WEST & THE FENS: A sprinkling of rain will not give our rivers what they so badly need.

With less than a month to go until the start of the season, you wonder what kind of condition they are going to be in come the Glorious 16th.

Sluggish flows and an abundance of weed seems likely.

If the heatwave some forecasters are now predicting materialises, we could see a double whammy of water abstracted to irrigate the land at a time when our rivers can least afford it.

Stillwaters are also suffering falling levels. There is nearly a foot of mud visible on one or two of them.

A sharp drop in temperatures seemed to knock the edge off the fishing over the weekend.

One angler had a handful of carp to low-doubles on Shepherd's Lake.

The one who jumped into his swim went biteless, which seemed to be par for the course. Prior to the temperature falling 10 degrees overnight, the lake was going well with the eastern end going better than the car park end. Bream and tench were showing to feeder chucked out towards the middle and will doubtless come back on when things warm up a tad.

Sea bass have started to show around the cliffs at Hunstanton. There's more to catching them than just slinging out a wedge. Have a look at low tide and see the myriad gaps and gullies between the rocks. That's where the bass nose around when the tide's in.

Fishing a lure close to the rough stuff is risky. If you use braid and fit a fine-wired treble to the lure, you should be able to bend out of most snags.