With the rivers in flood again after two recent storms I decided to go to the Clay Pit side pond. I had never fished it in such cold conditions so realised that I was perhaps chancing my luck. Also, because I didn't want to drive to the tackle shop, I relied on corn, bread and spam for bait, which I think was a mistake. A single maggot on much lighter tackle might have been a far better bet.

Starting with sweetcorn I wasn't surprised when I didn't get an early bite. However, after a while the float did lift soon after casting but I didn't connect. I had set up a lift method with one reasonably large shot only an inch or two from the hook. I suspected that perhaps a rudd had followed the bait down but released it on feeling the weight of the shot. But a bite was at least encouraging.

Unfortunately the bite didn't mark the start of a more productive phase as things then went completely dead again. I tried a small piece of spam, again with no takers. I then tried a small piece of bread flake, but the outcome was the same. So I reverted to corn as it had at least half-tempted a fish.

Small fish broke the surface from time to time, which again was encouraging. It led me to suspect perch, or perhaps a pike, but I didn't have any bait to tempt a perch.

I had moved the single shot up the line a bit after losing the original shot when I cast too close to the reeds and snagged. I thought this might be less likely to deter smaller fish. But things continued to be very quite and all the time I was getting colder. I set myself a three-hour target unless the fish decided to become more active. Which they didn't.

Still on corn I had one good bite that presented as the float moving sideways. My strike made contact with the fish but I pulled out. It didn't feel large but it would have been nice at least to have caught something. I stayed for just over three hours but it was pretty clear that things weren't going to improve and I was by then getting very cold. So that was it.

On the plus side it was a beautiful autumn day, with the autumn colours resplendent in the low warm-coloured sun. And the resident moorhens were there to amuse me, one younger one picking at the top of my float to see if it was edible. Still learning, obviously!

Lets hope that the rivers calm down soon.