The weather was overcast following a brief period of sunny breaks during the morning but it felt quite mild because of the complete absence of any wind throughout the day. Conditions in fact seemed good, but nobody told the fish.

There were three of us on the lake, including Mick who was there last week and caught six good carp. On this occasion he caught nothing.

The other chap was Bert, who I understand to be an ex match angler, and I have on previous occasions seen him catch large numbers of carp, but even he was struggling to get a bite and was ready to give up. As it happened he got one bite and one good fish. That, then, was the sum total of fish between the three of us.

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A friendly, or should I say hungry Canada goose came right up to the fishing platform to cadge some food. This particular bird is quite interesting as it has a broken wing and therefore doesn't migrate with the rest of the flock. It has apparently survived two winters although it does seem to be ostracised by the other birds.

If the weather holds I'll have another go next week. I read an article in my fishing magazine about using highly flavoured particle baits in winter so perhaps I'll give this a try and see what happens.