Wind chill

I didn't fancy another session on the river with strong winds forecast for Thursday. A day sat under a brolly with the kettle by my side seemed like a much better option. I was sure to get plenty of action on the commercial - even if it was from small carp.

Cosy, cosy

It certainly was windy. Although the air temp was over eight degrees the chill factor was considerable. The wind was also blowing from an awkward direction for the swim I wanted to fish. So strong was it that the only way I could catapult maggots out was by doing it from the peg upwind!

Things started off well with a sucked maggot on the first cast. I didn't get another bite for almost four hours. This was from a small roach. Coincidence or not, the bite came after the heavy cloud cover had thinned and the day brightened. In fact bites started to come at intervals of fifteen minutes to half an hour during the afternoon. Maybe fish had just found the bait. Surprisingly none of the bites resulted in carp. It was mainly small roach, plus one rudd that had a much more orangey hue to its back than usual - like a goldfish. I've heard of 'golden' rudd, so I guess that's what it was. The photograph doesn't paint an accurate picture.

Not your average rudd

I'd been hoping for perch and a couple did come along, but not as big as I would have liked. One took the bait when I'd dropped the rig in the margin, and was so small it would have done for a livebait if it hadn't fallen off. The other wasn't much bigger.

Four sessions this week should help me bear the stress of building up of the batch of blanks that arrived yesterday. The weather prospects for the next few days look unsettled so the rivers might, or might not, be worth a try. It's the subzero night time temperatures that put me off - and that white stuff coming out of the clouds.

Brrr

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