Winter Is Coming

With the challenges of short, wet and cold days and generally awful fishing conditions, how do we make the most of the time we have to bank a few winter fish? Well this is what I will be doing this year, the same as I have for the past few winters. Commercials.

By a commercial water I mean is the more well stocked course angling lakes designed for match as well as pleasure anglers. Lakes like Horseshoe at Pool Bridge Farm in York, Acorn at Raker Lakes and Barlow Common in Selby. These lakes see anglers pretty much all year around and anglers, mean bait! The fish in these lakes seem, to me anyway, a lot more active in the colder weather and I believe it is the steady stream of bait from the match and course boys that does it.

Last year I spent most of the winter on Acorn at Rakers. It's not a demanding water but the elements can be against you with very little in the way of bank-side vegetation to keep the cold winds and harsh rains off of you. However all the swims are pretty solid and bivvy pegs go in great, so a sturdy brolly or day shelter will help your time on the bank be as comfortable as possible.

Brolly Drying In The Sun After A Winter Downpour.

I love being out in the bitter cold. The banks are quiet, the fishing is obviously harder than at other times of the year but winter has a magical feel where I don't mind if I blank or not. Aside from a shelter I still tend to travel as light as I can. Sometimes, even on small ponds like Raker, it can be a good thing to move if things don't quite feel right. While you could probably cast to every inch from any peg, these lakes tend to be on a complex of several lakes and you may find the bailiff tells you that one of the other lakes is fishing its nuts off and a move will be in order. 

I suppose everyone is different and they want different things from their fishing. For me winter fishing is all about being out and making the most of the time I have at hand and getting a bend in the rod. If that means I need to head to waters that have a higher stock level but a low weight stamp then that's perfectly fine with me. 

Cold Wet December Day Last Year, Worth It.

There will be tons and tons of winter articles gracing the magazine shelves in the next few months packed with winter tactics, I won't claim to know the best tactics that's for sure, but I think most of them will be the same, single, bright, high-viz pop-ups with maybe a pva stick of attraction. Or those wriggly little blighter's, Maggots. Something I think that will come up a lot this year will be the use of zig rigs. A tactic I will definitely be working on one rod for sure. But something that works for me is a very short high-viz pop-up, so that will be what graces my other rod.

Single Bright Hookbait Cast To Showing Fish, Result. 

I did try spombing out a bed of bait on one of the winter waters last year but it didn't seem to work for me, I don't know if it was the lake or me but the fish certainly didn't respond to a bed of bait in the depths of winter. Maybe it was the conditions, maybe it was the bait itself, maybe this year will be different, who knows. 

This festive season I plan on targeting the same waters, most probably with the same techniques, and I'll probably catch the same few fish but in all fairness, I will probably catch more than the people who think fishing commercials is beneath them. That it is not proper carp fishing. Well, while those people are sat at home wishing they were fishing, I will be out there doing it. 

No matter the size I love catching them all. Roll on the winter and fingers crossed for a few more overlooked stunners. 

Tight lines.

Three Lakes

In the historical market town of Selby, in the heart of Yorkshire, lies a truly stunning complex of lakes, Selby Three Lakes. Dug over 80 years ago, the Lakes have seen some magical fish on the banks. From it's beginnings as three separate lakes to then forming one large lake and then back to two lakes the fish have certainly seen their fair share of disturbance and turmoil, however that has not stopped the lake coming on leaps and bounds and the fishing following suit.

Recently I have ventured out in to the world of film-making, only small scale ideas and I thought back to my biggest project of late, which was my Julian Cundiff 'Live and Uncensored.' In that video Jules mentioned about building a portfolio up, a profile on which others could base your work on. So I approached Roger Hind, aka Bullet, the head man at Three Lakes and asked if I could do a video for his lake as I have spent a fair amount of time there and he said yes, crack on. So I did.

A Stunning View From Every Peg

I decided to capture my footage over several trips to the lake, not all of them fishing. In fact I did a quick over-nighter, a few hours walking around after work and then a longer weekend session to get images and recordings from separate areas of the lake with hopes of landing a fish or two.

Even though Selby Three Lakes is sandwiched in-between a 'rock and a hard place', the rock being an industrial estate and the hard place a retail park, you could just as well think you were in the middle of an Oxfordshire estate. It is just magical to behold. 

Anyway, on my first session I didn't manage to bank anything other than footage from a lovely swim called the Old Gate. I've fished this peg a number of times over the years and know that the pads on the far bank are a must for presenting a bait too. But this peg also holds a number of other features often forgotten. A large tree to the right of the swim, just visible in the picture above, can really hold the fish as a lot of natural food will fall from this tree and the carp just hoover it all up. To the left of the swim is the end of a large bar that is a patrol route. I slipped two rods on the pads and one of the bar but also scattered a little bait under the tree to see if anything should show up. The morning arrived with a stunning sun rise but nothing else and I packed away to head to work only to be returning in a few more weeks. 

