My last trip before Christmas was to the Wye in search of pike. The Pons and I visited a new stretch. The bright sunshine and low, clear river made for tough going and whilst the stretch has some lovely swims and clearly has potential the only pike of the day was a small fish of about 7lb.

After a quiet Christmas I couldn’t wait to get out on the bank for some fresh air and hopefully a New Year chub. I opted to fish a local river in Stafford – a stretch I usually only fish once a year. The chances of a big fish are very slim but sometimes it’s just nice to see the quivertip bend round and put a few fish on the bank. The river is small and to catch a few requires a roving approach which was just the ticket on a day when the temperature barely got above freezing. The swims are often a good walk apart – any feature such as a deep bend or overhanging willow holds fish and because they’re rarely fished bites usually come within a couple of minutes. So it proved with three fish from my first 4 casts – nothing big but even chub of 2 to 3lb put up a good scrap in a small river.  I ended up with 5 chub in a couple of hours, all from different swims and it was a nice change to only have a 3 minute journey home!

My next trip was to the Upper Severn on an even colder day. I couldn’t believe it when another angler was already on the stretch and another turned up shortly after I arrived – in the past 4 years I’ve seen more otters on the stretch than anglers. It was so cold ice was forming in the quivertip rings and in such conditions I was pleased to get a bite. The stretch is the opposite of my local river – few fish but the chance of a 6lber! The bite came on “luxury” cheese paste made from left-over Christmas Stilton and gorgonzola, the fish going 4lb 10oz.

A third trip and a third river, this time I opted for the Trent. I’ve fished the stretch a few times before and feel it could do a really big fish. Even though it wasn’t as cold as the week before on the Severn a stiff breeze made it feel a lot colder. I opted for a light quivertip and realised that it was too light so was just sorting a medium tip when the rod pulled round – I struck about 2 seconds too late and missed it, but after changing the tip got equal with the chub next cast, a fish of about 4lb. Then after no bites in the next 6 swims I had a 4-8 just on dark. The pictures show how cold it was!

Since my chub trips I’ve had a roach trip on a gravel pit. It was very busy with about 12 anglers fancying a go after the pit had been frozen for over a week. I was surprised to bump into Duncan Charman on arrival – in keeping with his season to date he prised a couple of ‘2’s’out whilst I had to settle for a 1-10. The 3lber with my name on it is still out there and I’ll be back!