Scratching for bites on the Trent

I managed to get out of work on time for once today and as i pulled out of the carpark the sun decided to make a rare appearance . I say rare because this past week has seen temperatures plummet following last weekends snowfall . Thankfully though the snow didnt hang around for long where i live and even though we had a dusting as recently as last night the roads remained clear. Anyway, driving home i was invigorated by the sunlight and had  a sudden urge to go fishing . The thought was still with me when i got home so i chucked some kit together, liquidised half a loaf and made my way to the Trent for the afternoon.
The river has been carrying a load of snowmelt from last weekend in recent days and now, although it was still up slightly, it was a lovely green colour and it looked very nice indeed . I decided to head to the swim i caught from last week which was at the top of the stretch and work my way down from there.
Despite passing several frozen lakes on my way to the river, It wasnt until i got settled that i realised just how bitterly cold it actually was . There was still patches of snow dotted around the fields and the quieter margins of the river had cat-ice forming . I gave the first swim a good hour and never had a sniff so i headed to the next one which also proved to be a grueller.
By the time i got to my 4th swim i was starting to seriously contemplate a blank session . The conditions were tough but surely something was feeding out there, experience has taught me that no matter how bad the weather is there will always be a fish of some description willing to pick up a bait somewhere . And so it proved as, after about 20 minutes, i recieved a slight knock on the tip which was followed by a judder and my subsequent strike met with solid resistance. The fish didnt pull much and wasnt very big but i was most relieved to get it in the net, a just reward for some hard fishing!



The swim had plenty of water to go at and i had another few casts to search it out but had no more joy. By now time was getting on a bit so i hurriedly upped sticks and headed to a final spot downstream which has been good to me in the past. I had a bite within minutes and once again the rod hooped over . The excitement was shortlived though because within seconds the hook pulled and the fish came adrift . I was hoping i wouldnt have spooked whatever fish were down there but it turned out i obviously had because nothing else showed any interest . I packed up very cold but pleased to have caught!