Tumbling temperatures make for the toughest week of fishing this winter

Tumbling temperatures, hard overnight frosts and occasional snow flurries made last week the toughest of the fishing season so far with a slight warming last Saturday the only saving grace for local anglers who made the effort to get out on the bank.

Two fish

You know it’s tough out there when only two fish are reported for the week, unsurprisingly both of them were chub, but they were cracking fish.

First up was old friend of this column, Holyport’s Dave McManus, who ventured back onto one of his old River Kennet barbel beats - but to fish for chub. “The big barbel I used to catch here and report to you back in the day are long gone, Ian.” he told me, “but I heard of a few good chub coming out recently and knew exactly where they used to shoal, I knew they wouldn’t be far away.”

Dave’s location was spot on and after a little pre-bait with mashed bread his first cast - so often the case with chub - produced a solid pull and, after a two-minute fight right under the near bank, he netted a chub of 6lb 4oz. A cheesepaste bait on a size 6 hook to 6lb line was the successful method but despite fishing all day and trying a variety of different swims, tactics and baits it was his only bite of the day.

The other chub reported was from Old Father Thames at Sonning where a legered pellet wrapped with pellet paste on a size 8 hook to a 6lb hook length and 8lb main line resulted in a 5lb 5oz fish for Twyford fisher Dickie Price. As with Dave’s Kennet specimen the fish was Dickie’s only bite of what he described as, “A very long and very, very cold day’”

Grayling time

Chub are, of course, very reliable cold water feeders but the most reliable of them all is the grayling. If you are looking for a few fish over the course of the next week or too it could well be worth booking a chalkstream session. Friends who have visited the Lower Itchen Fishery during the past fortnight have made some excellent catches so make that top of your list.

Trout returns

Jonno Randall over at the Sportfish Game Fishing Centre tells me that conditions were challenging last week but that some great fish were caught by those who ventured out and fished to the conditions, most notably by Paul Power who caught a 13lb 14oz rainbow from Duffer’s Point on Haywards Farm Lake fishing a tadpole fly on an intermediate line.

Despite the chilly temperatures the fish were still mostly concentrated still in the top 4ft of water but as the water temperature continues to fall Jonno reckons there will probably a return to the more traditional depths and tactics normally associated with this time of year.

As far as successful patterns are concerned, Diawl Bachs, buzzers and small pheasant tails all produced the goods and they were most effective when fished as slowly as possible – or static. Plenty of fish are still showing well within range from the bank but the boat fishing was steady too, with intermediate lines and tadpoles in black and green the order of the day. Jonno’s advice for boat anglers is to ensure that you fish the hang right to the edge of the boat as the fish are happy to follow and the sudden change of speed, or complete stop, makes them commit to the take.

The average weight for last week was 3lb 14oz with a rod average of 3.2.

The week ahead

Consistency is what it is all about at this time of the season and with the weather forecast suggesting a run of cool but mostly unchanging conditions I think we should see a slight uplift in returns next week.

Any anglers wishing to report catches may contact me at ian@bigfishtrail.com