Thirtynine degrees and excuses

Arriving on the banks of the Gt Ouse at first light this morning, I was greeted with the sight of roughly a foot of extra water and a tinge of colour, it looked good. The wind was a tad on the blowy side and this made things a little uncomfortable but it was good to be out.

After the events of the past couple of weeks regarding the freeze and snow that we'd been given, I and everybody else maybe just thought there might just be a small window of opportunity for a barbel bite (we live in hope eh).

Myself and Mr Beale (not the dick in Eastenders) but a dick all the same, ventured to the stretch where golden balls hit it right just a few weeks ago with a couple of good fish including a nice double.

Golden settled into the same pitch that he had taken his previous prizes from and I dropped in to his left about a hundred yards downstream, a swim that has been good to me in seasons gone by.

Shallower water above me shelving down and creating a nice increase in depth, a crease and a slack, twenty yards below me is a huge snag (a tree) that washed down a couple of years ago in the floods.

If I was a fish, this is where I'd want to live!

Steve rang me not long after tackling up to tell me that he'd just taken the water temperature and thirtynine degrees was the figure, now i'm not one for taking temps (maybe i should start) and just  go as and when I can rather than wait and do nothing until we get a reading of 42 plus degrees.

We gave it a couple of hours in the said section with no knocks forthcoming to either of us and it was at this point that I started getting thoughts of a different stretch just a couple of miles away from where we were.

A quick call and thirty minutes later we were setting off on another hike, at this point I'd just like to say that all this walking is doing wonders for my waistline and must admit that I'm looking rather good for it!!

We both tried a couple of swims each over the next four or so hours with nothing to show for our efforts before calling it quits and having no tea left.

The walk back the the car was the usual pondering of........Polar bears,otters,crayfish,cormorants, water too cold, snow melt, road salt, we're a day or two to early or basically we're just shite!!