So the plan was to spend half of the session at Willows, then cross the 10-yard causeway to Alders for the rest. But an hour in, with a 3lb 7 tench under my belt, I looked at myself in thick jumper, gilet and coat in mid-May and decided the cold north breeze in my face would be slightly less uncomfortable on my back and crossed the Rubicon early for slightly  

The decision was soon justified when my shivering stopped and out came a 4lb 1 tench.  I calculated that after Tuesday's carp any by two fish today, that I'd overcome the affliction of so many missed bites. Wrong! In the next few hours the bobbin bounced around, some obvious line bites, others had the rod leaping from the rest at times, yet all I hooked was another 4lb tench. 

I swapped to a cage feeder with worm/sweetcorn on a helicopter rig wondering if this would lead to more connections, but in the next hour I had just two touches and, curiously, all the line bites stopped. I switched back to method feeder/wafter and the bites, both liners and 'unmissables' immediately returned. I caught one more - a 4lb 6 bream, which gave the best fight of all. Why? Because I'd foul hooked it in the fin, making me think even more that the succession of missed bites are bream being finickity. Any idea how to snag them?