Choose carefully...

DAYLIGHT hours are at a minimum at this time of year and this, coupled with the recent extreme weather conditions means it's important to choose a venue where you can be reasonably certain of a return from the time that you have on the bank. Get this right and you can maximise your winter results. Get it wrong and you could well be kicking yourself as I recently discovered...

I learnt the hard way yesterday when I had some free time to go in search of some River Loddon chub. It had rained solidly throughout the previous day which meant the river would be up and quite possibly still rising as surface water continued to run off the surrounding fields and roads – not ideal conditions by a long way.

I didn't consider this properly before leaving however, as I'd already made up my mind and was determined to go to the Loddon having not been there for some time. Upon arrival, a quick look over the road bridge confirmed that the river was indeed pushing through hard meaning fishable swims would be down to a minimum. Still, with blind optimism I unloaded the gear and went off in search of some slack water and hungry chub.

There's another river close to me that I've fished regularly for some years and have got to know its characteristics and foibles. The recently much-hyped Blackwater is a shallow river at the best of times and needs a lot of rain immediately before you fish it to give it some colour and the angler a chance of success. It also runs off very quickly so the window of maximum opportunity is not generally open for very long.

Needless to say, conditions yesterday would have been perfect and hindsight says that it's to there that I should have gone. The Loddon was pushing through so hard and high that swims were to a minimum and so were the chub. I did see several buzzards that spent a lot of time circling low directly above me, as well as mice and the usual maggot munching robins so it wasn't a bad day out in the countryside.

Fishing is a continuous learning curve and this goes to show that no matter how much you want to go to a particular venue, prevailing conditions may mean that you'll do better elsewhere and ignoring them will ultimately cost you fish on the bank.