off i went to speak to john rushton in my local tackle shop and stock up on bait. he told me that leisure lakes has been in fine form with some cracking catches coming off the deep pegs in the woods, so i set off with maggots, pinkies worms and a can of hemp.
after arriving on leisure lakes i discovered that the lake was frozen over...would you believe it only about 20 yds or so but covering the 5 pegs in the woods...gutted
it was now mid day so i headed off again this time with the intention of fishing the cut at heatons bridge, but took a slight detour to have a look at drummersdale fishery.
there was just the one bloke fishing the lower lake who advised me to fish as they were biting, i had a quick reccy of both lakes and decided to fish the top lake, which i hadnt fished before, it was empty but had signs of fish movement
i chose a peg closest to the island where i could reach at 9m but started in the deeper water about 8m over at the bottom of the shelf
i couldnt be bothered with a softly softly approach as it was getting on for 1pm now and i hadnt wet a line, so i catapulted about half a dozen big pouches of hemp across and put the kettle on while i tackled up.
just a match top with a 4 elastic and a 20 hook to a pound bottom targeting silvers.
after about 10 mins i went across with a single maggot bait and as soon as it hit the bottom the float dipped away
and so it continued every single drop the fish were between 3oz and a pound
i had a visitor who fancied a maggot lunch, this guy was so tame he was practically taking maggots out of my hand, but everytime i tried to get a pic of him really close ...the noise of the camera spooked him
i fished for about 3 and a half hours until the cold got the better of me, but must have had over 25lbs of roach in that time, plus 2 small carp and a lump lost.
i must have had at least 15 fish this size alone.
what a winter surprise this turned out to be. highly recommended to anyone who dosent want to risk a blank in the cold
