After blanking on Saturday I was in two minds about going fishing on Christmas eve. Although it rained on my previous winter carp trip and the lake had been ice free, it had remained cold. As I’d left last time, the temperatures were plummeting again with a forecast for minus two degrees on Saturday night. By time Christmas eve arrives I’ve usually had a gut full of the festive season being rammed down my throat and this year was no different. I sort of knew I was going to be in for a hard time but I went fishing anyway, a bad days carp fishing is better then the endless drivel they put on TV at Christmas!.
On the journey to the lake it rained on and off, the temperature had certainly risen and I was confident the lake would be free of ice. Just in case, I’d packed my wychwood rover lure bag as my plan b was to give the canal a go for pike for a few hours if I couldn’t fish for carp. I needn’t have worried, as I drove down the track to the lake I noticed a decent ripple on the water, there was a nice south westerly blowing across my usual swim and if it wasn’t for the fact it had been so cold recently I’d have been confident of catching.
I started with a rod on the bait at 40 yards, no extra freebies as I’d introduced bait only 36hours earlier, just a pva mesh bag containing a couple of baits and my hook bait. The second rod I placed at range towards the out of bounds area, the out of bounds was still the last area I’d actually seen a carp show so it made sense to start there as nothing had showed during Saturdays session or since I’d arrived at the lake.
It wasn’t long after settling in that the rain started, it was light and intermittent at first but by 1pm it had become heavy and persistent. Despite the rain I kept watching the water for signs of fish, every now and again I’d stand out in it to check the whole of the lake but the rest of the time I spent viewing one half of the lake from the comfort of my brolly. Nothing showed, 1pm became 2pm and still nothing moved, the cold weather of the last few weeks really had taken its toll, on top of nothing showing, the wind had died off when the rain had become more persistent so I was once again left looking at a flat calm lake. I really wanted the wind to keep blowing as the carp in this lake respond well when there’s a decent blow on. Unfortunately, once the wind died it never came back.
The afternoon wore on and it was just after 4pm when a single carp poked its nose out of the water, the carp was a long way out, certainly beyond my casting range but at least I was on the right track as the fish were obviously still over in the out of bounds area of the lake. That single carp showing was the only thing that happened all day and I had to make do with being pleased to actually see a fish show. If nothing else, it at least showed that they were stirring again after our recent cold weather and my plan was to get back down to the lake two days later and try for a boxing day carp.
I packed up at 4.30pm, it hadn’t stopped raining all afternoon and by time my fishing gear was back in the car I was soaked. It wasn’t exactly the Christmas eve session I was hoping for but at least I had an idea the carp where still over in the out of bounds area. I opted to leave the spodding this time round, I was coming back to the lake within 48 hours so I just put a few pellets and some peparami in via the catapult then hurried back to the car as quickly as I could in the pouring rain.
Tight Lines
Mark.
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