The weather has been cruel for the last few weeks now. Daytime temperatures of between -2 to -4c, with the nights being much cooler. I’ve never experienced anything like this before Christmas. Sometimes in the New year we have a cold snap, but they are predicting that this cold spell will continue with nighttime temperatures down to -10 c around my area.

Looking at the forecast it was for sunny conditions for Friday (Christmas eve) and a repeat for Christmas day. So it was because of the cloudy conditions that I decided to pay Lacock one more visit before the holiday. The lanes driving there were extremely slippery in places and you could see where a few cars ended up off the road. I arrived in the Red Lion car park to find an angler just finishing and he hadn’t had a touch all day. I was there for 2 hrs 2.30-4.30pm perhaps I might just temp something as the light faded. My hopes were not particularly high as I crunched my way across the snow filled fields. The temperature was just 0.5c above freezing, but there was a north wind blowing strongly across the snowy fields and this believe me was cold with the wind chill factor. The Abby looked beautiful in the snow and I took a couple of photo’s. I had put on several layers of clothes and thermal hot foot boots which have never let me down. There was one more intrepid angler there who had not had a touch, so this was going to difficult.

The first swim I tried was where I caught the 5lb 2oz chub last week. The banks were covered in snow however good knowledge of the river bank and swim had me settled into my position. I was using 3 swan shot on a short link with 4lb line strait through with a size 8 hook. Bait was going to be simple bread flake. I cast across into a slight slack near the far bank and let the flow slowly pull the tip around. I couldn’t believe how much little flow there was. Ice was forming in the margins which is something again we rarely see.

As I sat there the EA bailiff came along for a chat, I kept looking at the rod top for indications during our chat but I needn’t have bothered. The swim gave me a blank.

I moved to the last swim which is a deep bend which does produce some large chub and roach. I couldn’t get down to the swim here as the bank had a very steep angle and it was far too dangerous. I could just about flick the bread flake under the tree opposite. First cast and I had a tentative pull around of the rod. I missed the it!

Next cast produced something similar this time I connected for about 10 seconds before the hook pulled out. To be fair it didn’t feel like a chub but what it was I shall never know. Then I kept getting small taps from small roach I think, so I scaled down to a size 12 hook and smaller piece of flake. They kept coming but I couldn’t connect. As the light faded I decided to call it a day and crunched my way back across the field. The wind was at my back so it wasn’t too bad. Another blank though which just goes to show difficult it is at the moment.

That one fish I lost though would have done it for me!!

Well with the fishing taking a bit of a back seat due to the terrible -4c daytime temperature, snow falling and blocking roads. It’s unusual for the southwest to be hit so hard with the cold weather. Visits to the river have been few and the lakes well I would be better off taking my […]

Well the Willow lake is frozen in Oxford , and the trips to the H.Avon and D.Stour are fraught with snow problems. The Bristol Avon may be the only option open this week. The temperature here has not got above -3c all day so the river water will be cooling down further 8-( Never mind […]

Here I was again trying to catch the chub on the Bristol Avon at Lacock. It’s just a short 30min drive for me so I suppose it’s local. The weather had warmed up, I say that but the temps were about 5c during the day and just below zero at night. The session was to […]

The week had been one of the coldest on record for this time of year with temperatures not getting above -3c around the Bath area even during the day. The forecast was for the weather to improve on Friday with a slight increase in air temperatures to a balmy 5c. I decided to try for […]

Steve Innes of the Tench Fishers has set up the normal trip to the Itchen fishing for grayling. Slowly as the date drew nearer people dropped out due to work commitments and the bad weather forecast. There was some snow fall there the previous week and the signs were not good. I set off from […]

This is the second time on Chew inside one week and was feeling excited at fishing for the pike again. Andy Cowley my guide for the day thought that things looked good and he had plenty of good feedback from the previous day anglers. We arrived a little early and had to wait for the full […]

Knowing that cooler weather was coming towards the end of the week, I decided to try another session on Willow Lake. The forecast was for a warmish day of 7c going down to -3c for the night. The weed has not fully died back yet and there is still plenty to hang your baits up […]

So having lived in many villages so close to Chew Valley Lake for most of my life and even bird nested there in my young youth I finally fished there for the very first time. I’ve been there with fly fishermen friends and at one time even thought about fly fishing for the big perch […]

My weekly trip to Linch Hill’s Willow lake was scheduled for 36hrs starting on Wednesday 17th. I arrived on the lake at 10.30am and was greeted by the two swims that I wanted occupied by some carpers who had been fishing on the opposite bank the week before. It had been raining heavily in Bristol […]