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.