Pole Fishing In Winter - The Natural Approach

This entry was posted on 10th February, 2015

Winter… now everyone angler knows that this can be an extremely tough time, the mild temperatures of the autumn seem a distant memory, the leaves have fled from the trees and the fish are in their winter slumber. However it’s still possible to put a few fish on the bank if you get it right.

This session took place at the start of January; with the festive period being a busy one, both at home and in the work place sessions had been hard to come by. A few days off between Christmas and the New Year had been put aside to allow some time on the bank.

The choice of venue didn’t take a lot of thought, we opted for a little local lake called the old stables, knowing the owner a quick phone call was in order just to check all was well, to which he replied ‘I don’t know, no one’s been down to fish for a few weeks now!’ As we’d fished the lake many times before, we knew it had a decent stock of Roach, Tench, Crucians and Carp, and we were fairly confident a few of these would be willing to feed, especially as the lake had received so little angling pressure and bait for a few weeks.



An early start wasn’t too crucial, I think that’s less important in the winter, with daylight hours being low, your almost best fishing in the middle of the day, at least that will have given any winter sunshine maximum time to warm the cold water. The car was loaded and we set off around 9.30, however the day didn’t start well… a pit stop at the local Macdonalds, for a couple of bacon and egg macmuffins was in order, only to find the muffins had no egg! Bacon muffins anyone… Is that just the glamorous name for bacon butty!

Soon back on the road we arrived at the lake around 10.00, transferred the tackle from the car to the barrow and set off to find a suitable swim. Having fished the lake before we were already slightly ahead of the game, one end (The dam end) was shallow, and through the summer months full of lilies, the other end was deeper and clearer. Not wanting to fish the shallow water, we opted for a peg just on the edge of the deeper water, with the thinking being that the fish would be layed up here and for probably most of the winter!

If we had the swim choice right, then it was just a case of enticing the fish to feed! Something, which we were confident of doing! Out of the bag came our secret weapon… Worms! This time of year we like the natural baits, so worms, caster and maggot were all on the agenda, all these baits will catch nearly anything that swims, which is what our aim of the day was, simply to catch! These baits are also very easy for the fish to digest, as you can imagine a nice piece of juicy worm on the lakebed is perhaps more appealing than a hard pellet.



Bait preparation is quite simple, although there’s a couple of little tweaks you can make… one, to help you catch more fish and two, to ease the cost on your wallet!

First thing first, we added a large handful of molehill soil to a bait box, this helps cloud the water, and acts as a carrier to the natural chopped worm and caster aroma, it also helps bulk you’re feed out for free! A hand full of dendrobeana worms follow, along with a generous pinch of casters and a few grains of corn. To this a good glug of the Van Den Eynde chopped worm liquid is added and then the concoction is almost finished, all that’s left to do is to then chop the whole mixture with some scissors! The triple bladed worm scissors are probably the best one’s to use, they soon make light work of the mix and enable you to achieve a nice finish, which in this case is a chopped worm, caster mush, which fish simply cannot resist!



With the bait prepared it was simply a case of getting it out to the spot, we opted to fish at around 10m, with no other anglers either side of us we had no real competition so distance wasn’t an issue. We cupped in one large pot of the chopped worm mixture and gave the swim ten or so minutes to settle as we tackled up. With the water being cold and the chance that the fish would be very finicky we opted for a reasonably delicate set up, although there is a fine line between setting up too light and too heavy, as you don’t want to get your rig trashed every time your hook a larger specimen. Setting up with double five elastic on a pulla bung, the rig consisted of a main line of 0.12mm, a hooklength of 0.10mm and a small size 20 hook. The float was 0.6g and was shotted with a bulk of no.8’s with two droppers, nothing complicated, but hopefully a case of simple yet effective!



With everything sorted we were prepared for the first put in, on the hook went half a dendrobeana worm, the rig shipped out to the mark and the float allowed to settle. We didn’t have to wait long for signs of fish, the float knocking and bobbing as the little fish started to graze on the free offerings, it was only a matter of time before one snaffled our hookbait. After around half hour the float slid away and the first little Roach was on the bank, a steady stream of these fish followed with fish from 4oz to 10oz coming to the worm hookbait.

It was obvious there was a few fish in the swim, hungry and willing to feed so we decided to step up the feed, but this time rather than cup in one large pot of bait, we opted to feed little and often. A small toss pot pole pot was added to the end of the pole and every other fish a cup full of tasty morcels would be deposited, upping this to every fish if they started to feed harder.
Around an hour and a half later the Roach were still feeding hard, but there was no sign of any Carp, Tench or Crucians… would it just be a case of fishing through the Roach to get to the bonus fish? We thought it might be, but as the session progressed and the day light hours started to slip away, we became less convinced this was going to happen.



With around an hour of day light left, the float buried and it was soon apparent we were into something better, the double five elastic shot from the pole tip as the fish made its first bid for freedom. With careful control of the pole, even with frozen hands! And with use of the pulla bung, the first Carp of the session was soon in the landing net. No monster, but a nice fish around 2-3lb, a very welcome site on a cold, difficult day, also proof that its not only Pellets that catch Carp. We slipped the fish back and contemplated packing up, the football was about to kick off and the warmth of the car heaters seemed rather appealing, but as anglers we used the classic phrase… ‘just one more cast’ It was a good job we did too! As within a matter on minutes the float disappeared and once again, for the second time in the session, the double five elastic was being put through its paces! Once again there was no need for bully boy tactics, especially on the light tackle, so the fish was allowed to tire itself out before it was ready for the net. Soon the second Carp of the day was safely on the bank, this time a slightly bigger, stockier fish, perhaps 4-5lb, but yet again another welcome site. These Carp had appeared like buses, we had waited all day for one and two come at once!
fter a couple of pictures we carefully returned the fish to its watery home, before once again using the classic phrase… ‘just one more cast’ of course we couldn’t resist, but unfortunately that was to be it for the day.

The Tackle Box Daiwa Tournament Pro (More Match) Pole Matrix Superbox (Alternative) Daiwa Airity Complete Carryall Daiwa Airity 12 Tube Holdall Daiwa Airity Cool Bag Preston Pro V Pole Roller Daiwa Aqua Dry Landing Net Daiwa SR3 Landing Net Handle Preston Bait Boxes Preston Slip Elastic Preston Slip Dacron Connectors Preston Pulla Bung Preston Dri-Fish Suit Daiwa Gamakatsu G-Line Kamasan Hooks Preston Non-Toxic Plummet Preston Pole Floats (Alternative) Chopped Worm Scissors

The Bait Box CG Dendrobeana Worms Dynamite Baits Sweetcorn Dynamite Baits Liquid Worm