The Big Freeze!
Let's be honest, none of us like the cold, and the dark mornings and early nights means many of us stay indoors, tying flies and dreaming about rising fish on a warm summer's eve. In the North however, our summer seems very much shorter, colder and wetter, so we have to make use of whatever fishing we can do. This often means braving cold temperatures from November to April, so you soon get used to ice! Perhaps the hardest part is finding a lake that has ice-free accessible fishing on some days, especially as temperatures last week plummeted to -20 in places.
Try to be flexible with your options as there's only one problem with pre-arranging a day's fishing anywhere in the UK, and that is you're at mercy to the weather gods!
During this time of year, water temperature is only just above freezing, so fish can be very dormant and shoal up in the deeper parts of the lake. A quick chat with the fishery owner about the weeks fishing can prove a masterstroke. As well as providing information about the weeks catches and successful flies, they know all the deep holes and drop-offs of the lake, a good place to be at any time of year.
If you are able to gain knowledge about the depth of water in front of you, it will help you work out at what depth the fish are lying at. I like to start my day with a sinking line with a sink rate of around 2 inches per second. For starters, I count down in stages of 10 seconds for each cast. I start to retrieve immediately as my line hits the water on the first cast then after 10 seconds, 20, 30 and so on until you bump the lake bed.
If you're lucky enough to contact a fish at 30 seconds for example, then concentrate your time allowing your line to sink for 25 to 35 seconds after you have cast.
A quicker way however is to switch lines to a line that sinks at 4 inches per second, then simply half the time you allow the line to sink...
