I'm fairly privileged to get most of
December and January off work so decided to
walk the walk instead of talking the talk
and get out and do some winter fishing. I'd
also been through a very lean spell fish
wise having my last 5 pick ups drop off
whilst fishing A1 pits 'Pit 6' in the
summer, meaning I'd not had a Carp on the
Bank since April!! I'd been down to Linear
and fished St Johns and Manor in November
and December without success and I'd also
been down to Cobbleacre's Mario's lake for a
few sessions at the start of January also
without a touch.
The weather forecast was looking decent with
low pressure and strong winds forecast for
the Monday 19th of January so with
Cobbleacre having known winter form a quick
call to Bob the bailiff and my mate and I
were booked on.
We both live in Lincolnshire so left home
around 4am to beat the traffic. The weather
forecast was spot on and it was
raining...lovely. We had a little mooch
about my mate went in The Snags and I
decided to drop in The Beach as all my lines
were marked up and I was able to get angling
again on the spots I'd fished the previous
week.
I like to have a marker about but knew that
on Mario's it wouldn't do me any favours. I
was set up with my usual 1metre of leadcore
with Armaled Lead Clips and a 3oz lead, 15
lb Korda IQ and a size 8 Gamagatsu Widegape
hook with a knotless knot and a bit of
shrink tube to help turn the hook if I got a
take. Bait wise I had a 10mm Premier Baits
Mini Cooper tipped off with a whittled down
Tutti-Fruiti pop up snowman style which
helps the bait waft around so to speak. Each
rod was baited with a handful of hemp, a few
crushed boilies and 2 handfuls of maggots.
I had a bit of a kip during the day as I'd
had an early start. I had no action so I re
did the rods just before dark. The spots I
was fishing were a silty spot just off the
gravel 10 yards to the left and 10yards
short of a small island out in front of the
swim. I then had my second rod out towards
the small Island maybe 15 yards short where
the lake bed levels out. The 3rd was dropped
close to the large island to my right near a
snag bush in 6ft of water, known to produce
the odd fish. I had some grub and was
probably in my bag by 7:30pm listening to
the radio.
I must have drifted off and was awoken by a
one toner on the left hand rod to the left
of the small island at around 130am, I
lifted into the fish and was met with a
solid resistance... Fish on! Now I had to
land it. I tried to shout my mate Jase but
he was catching some serious Z's. The fight
was fairly hairy as the fish went mental
when I got it under the rod tips and bolted
off to my right towards a snag on the island
it then kited into the reeds by my feet. The
lead came of the clip at this point and the
fish just wallowed on the surface so I
teased him out the reeds and into the net.
RESULT I'd landed a Common which looked like
it might push 20 I'd done nearly 20 nights
without landing a fish so was well pleased,
on the scales he went 19-13. Perfect.
I'd woken Jase to do a few pics and back she
went, I got the rod back out and got back in
my bag. I had no further action during the
night.
The following morning I had a bit of a sleep
in and left the rods out till about 3pm. The
wind had died right down and the sun had
come out just after lunch.
I wasn't happy with my middle rod so I
allowed myself 2 casts with the marker into
the channel between the small and large
islands to try and find a little gravel spot
Bumpy had told me about on the phone earlier
in the day (cheers Nath). I didn't find the
spot but I did come across a slightly harder
spot in the silt in 11ft of water so that
was my middle rod sorted.
The other 2 rods were put back on the same
spots. I sat out a little until well into
dark chatting with Jase and we could feel
the chill in the air, the sky was clear with
not a breath of wind. My unhooking mat had a
layer of frost on it by 7:30pm luckily Bob
had the Aerators on which tends to help keep
part of the lake clear of ice if it gets
real cold. The cold got too much so I got in
the bag and drifted off.
Next up was this 18lb common
At around 9pm I had a few bleeps on my
middle rod in the channel. I got up to check
the rod and the bobbin was tight to the
butt, the line pinged out of the clip and I
was in again. This fish didn't really know
it was hooked until it got under the rods
the it went mental and wiped out my right
hand rod.
Jase slipped the net under another Common
and I unclipped the hook link leaving Jase
watching the fish in the net in the margins.
I sorted the tangle out and wound in my
right hand rod as I was sure I had moved the
lead. I sorted the Fish and it went 18lb
exactly.
I was stoked as it was my 2nd fish of the
session and also on a new spot! I re did the
middle rod and then also the right hand rod,
I put this into the channel 10 yards to the
right of the spot I'd had the 18lb common
from. I was back in the bag very quickly too
warm up as it was bitterly cold with frost
forming on everything. I had a feeling the
lake would be at least partially frozen over
in the morning!
I woke up around 8am and could see the lake
was frozen solid in front of my swim so I
dragged myself out of my bag and broke the
ice around my rod tips with my landing net
handle just in case. I got back in the bag
and dropped off for an hour so then got up
and slowly started packing up as Jase had to
be back home for work on the Thursday. The
sun had come out and was melting all the
frost on the Bivvy and Rods. There was still
a lot of ice out in front of me but the ice
had started to recede from my margin with
the sun melting it.
A winter stunner rounded off a great session
I was just about to start packing the bivvy
down when at around 10:30am my right hand
rod gave a few bleeps and the bobbin was
tight up against the rod again. The line
didn't pull out of the clip but I could see
the rod tip bouncing, it had to be worth
hitting! I lifted into a solid resistance
but had to be really careful and keep my rod
to the side so the mainline avoided the edge
of the ice about a rod length out. The fight
was awkward as I had to keep the rod to the
side until I got him in the margins then it
was fairly straight forward. Jase did the
honours with the net and in went another
Common. We weighed him at 19-12 and Jase
took some decent pictures in the morning
sunshine. We then slipped him back. Lovely.
I was stoked as I'd had 3 fish in January
after a 9 month blank including 1 from under
the ice. I was maybe a tad unlucky not to
get a 20 with Mario's stock but you have to
be happy with any fish at this time of year.
It just proves that you have to keep at it
and motivated when your struggling. I could
have easily changed my rigs and gone through
the motions getting all paranoid about what
I was doing wrong but I didn't I kept at it,
sooner or later you'll get it right.
