In The Deep Midwinter….

January. Not traditionally an angler‘s favorite month. More than a few of us choose to stow away the tackle and put our feet up, recharging the batteries for springtime when the fish will start to feed in earnest once again. Not so the thirty-three hardy souls whose tickets I checked on a Sunday towards the end of January at Moor Mill!

I’d gone down to Moor Mill on a Friday night to get a weekend’s carp fishing in; the forecast was for some heavy rain, but with milder weather to follow. I was quite pleased when I found that I had the Island Lake all to myself on the Friday night. This was not to last, however, as by Sunday morning the complex looked like an angling convention in full swing. The weather had turned unseasonably mild, and the anglers had arrived in their droves.

Now as many of you will know, Moor Mill can sometimes kick you in the teeth when all the indications are that you should be catching and catching well. On this particular Sunday, however, even the venue appeared to be in festive mood. Virtually every one of the thirty-three anglers I checked was catching. All four of the complex’s lakes were producing.

There were probably half a dozen pike anglers on the complex, and they were all adopting a roving approach, spending a half hour or so in each swim before moving on. The Pike Pit and the Leather Lake were producing plenty of pike, which were falling mainly to plugs and spinners, rather than the traditional deadbait tactics. No monsters, but plenty of fish to about 12lbs, which is good sport if the bites are coming regularly. Even the School Pit was producing a few pike, and this little pit often gets neglected - it’s certainly worth a look.

The usual hardcore carp anglers were in evidence, and the carp seemed to be feeding in the warm spell. Several fish were reported, up to about 14lbs in size. Again, nothing monstrous, but bites are always welcome in January, no matter what the size. The carp anglers were also picking up plenty of bream on the Island Lake, with several fish over 7lbs reported.

On the Leather Lake, one angler had found the large shoal of roach that inhabit the lake. I sat with him for a quarter of an hour, and watched him fish the pole. Fishing single maggot, he was having a fish a chuck, and they were all decent sized roach too. It was this chap’s first time at the Mill - as he put it, he was having “a wonderful day”. His only regret was that he hadn’t brought a keepnet with him!

Perhaps most surprising of all, given the time of year, was the young lad fishing with his father in the point swim on the Island Lake. As is usually the case, son was out-fishing father to an embarrassing extent. Father had banked a couple of small bream, but son had managed three tench in the morning. Tench! Still feeding hard in January!

Moor Mill can be a tricky venue, especially in winter, but the rewards are still there to be had. Once in a while, perhaps when you are least expecting it, the complex can throw up a red letter day. But if you are not there, you will never know………

As I got back to my car in the car park, there were three more anglers unloading. Had word spread of this seasonal anomaly? Or do we as anglers have some sort of built-in fish radar that compels us to be on the bank at certain times? Whichever is the case, those three dozen souls had heeded the call to good effect.

Paul Hill

Jan 08