Unable to travel to the river because of movement restrictions under COVID, after a bit of deliberation I decided on a few hours at Rookery Waters. I don't particularly like lake fishing in winter and in the event, after a few very cold days, I completely blanked. Not even a bite.

When I bought my ticket the guy said that there were only about 12 people on the complex, and on the Magpie lake there were only two others that I could see.

I started fishing just off the margin but after an hour or so without a touch I cast out to the edge of the lily pads, which had of course died back. There was a chap to the right of me, fishing the peg that I fished back in the summer. I didn't notice him catching at first, but later glanced across as he was landing what looked like a roach.

After about three hours I was getting very cold so I went around to have a chat with him. He was a regular and said that the fishing was particularly slow, probably because of the cold spell. He had waited hours for a bite.

I told him I was using corn and he suggested that the conditions were such that maggots would probably be a better bet. He had taken three roach and a rudd on maggot on an 18 hook. He gave me a few in a bag and I returned to my peg and tried for about another hour, but without any success. My 16 hook was probably too big!

So, it was a very disappointing outing, although I did feed a robin that was visiting my weigh-bag looking for food. There wasn't any food in the bag so I threw him a few pieces of sweetcorn, which he willingly flew off with. And later a few maggots that the chap had given me. Something achieved at least!