Positive thinking..?

We're well into January now and the fishing so far this year has been crap to say the least. I have been out four times and blanked on each occasion.  It's starting to feel like anyone who can catch a fish of any kind or any size must have some superior knowledge over me !

The weather has played its part of course but I think it's my watercraft that is letting me down. I have walked away from a couple of venues recently realising too late that I should have tried a better area or swim - the deeper water where the fish would probably be lying up perhaps?, or nearer to where the grebes are diving where the pike will be waiting to attack the roach ?

I'm also guilty of trying too hard possibly, which often only leads to inaccurate decision making and frustration.   In contrast to this how many times have you just turned up without a care and landed on the fish instantly or gone with a simple gut instinct that has paid off.  It can be very demoralising when you are in a run of blanks and you are convinced you've adopted the best tactics to suit the conditions and species etc.  The thing to keep reminding yourself of is that a run of blanks will often be followed by a 'purple patch' of success.

I must admit though, I got so desperate today I even tried two venues, first was an uneventful lake piking session, then secondly onto the river for last light where I'd recently caught a 4lb chub on New Years Eve.
When an otter swam through the swim fifteen minutes in, I realised there wasn't going to be any points on the board for me again today!

Despite this realisation I felt quite privileged to have witnessed the otter swimming on the surface less than 10 feet from me, it was unaware of my presence until I switched on my head torch to get a better look. The creature gazed up at me for a moment, eyes glowing amber in my torchlight, before making a swimmers dive underneath the water on its way downstream towards my presented bait.

There were other pleasures whilst out today despite the lack of sport, I saw a male Bullfinch in a tree a few feet away ( first one I've ever seen in the flesh).  It was also a beautiful sunny winters afternoon, and then there was a spectacular golden moon rise to complete my evening, something I don't get to witness too often.

Things keeping me occupied whilst I've been blanking.....
I've been testing some functions on my camera whilst waiting for a bite over the last couple of sessions, I'm no photographer by any stretch, but I do like to have a dabble with the functions on my jazzed up point n' click, here's some of the results.



close encounter !

Rush





Moonstreak



How Constable would have seen it ?

Could be a line from a song...?

 Taken with manual functions on my canon powershot A650 IS ( Tv mode 15")