The main talking point on the banks this week sadly has nothing to do with who's catching what.

A disabled angler was robbed of his gear at knifepoint on the Middle Level Drain at Peter's Bridge last week.

Two men turned up in a black hatchback on Thursday afternoon, helped him pack his gear into his van, before they pulled a knife and demanded the keys.

One of them then drove off in the white Mercedes, which was found burnt out in Magdalen.

Police say the men were white, of slim build and 'spoke little english'. They want to speak to anyone who was in the area at the time.

Whether they'll find anyone is obviously a different matter. Like many of the drains, that section of the Middle Level is remote and the scene of the crime only overlooked by a bridge and a few yards of road. The scariest thing about it, is it could have been any of us.

Many of us fish alone – day off in the week, mates all at work, out you go without a second thought. Members of the local pike angling fraternity are rallying around with offers to help replace some kit to get the guy out fishing again.

So if you know him, ask him to get in touch. Talking of pike, they came on the feed with a bit of a bang, like you might expect, as temperatures rose for three or four days last week.

One day I had five out one after another in a mad half hour.

The next, it was runs on and off all afternoon, with one producing an almost immaculate twenty.

Immaculate apart from the fact it was missing the top lobe of its tail, but looked none the worse for it until it tried to tailwalk and didn't quite have enough grunt to get airborne.