December 22nd Lacock Bristol Avon
The weather has been cruel for the last few weeks now. Daytime temperatures of between -2 to -4c, with the nights being much cooler. I’ve never experienced anything like this before Christmas. Sometimes in the New year we have a cold snap, but they are predicting that this cold spell will continue with nighttime temperatures down to -10 c around my area.
Looking at the forecast it was for sunny conditions for Friday (Christmas eve) and a repeat for Christmas day. So it was because of the cloudy conditions that I decided to pay Lacock one more visit before the holiday. The lanes driving there were extremely slippery in places and you could see where a few cars ended up off the road. I arrived in the Red Lion car park to find an angler just finishing and he hadn’t had a touch all day. I was there for 2 hrs 2.30-4.30pm perhaps I might just temp something as the light faded. My hopes were not particularly high as I crunched my way across the snow filled fields. The temperature was just 0.5c above freezing, but there was a north wind blowing strongly across the snowy fields and this believe me was cold with the wind chill factor. The Abby looked beautiful in the snow and I took a couple of photo’s. I had put on several layers of clothes and thermal hot foot boots which have never let me down. There was one more intrepid angler there who had not had a touch, so this was going to difficult.
The first swim I tried was where I caught the 5lb 2oz chub last week. The banks were covered in snow however good knowledge of the river bank and swim had me settled into my position. I was using 3 swan shot on a short link with 4lb line strait through with a size 8 hook. Bait was going to be simple bread flake. I cast across into a slight slack near the far bank and let the flow slowly pull the tip around. I couldn’t believe how much little flow there was. Ice was forming in the margins which is something again we rarely see.
As I sat there the EA bailiff came along for a chat, I kept looking at the rod top for indications during our chat but I needn’t have bothered. The swim gave me a blank.
I moved to the last swim which is a deep bend which does produce some large chub and roach. I couldn’t get down to the swim here as the bank had a very steep angle and it was far too dangerous. I could just about flick the bread flake under the tree opposite. First cast and I had a tentative pull around of the rod. I missed the it!
Next cast produced something similar this time I connected for about 10 seconds before the hook pulled out. To be fair it didn’t feel like a chub but what it was I shall never know. Then I kept getting small taps from small roach I think, so I scaled down to a size 12 hook and smaller piece of flake. They kept coming but I couldn’t connect. As the light faded I decided to call it a day and crunched my way back across the field. The wind was at my back so it wasn’t too bad. Another blank though which just goes to show difficult it is at the moment.
That one fish I lost though would have done it for me!!
