Success in the snow!
You beat the big freeze – and we’ve got the pics to prove it!
FREEZING conditions, minus temperatures and intense snowfall might have brought much of the UK to a halt 14 days ago – but it didn’t stop the nation’s anglers taking to the banks! Despite a combination of ‘The Beast from the East’ and Storm Emma covering much of the country with snow, there were still plenty of fish caught.
Leading the hardy anglers enjoying big-fish success in the cold was Greys-backed Steve Rowley, who hooked into a fine 35lb 8oz pike (far right) during a trip to a Southern gravel pit.
Steve wanted to get out before the snow melted and potentially ruined the fishing, so he was pleased to kick off his session with two jacks and two doubles.
However, his next take was in a different league. He said: “Just before lunchtime I spotted the line on my far rod tighten, so I quickly jumped up out of my chair and released my drop-off indicator as the braid slowly started to twitch.
“I wound down quickly but the fish swam towards me, so I frantically reeled in the slack to catch up before setting the hook.
“My brand new rod hooped over and absorbed the initial headshakes, then the fish lunged
hard to my right and I had to backwind – a sure sign that there might be something big on the end.
“A few more powerful bursts later the pike was in my landing net, and after quickly unhooking and weighing her I put her out in the retention sling to get her breath, while I allowed the reality
“I quickly jumped up out of my chair and released my drop-off as the braid slowly started to twitch”
of a snow-caught 35lb 8oz pike to sink in before the photo shoot.”
Steve beat his third pike over 35lb using a Grey’s 3.5lb tc Aircurve rod, 61lb Whiplash Braid, size 4 Owner trebles and a sardine deadbait.
Pike were not the only species to feed in the bitter conditions.
When self-employed bricklayer Lee Coupe headed to his local Nottinghamshire waterway in search of perch there was already snow on the ground, although that didn’t stop him from banking nine perch topped by a 4lb 2oz specimen.
Lee took his new personal best for the species, as well as seven others over the 3lb barrier, when he fished a Gunki Floating Grubby Shad partnered with a 4g stand-up jig head on the bottom of the river.
He told Angling Times: “The lure presentation was something that a friend and I have been working on in the lure tank for a while.
“We both thought that this presentation of a lure would be deadly for perch in the colder months and a cheaper alternative to the Zman products, and what can I say? It worked really well!”
On these pages is a selection of your best cold-weather photos.