Rings of Ice !

I was up nice and early before first light to go for a morning's lure fishing on the River Anker. In freezing conditions I arrived at about 7.45 am just as daylight was starting to emerge from the gloom. The banks were frozen solid but the river was of normal level, flowing and with a nice tinge of colour.



I had only brought minimal gear with me, just a rod, net and small bag with a few essential items including a box of lures and traces. I covered a number of swims up and down the river with jigs but never managed a take, and to be honest it was probably just too cold today, the air and water temp being 2.5c. The Perch and Pike were completely none responsive and must have been sulking in their lairs waiting for the temperature to rise enough for them to justify any movement.



In fact it was so cold, it was the first time I have experienced water freezing my rod rings up solid, which certainly hampered my casting quite a bit.

Suffice to say I blanked, and after two and half hours fishing I went home to warm my bones again. To add insult...I somehow managed to break the end eye off my rod getting it out of the car when I got home! - maybe the carbon had gone brittle in the cold ?