21st Jan - A cold start to the year...

So here we were – finally heading down to Frimley for our first session of the year. Due to my car dying on me just before xmas, it was a case of getting the train down to the lake – sounds laughable, but as my flat and the Frimley complex are just one stop and 4 minutes apart from each other, it wasn’t so bad – even with all the dodgy looks we got as we piled our gear onto the train in the morning! Ricky, my brother, kipped over the night before round mine so we could both get down there together.

We’d been anticipating getting the rods out at Frimley for most of the Christmas break, but due to new work commitments from both of us, added to the busy weekends etc, it was tricky getting a spare day. Anyway, that’s all over now and we’d set a date to get down to the lake and hopeful trick a coldwater carp into one of our nets… We knew it would be hard work, as Pit 2 has always been hard on us over the winter months. But after reading up on the RMC site about Iain taking three winter carp from Pit 2, our confidence was up and our appetites whetted! 3 carp in a day session was a good haul for the winter. We’re Pit 2 maniacs, so there was no choice really as to what Pit we wanted to fish – Number 2 all the way. A few seasons ago we decided to stay on this Pit until we’d felt like we’d conquered its larger residents, including Cluster – a target fish for both me and Ricky.


The night before was spent discussing tactics and tying rigs over a few cold suds. And then we were at our second home – Frimley Pit 2. We had a quick scout round the lake and Ricky opted for the Breeze Block Swim, whilst I jumped into number 13 next to it.

Tactics were similar to last years, except that we decided against using the Korda PVA tunnel-mesh, as the water was ice cold and we didn’t want to compromise our rigs with the PVA not breaking down fully. So single hookbaits with broken boilie stringers were the order of the day. Ricky fished two rods along the island bank and one rod to a deep spot, just off a marginal bush, using single 18mm Techni-spice boilies with stringers. I opted for two rods cast tight to bushes further along the island bank – spots that had produced before as carp patrolled the island margins. One rod was offered with a Hi-attract Dynamite Pineapple boilie complete with a PVA stringer. The other was a single Scopex Flouro pop-up. All bait were fished tight to the bottom with leadcore and flying backleads doing their jobs. What carp could resist those tasty offerings? The baits were cast, the alarms set – the game was on. We sat back and watched as the sun rose over the misty lake and it felt good to be back after the hectic Christmas period.


There was no action for most of the day. With clear skies and a slight wind, we watched but could not see any sign of carp. A high pressure, coupled with dropping temperatures would have sent the carp into a lethargic state and we could sense that it was going to be a tough day. The baliff informed us that not much had been out of the other lakes, and Iain’s bumper catch was the best result so far this year on Pit 2. As the hours passed and we grew colder, we waited patiently. The temperature dropped even further and the light finally faded completely around 5pm and we got ready to pack up for the day. Ricky had a few knocks on his marginal bush rod, which eventually came to nothing. Could have been something grubbing around on his spot, but obviously didn’t take the bait. We fished until the latest we could, which was 6pm and then made the slow trek home, frustrated that the carp had eluded us but feeling good that we’d been on the bank – and definitely looking forward to the next session.