When I set off from home this morning it was freezing fog, a real Vale of York pea-souper with the thermometer down to -6C. But as I climbed up towards pickering the air began to clear and by the time I reached the Seven it was a glorious, crisp sunny day, with the temperature up to around a sweltering zero. But the fish in the Seven were having none of it. The water was perishing and my feet were numb within a few seconds. I plugged away with the 10ft 3wt and French leader – usual 3mm copper tungsten-beaded hare’s ear on the point and size 18 gold head hare’s ear on the dropper – to no avail.

So I squelched back to the car, managed to get the rod inside still rigged up and set off to Pickering Beck.

The water was up and coloured – it looked pretty good in fact. I soon had a small trout on the point before moving to this deepish run on the right hand bank:

Five or six casts in and a nice little grayling took the point fly:

That was it from that swim, so I wandered upstream to this pool, which has been productive in the summer:

I cast in from the bankside, and managed to winkle out this little specimen, again on the point fly:

A bit further up I had another little brow.n That took the point as well. So, the advice I was given to persist with a point fly and not swap it for a piece of shot was good – thanks!

Anyhow, that was it for the day: two small graylings and two little trouts who didn’t know the season hasn’t started yet.