3.15 - 4.45pm

Thames lock cut, hoping for some roach on float fished maggot or caster. A cold day with WT 5 deg C. Much more water coming though the weir than I had expected after what I thought was average rainfall, and a lot of colour in the water. With the amount of flow I thought it was a safe bet the fish would be in the cut, but either they weren't feeding or else I just didn't find them. I tried two places with slight flow from an eddy with not a touch, and then settled for 12 ft deep still water. A ruffe, 3 small roach and a perch.

The only point of interest (at least to me) was that I was fishing under the rod tip and experimented with lifting the bait every minute or so. This was suggested in a recent thread to induce bites from perch, but I figured that roach, too, may like a falling bait. 4 out of 5 of the fish were caught this way. I'm not suggesting it induced bites, more that they had the bait in their mouths but gave no indication on the float, so when I lifted the float the bait was already in their mouth.

I guess pole anglers do this as standard technique? Makes me wonder what you should do when ledgering in cold weather. Maybe fish a short lead, and keep winding the bait in an inch or two?