Winter can be such a great time for fishing whatever venues and species you fish for; but it can also be very temperamental too. There are usually reasons for the fluctuations in sport and it is up to us as anglers to try and find patterns in these fluctuations in order to do the best we can.
I regularly fish Meadowlands fishery for silvers and carp every winter and it is amazing how things can change so quickly. On a recent match I won Lambsdown lake with 32lb’s of skimmers on the pole. When I took the water temperature it was 7.4 degrees. Two weeks later and I was back on the same lake a hundred meters down the bank. In those two weeks the water had dropped to 4.9 degrees! That is a massive drop in temperature for the fish. This was down to ridiculous amounts of cold rain combined with a succession of bad overnight frosts. This temperature change had a massive effect on the fishing. Everyone was getting indications of fish in their swims early on, but no bites at all for anyone. The fish were there, but simply not feeding. Thankfully because I had taken the temperature I was alerted to the fact that it may be very tough, so I fed accordingly. My normal 3 cricket balls on the pole line turned into 1 small ball, and it only had the minimal feed in it. My objective first of all was to attract the fish over my feed. I was desperate not to overfeed them, and knew I could always put a bit more in if necessary as they started to take an interest in feeding later on.
This is a huge mistake many anglers make at the start of their session. Your match can be over before you have put a bait on the hook if you don’t think carefully about what you are doing.
A few tricks I have found for winter commercials especially is to be extremely frugal with my feed. It is even more important on the pole as we can be so accurate: -
Reduce the food content
By this I mean first of all feeding less generally, but if you are feeding groundbait it is important to make sure that this cannot fill the fish up. On really cold water periods I put my dry mixes through a flour sieve to give me a very fine wetted down mixture. This way I am controlling what the fish can eat. Then I will add my particles very sparingly to my mix. I love dead pinkies and dead red maggots in my cold water mixes. Maggots and pinkies are not particularly filling to the fish, so especially with pinkies the fish can graze over the feed, picking off pinkies without filling up. This should give you enough time to hook them!
Fine mixes and less food content will help you catch more fish for longer in the session
Cut the micros
Micros, despite their size are extremely filling for fish. They are still a brilliant attractor in winter but often fed in far too large quantities. A pigeon’s egg size ball of micros contains hundreds of them when squeezed together. By mixing them 50/50 with my fine cold water ground bait mix of Mainline Sweet Marine and Tom Thick Natural, I can reduce the food content dramatically. This still gives plenty of attraction, and holds the fish in the swim really well.
Up the feed later on
It is important to catch those few fish which feed earlier than the rest, even in winter. Often after these a long difficult spell occurs. By keeping the feed in your swim to the minimum you can maximise your chances of catching. However, once the fish do decide to have a feed, you must up the ante in order to make the most of this last purple patch. This normally start around 1-2pm in winter, much earlier than in summer. So remember to be a little more adventurous, feed little amounts more often and make it happen.
It is so important to keep your eye on the ball in winter. Study the weather carefully, check that water temperature which will reveal so much about how you may need to approach it. Remember any drop in temperature at this time of year is likely to be detrimental to your catches, and any rise is sure to help. With these considerations you will then be able to make better decisions, especially when feeding, which will shape your day one way or another according to what you do.
A superb 32lb's of roach from the wonderful Meadowlands Fishery in freezing cold conditions!
