There had been a couple of days of hard frost but with a hour or so free over the weekend I shot off for my first session of the new year down to the river for a quick dabble. I knew where I wanted to be in such bitterly cold conditions, one of those hallowed spots of river angling - a warm water outlet. However on arrival the swim was underwater, I had not anticipated the rising river levels however on closer inspection it was still fishable but would require a bit of improvisation. A tree stump in the water became my front rest and my front rest was redeployed as a makeshift backrest. I then plonked myself on a little folding stool with my feet in the water which was noticeably tepid to the touch, good news as it meant the hot water treatment pump was on.
There was a submerged wall just in front of me with a drop into deeper water over it. The main river was racing through but there was slack close in & I was able to hold bottom with a small running lead. A piece of bread was folded over the hook and lowered off the rod tip into the deeper water just over the wall.
I didn’t have to wait long before the tip started trembling and 15 or so minutes later it bent over and I struck into a fish that tore off downstream towards a large weed cage in the water which along with the submerged wall made the swim very tight to play fish in. However despite me playing it as hard as I dared the fish somehow made it past the weed cage which by some miracle it managed without the line getting cut off and continued to race downstream. It was now impossible to play the fish back to me again past the cage so I had to follow it downstream. This was easier said than done & the next 10mins or so were nerve racking as I inched my way past a line of trees and slippery rocks passing the rod round them until I was in a position below the cage and free to play the fish in open water. Eventually I netted a pristine Mirror Carp that shone in the winter sun.
I followed it up shortly after with a small common & then a real odd”un, a fish that looked like an ornamental goldfish with a huge fan tail but with normal bronze common Carp colour.
A river odd'un ...look at the tail on that...
Its what I love about fishing the rivers, you never know what will turn up next. I decided to call it a day and returned home happy. No monsters but 3 Carp in a couple of hours on a cold winter river was a good result.
