Wishing you all a Happy New Year

This is my last post of 2020 and/or my first one of 2021 (depending on when you read it). We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and healthy 2021. Let's hope it is the year when we can all get back to normal.

I really should not have mentioned in my last update (23 December) that we were in tier 2 and open. Just a week later we are in tier 4 and look like we will be closed for at least the month of January and probably well into February.

The only good bit of news has been the approval of the Oxford vaccine. Fingers crossed that the NHS/Government really can get several million people a week vaccinated and that by Easter we can be sure the worst is behind us..

Given the uncertain outlook, we will not be taking bookings for January. If you fancy a trip in January, and just in case we can open, please contact me and I will take your details and be in touch if things suddenly change. Any bookings for February will be taken only with a nominal deposit (£50-£100) with a similar approach for March.

It has gone very cold here, with Cherry Lake being three quarters covered with ice. Interestingly, the smaller lakes which all have the new 'bubbler' aeration system were all ice free. The line on the lake picture below is the ice!

My big challenge is now going to be boredom. Our big tasks are finished . It's so cold that I am not motivated to go Carp fishing. I have not got the discipline to sit in the Lodges all day when there are always little jobs to be done..................and I don't want to be banned because I am fishing but not on my rods!

I guess I will have to go Pike fishing when it warms up a little. Probably because I am getting old, I can now only cope with 3-4 hours of Pike fishing when it is not too cold. Fortunately this is often long enough to get a Pike or two. My days of sitting in a boat all day whilst on a Norfolk Broad or River, when it is freezing are behind me.

I do remember one winter Pike trip to Norfolk when I was fishing below Brundall, just off the River Yare, on Rockland Broad. The river here is tidal and slightly brackish. Despite this, when we set off at first light, there were chunks of ice coming down the river. It really was cold! We arrived at the Broad to find much of the marginal areas frozen but was able to find an open deeper water channel. We anchored up to 'drown' some dead baits. Over the next two hours, the Broad emptied (we had arrived at the top of the tide). It was absolutely fascinating to watch the marginal ice (held up by the reeds) 'hover' above the water. Every now and again, a chunk would break off with a crack ( a bit like ice-bergs calving, but clearly on a very different scale!). As I said, these 'hard core' days are behind me, but I will be aiming to catch a good few Pike from local waters during January.

I did look for an old photo of this...........not a chance. Two cupboards of old photos and no filing system! Sorry.

As soon as it warms up, we will start to trickle some food into the lakes. As we drift through January, and particularly when this cold spell is over, the Carp will become increasingly active. Unlike in other years we won't get the benefit of anglers bait. This year we will be feeding a new high quality boilie pellet alongside our normal mix of pellets, boilies and spod mix.

This new boilie is made from high quality pellet material but is being produced as a barrel shaped boilies. Through a special manufacturing process, these pellets are produced as boilies which are designed to keep their shape and composition in the water for at least 48 hours. Better still these barrel shaped boilies can be flavoured. Our first tonne of these boilies have been flavoured with Garlic, which is a natural substance, known to be good for the Carp's health and well-being.

By staying harder for longer there is more chance that the Carp will find and feed on it. Currently everything eats (mushy) pellets, so a longer breakdown time should help it being eaten by the species it is intended for!. Given these boilies are some 3-4 times more expensive than our regular pellets, it is important that it is the Carp that eat them! I am confident our Carp will love these new boilies and will continue to put on weight as they search them out.

We have invested in a new industrial size freezer (over 500 Litres) and taken delivery of our first 300KG of the barrel shaped boilies (as you can see from the photos above). Each bag in the first photo above weighs 10KG.

Time will tell if our investment will prove to be worthwhile.

We have not yet decided whether to add these barrel shaped boilies to our bait range or whether to buy in round boilies made from the same material and flavour. Again time will tell.

Talking about time, I will finish by again wishing you all a happy new year, as well as tight lines!