Hidden Corners And Gems Of Green

The hight of summer was upon us as I made my way back to Three Lakes. The flora and fauna were at its peak, the lilly pads large and buoyant and butterflies danced with each other getting ready to bring new life in to the world. It is a majestic time of year.

I was meant to be joined by a good mate of mine on the session but unfortunately work interjected and it meant I had to go it alone, not a bad thing as I like my solitude on the bank, but sometimes it's nice to have a social. And someone to stand in front of the camera! I am not the most camera friendly person. Oh well, I move on. 

I was booked in to the House Bay swim for my return session to grab some more footage and do some final scouting around the lake. I arrived at the lake around lunch time on the Friday and had a quick walk around to see how much pressure was on the fish. Most of the main pegs were taken and plenty of lines were in the water, hopefully this pressure would push the fish around the lake. I made my way back to my swim with half a game plan in my mind. I knew the peg a little bit from a previous trip but thought I would just have a quick lead about before I set my stall up. I found the main bar that runs from the spit to the house bank and clipped up with all intentions on fishing the backside of the bar over a spread of DNA S7 boilies and particle. I decided that two rods would be on the bar and I would put my third rod on the far bank near the moored boat with a sprinkling of chopped boilies around it. Rig wise I opted for semi-stiff hinged rigs on my bar rods, one with a PB fluro pop-up and the other with a bright red one, and a simple blow-back solid bag rig on the other rod with a Korda Fake Food pink dumbbell.

The Boat In House Bay

Once all the rods were out I set up home and put the kettle on before doing a little filming. As I was putting the camera away I spotted a fish head and shoulder under an overhanging willow tree on the far bank. After seeing nothing else I decided that it would be silly not to drop a rig on that spot. I wound in my left hand rod and flicked it out toward the trees, after a few recasts adding extra yards on the clip each time, the rod was soon clipping the branches as my rig landed on the spot with a good clear, hard thud. The foam popped up to the surface and I knew my PB pop up was 'On the money!' so I fired out 20 or so boilies around it. And sure enough not an hour later the rod rattled off as I was on the phone to mate Mark, unfortunately on my behalf the clutch was a little on the loose side and I didn't manage to set the hook fully, resulting in the fish dropping off as I changed the angle of my rod to prevent it reaching the snags.

I was pretty gutted to say the least but checked the rig and found the hook still sticky sharp so I re-clipped, re-cast and re-baited in no time at all. If the fish was still in the area I wanted to get a rig on it first time and to try and make it slip up again. After 7 bream takes on my middle rod in the space of a few hours I decided that no matter what I put on that bar the bream would take! Double pop ups, double 18mm bottom baits, they would have them all! As I was playing in the 7th bream I looked over and saw another fish show on the far bank near where I had rebaited. Once the bream was unhooked in the water I decided to place my middle rod on the far bank as well and leave the bar alone. I switched the hook-bait back to a single bright pink pop up and fished it to the edge of the lilly pads near the over hanging tree.

By the time the rod was in place the day was cracking on and I got myself some tea before turning in for the night. It had been a long day, my sleeping bag engulfed me and I was soon away with the fairies. The night passed uneventfully but just at first light my middle rod signalled a take with the bobbin smashing in to the rod blank and the fish kitting left on a tight line, the fight was nice and straight forward until it got in to the deep margins at my feet where it keep diving and lunging trying to get in the lilly pads to my left. It was a great feeling when I finally slipped the net under a rather tired leather carp of around 17lb. I transferred her to my retaining sling and let her rest while the sun came up and I had enough light to get some self-takes done.

A Stunning Old Warrior.

With the photos done and a little filming for the video, I slipped the fish back and settled back to watch the water for any other signs of fish. The following day was super frustrating on the fishing front, the wind had turned and was now blowing up the other end of the lake and fish where crashing out in water in front of occupied swims so all I could do was to keep trickling bait in, hoping the sound and smells would draw the fish back into my baited area. Sadly nothing else materialised for this session other than getting some more great shots for the video and I packed away on the Sunday morning happy that I had accomplished several things from this session.

The first and foremost was catching one. I have spent a long time fishing this lake and while I have had success in the past, the last few sessions I had done were disastrous. So to get a stunning upper double, topped with getting some camera footage as well, really made the session for me. Obviously the other reason I was smiling as I pulled out of the carp park was because it was mission accomplished. I had gathered enough footage to make a promotional video for the lakes which Bullet can now use for his own doings.

Next came the really fun part in editing and splicing it all together to make a three minute long video. It is something I really enjoy doing as I can sit and piece together all the parts, grab some music I feel will suit the video, not just some generic stuff that every man and dog seems to use.

So that's it for me guys, hope you enjoyed the blog and the video below. Thanks for reading.



Matt.