The weather forecast was good for the entire day and I was anticipating another session on the river hunting for monsters. However, when I got to Rotherbridge the wind was very cold and blowing from the North West. It didn’t look very inviting so I drove up the old railway line to Keeper’s Bridge and had lunch while admiring the Bluebells. The wind was upstream and getting stronger.  There was no shelter anywhere on the middle beats and I decided to go to Little Bognor, deep in the woods, rather than freeze to death on the river. As I drove up the lane to the lakes a storm cloud was gathering and the dark sky was a nice contrast to the crops.

As I got out of the Land Rover the storm arrived. It was a cross between snow and hail, pea sized bits of dry polystyrene bounced all around the hut. It disappeared after a few minutes and the sun came out.

I started fishing just under the branches of the Willow on the top lake and had a take first cast on a Black Spider. I moved to the other side of the tree and had another take. I hooked both fish but they wriggled off. Barbless hooks !

I changed to a size 14 dry fly that I had tied the day before. I thought it looked good but the Trout were not impressed and after an hour I swapped it for a Pheasant Tail nymph. I caught a wild brownie about 4oz just off a weed bed. I was getting cold so I left the lake early. As I type it is snowing and the lawn is turning white, very spooky weather.

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