Fish on the surface, the feeder rod doing the business on sweetcorn and amazing colours over the water at sunset.

Love this place, it's sooo good to be out in the evening catching fish!

As it turns out, it was 3rd time lucky and I managed to get a couple of decent fish in a short day session - all came good in the end.

So I decided to head down to Follyfoot Fishery to try a bit of cold water carping. As it turned out, it was an incredibly tough session...

I've had such a good run of luck out on the River Avon, starting in the summer fishing for chub and into winter fishing for pike. But as the seasons move and things get grimmer as we move into February I knew things were going to get tough...

I suffered the 1st blank last Tuesday! The conditions were far from perfect: a really hard frost which gave way to bright sunshine and high temperatures. The pike were just not in a biting mood...

Then a 2nd blank this Sunday. It was only a quick session but I knew from the moment I arrived at 7.30am that there was a high possibility of a blank. The river was up a good 2ft and hacking through at quite a pace. Couple that with chocolaty water and you've a recipe for nill fish! I stuck with it till 11ish and then called it a day, making the walk back to the car with freezing fingers and a slightly dejected air...

To raise my spirits, I took a look back through some of the pics and videos from the lasts 6 months which made me feel a whole load better. If you've not seen them, take a look - what a river!

The weather was pretty terrible, with steady drizzle and mist... But I managed a pike from a new swim which is always great!

I bumped into several other pike anglers out on the bank and it was great to have a chat with them and get some feedback, both on the river and some of the videos I've been uploading recently. If you're watching, thanks for saying hello!

I've also put together my targets for 2017 which is something I've never done before. I'd set myself the mini challenge last year of getting a 20 pounder from the Avon and accomplishing that has made me want to aim higher this year.

Lets see how I do!