I’m taking you back
to New years eve 2009 and the Christmas period when most of us get a little
extra time off work and maybe a few angling plans set out. This particular year
was another wet one, not only that we’d also had a bit of the white stuff, the
gritters had been out and my local Great Ouse was up to its neck with a mass of
chocolate salty water!
Probably like most of
you, when I feel the need to go angling, I just have to go!
Luckily for me, on
leaving work pre the Christmas break I had taken some maggot and Lobworms home
with the mindset that if the inevitable happened then I could just go out
angling for a bite from anything and not necessarily a specific species (maybe
just drop on to my local Grand union canal if push came to shove). Anyway, with
all the festivities done and dusted and work looming fast the urge to angle was
upon me, my brother was also itching to get out so between us we hatched a plan
to get out and grab a bit of fresh air.
The Ouse was a
definite no go, so I decided to head to a local lake that’s just a short drive
from my home where I used to angle for Carp/Catfish. General coarse fishing
wise, not that many anglers tend to bother with it but it holds all the usual
suspects from Tench, Bream, Perch and Silvers, silvers that I had caught all be
it by mistake on 12mm pop ups whilst fishing for Carp during previous springs
and summers!
Leading up to this
particular day, I had readied a tip rod, an Avon type rod with a 1.5oz tip, 5lb
mainline, black cap maggot feeder stopped with a quick change bead and the hook
link was a self-tied 2lb 80z to a size 16 hook with the intention of fishing a
chopped worm tipped with a red maggot.
On arrival at just
after first light it soon become apparent that half the lake was frozen solid
so with only 5 swims maximum to choose from I carefully selected one that would
not only be comfortable but also that sat on the back of the chilling wind.
I knew the lake quite
well in regards to depths and features etc and in this particular peg at about
20yds or so the depth changed from sixteen feet to ten (a hump, quite a large
hump) and this was to be my chosen distance. An empty feeder was then cast and
clipped up, I then cast still with no hook link on five or six times just to
get a little bit of maggot in the swim.
Shortly after, a
baited cast was made and I sat back and chilled out with a brew from the flask.
We had decided to
fish until mid afternoon and apart from me striking at thin air to a tentative
pluck at mid-morning all else was quiet.
At about 1.30pm just
as I was tucking in to a cold turkey and pickle sandwich, I had a knock, a
little attention as I like to call it, the tip pulled round at a steady pace,
little did I know what was about to rise and be pulled over the net cord? On
first glimpse I can remember saying to my brother “I’ve got a very large silver
dollar here”
Safely netted and
unhooked, we then set about putting a number on her and neither of us could
quite believe it when the scales read out a very pleasing winter 3lbs 8oz!!
A quick couple of
pictures were taken before slipping her back and toasting with a sloe gin from
the hip flask. We angled on for another couple of hours but no more attention
was forthcoming and we headed for home to see the New year in.
The moral of the story is…. If you need to
change tact or species then do it, you never know what that next bite might be!
Tight lines
Derren
