Against All odds

I awoke this morning to 10cm's of snow on the ground, -4degrees on the thermometer and thought to myself am I really going Fishing.....Of course I am, my high spirits were soon brought down again when I was defrosting the car & clearing it of the snow, it was absolutely freezing and I knew the river would be suffering with ice.

I packed up the gear and headed off  and was wondering where to go as my usual fishing spot I wouldn't be able to get to due to the state of the roads and I didn't fancy getting the car stuck so opted for a place closer to home. On arriving at the river I had a look over the bridge and sure enough all that was missing was the titanic as the icebergs were moving down the river in great numbers, and I didn't fancy getting my back pummelled  again like a few weeks past, but I gave it a go anyway.

After nearly 2 hours of fishing and no bites at all I was beginning to think this would be a dry net day, the first in a long long time and probably well over due so decided one more trot down then I would start making my way back to the car....

The float was only half way down the swim and it dipped under, and I stuck but nothing, had it been a snag or was it a fish so I brought the float back for another run through and sure enough this time it dipped away in almost the exact same spot and I connected with my first fish of the day. It breaks no records but I sure was glad to see it and it meant no dry net day.

I opted to stay at the swim and see if it would provide any further fish and I didn't have to wait long till the float dipped away again and something more substantial; this time, I thought trout the way it zipped through the water at speed and kept deep, it was only as it came closer I knew it was indeed a Grayling and a nice sized one for the place I was fishing, a quick weigh and it revealed it was a new personal record for me for that particular river at 2lbs 1oz.

I was now wondering if the fish had started to come on the feed so down the float went again and almost in the same spot as I hooked the previous Grayling the float dipped away again and another fish on.

Again another nice Grayling for the river not as big as the last one but still a lovely fish never the less.

Little did I know but this was to be the last sight of a fish for the rest of the day and after another hour of no bites I decided to wander back to the car & call it a day.

On route back to the car it was nice to see the snowdrops poking through the snow in all their glory. A bit of perseverance and the rewards come, here was me thinking at one point it was going to be a dry net day and I ended up going home with a new PB Grayling for that river, how things change around in a short period of time.