The fog had been forecast but there was a chance it would clear to a bright day; but it didn’t!

I had bought maggots and some soft 4mm and 6mm pellets to give myself some options. On Monday I got lots of bites on bread flake that I couldn’t hit. Today I had very few bites and bread didn’t produce hardly any at all. Neither did the pellets.

Maggots attracted small perch and I caught quite a few of these through the day, some no bigger than a finger. I also caught some small roach on maggot but couldn’t seem to keep them feeding.

About midday I decided to stick to maggot and feed regularly to use up the bait. This continued to produce small perch and the occasional small roach but bites were few and far between. I decided that I would pack up at 15.00 as I was getting very cold.

Amazingly at 14.55 a firm bite resulted in a tench of 2lb 14oz; almost a re-run of Monday’s experience. Encouraged I stayed until 15.30 but other than a couple more small perch that was it. Before it broke the surface I was speculating whether the tench was in fact a roach or a large perch.

This experience has dented my enthusiasm for pursuing the roach but I should at least have one more attempt if the weather offers up a better day.