"Typical. I pretty well cleared the decks of work so that I could have the Christmas / New Year period free to fish and to frolic! The desperate weather saw that plan doomed. Do you know, in all honesty, despite being on the waterside most days through this period, I don’t think I caught a fish. Not even an ever-obliging chub. Not even an ever-hungry jack pike!

But there were always compensations. Glorious sunsets. Skeins of geese. The sight of a fox against a snow-carpeted field. Following the tracks of otters as they earn their living along the river bank. Watching mink catching small roach from the ice-free margins of a lake.

And, with a mixture of awe and sadness, finding a carcase of a massive roach in the frozen rushes. Weighed, the fish was just half an ounce off the magical two pound mark but, had its body been totally intact, it would have cleared that hurdle with ease. What a giant. What a beauty. What a tragedy it is not still swimming free.

This is the compensation of being an angler, whatever the weather. There is simply no better way to witness the natural world."