Snow and fish

Good evening fellow bloggouts.

After spending 12 nights at the top end of the north arm, and no fish to show for it, we got on the move again. Paul moved to the Grand Pont to test his sanity against the traffic while I stayed in the north and set up on Pierres Plates for 3 nights before moving down to the cross onto one of the Les Plages swims, and after catching a few specimen sized roach at each swim that would of made my day 25 years ago, it was time to think again.

On a fairly regular basis you are told all sorts of stories about the whereabouts of fish and reported captures but after a while it becomes obvious that a lot of what you are told is just that - a story, and to cut a long one short, Cassien is not dissimilar to your average meeting down at Compulsive Bullshitters Anonymous. A trip in the van down towards the reserve on a sunny morning sorted out the whereabouts of fish dilemma, I reckon 80% of the fish are all down there where they are safe and with the water levels being higher than usual, there is plenty of space and plenty of food so you can't really blame them. The day after, Kevin Ellis became free so I moved in there because along with the Aviron swim, its as close as you can legally get to the buggers and although they've a lot for water in the no fishing area , they've got to move out at some point so it was worth a go and its produced two fish for me, and after six weeks without one it was nice to see a few on the bank. Not the biggest fish in the world, both were mid 30's and the second one was in such bad condition, I put it straight back but the other fish was a good looking old'ish mirror and a nice one to have in the snow.

Although we've had the snow it hasn't been as cold as the last cold spell in January, but when all this lot melts it won't have a positive effect on the water temperature that was previously creeping back up, and with the fish I've had coming after the previous night had been mild, and Tom the Englishman having a 48lb mirror a week before in the same conditions, cold water isn't the top of the wants list and it might not do us any favours but we'll find out thats for sure.

See you soon