25-27th January Willow lake

Well this was my first visit to the lake since the thaw. After my blank on the Avon and Stour I wasn’t looking forward to fishing the lake as I had 10 blanks. To be fair the lake doesn’t fish well before December so I was hoping for a change of luck. The rigs I’m using are the same as others who are fishing so it’s down to luck! Well I hope so!

Helicopter rig for roach

I arrived at 3.30pm after the 60 mile drive with some light rain falling. I knew it was going to come down heavier as it was following me up from the west country and it was raining hard when I left. I loaded the barrow and started the 300 m push to the lake. As I rounded the corner to the swim I wanted to fish I saw Gary taking some self photo’s of two large roach. One was 3lbs and the other being 2lbs 12oz. They looked superb glistening in their winter colours. I was really pleased with this as I knew the roach were feeding. Saying well done it was time to put up the bivvi before the rain arrived. I was fishing the same bank but about 80m further up. I had some gravel humps just in front of me at 40m but didn’t want to fish on the top, I decide to fish down the slope. The bait was two red maggots on a size 18hook to 3lb 6oz line. I quickly cast out as dusk was falling and sat behind the bobbins urging them to move. I recast every 45 mins to 1 hour to keep the swim topped up. The night was very quite no wind low cloud and the lights of Witney and Oxford illuminated the lake. The only action I saw was the otter swimming in the lake. Did a couple of laps then disappeared. The ducks didn’t like the otter on the lake at all. I’m sure the carp and roach were not best pleased.

The next morning Gary had a rudd of 2lbs 2oz which had 12 leeches on it, which indicated that they are not moving around very much. Talking to Gary he was only putting in small amounts of bait, so I decided to cast every 2 hours. This made a huge difference, I stayed  in the bivvi for longer and out of the cold wind!!!!!!!!

The wind started to increase from the north east and it started to get colder. By the evening it was blowing hard and the branches of the willows clashed together. This time of year they can split and crash down, but best to put it out of your mind. We had a shower of rain during the evening but not much.