Cold but happy....

I walked all of 30 seconds to the canal from home this morning about 10am....

Found most of the canal had surface ice enough to support a portly mallard or 2... I knew it was gonna be tough... I found an ice free section just up from a boatyard, one of several places i tend to fish regular.

Took loads of various baits... Worms, maggots, liquidised bread, flake n punch... also strawberry and crab n mussell boiles and some 3mm trout pellets...

Set up and settled down... My carp rod chucked out with a boilie tothe bottom of the far slope.. my waggler rod down the track to bottom with maggot...

Results?? One perch... to about 1.5lbs to 2lb.... on worm.... Pleased with it!!

Still happy but my addiction to angling has multiplied since i started posting last year!!

... Any advice on the above situation?? The fishing, not the addiction (I'm beyond help!!)

Andy,

Great fishing in very cold conditions! Well done mate.

My one bit of advice would be to give the boilies a miss unless you know there are plenty of feeding carp or larger bream about.

Stick to naturals and bread, feed little and often on a couple of lines and scale down your tackle to the least you feel you can get away with, given snags, size of fish etc...

Good luck and don't forget, as a recent poster on FM commented, every blank is a session closer to your dream fish!

love that phrase im gona think of it every time i blank (alot the river) and imagine that 14lb barbel on the next session ............








yeah right

Thanks ****y...

Very cold and icy.. but i enjoyed myself...

I stopped the boilies when a diving Mallard got one and i just managed to wrench it from its beak before it got all tangled... close shave that one!!

I used the boiles on my heavier carp rod.... Can it still be fished lighter with a waggler setup?? Does it make a difference??

cheers

Instead of finding an Ice Free section, make yourself a little ice breaker (brick on a rope for example) and break through the ice on a feature packed swim. Sometimes the commotion of the ice being broke, brings out that inquisitive nature of the fish and will attract one or two into the swim.

A lot of Match Anglers on the canals get some decent weights by breaking through.

I went back the following day....

Found an ice free spot under one of the many road bridges.... Long story short a geezer on a boat decided to go up and down making it very hard to fish due to all the floating ice.

Is trying under a large bridge in such conditions worth it?? Is it any good whatever the conditions?

I guess it will be free of a lot of vegetation debris under there, except that brought under by the flow??

cheers