We all cheered as the teacher said we were having to leave school - great shame, not!

One of the many great things about snow is the fact that when we get a flake or two, our school seems to shut, so I thought what I perfect opportunity it would be to catch a fish and have the snow in the backgriound - wishfull thinking.

I got home and grabbed some lunch before stepping into my lockup to grab a rod, bag full of bits n bobs, warm clothes and seat.

I arrived hoping that it wouldn't be frozen over, fotunatly it wasn't with over 2/3 of the lake ice-free. I opted for a swim that had the wind blowing toward it, with a bay to the lift, and and island out to my right. It offered a few different options with a steep marginal shelf quite close, and is one of the only areas of the lake that held any form of life, by that I mean the only form of weed underwater. I often fish the swim on the float with great success, and opted to fish at the bottom of the marginal shelf in hope of some action.

I was using a 6lb mainline and 1.5lb test curve rod, through to a size 12 barbless hook with a few size 4 and size 6 shot to make the bait sink quickly and hopefully stay in position against a strong undertow and surface wind.

My choice for bait was only really between two baits, sweetcorn, or bread. I opted for sweetcorn for its ease, and introduced a light scattering into the area; about 6 feet from the bank. I started fishing and struggled to get a clear image of what was happening due to the float never being still from the waves.

However not long after I sprinkled a few more freebies, I recieved a few indications on the float; a steady pull downwards and sharp shoot back up. I was fishing slightly differently to my normal approach, and was fishing at the exact depth with the float, rather than overdepth, and so left this as I assumed it was a line bite.

The fishing was still slow, and really depressing:o . I had been fishing for about 2 hours and only had a line bite, which meant the fish were active, but I was not convinced. It was starting to get dark so I looked at my watch and gave myself 10 more minutes of fishing.

Just after intorducing more bait into the siwm, the float sailed away and I immediatly bent into the fish. It kicked a few times as it swam out toward the middle of the lake. It was fighting quite hard on the balanced outfit, and I was praying that it would stay on.

This is the part where I go on about it coming in an being scooped into the net, however after turning her, she started to come towards me, and then: PING! the hook pulled. Gutted.

Devastated I put the bait back out in faith that there may be one last chance in the five minutes left, wrong.

Nothing more for my efforts than a lsot fish.

The snow picture would have been nice but it just wasn't to be.

Please don't melt the snow yet!!

Cold? -Freezing!