The day this time had been cloudless and the forecast was for a frost

.The water levels across the country, but especially it seemed in the Thames valley, dropped very fast over the space of just three or four days, dropping by as much as two feet. When I arrived at the lake I found parts of it had emerged from beneath the water that had been under water for at least 10 weeks. Those parts did not look good at all though, if they were not covered in black dead leaves and mud they had an ominous grey sludge covering them. The same grey sludge that I had seen covering the weed back in November when the pollution poured into the lake from the broken pipe. If this is what the silt and gravel is like out in the middle of the lake no wonder getting a take is so difficult. The few days before my session had been cold with strong easterly winds and sunshine during the day and calm frosty weather during the night. The day this time had been cloudless and the forecast was for a frost. It was, I guess, only the wind that had stopped the lake from freezing over in the previous days. It was pleasant enough now though in the sun and as I was preparing to get set up a long time fishing mate turned up for a look round, not that he was particularly interested in fishing the lake as it is old hat for him but he was passing. He was even less pleased to hear about the pollutions and fish deaths so we chatted about more light-hearted things and plans for the future, more of this later. Geoff also turned up to walk the dog and told us about his titanic battles on the River Test with record sized gudgeon and his (dream-on) plans for a 30lb pike from Chew Valley Reservoir. Geoff’s dogs hunting instincts could get him a £5000 fine in the future if the pathetic ‘hunting with dogs’ law ever sees the light of day. What a stupid load of intolerant ignorant people live in this country of ours. As my mate Terry Hearn said, in a different but by no means lesser context, “Give us a break, we’re just a few lads having some fun and keeping ourselves to ourselves, causing no harm to anyone”. Finally I was left alone just as the sky was turning from blue to purple and finally black. I was not worried about casting out before it got dark, I know the spots that will produce eventually before 14 March and the lines and far bank markers are ingrained in me so I can cast spot-on in total darkness. Trouble is, someone opened the taps in the sky and to get the casts spot-on I needed to wade out to my chest due to overhanging trees. I’m keen but not that keen. Now with the drop in water level, at last I could get down beneath the trees and get the casts right. Swish went the rods; splash went the PVA rigs on landing and thud went the leads through the rods as they hit the spots right on the nose. It was a matter of how big, surely? The frost then came faster than I thought and by 8pm what looked like surface weed appeared out in the lake, except it was not weed, it was cat ice forming. By 10pm the ice had spread across most of the lake, my margins were still free so all was okay. At 1am I clambered out from under the blankets and crunched my way over what was flooded ground a few days before to find ice now covering the whole lake. Considering it was 1am I guessed I had little chance of a take so reluctantly I picked up one of the rods. The line was frozen to the buzzer but it was easy to wind in, the line coming in through the ice using its own hole. All went solid though when the lead came up from underneath. It was more solid than I thought but a bit of pulling finally smashed the lead through. I repeated the exercise with the other rod and put them back on the rests. I considered packing up but I was warm under the shelter and I would only get cold packing up and driving home so I clambered back under the blankets and fell asleep dreaming of summer stalking. Apparently it was minus 5 that night but I was not cold, but then, once I fished and it was minus 10 and I did not notice then either! More frosts followed during the week so my next session was cancelled. What I need is a decent bit of river to fish when the weather goes like this, I know of plenty of close by possibilities so perhaps this coming summer I might have to put some effort in ready for next winter. Back to what my mate and I were discussing as far as waters to fish this spring and onwards. Around Christmas time I was given a CD to look at called Fishooked. It is advertised as the ultimate ‘where to fish’ guide. Not just carp waters but all waters. This is certainly something that has been missing on the market and on the CD I got, dated June 2000, there were certainly plenty of fisheries mentioned, not many I was not aware of in my area I must admit but at least it had contact numbers and size of fish etc. I logged onto the Internet the other day to see how much had been updated and I was pleasantly surprised. The amount had increased twofold and there were several entries I will be chasing up before I make a final decision where to move on to come 14th March. It’s a shame though that in recent advertisements they felt they had to say that not only several thousand waters were in there but gave an amount, 2000 I think, that were carp fisheries. Does everything need to be advertised to attract instant carp anglers? I suppose business is business.

Have fun!