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Dave Coster's Fishing Diary - December
Much to my surprise, considering no-one else was mad enough to be out on the fishery, I started catching straight away! Small roach, odd rudd and 6-8oz skimmers to begin with, so I slightly upped my feeding to try and get through to something bigger. Switching to my medium rig and a slightly bigger hook, I started connecting with better skimmers and roach, alternating between double casters and decent sized sections of worm on the hook. I was distracted a few times by a kingfisher darting between my bank and the island opposite, also by a friendly robin who kept raiding my bait table.
I wasn’t setting the place on fire, but steadily managed to put a half decent catch together. Towards the end of the session I tried loose feeding more heavily with casters. A couple of bigger skimmers resulted and then a proper elastic stretcher, which turned out to be a perch around the 1.5lb mark. I also lost a fair-sized chub at the landing net, which would have been the second one with my name on it since I’ve been fishing this lake.
Next day I arrived feeling fairly confident, only to be greeted by a sombre looking Angler’s Mail photographer. “The lakes are frozen,” he told me, and clearly wasn’t amused after driving nearly three hours to get to the place. The lower lake was completely solid, however, the swim on the other one, where I had fished the day before, was almost clear of ice. The thin covering around it was breaking up fast. “Let’s give it a go,” I said, despite already shivering in the arctic conditions.
I tackled up with the same rigs from the day before and set about feeding the swim in exactly the same way as I had done on my practise session. The first hour was hard going with big chunks of ice drifting through my peg. I spent more time pushing the ice flows through with my pole cup than I did fishing, but eventually I had some clear water to present my tackle properly.
Gradually the swim came to life, but bites were noticeably more lethargic than the previous day. I had to use my lightest pole rig to gain any interest, fishing a single caster so it was just resting on the bottom. The float would dither slightly and then very slowly sink away. For the next hour I caught a steady stream of 2-8oz roach and the odd hand sized skimmer. The early fog had cleared and with a cloudless sky it was now quite pleasant in the weak winter sun.
I began to get a bit bolder with my feeding and after switching to my medium rig, with a slightly bigger hook and larger baits, better sized fish resulted. For the rest of the session I bagged up with skimmers up to the one-pound mark, roach to 12oz, plus the odd rudd to 8oz. Nothing massive but a nice double figure catch of fish considering the conditions. We got some nice photographs, so we both went home happy.
After catching some beefy chub last month, I just had to get back on the upper River Witham. I set out to explore a new stretch, which was packed with so many feature pegs it took me a good hour to decide which one to fish! I eventually plumbed for a swim below a ford where the flow was nice and steady. I set up a small stick float and fed small helpings of hemp and casters every run through, but only tiny minnows, dace and grayling showed any interest.
I moved to my second-choice swim 100 metres downstream. This peg had thick beds of watercress on the far bank and a nice run down to a bush lined bend. It looked perfect for chub, but after two hours all I had caught was a few minnows and a tiny grayling. As this was one of the shortest days of the year I just had time for one more move. Swim choice number three was on a sweeping bend where the current pushed over to the far bank. There was plenty of overhanging cover and again it looked perfect for chub. I gave it a good go but only got a few half-hearted indications on my float, which I suspect were caused by minnows.
A few days later I was back on the river, exploring another likely looking area, just below a bend where there was a nice long trot underneath overhanging trees. What a difference! It was virtually a bite every cast, doing exactly the same things that had failed so miserably before. Just goes to show at this time of the year how important location is. The fish had obviously shoaled up tightly and I had sat right on top of them. Nothing spectacular, but I caught a nice mixture of dace, small chub and roach, topped off with a bonus fair sized grayling.
My mate Andy Griffiths came up from London for a few days over the Christmas period and was keen to get back on Woodland Waters, after bagging up big time there earlier in the year. We wanted to fish the Specimen Lake, knowing there are some big roach in there, but it didn’t look that inviting. It was cold and a proper gale was blowing, so we opted for the most sheltered area we could find, in the trees down at the bottom end. Andy set up a cage feeder, while I decided on the long pole, which I could just about manage at 13 metres – to reach the deep water.
Andy began getting bites quite quickly, using a fishmeal groundbait laced with expander pellets and casters, while my chopped worm, caster and conventional roach groundbait approach was a lot slower.
After about 30 minutes I looked round to see Andy’s quivertip rod bent into something decent, which turned out to be a bream. I cupped in another couple of balls of dark groundbait, well laced with chopped worms and casters, and went to have a look what he was up to. He was fishing quite a short hook length and getting bites on double red maggots. While I was watching he latched into a good roach, soon followed by another bream.
I returned to my swim and got my head down, finding I could just about anchor my 1gr rig still against the undertow, provided I set it a few inches over-depth.
I dinked a few casters in occasionally by catapult, but wasn’t sure where they were ending up in the bad surface drift and undertow. I started getting a few indications on segments of worm and caught some chunky perch up to 12oz. I switched to a red maggot and immediately latched into a 12oz roach, followed by another well over the pound mark. Then it was a case of experiencing dead periods, followed by the odd flurry of bites. It seemed the fish were moving in and out, something Andy noticed as well.
I went back on a worm bait and caught some more perch and another big roach. Then, taking advice from the bailiff, switched to a single red maggot and more roach followed.
By late afternoon Andy had bagged three good bream and a few roach, the best not far off two pounds! I was only getting the very occasional bite by this time, really having to work hard for my fish. I bumped out of a couple of decent ones, probably because the bites were only half-hearted. I started edging my tackle through with the drift to try and get a better response and was rewarded with my best roach of the day - not that far away from the magical two-pound mark either! The wind was suddenly getting worse and both swims dried up completely, so we called it a day. Andy finished up with a good 20 lbs, while he calculated my roach and perch haul to be around 15lbs. Great fishing considering the conditions.
Before Andy returned to London, we had one more chance to get out on the bank, so I suggested the River Glen where I’ve been catching some good perch recently. It was another cold, windy day and the area where I have been doing okay turned out to be like a wind tunnel. We decided to try further downstream below a bridge, which afforded a little bit of shelter from the elements. The water was a bit deeper here, which raised my hopes, but it was hard work trying to hold onto a pole in the gusting wind.
We both toiled away for three hours, Andy catching a few sprats and losing one big fish that ploughed into the far side reeds. I managed three perch up to 12oz and a few small roach. It was getting dark and because more bad winter weather was forecast, we called it a day. As is always the way, while we were packing up the wind dropped and suddenly the river looked a lot more inviting. But knowing our womenfolk were preparing a turkey dinner back home, that seemed the more attractive option!
