Weather's been getting otter for pike angler Eric

Pike angler Eric Edwards found some added competition when he tried a new stretch of river in the shape of a family of otters.

As first the dog otter then its kits came out to play on the icy margins, he realised he'd pitched up close to their holt and moved on. There's little chance he'd have found a pike nearby.

But the sighting still made for a memorable day, as Eric observes.

"I was truly thrilled to see those otters and absolutely delighted to get pictures of them," he writes on his blog.

"There are those in the angling world who would have otters done away with but not me, they are a predator, just like the pike I want to catch and for too long predators have been persecuted. Better to make room for them and enjoy their presence in my view."

Eric's uploaded a film clip of the otters on his blog - click here to see it.

Holt sweet home for otters in the Fens

Otters have moved into an artificial holt just months after it was built on the banks of a Fen drain, local paper the Cambs Times reports. Click here for story and video.

But what's it mean for pike fishing..? Otters have also colonised a complex of gravel pits popular with pike anglers near King's Lynn.

While no pike carcases have been found, the animals have been seen by anglers in swims which regularly produced fish in recent seasons but now appear devoid of both prey fish and pike.

We're clearly going to have to live with these creatures, which have now successfully fought their way back from the brink of extinction in many areas.

Pesticides and hunting almost wiped them out in the 1970s. Since then chemicals like DDT have been banned, and our rivers have become far cleaner.

While the captive breeding and release programme has now been halted, their numbers are increasing in many areas.

Vast numbers of sand and gravel pits have been dug in many of our major river catchments over the last 30 years, to provide the raw materials for new roads and homes.

Once worked out, they're usually stocked with fish which provide the otters with a ready larder. When the rivers are coloured-up or out of sorts, Tarka turns to the clear stillwaters and their torpid carp, bream and tench.

How they'll impact longer-term on pike fishing remains to be seen. But there's no denying one thing - they're a truly incredible sight in the wild, which makes for a memorable day.