Des Taylor’s November Angling Tips

Blanking on Carp? Switch to Winter Trout Fishing and Keep the Rod Bending

Suddenly the temperature has dropped indeed I can’t remember for years it dropping so quickly

For one day we were still having daytime temperatures of 15c and night time temperatures of well above 0c and then suddenly its 6c in the day and below freezing at night.

Now that sort of drop in temperature will effect most fish and will take a few days or even weeks before they get their heads down again to feed in earnest but there is one species that will still feed in these temperatures in fact they feed even better the colder it is and that fish is the trout.

Winter Trout

Only the other day I was trout fishing on a water that on that morning the temperature had dived down to -3c in fact first cast the line froze in the rod rings and yet the trout were willing to feed and over the next two days I took around 20 fish the best a great looking Tiger Trout of about 6lbs.

Other anglers on the water were also having great sport with Trout and the temperature never rose to more than 7c at any point. Wearing the right gear and having a flask of hot coffee in the tackle bag and popping down to your local trout water will see you catch a lot fish no matter how cold it is.

I know a lot of you anglers out there will say my favourite fish is a carp and I want to fish for them even though it is so cold but keep going out there in such adverse conditions and blanking can knock your confidence and even when those carp start to feed again you can be in such a bad place mentally that you can struggle to catch even then but if like me you having pulls from trout and got a bend in your rod every week when those carp finally start feeding again because the weather has improved you are in a good place, full of confidence and you will catch.

I’m planning to go Carp fishing before Xmas but I will wait for a slight rise in temperature and a more settled period without those hard frosts before I set out my stall for this species but in the meantime the longer those frosts last the longer I will be going trout fishing, give it a go I promise you will love it.

Submit Your Requests

Submit a request for our next article, do you want to know Des’ top equipment tips?
or where he will be fishing this year? Let us know…