The lake I am fishing at the moment has a history of fishing far better in the winter than in the summer.  With this in mind I plan to fish as much as possible over the next few months.  This weekend was no exception, despite temperatures reaching a very frosty -5 overnight.

As is usual for me I got to the lake Friday morning and made my way to an area that I have been baiting regularly. It’s an area that during the summer is unfishable due to dense Lilly beds, but come October these die away making the swim very appealing as a potential winter holding area.
Come Saturday morning I had had nothing and woke to find a hard frost covering the ground and bivvy with cat ice in the margins.

With it being so cold overnight I was giving some thought as to whether I really wanted to be doing another night in these condition and considered packing up.  Unbelievably, as I stood by the rods looking out I saw a good Carp roll. So with my mind made up another night it was as that show was one of the few I’ve seen and the first over my baits.

It goes to show that even in freezing temperatures if you are in the right area you can be in with a chance of a take.  The conditions got me thinking about how to survive the winter so here are a few tips to make your winter fishing a little more enjoyable.

Clothing, gone are the days of making do with what you could find in camping shops or army surplus.  There is now a vast array of good outdoor clothing brands with many aimed specifically towards the angler.  Start with a base layer, something like the Korum 2 piece undersuit is ideal, I have one of these myself.  Over that some fleece tracksuit bottoms and a thick fleece hooded top. And finally a waterproof and windproof suit, I prefer a two piece combo of a bib n brace and jacket this way you can swap and change to conditions, the jacket needs to have a warm insulated lining.  A lot of heat gets lost from the head so a good hat combined with a neckwarmer, I hate drafts to the neck.  Decent socks are vital, I use Bridgedale Endurance or Sealskinz, both are expensive at £15 to £20 a pair, but what price do you put on not having cold feet.  If I get cold feet I’m off, so I do my best to make sure that never happens.  As for footwear, there are a number of tackle companies making really good boots.  Korum make a Neoprene boot with a removable breathable lining which looks very good, at the moment I am using Nash Zero Tolerance boots.  A good tip with boots is to walk to your swim in your normal socks, wellies or walking boots and only once settled in the swim put your session boots and socks on. If you walk to your swim in your thick socks and boots your feet will sweat making them feel cold when they cool down. 
 
Make sure your sleeping bag is suitable winter bag and combine it with a fleece lined sleeping bag cover, line your bedchair with a blanket to stop cold air coming up from underneath.  I like to use a hot water bottle to warm my sleeping bag up, again keeping those feet warm.
If you can get a winter skin for your bivvy I would highly recommend it, this will stop a certain amount of condensation and will raise the temperature inside your bivvy by a couple of degrees too.  Always use a groundsheet, the thicker the better.

As well as keeping your outside warm, keep your inside warm with plenty of hot drinks.  I carry an assortment of packet drinks, this way I do not have to carry milk, sugar and jars of coffee etc.  Keep an extra couple of 2ltr bottles of still mineral water in the car in case you run out.
So that’s a few ideas for keeping warm and keeping fishing this winter.  You won’t catch anything sat at home in front of the TV, all the time your bait is in the water you have a chance.

I guess I should just ad that this time out I was unsuccessful, but seeing that carp roll over my baits was just the incentive I need to keep at it.