Saturday February 6th, my mates Steve,Nelson and myself decided to try another fishery which we go to often " Horns Dam " in Goosgnargh Preston Lancashire. I loaded the van up on a cold icy morning, we had a frost overnight but at least it was dry and we were on our way for 7:15am.

When we arrived at Horns, we decided to fish the main match lake pool and opted for pegs at the top of the pool, there was a cold north easterly wind blowing and we did not fancy fishing into the wind.There are 3 pools at Horns, the main dam water which is fished mainly by specimen carp anglers and two others which are a lot smaller.

I picked a peg that would allow me the chance to fish upto the island with a waggler or bomb.I opted to fish the pole first at approx 7 mtrs which is 3 sections of my beastmaster pole with a light top 2.I did not use my very light top two at the start as there are lots of good sized carp in this water.

I put in some liquidised bread and breadpunch on a size 18 hook. I caught several small roach on the bottom, depth of swim was approx 5 feet 6 inches and to the right of my swim the water shallowed off.The bites were slow on punch so I decided to give red maggots a go and these worked very well,I kept feeding a few maggots everytime I put my rig in the water and the roach responded well with a bite cast.

After a couple of hours I decided to fish up in the water in the same swim but at approx 2foot 6 inch deep, I fed some micro pellets along with red maggots and caught small roach steadily.I tried soft pellets & managed to catch a few skimmers but the larger fish were not showing. I tried another swim position to my right at 7 metres were the depth was shallower, bites were hard to come by and I went back to my main swim.

In the afteroon I tried the waggler at about 2 foot deep with red maggot on the hook, just short of the island feeding red maggots & casters ,the bites were one a chuck, small roach were taking the bait, we have fished here in the warmer months and caught carp up in the water. I fished for half an hour or so on the waggler, but no carp or large skimmers showed.

My plan was to fish the water with 3 methods during the session , pole, waggler & bomb, I put on a small bomb with maggot on the hook & cast just short of the island.My feelings were the carp were huddling upto the island & if I dropped the bait on their noses they may just take it.I fished for half an hour without a bite, so decided it was back to the pole.

While I had been fishing the waggler and bomb I had still fed my main swim and when I went back to this I was straight into small roach with the odd larger one or two.I went back onto the bottom with breadpunch and skimmers moved into the swim.I caught several good ones and a lot of smaller ones , no carp were showing.

The final part of the day I opted to fish close in the margins up in the water on maggot or caster, and then back out at 7 metres still up in the water.Bites were constant and I had a couple of large swirls in front of me which I thought may have been a carp.

Overall we had a good days fishing with plenty of fish caught, unfortunately none of us had a carp, but that's fishing.Pictures show my peg on the match lake pool,and the action shots were taken by my mate Chris who had popped down to see us.I was hoping to have some pictures of a decent sized carp on this outing but it wasn't to be. The final picture is of the main dam water , Horns Dam is a pleasant fishery and has toilet facilities also.