Summer Bank Holiday? Of course it was: there was a stiff cold north wind right in my face that had me back to the car firstly for my gilet and, half hour later, my thick coat. It was bloomin' cold. There was one other angler sat right opposite me. OK, so he had the wind on his back rather than full-facial, but how he sat there for three hours in his shorts I couldn't tell you. The fish hid as well. I didn't get a touch for three hours, then wondering how I could change my luck, saw that a ruddy great slug had climbed into my groundbait. Ah, surely a present from the carp gods. I found the biggest hook in the tackle box and pinged the thing out towards the edge of the lilies. There it sat for two hours. I did set a single tap at one point, but that was probably a greedy roach no bigger than the slug, or a carp chuckling at my desperate effort.

To try and avoid a blank, in the last hour, I switched to a small float, one rod length out with the remnants of the maggots kindly donated to me by a packing-up angler last week. Phew, I lured seven perch, mainly tiny, to the bankside, but among the bites, one tugged away with a vengeance, which took me by surprise. But ine powerful lunge and it was over, up flopped a 4lb 2oz bream, staring at me, beaten, as I lowered in my net.