WEST AND THE FENS: Things are warming up, relatively speaking – now all we need are some fish.

Last weekend saw the last of the ice persisting on many local stillwaters and drains.

I found a couple of pike in a clear windward corner of a lake, only to find myself frozen out of the action after a massive sheet of ice drifted over.

I wonder how the rest of the day would have panned out if this hadn't happened, as two fish on the bank and a missed run in an hour is pretty well as good as it's got for me in a while.

Needless to say a move to another ice-free spot failed to live up to the first swim. The river looked better than it has for weeks. It was bowling along with a fair old flow, but the colour was dropping out and the great chunks of debris which have made fishing difficult of late seem to have washed through.

Once again next to nothing was caught, apart from a jack or two around the railway bridge.

A handful of pikers seemed to be the only anglers out and about – has a mystery virus wiped out all the pole fishermen, or made them take up DIY..?

Perhaps the dire accounts of how bad things have got in all the papers, websites, blogs etc have become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Perhaps if more people were out, more fish would get caught which would encourage more of same.

Several waters which have had a lid on for weeks will be clear this weekend, with temperatures tipped to bust double figures – notably the Relief Channel (who remembers that frozen for weeks...?), Middle Level and Cut-Off.

There's two months left of the season, so here's to hoping you find a few if you're returning to the banks after a few weeks' weather-imposed DIY this weekend.