Its difficult to comprehend that its four weeks since my last weekly report. The weather has been so bad that it’s been difficult to get to a venue safely and even if this was possible the venue would either be frozen or completely out of sorts.

Last January, l remember loading the car, ready to head of to Oxford for a roach session. The nine inches of snow seemed immaterial, that was until l tried to get out of the drive. This year however l must have become somewhat more sensible and with a chesty cough decided to spend the best part of three weeks creating article material, mostly for German and Belgium magazines.

I did on the odd occasion venture out but my efforts to locate a good pike on either the Kennet or Loddon went unnoticed. Looking back arriving on the river when the temperature was reading as low as minus 7.5 at times was a little optimistic! Just as the snowmelt started l did get to the river Loddon in time to successfully catch a few chub for a Tight Lines feature, so all was not lost. We all know its been a cruel few weeks and like most I’ve been gagging to get out so have tried my hardest to make up for it this week.

Rumours of some good perch started to filter through the grapevine from a Cemex venue, one I’ve fished many a time before, although not for a few years. It was also good to know that the venue rarely freezes so it was of to Westhampnett in the hope of a bite or two. A quick walk around the lake finally revealed a couple of well-worn swims and although they were in the last place l would have looked seemed the obvious starting place. It wasn’t long before one of my lobworm hookbaits was picked up from a 2lb 5oz perch, which was soon followed by one an ounce bigger. Two dropped runs just into darkness bought a close to the afternoons events.

Thursday saw Frensham Great Pond fishable and although 80% was frozen the areas favoured were fishable so l plucked up enough courage to hopefully fish the night. Unfortunately by 11pm and with no indications or sightings of fish l called it a day, the conditions were just to extreme for rudd and tench.

Friday saw a return to Westhampnett and although the swim that l caught in earlier in the week was occupied l dropped into another and managed another perch weighing 2lb 6oz so things are looking good for a three-pounder in the not to distant future.

As much as l want to get on the rivers after Fridays rain l think these are still going to be slow next week so it looks like the perch fishing will continue.