At last the winters here and l for one am glad that the mild, wet weather is behind us, however, it’s gone from one extreme to another and now we are faced with the stillwaters beginning to freeze. For me the colder the better as it allows myself to focus on things better, removing those nagging thoughts that other species maybe having it and confusing the issue to the point that l don’t know if lm coming or going! It was last Thursday that the weather began to change, l remember it well as it happened whilst l was at Bury Hill Zander fishing. Since then the temperatures have gradually dropped, not good for any angling but hopefully over the next few days it may just steady itself out allowing the water temperatures to stabilise and a few fish to acclimatize to the conditions.
Pike are one of the species that will soon become active and on Monday l headed of the Cemex, Kingsmead to test some specialist rods out and hopefully get a bend in the winner. One of the rods on test was the newly released Korum Precision 12’ 2-75lb specialist and although it narrowly missed out on taking top spot it came a very close second and being the top all-round rod tested will undoubtedly become a big seller. The winner was cast out and after a few minutes an eight pounder came along finishing the feature of nicely.
Thursday came and once again it was of to Willinghurst in hope of completing the feature that unfortunately was called of a few weeks ago due to the complex being flooded. You’ve guessed it, on arrival l found the complex frozen and once again cursed my luck after spending ages once again sorting the kit out.
It was on Friday when l sat on the banks of the river Kennet with snow all around and temperatures struggling to get the right side of zero that l finally decided that l needed to put some discipline back into my angling. The rods were out with chub in mind but they didn’t move and knowing that l have got a decent chub on the list, questioned why and what l was doing. Trying to do too many things or target too many species brings with it problems and looking back, by doing this I’ve probably fished far from 100%, so as from today its one species at a time and all out for it.
