ITS COLD, COLD, COLD

The weekend before last i actually managed to blag the day off to go fishing as the other half was working, so excitedly i got my kit together on the saturday afternoon ready for the off 6am the following morning. All tackle was checked, batteries for the bait boat charged, drifter gear sorted out and tea gear prepped. I was ready for a day out at one of my BIG syndicate waters.

The morning can around and i loaded up the truck with all my fishing in the freezing darkness, lovely i thought as i do love fishing in a crisp frost first thing in the morning. Watching your breathe as you crunch along the bankside vegetation while you set up your kit is what i love about piking. After a short drive i was pushing the barrow around the lake to the spot i fancied, even though i try and limit the gear i take theres still quite a bit for a days dangling.

I arrived at my chosen area and started to set up my rods, first being a close in rod to be lobbed 25 yards out just past the drop off. Second was my distance rod which would be bait boated out to bar i know runs out 50-60 yards to the right. And lastly a drifter float set up which i,d allow to drift across the swim as i had a nice wind blowing from over my right shoulder. First cast with the close in rod and my sardine flies of into the distance, bugger.. Second cast and it so land where i want and as i go to reel in i,m snagged on some weed which promptly nicks my second bait, cobblers.. Third cast and its bang on the money, woohoo.. Next i get the bait boat to send my big herring out to the bar, boat in the water, set the trap door after putting the bait and tackle in, power up, purge then off we go. Except there was a horrible grinding noise after the boat went a few feet then it turned left and come back to me, try again and the same happens. I take the boat out of the water and find i,ve broken one of the inlets to prop jet type thingy as i can see its not turning when the other one is, bollix. Oh well i thump that rod as far as i can cast and set up the drifter rod.

My drifter set up is nice and simple and allows me to chuck it out quite a distance without tackling too bad. Unfortunately today it didn,t produce any fish, nor did the other rods although i did have a dropped run on the close in rod.

It was a shame this swim didn,t produce as it covers a lot of water and was really comfy to fish from. Especially when the sun came up as where i was sitting was sheltered from the wind but got the sun so it was quite toasty. Anyway by midday i gave up here and moved off to the deeper part of the lake thinking that the pike might be there considering it had been quite cold for the past few days and the deeper water might offer them a little more warmth. Boy did i make the wrong choice moving there.


When i arrived the wind was blowing but it was from my right and there was a bush to hide behind which i did, but after setting up and settling down with a nice hot saucepan of beef stew that i,d warmed up the wind changed and blew straight into my face. And boy was it fookin cold. I don,t really feel the cold as i wear the appropriate clothing and because i work outside for a living i,ve gotten used to it. But this time i really felt it, in the end i could only last a couple of hours before i packed up went home. I was so cold it actually hurt, i havn,t felt like that since i was a kid. Oh well defeated again but even though i got frozen i still enjoyed it.

Mmm beef stew............................

All that water and they have to come this close. Just before taking this picture a lad barely in his teens capsized his boat barely off my rod tips. I was going to take a picture but thought better off it as the coaches were doing their best not to let the boat drift into me. He must off been frozen taking a dunk though...