Coldest Blank of the Year

Against our better judgement and mainly because my mate and rarely get to fish together we decided to venture out today. Freezing fog and minus seven. Things didn't get off to a great start when the front lights on my mates car failed. So while he went to the garage to get them repaired I attempted to set off to the river in my car. I eventually managed to defrost the locks and get in.  Getting to the river I was surprised to see the edges frozen, in some places out to ten to twelve feet on the slower water behind trailing branches. This restricted the swims available. I did, however, find the glove I'd lost a couple of weeks ago.

I found a couple of fishable swims close together and set up the usual float rods both dropped at the bottom of the drop offs one of which I'd popped up in the hope that it may be more enticing waving about in the current. My mate arrived not long after I'd cast out, a faulty relay apparently. When he got to the other swim a cormorant popped up just as one dived. This gave him a bit of hope as he reasoned that there may be bait fish about. He set up float ledger like me, but with freshwater baits. A hand size skimmer and a small roach.  For the next couple of hours the baits were moved about occasionally. Not only to find fish, but also to stop the braid freezing solid on the spools. As we were having lunch a couple of boats came past, braking the ice and washing it out onto the river.

We moved to a couple of swims that had produced previously, sadly they failed to produce as well. We were blessed with the sight of an otter that swam across the river between us and a swan also came across, probably in the hope of been fed. No more cormorants though. Because of the fog the light started to fade early so we decided to call it a day. 

I thought I'd done rather well earlier in the month with three doubles from the river, so I can't really complain about the blanks.