| MARK WINTLE |
| Mark Wintle, an angler for thirty-five years, is on a quest to discover and bring to you the magic of fishing. Previously heavily involved with match fishing he now fishes for the sheer fun of it. With an open and enquiring mind, each week Mark will bring to you articles on fishing different rivers, different methods and what makes rivers, and occasionally stillwaters, tick. Add to this a mixed bag of articles on catching big fish, tackle design, angling politics and a few surprises. Are you stuck in a rut fishing the same swim every week? Do you dare to try something different and see a whole new world of angling open up? Yes? Then read Mark Wintle’s regular weekly column. |
FROST Many years ago, an angling companion had an irrational fear of frost and its impact on catching fish. As we were greenhorn winter league anglers at the time, this troubled me. He was the team captain, and I feared that his pessimistic frame of mind would make our anglers too negative in their approach. Once you stop believing that you are going to catch, you are beaten, defeated if you are a winter league team. I often argued with him on this point, as I believed that the right approach could bring results. So, what brought about this belief, and what has over twenty-five years of fishing since taught me? It stems from our local river Frome being tidal. For reasons that I’ve never fully understood, the dace on the tidal reaches usually went completely off the feed after a hard frost. A succession of disastrous matches in the mid seventies seemed to confirm this. What’s more, when we ventured further afield we found that the lower tidal reaches of the Dorset Stour were often similarly affected. In both cases, there were instances of twenty and thirty anglers in a row failing to get a bite. But the rapid increase in experience that we gained in fishing diverse waters such as the Thames, Bristol Avon, Loddon, and other parts of the Dorset Stour caused me to question whether all waters were affected. Certainly, when the river was low and clear, with a hard frost, it was very tough going, and some areas would fish very badly. On the same day, however, other anglers would have a good day’s sport even if this were confined to localised hot spots. When the river was in better condition, say fining down from a flood the effect was lessened. Furthermore, the effect on different species varies. The species most likely to feed in frosty conditions are dace, roach, chub and grayling. Since those days, I have been out in frosty conditions many times and usually caught fish, even won matches. Nowadays, I am usually pleasure fishing rather than competing in a match. I can choose my swim, and take my time. In this article, I’m concerned about the effects of cold nights and the resultant frost. In such conditions, I’d still expect the daytime temperature to climb back well above freezing, anything from about 4 degrees C to 10 degrees, or roughly 40 to 50F. At least as the day progresses it warms up enough that you don’t get the line freezing in the rod rings. Artic type conditions where the day time temperature remains below freezing and water temperatures get down in the low to mid thirties Fahrenheit are a very different matter. Fortunately, such conditions are rare, though I have been out in such weather and caught good bags of fish. Take your time There are a number of lessons from my experiences. The first one is that if you are going out pleasure fishing, especially if it’s somewhere local, and it’s a heavy overnight frost caused by a clear night, then take your time. Why rush out, possibly onto icy roads, when there is a better chance of sport in the second half of the day? Two or three hours of good effective fishing when the temperature has risen five or six degrees in the afternoon can be a whole lot better than shivering biteless in the subzero dawn. Have a lay-in, read the papers, plan where might be a good place to fish, have an early light lunch and then go fishing. One of the finest examples that I’ve had of this was a Christmas match about four years ago on the tidal Stour. Up until half past two, I’d struggled for a handful of bites, and a few ounces. At times, I suspected that the fish were there and biting but detecting the bites was almost impossible. In the last half hour of the match, I finally found the better dace and roach willing to give hittable bites. Yet, even then, I could only tempt bites on a size 24 hook, and this in fast water, with the float over-shotted and held back hard. My final weight was nothing to get excited about (2-8-0) but the transformation was real enough with two good dace of eight ounces apiece and two roach of a similar weight. Whilst we waited for the scalesman in the gathering dusk, the river came alive with topping fish. Consider where is likely to provide some sport I’ve caught good chub in these conditions when the roach and dace have gone right off the feed. Is the river like crystal? Is it worth trying a deep steady glide for roach? I have caught roach after hard frost, though usually when there is a slight tinge of colour in the water. On chalk streams, grayling often feed when nothing else will. And a real change for me was rescuing a planned day’s roach fishing by buying some herrings and wobbling them for pike. We didn’t catch a great deal. Most of the takes came from ambitious jacks that couldn’t manage the bait but a well-conditioned double made it a day to savour. Small baits and light tackle for frosty conditions For general fishing in such conditions, maggots take some beating though that’s not to say other baits won’t work. I have found bread to be less effective in the extremes of cold; just occasionally, it works surprisingly well, and therefore always worth a trial. One vital consideration in such conditions is that the fish, being cold blooded, are likely to be more sluggish. This has several effects. One is that they are more easily filled up so it is usually best to err on the side of caution when feeding. Secondly, bites may be extremely timid, possibly best registered by float fishing. The fish may want to take their time in biting so sensitive laying on techniques using small hooks and fine lines, and dotting down the float, could pay off. Whereas in normal mild conditions I might be able to use a size eighteen hook to 0.10mm hook length (and much cruder when they’re really having a go), I wouldn’t hesitate to drop to a size 22 to 0.07mm to tempt bites after a frost. One of the side effects of a significant drop in water temperature is that on lime-rich waters fine particles that give the river a tinge of colour drop out so the water becomes much clearer. This is because the water is unable to hold so much calcium salts in solution at a lower temperature (a bit like it’s easier to dissolve sugar in hot water). These salts coat the fine silt particles as they crystallise out, making the silt particles heavier, and so they drop out of suspension. This increased clarity lets the fish see our approach and terminal tackle more easily, so there is an added handicap in such conditions, though for sight predators the converse may be true. Put to the test I wrote this article at the end of October when there hadn’t been any frosts at all. Last weekend (13/14 November), I got the chance to find out if what I had written would be of any use. The Friday night saw the first frost at about minus 1 (air temperature). Saturday was bright and clear with a bitter Northerly wind. I found the upper Dorset Stour in top-class condition with a good flow and tinge of colour. Another angler was tackling up when I arrived, and we decided to hedge our bets on bait; he’d start with maggots, and I’d start on bread punch on a 16. We expected roach, and possibly dace, gudgeon and chub. I groundbaited cautiously with a hard nugget every ten minutes to get down quickly in the eleven feet of water. The answer didn’t take long in coming. First cast I got a three quarter pound roach followed by a succession of smaller ones, plus a two-pound chub that had me thinking I’d got a two-pound roach as it thudded stolidly down deep. The other angler was into fish straightaway as well but his fish were of a smaller stamp. All was well for about an hour when both swims died. But after I’d switched to maggots on a much smaller hook (20), and experimenting with shotting, depths and presentation, we both got the fish to respond again about an hour later, and from then on, sport was slow but steady until the sun dipped below the hill behind us and the temperature plummeted once again. On the Sunday, the frost was much harder but the wind had eased considerably. A similar glide, but on Throop, took a lot of patience and perseverance with bread punch before responding to long range trotting (thirty five yards down the swim). Only a dozen fish this time but a brace of pound roach made the hard work of keeping the float on track worthwhile. It was even warm for a while in the sunshine. I’m sure these won’t be the last cold days this winter (even next weekend looks grim). Wrap up well, fish hard, keep active, and when you stop enjoying it, head for a warm fire! Next week: Rod Licences – Why do we need them? |
