Getting cold but dry at least!

When I woke this morning I had a feeling it was going to be a tough day by the waterside. The rain has finally ceased (for now) and the river is back in it's banks, well most of it is. I hadn't planned on tackling running water, still far too much dirty brown water in there for my liking so I headed off to a favourite local still water of mine in the hope of a big Perch. There had been a sharp drop in temperature overnight and the forecast was for bright and cold conditions all day, not ideal for Perch but I still had an air of enthusiastic optimism about me.
The plan of attack was to fish Prawn in the edge baiting regularly with mashed Prawn and red maggot.
The fish were having none of it. This lake is stream fed so has had and is still getting lots of water in it, freezing cold water this morning. The fish were keeping their mouths shut. Still it was a lovely day to be outdoors. I had started the session fishing for big Perch, three hours later I was just fishing for bites. A change of area and a change to maggots brought me fish. The float would twitch, wiggle and just about go under, the were being finicky due to the conditions. I finished the day with a few very small Perch.....

and a few slightly bigger Roach.

As the sun went behind the trees my feet started to feel a bit icy so I packed away, satisfied to have avoided the blank and caught a few fish.

Click here to see a summer session at Hailes