I used to enjoy the winter river fishing more than the summer.... before I moved to live near the Trent. The fish, as in most rivers, were dispersed throughout in the summer, but shoaled up in the winter, and we knew where to find them on the Dee, the Severn, the Wye, the Weaver..... and the best catches were made over winter and at the back end. At the moment the Trent is alive with shoal fish, but I'm expecting I won't be able to get a bite on the float in a couple of months. When I ask lifelong locals who know the river well what happens, they tell me, as if I'm daft to ask the question, it's a big river and no-one knows where the fish go, an answer I never felt explained anything. So it's a short season round here, and I'm not looking forward to the frosts that end it. It's some compensation that the Derwent will fish better for chub and grayling in the colder weather, and there are a couple of good winter Soar stretches for roach.