“The best laid plans of a fisherman get laid waste by the weather. A festive period after pike and roach were simply to be a dream after the ice and snow struck. Still, an interesting time.

A visit to a lake ringed by an otter fence proved instructive. In the snows, you could see otter tracks everywhere over the surface ice! Seems that the traditional otter fence just doesn’t keep them out!

Also talked to one of the long-stay carp anglers who reported watching a mink diving in and out of a roach shoal and building up a stock of fish to see it through the hard weather. So common for anglers to concentrate of the perils of otters and cormorants and overlook these particular North American aliens altogether.

Even if fishing were next to impossible, it was good to be out and about watching how the birds coped in the harsh weather. Fortunately, the marshes round my house were only frozen for a few days, otherwise all manner of birds would soon have been in trouble. Coots and water hens are amongst the first to find a freeze-up problematic. But herons, kingfishers and the returning bittern aren’t far behind.

Sarah and I did manage the odd day out on the river but the water was full of snow melt and the colour of Bovril. We had one bite and a fish on for a few seconds and that was enough to make a freezing session something of an achievement.

But now it’s India. Temperatures 35 degrees above rather than five degrees below! Never dull, the life of a fisherman!”