Dave Coster's Fishing Diary - December 2018

This entry was posted on 14th January, 2019

Several days of rain finally put some colour into the River Witham, so that’s where I planned my first trip for December. I went for a walk along one of my favourite stretches the day before and was amazed to see anglers everywhere, on what are normally deserted areas. I soon discovered it was a match and could have kicked myself for not checking the local fishing club website.

Next day I picked a nice-looking swim. It featured a steady glide, so I set up a small stick float, a method that worked well for me last winter on this tiny, shallow venue. I set about loose feeding small helpings of hemp and casters regularly, hoping for some action. But as is normal for this river, it took quite a time before I got any indications and these we only from minnows to begin with.



I had another reason for wanting to get out on some flowing water, a new Advanta X5 13ft float rod sample I was itching to test out. Although I hadn’t managed to put a bend in the blank yet, I was immediately impressed with its lightness and fast response on the strike, even if was only from tiny minnows up until this point! I needn’t have worried, some proper fish soon moved in and I started catching dace, roach and small chub. The colour was dropping out of the water fast, so I had to scale down to a smaller hook and lighter trace to keep the bites coming.



Before it got dark, which occurs far too quickly at this time of the year, I managed to connect with a decent sized dace and a couple of slightly bigger chub. Not a brilliant start to the month but at least I was happy with the way the new X5 rod handled, also rather pleased that I would have to give it another test run on some bigger fish somewhere soon.

Shame about the river not being quite right yet. It needs a lot more rain to flush out some of the weed and to put some sustained colour into it.



Although I caught some cracking roach on the Match Lake at Woodland Waters last month, I also endured a couple of tough days searching for the same species in the Specimen Lake next door. I decided to give it another go, because I’m sure this deeper and larger lake holds even bigger red fins.

I didn’t intend to mess around, fishing just the one pole rig set at full depth to begin with, cupping in 4 balls of groundbait and loose feeding casters over the top.

I got bites a lot quicker on this occasion, but only from small perch, the same type of fish I caught on my last couple of outings on this lake. Several hours passed without a sign of a roach.



All I could get any interest on was small segments of worm or single red maggots, but as these baits were only resulting in perch, I decided to anchor a caster several inches over-depth. I felt if anything was going to nail a big roach, this would do it. It took ages to get a bite and at long last this did result in a roach, but only a small one. That bite gave me confidence however, so I stuck with a single caster on a tiny size 20 hook, eventually becoming attached to a proper elastic stretcher. The fish ploughed around in the deeps and my fine rig just about managed to stay in contact. As I got the fish up, it surged off a couple of times before I managed to net a pristine big roach.



I was fishing down the shelf at around 11.5 metres. A lot of carp anglers use these pegs and I suspect the wily old roach patrol this area, picking up free bits of grub that fall from the spods the speccy guys like using. These fish are ultra shy, so your tackle and bait presentation needs to be spot on. I really fancied my chances of another decent fish but for the next hour or so perch were the only takers.



As it was getting dark, I spotted a couple of big red fins rolling on the surface. I could barely see my float tip by now and wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light, or did I see the fine antenna tremble slightly? I waited a minute or so and then I thought I saw some movement again, so I gently lifted the pole tip. Once again my light elastic shot out and a similar dogged fight ensued before I netted an even bigger roach. Nice one! At last they are starting to show, a good month later than last year.



My mate Andy was up from London later in December and wanted to fish the first lake at Priory. This place is always good for plenty of bites in the depths of winter and sure enough, after cupping in a couple of balls of groundbait my swim quickly came to life. Skimmers showed to begin with but because the water was a lot clearer than normal, I opted to just loose feed casters after that initial dose of groundbait. I switched between a full depth pole rig with a 0.10mm trace and size 18 hook and a lighter 0.08mm on-the-drop set up with a size 20. In both cases I was using the new Advanta X5 Rig Line, which I find brings a lot more bites, especially in clear water.



Andy was concentrating more on a pellet and groundbait attack, looking to find the skimmer shoals this lake holds. He uses sweet flavoured pellets and groundbait during the colder months, believing the fish find these easier to digest than oily fishmeal baits. Interestingly, apart from skimmers he was catching quite a few roach, which seems to confirm his theory.

I used to fish with Andy a lot when I lived in London many years ago. Back then there was a thriving match scene on the canals and rivers. It’s mostly commercials these days, although he still sees a lot of the match anglers I used to know, who are always sending their regards up north.



The session was hectic as is usual for this venue in the winter, almost a bite a chuck. I caught most of my fish just off bottom with my spread shot rig. I found my full depth skimmer set up was too slow, as that species wasn’t feeding as avidly as the roach. I added a couple of bonus perch but mainly caught roach and rudd. Not massive fish but chunky enough to give a good pull on light line and fine pole elastic. Nice fishing when bites are at a premium on many venues at this time of the year.



The next day we decided to fish the larger Match Lake at Priory, thinking it might be a similar action-packed session. How wrong we were! After several hours all we had caught was one tiny perch apiece. I didn’t want to waste the whole day, so I quickly relocated to the other lake, where it was immediately like a different world. First put in on the pole resulted in a decent skimmer and then it was a bite a chuck on everything I tried, including maggots, casters and segments or worm. How strange.



Andy persevered on the other lake, but it was completely dead compared to where I was. The fishing was hectic to say the least. I was catching even faster on the pole than the day before and wished I had started on this peg. The roach were really having a go on casters, which I was feeding little and often, catching really quickly on a light, shallow set rig. There were so many fish competing for my loose feed I was bumping out of a fair few at one stage. I upped the amount I was feeding, and this soon sorted the problem out.

This haul of mainly roach resulted in less than two hours, leaving me wondering what might have been if I hadn’t wasted all that time on the other lake. I know there’s loads of fish in that water too, but for some reason they had switched off on this occasion. I suspect the fish tend to shoal up tightly at this time of the year and being less active, if you don’t sit on them you won’t catch any.

As the new year approaches, I’m already thinking about my next fishing trip. I hope to see you out on the bank and wish all AD customers the very best for 2019.