Nothing ever stays the same in the Fens

I mean to start where I left off but the fish have other ideas. I can see their point, on a drain which has come up a couple of feet and is still rising by the time I drag myself out there.

I start off close to where we finished up yesterday, moving further into no man's land. I get a follow in the third or fourth swim I try, followed by a tentative take or two just off the weed that shrouds the margins.

The pike seem to have moved into the edges where the margins drop away - probably because the drain's been run off hard overnight ready for another to-up today. I can't quite get the lures to work close enough to the weed to get a decent hit without catching the green stuff.

I decide to head for another part of the system where I missed the boat last season, to see if it might do the business this time around.

Grebes are working an area a couple of hundred yards long, while a squadron of gulls and terns are diving. Find the prey fish, find the pike.

But I can't quite get to it with the lure rods, so I call it a day and head home to dig out the big guns and tie up some poppernosters.

Nothing ever stays the same in the Fens.