Des Taylor’s
weekly diary
WHAT I fish for at this time of year is dictated by the weather. If it’s freezing cold with hard frosts I’ll be hunting big rainbows and pike, but if the temperature rises and the river is holding colour I will be after chub, barbel and, of course, perch.
This week has been a mixed bag for me but I have had my string pulled, that’s for sure!
WEDNESDAY
A carp social with my mates Ray, Bob and John, but to be honest I didn’t hold out much hope of many fish. The temperature had dropped to freezing over the previous couple of days.
If we hadn’t had the social planned, I would not have been carp fishing today. We met up quite late at 8.30am. It was pointless getting there earlier with frost still on the ground – if we were going to get a take or two it would be between 1pm and 4.30pm. That’s been the norm in the past in winter on this water.
As predicted, the fishing was hard and only Bob caught – a brace of doubles, the best an 18lb common. Bob was in a known winter holding spot for carp with the only trees on the water in that swim. Ray had a few liners, as did John, but I never had even a liner.
However, I did have a big pork pie, mince pies and hot coffee and a good laugh, which what the day was all about.
THURSDAY
Guiding Tony Redfern and his son Olly for pike, and it was a cracker, with 12 fish to 14lb.
Neither Tony nor Ollie had caught a pike before, indeed Olly had never even seen one! They all came to deadbaits steadily throughout the day, with one first cast and one to the last rod just before we finally wound it in.
It’s funny how people who don’t go pike fishing always assume that all pike anglers have caught 20lb pike and the odd thirty, when in reality a 20lb pike is a rare fish nowadays, especially away from trout reservoirs.
It was a pleasure to show Tony and Olly how to catch pike and how to look after them when unhooking and returning them to the water. It was also magic to see Olly’s face when the first pike he caught – a fish of 12lb or so – hit the surface and sprayed water over him. Great days indeed!
SATURDAY
It was cold, misty and just getting light as I walked down to the pool with my friends Bob and Andrew for a morning’s trout fishing.
Bob looks after the syndicate lake in the week and he told me that every day he had seen a big fish in the corner of the pool near an overhanging tree, so he suggested I have a cast there first.
I went for a small green Fritz lure on a floating line, made my first cast as near to the tree as I dared and let the lure sink for five seconds before retrieving it ‘figure-of-eight style’ across my freezing left hand. I felt a small tap that I didn’t strike at and cast again. This time, after moving the lure about a yard, the line was almost pulled from my hand and the big fish was on!
The first run took me about 20 yards at great speed, prompting me to ask ‘who says these big trout don’t fight?’ and it was a full five minutes before I brought it over the landing net.
As soon as we saw it we recognized it as a big trout I’d caught and returned last winter – it just shows the quality of this small water.
The fish had lost a little weight and condition but still weighed a little over 14lb. What a start!
After this we all caught, with another couple of fish going into double figures. Some of these were the best-looking rainbows I have ever seen in my life. By midday they had turned off from anything we cast to them, so it was off home to a roast lamb dinner and a glass of cider.