I've obviously a bit to learn about winter carp fishing. Following a couple of disappointing trips last October I decided to give the lake another try, having sat out the worst of the winter weather.

The very cold spell through January and early February meant that the water was still very cold and I didn't expect great sport.

It was a cold day but at around 9 degrees far warmer than it had been. The wind was a gentle north-westerly and, to be honest, it wasn't a bad day for fishing. The fish, however, were less than cooperative.

I tried legered luncheon meat and bread flake with a small feeder packed with flavoured ground bait but didn't get a touch. I also tried out a new electronic bite alarm. I have avoided these things up to now, but having missed a few fish last year because I was slow to react, I decided to give one a go. It was a fairly cheap unit but seemed to perform quite well, picking up some light touches (see later comments about small perch).

Mick, the chap next to me (there were about seven people around the lake) caught a fish soon after arriving, and then another soon after that, the second being around 10b. He was using bunched maggots on a special hair-rig that used a ring to attach the maggots. He gave me some maggots and despite him going on to catch 6 carp through the day I only got insignificant touches, which ultimately proved to be small perch. I wasn't using the hair-rig but did drop to a 14 hook with 3.5lb line.

Nobody else around the lake seemed to be catching, and even Mick caught most of his fish on one of his two rods even though both were set up similarly, which just shows how localised the feeding fish seemed to be. That made me feel a bit better, but leaves me with a very unimpressive record for winter fishing. Roll on spring.