3-4.15pm

I once heard a rather feeble joke about someone who kept banging himself on the head cos it was so nice when he stopped. (There may also have been something about him being an editor.) But that's what it felt like today, fishing in very cold rain - though I realise it's nothing to what some of you barmy people do, fishing for hours in freezing cold!

The sky was cloudy so I decided to try for perch, but on reflection the WT of 4degC may have been too cold. But my real aim was to try out a means of casting close to the far bank vegetation. I got some PVA string, and my plan was to tie the hook + worm to the float, which would make it less likely that I'd get hooked up on the leaves etc. Obviously after a little while the string would dissolve and the worm hopefully drop enticingly. But it turned out that pouring rain wasn't the time to try PVA! I think my wet hands were part of the problem. It always broke before I could cast.

Well I could have tried just casting with a heavy float and letting the worm follow, but I'm pretty useless at that. Also, this was normally still canal, but today there was a fair flow - great to see it, but if I didn't get my float right into the gap I was aiming for it meant it would go sailing away from the target area.

So plan B was to ledger with a bobbin as indicator. Doh! I'd forgotten the rod rest. So I ended up float ledgering. Didn't seem too bad a solution, but no fish!

Next time I think I'll try casting a light spinner and use it to walk the bank and plan where to fish.