Piking in a Winter Wonderland

To say that the weather had deteriorated was an understatement. Here in the east of england, we had experienced 2 days of heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures. Many of the main roads were closed, albeit temporarily, and driving everywhere was dangerous. Just finding the car under the 6 inches of snow was a challenge, as was getting out of the street. However, determination is a very powerful thing as is the primal desire to hunt!

Our venue this time was the river Nene at Hardwater Mill on the WDNAC. Freeing the car and negociating the tretuious roads had meant a bit of a late start, but that didn't matter. The snow had not yet started to melt so the river looked in good condition as we crossed the double bridges near the venue. Now, clear blue skies and snow are not conducive to good fishing, but they do make for breath-taking scenery.

As before, simple float-fished deadbaits, the best rig for a roving approach. Sitting down and slowly letting the cold creep into your bones was not an option today, so the chairs stayed at home. Being cold is likely to distract you from your fishing as you become preoccupied with keeping warm. We decided to start at the lock-cut section of the water as, just like Ringstead, the water here is of a slower pace and a good area for the fish to hold up while it is cold. Our baits were cast, so it was time to take a few pictures of the scenery for the blog, oh and er.... untangle Micks first birds nest of the day!!(sorry Mick!) Moving and recasting every twenty minutes or so saw us covering all of the water in a methodical manner, but after a couple of hours neither of us had had any action. This didn't really bother us as the snow and scenery had combined in an awe inspiring way to keep us both quite content, for the moment!
However, circumstances were about to take a big run up and hoof us quite squarely in the plums! A phone call from the better half saw us packing up and heading home. I'd cleared off in the morning with something of the missus's in my pocket (I'll leave it to your imagination to work out what!). Oops, these things happen! We reluctantly dragged ourselves back to the car wondering if there would be any point in coming back after our errand. The answer was "hell yes!" from Mick. Ringstead's not that far, we can be there in 20 minutes!"
Thats the spirit, and in 20 minutes we were in the Ringstead complex. Not the venue that we'd hoped to give a good going over today, but sometimes you've got to take the rough with the smooth.
Daylight was burning fast now, so there was only one thing for it. The lock-cut. It had been good to us on the last trip and we needed it to be good to us again today, to save the day in fact. We moved so fast to get our lines in the water that we nearly failed to notice how beautiful the scenery was here as well. The snow barely disturbed apart from the hoof prints of a large deer. The trees naked but for their newly aquired snowy over-coats and birds hurrying about knocking the white powder off of the branches as they darted from tree to tree.
While Mick and I stood taking all of this in the river started to produce its goods. Micks float began to indicate that something was showing an interest in his herring deadbait. He waited a moment and then, on my instruction, wound down and struck into the fish. Unfortunatly, he missed it. However, better to strike early and miss than wait too long and deep hook the fish. Believe me the journey home after accidentally causing a fish harm is no fun. The float went back to the same spot and, sure enough the float started to bob again. After a strike the fish was on, but only momentarily. By this point we concluded that the fish was only small so we scaled down to half a herring each. Closer inspction of micks bait however, showed that the pike's bite had luckily (for the pike) missed the trebles. Leaving Mick to his battle of whits with a small pike, i moved to his left and tried the other side of the bridge. As if Mick wasn't frustrated enough i then proceeded to get a take on my bait. The float rising up and lying flat on the surface before moving steadily off to the left. A firm strike connected with resistance. Fish on! The small jack put up a good fight but was soon in the net. Now, time for my first ever 'fish in the snow' picture.
Not a big fish, but my first in the snow and i was happy with it. The lock-cut had come up with the goods again! We moved on to try and tempt another fish and i did get into another small jack, only for it to fall off as it came to the surface. Unfortunately, nothing for Mick on this occasion but we both agreed that the pike that i caught was very likely the one that he had nearly caught as it was from the same area.

Light was fading and we could no longer feel our toes, so it was time to head home. Again no monsters, but on a day when most anglers wouldn't have bothered, we went out in the snow and we caught pike.

The next time a non-angler asks if your 'mad' for fishing when its freezing, point them to this blog! It is never too cold for the pike to feed.