Mon 11th Jan
Entry posted by The Flying Tench
348 views
3.30- 4.30pm
Thick snow. Decided to take a trip to the Lambourn, armed with sweetcorn and cryogenically frozen maggots. Maybe they weren't quite frozen in my garage, but their still state for some reason made me think of those who git themselves frozen in the hope of waking up feeling better in 2,000 years time!
Delayed, typically, so time very limited, though not too worried in this cold. The aim I guess was to catch anything at all, but particularly to try out the advice Chris P gave to Viney in a recent thread - fish fine, and slow the bait down in the cold water. I particularly planned to use the 'pin' for this, only the second time I have used it for grayling fishing.
Drat! Packed the wrong reel. A serious mistake, as with a frozen forefinger I found it hard to exert good line control with the fixed-spool reel. Another issue was how fine to fish. Didn't feel I could have too small a hook as I wanted to try sweetcorn, so compromised with a Kamasan 16 (equiv to a Drennan 18). Very slow, but bumped a small grayling on maggot, so changed to a Kamasan 20 on 1lb 8 oz line. Whether by luck or design almost immediately had a grayling. But then got in a couple of mini tangles which I would have easily sorted in warmer weather. Before I knew it dusk was upon me.
AT 0 degC, WT 5 degC. The water temp was higher than I expected. I'd heard that spring fed chalk streams were colder than other rivers, but I suspect in very cold weather they may be warmer.
I haven't often fished in such cold weather. With no feeling in my hands I fished badly, and was also hopelessly slow in making rig changes or sorting tangles. I think next time, like Arbocop in a recent post, I'll ledger and have gloved hands!
Back to the cryogenically frozen maggots. Admittedly they didn't pay for the process, but was it traumatic for them to wake up and find they were being chucked into the Lambourn? Perhaps you, dear reader, are thinking of getting put down for a couple of thousand years in the hope the roach will be bigger then? But then, you never quite know what you will wake up to, do you? Heh heh! 
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