it was into the freezer for a supply of Morrisons sprats (a bargain at about 75p for two dozen) and off to the river. I decided on the Alveston stretch rather than Lido.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't bank any fish, but I did hook a Jack. It was on for a few seconds, but slipped off the hook as I bent down to pick up the net. I didn't get any further knocks, but it was just a bonus to be on the bank again. I wasn't the only one fishing - I saw what was either a Mink or an Otter working the far bank late in the session, while the usual Kingfisher put in an appearance too.

Merry Christmas and tight lines to anyone out fishing over the festive period. I'm hoping to get out again myself at least once more before the new year, so maybe there's at least one more fish to be had in this year yet!