As I drove down to Windermere this morning the sky was blue and the Grasmere valley bottom an ocean of mist…I love these calm November mornings…… From the mooring to the wooden jetty at Waterhead is a usually a five minute cruise which gives me time to settle into the mood of the day and formulate whatever plans I have for the day ahead. In this instance all I could do was navigate by the sonar and depth contours of the lake as visibility was down to a few yards. Big shock then to find myself nose to nose with an otter and her cub just off the end of the steamer pier!! She pointed me in the right direction and I met up with Leigh and his dad Ken right on time. We had been out yesterday and had a hard time of it experiencing droppped runs and one screaming take which proved to be a fish of around 10lb. But this morning was just different. I had intended to have a look down the middle of the lake around Miller ground but with thick fog the notion of running blind was not an option so we explored a hunch I have about troughs and plateaux. As it turned out it was a wise decision. It was still misty twenty minutes later as I slid the net under the first of a four fish morning with all being double figure fish and although the hoped for twenty pounder did not make an appearance, we had a cracking session. At one time the sun was glowing low through the mist and all we could see were the floats sitting motionless, then bob, bob and away just as the otters crossed the reflections of the sun behind the disappearing float as the rod came up….Simply a priceless moment and one of the reasons to keep going back. Over the weekend we ended up with over seventy five pounds of hard fighting pike, lost a few, missed a couple and had some great wildlife moments. One of those sessions that make you glad to be an angler and which makes up for the hard days when the place seems devoid of fish. And for the time being that’s about it…I’m back down there tomorrow doing a pod cast about lake district Perch fishing with Phill Williams. Hopefully we’ll get a few pike as well-I’ll let you know how it works out -he’s bringing a video camera as well so if the pike are prepared to play we might even get some good footage for t web….We’ll see.

Tarra for now, Eric

Coming over Dunmail Raise at 8 15 in the morning..

And his Dad got this one

One of Leighs November fish