With the weather turning once again I found a short window of lows coming in towards the end of December, coupled with a warmish south westerly and with the temp. at a steady 9 degrees things were looking up for my next raid on the pit. The good old XC Weather App on my iphone had served me well in the past and I felt my confidence beginning to grow at work 2 days prior to my trip on Monks.


I had been dealt another bad blow at work, what with the Olympics build now well and truly behind me, I had been told that I was to basically relocate my work back into London. This would again serve as a major blow to my little campaigns on all the local waters that I fish.
I like to walk and prep areas during the week and then on the back end of that fish single mid-week overnighters. This has a lot of advantages for me and with the limited time I do get to angle these days, I am sure has put a lot more fish on the bank for me.
This was all about to change due to working 12hr days and really being too tired and un-motivated to get back to what I was used to doing but I do have a good job and one that I enjoy and worth keeping, so for now I would just have to resort back to the highs and lows of the weekend angler...

Getting back to the fishing and as I arrived at the lake I was met with one car in the car park which is always a nice start. Perry was firmly installed in the X-Mas tree which is a swim that has been very kind to him in the past so I decided on the Rota which is basically next door.

My decision was a relatively easy one as all the fish I had located were in this water between the two swims at a range of approx. 70 yards.  I had a laugh with Perry apologising for moving in next to him, having the whole lake to choose from but Perry being Perry fully understood, he’s been having one hell of a season this year and knew that I would be good for a photo or two should he require it !
Knowing the areas in which they were showing helped on rig choice, I only tend to make up my rigs on the bank when I can see the kind of area I will be fishing over. In this case it would be little ‘high power sticks full of milk proteins’. I’ve been blending the Richworth Stick mixes with Baby Food Powder and adding CSL with fantastic results this winter and this is just one of many different combinations to try and give your sticks a nice personnel label...

I had a cross wind in front of me so was unable to get any real bait out to the area I was fishing so decided on re-doing the rods every hour just to keep the flavour levels moving around the water columns.

With the weather front behaving itself and relating back to the forecast on the APP I was able to take fish over the next 24hours. 6 takes and 3 fish landed had me smiling all the way back home and the little sticks coupled with the size 12 Mixer hooks balanced out the rigs perfectly. Even the bailiff Tony was shaking his head at some of the hook-holds, well and truly nailed!

I ended up have 1 low 30 and 2 upper 20’s with the 3 lost fish all feeling of a similar size, no rigs were left in the lost fish and I got everything back so no worries there.
Keep looking for the weather fronts this winter, stay in touch with your target waters and plan your trips accordingly it can make all the difference if time is at a premium.

B Lucky, Daren.