DES TAYLOR
“I love fishing in the snow!”
AS I WRITE it’s 10am, -3°C and snowing. My local rivers are bank-high and the nearest stillwaters are frozen over, but to stay positive I’m looking around the tackle den and remembering some great snow days of the past – I’ve had a few, I can tell you that for nothing!
About six years ago I was fishing a marina which had been frozen over for a week. I’d popped down there armed with just a drop shot rod and a few small plastic shads. I knew it would either be incredible fishing or, if I was too early after the thaw, a complete blank.
Happily for me I caught it just right and it was a bite-a-chuck, with perch of all sizes including six over 2lb. I can remember it like it was yesterday – as I was playing one perch, another two would follow the hooked fish like an armed escort, one either side of the ‘prisoner’.
I started catching on a Fox Fire Tiger shad and only changed it for a new one when, after so many perch, it began to look a bit worse for wear. That meant
I only used one lure pattern all afternoon. There was no need to change but, on a day like this, to be honest I think I could have caught fish on a piece of silver paper wrapped around the hook, they were so up for it!
Sometimes adverse weather such as we’re having now can mean that when the change comes – be that temperature, wind, air pressure, the colour of the water, or some or all of these – it can turn the fish on and you can have a red-letter day.
When it comes to lure fishing for perch I love freezing cold weather, for that usually means the other fish become semidormant. On commercials the carp stop feeding and so the water turns gin-clear and the perch can feast on the small silverfish, making them easier to catch on lures.
It’s the same with big trout. These days I pray for cold water, because trout thrive in it and are a whole lot easier to catch than during those hot, humid days of summer. Indeed, unless it’s on the river, I rarely trout fish until November when, after the first couple of frosts, the trout become more active in the oxygenated water.
Sometimes in summer you need to offer the fish minute natural imitations, and yet they will still turn their nose up at them. In winter the selfsame fish will follow a huge orange lure pulled at speed just beneath the surface. I’ve caught many big trout over the years, including six over 20lb, and all of them in winter.
I remember a day a couple of years ago when it went down below zero, with a bitter wind, yet the trout fed like mad. The hardest part about catching them was staying warm enough and keeping the rod rings free of ice so I could carry on fishing.
We actually lit a fire pit near to where we were fishing and me and my two mates, Andrew and Bob, would each have three or four casts, then spend 10 minutes warming our hands over the oak logs.
We were so cold, but this was a day to remember for the rest of our lives and so different to these strange stay-at-home times of lockdown.
I’m having my jab in the arm tomorrow, which is a big move in the right direction towards me hitting the road again in the coming weeks.
Keep positive, keep safe and do what’s right – not just what you can get away with!