Blankety Blank

The title says it all really. An early start, on Saturday, had me staring through the gloom at frozen ponds and flooded rivers. I ended up fishing a small estate lake with the lure rod. During two circuits of the lake I fished a variety of crank baits and soft  4 plays with out even a follow. Part way through the session a mate turned up,  after a half hearted go with lures he gave up and fished dead baits. Dropping them around likely looking features for 20 -30minutes at a time. This tactic can normally be relied on to produce a few jacks, especially to sprat. He'd fished four swims, and was on his way to a fifth, when I left at lunch time. A phone call that evening revieled he'd also blanked.

A new trend among pike anglers?

The nearest thing to excitement that day was my fetching yellow gloves. There was a bit of a cold breeze initially, this coupled with the spray you get from multipliers and braid was making my hands cold. I realized I'd put my neoprene gloves in the wrong lure bag the night before. A quick rummage round the car produced a pair of old work gloves which, despite their alarming colour, kept my hands warm until the sun shine turned up.

A slightly later start on Sunday found me at the syndicate water. A couple of hours fishing jerk baits produced nothing. So after watching the only other angler catch a couple of 15lb carp, I settled in my chosen swim.  Lamprey under the tree to my left. Smelt over by the remains of a lily bed to the right at the edge of the ice tat had formed in the bay. A popped up sardine was cast out in front. 

We had noted that the ice seemed to be spreading as the morning had gone on and sure enough, after an hour in that swim it was now surrounding my floats. Although only thin at this point as I wasn't sure if it was going to get thicker. So I decided to move. As I moved a slight breeze got up and after half an hour the ice had cleared.

Encroaching Ice

Despite regularly moving the baits to different features. Fishing the top, bottom and halfway up the drop of. Adjusting the pop up to various depths nothing happened. At one point a Heron landed on the far bank had a look around before flying off. This should have been a hint to give up and go home, especially when the Grebes had a few dives near where I was fishing and came up empty beaked, before swimming off out of my sight.

This year I've fished four different venues, twice or more, that can normally be guaranteed to produce a pike and failed. Things must pick up soon, surely.