With us now firmly in December, Winter fishing is now upon us, cold rainy days and nights, frosty mornings. This type of weather separates Fishermen, with the smart who stay in and warm, and the mental who go out and freeze! However, winter fishing isn’t all bad. It offers a change in fishing, different species in a way, more rewarding. Suddenly the small overgrown Rivers, especially ours in Essex, become accessible and fishable. And the Chub in them always happy to have a munch. The predators in the rivers also come into a good season to catch them, Perch and Pike on Lures or dead baiting too. However, other species are still around to be caught, just with maybe a tweak of bait and approach.
When winter comes bread becomes one of my main baits, especially using a bread punch, this is great for silvers, in both rivers and lakes. Blitzed bread and bread punch! Can be deadly for Roach and Bream.
In fact, fishing with bread is great for Chub as well, in recent times I have had great success fishing bread on Rivers.
A few Fish all caught on bread
Bread is for me, the best Chub bait, however, that’s just my opinion.
I do also size down my tackle in the winter, lighter line and smaller hooks. 6lb line normally fairs me well on our small Essex Rivers, along with size 16 hooks.
When fishing Rivers in winter, it’s really important to remember to be careful, Rivers will flood and burst their banks a lot in winter, and it’s important not to fish a river in this state, it can be incredibly dangerous to do. Especially if you aren’t sure where you are putting your feet, as the banks can be worn away during a flood.
Of course, the Carp will still feed in the Winter too, and catching them on natural baits like maggot and worm can be a killer for them. However, I have found Carp Fishing in the winter you can never rule the power of fishing corn on the bomb.
Darrent Valley 8ft Quiver, great for Fishing on the bomb or rivers
Well, you may ask, Bailey, how did you get on today? Well, I left the house aiming for the River! However, it was rather flooded! I maybe should’ve taken this as a hint to go home and get warm again, however, I headed to a lake I am a member of, not very hopeful with the amount of cold rain and the morning’s frost!
Clearly, the Fish didn’t fancy the weather either…
Yep….a BLANK! But at least I got out!
Tight lines all…
Written by Bailey Payne
Article: https://essexanglers.co.uk/winter-fishing/
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