Winter fishing pays off, for some

By Dom Rickard

It was a warmer day for such a cold October week and me and my good friend and fellow “Fox boy” (Matt Young) decided to pop down to our favourite Veralum water; Frogmore for a days fishing on the last Sunday of our half term. We prepared for the session by equipping ourselves with a pint of red and white maggots each and took ridiculously long to set up after choosing a peg at an empty lake!

After setting up, Matt, as he usually does suggested we had a mini match, so even after 2 months of not fishing I decided it was probably a good idea to get back in the game. Matt went for the close island tactic which I couldn’t compete with, only having an 11metre pole to his 16m! We fished in peg 27 together in the end and after baiting up began fishing.

I fished in the middle on the left of the island and Matt fished tight to the reeds straight in front. Not long after baiting fish started showing mid water for me as I landed lots of small roach, and skimmer bream, which I believe was due to my choice of breadcrumb and mojo ground bait.

I started in the lead by a few points, until Matt’s baiting finally paid off and he hooked into what was obviously a beautiful Frogmore carp on no.8 elastic! Matt had a rather long fight that managed to pretty much scare off anything that could possibly be in my swim at the time.

At this point I needed a change of tactic so I rested my swim in the middle and began fishing the margin over nothing but small pellets and a large bed of maggots hoping for some large perch or roach.

Meanwhile, Matt was into his second carp after the 1^st being a common at about 4 lb followed by a small mirror at 3lb, putting him well in the lead as carp score 5 points plus their approximate weight in Matt’s wonderful point system!

I hit gold as I started hooking into specimens that actually pulled my size 10 hollow elastic which happened to be a series of very large and nice looking roach, the biggest being around 12oz. Also, I was lacking a choice of tops as my small elastic match 3 had snapped from the last time I was fishing, giving me no option but to use my size 10 fox hollow on my top 2.

Matt then hooked into another carp, after deciding not to change form no.8 elastic! He netted the 5lb mirror after another fairly long fight, making it a successful day for Matt and putting him well in the lead for the day.

After landing 4 more roach and some nice perch, the biggest at 12oz also, I decided it was time for a lunch break.

Matt stopped the carp frenzy but continued to catch large roach like me out from the island along with some nice perch too. I just wished I had brought some lobworm to compete with. We both came to the conclusion that maybe the roach had either livened up because of the river water now gushing out or the oxygen in the water had in fact been boosted by this, awakening these lovely large roach that you just don’t often see at Frogmore.

The rest of the match was a bit of a failure on my part, although I blame it on the length of my pole because the island was clearly the carpy area for the day. Although the margins provided some excellent sport with decent roach and perch showing so I recommend you get down there while this spell lasts and give it a try. Perhaps bring some lobworms with you as they might just be the ticket!