I was full of anticipation as it had been mild the previous day (12C) and the forecast was for another mild day. A light SW breeze didn’t affect the Tree Corner so everything seemed nigh on perfect.

Expectation was soon replaced by disappointment as I didn’t get a touch. Not a tremble on the float, not a line bite; nothing.

This persisted until about 11.30 when I missed the first bite on sweet corn. Over the next couple of hours I laboriously managed about three small roach. In addition to sweetcorn I tried bread flake and worm.

A chap to the left of me was light legering for carp and caught nothing and I’m inclined to think that the carp were not feeding. Another chap just around the corner on the south bank appeared to be fishing off the bottom with maggots. He caught continuously, mainly smaller roach but with a few better ones interspersed. He also took a fine perch. Incredibly he didn’t weight it (he didn’t have scales), but I would think it was over 2lb. I wish I had offered my scales and taken a photo. I had been told by the warden that there were large perch in the SW bay but my efforts with worm haven’t resulted in anything other than small ones and the occasional roach.

So what went wrong? The water was obviously still cold and I think the chap catching the roach benefitted from fishing shallower in water that was in the sun. A learning point perhaps, but I always like to be on the bottom in the hope of tench or carp.

A day to forget.