Come Wednesday the withdrawal systems started to kick in and with over an inch of snow outside l prepared some tackle so l could go chub fishing for a few hours. Waiting for the traffic to die down l left at 11am and headed to the river Loddon, a river that always produces chub in the snow. As l passed through Yateley l noticed that there wasn’t any snow and felt disappointed as l was hoping to get some snow scenic shots for my portfolio. The temperature gauge on the car read -.5 degrees and as expected no cars were in the car park when l arrived.

The wind had also grown in force and the wind chill must have been quite a few degrees under as l never get cold hands but today was all together different. The first swim, normally a banker drew a blank as did the second and l started to think that the weather was to severe, but true to form the second produced two chub of around 2.5lb. Dropping just a few yards downstream the next bite was almost immediate, however l missed it as l did the next. The bites came so quick that l made another cast and this time the hook penetrated something rather slow and sluggish. After a short, uneventful fight the biggest chub I’d ever seen sat in my net and l ignored my painfully cold hands on lifting her to the scales. At 7lb 1oz it blew my previous best skywards and l had eventually joined a club l doubted l would ever be part off. The next hour passed without significance as three, five pound chub graced my net, 5lb 4oz, 5lb 9oz and 5lb 14oz and with all the good swims covered and rod rings freezing l left, somewhat in a blur!

Returning the following day, snow was on the ground, albeit a few inches less than what was at home. Nine swims were covered in just two hours and once again the three chub that were caught came from three of the ‘going’ swims with the best 5lb 3oz.

I spent most of the day on Saturday roving different swims on the Loddon with Alan Stagg and Mat in hope of a few chub. Unfortunately the overnight rain meant that the snow had melted into the river making it rise, colour up and drop in temperature, not what we were hoping for. Alan learnt the skill of bread fishing very quickly catching one within twenty seconds, matt fished hard all day roving between a few of the better swim, finally catching one of 3lb 11oz and l eventually got my first bite from a 5lb chub in my last swim right at the end of the day.