Cold comfort down the drain

      Saturday and it's mid-afternoon and another chance to try for a pike. The conditions did not look promising, a strong and bitterly cold easterly wind, blinding sunlight and ice forming in the margins amongst the reeds. Three rods cast out to the far bank, near bank and centre channel with a selection of baits including pollan, smelt and sprat for starters and the changes rung with mackerel and rudd.
      I leapfrog the rods along the bank trying find the fish but ominously there aren't any kingfishers feeding on fry anywhere along the length and after covering around half a mile I begin to work my way slowly back using the same procedure but the going back produces the same result as the going out.
      Nothing.
      During the week I parked up alongside the Sixteen Foot Drain to talk to a pike angler who said he fishes four times a week and he hasn't had a pike since before Christmas and he was using four rods, that is a hell of a lot of rod hours. Welcome to the club. His opinion was that so much water had gone through the system and that coupled with the low temperatures had put the fish in a state of torpor with the shallower drains suffering even more than the main drains. Either way it was another blank and there's always next week to feel optimistic about.
      Two weeks to go to the end of the season and I have to say I'm not feeling optimistic.