The recent cold spell we have had has created havoc with the weekly fishing outing, most local fisheries and canals are covered with over 6 to 8 inches of ice.This latest article is to tell of our endeavours to find a fishable water anywhere.On December 29th Nelson and I decided to give the River Dane a try on the Byley Bridge stretch near Middlewich.

After picking our day tickets up from Daves of Middlewich, we headed to the river and parked close by in a layby.The weather was good and dry with some blue sky,once we got to the river we knew it was not to be, there were frozen ice patches below the water and it would be a case of walking the bank to find some clear runs , if there were any?

After about an 100 yard walk we came to a clear stretch and decided to give it a go, we set up our rods for a stick float approach and started fishing.There was ice in front of me and this was to cause a few problems later.On retreiving the line the current was sending the float under the ice patch, fortunatley we did not lose any tackle.

We fished for over an hour without any luck and decided to try further down stream, there was more ice in the river as you will see from the photos.The new swims did not produce any bites so we moved on again, this stretch of river normally produces, chub,dace roach and grayling but none showed today.It was to be a blank day but we managed to get out for a few hours fishing and some exercise.

We packed up early and in the van on the way back we talked about our next outing, was there a water close by that was fishable? The next page tells of our final outing of 2010.

Our final outing of 2010 was to be to Stoat Hall near Bretherton, we had fished this earlier in the year in warmer weather and caught well.Steve had rang the owner the previous day to see if there were any ice free pegs.He was told that the ponds had had the ice broken, so off we went on a rather cold New Years Eve Day.

On arrival at the fishery we walked the three pools and found three pegs available on the new pool,this pool is deeper than the other two and hopefully would produce a few fish.The scene at the pool resembled an Arctic ocean with large blocks of ice floating on the surface.We were not the only anglers keen to get a days fishing in, several others arrived and fished pools one and two.

The water was very cold and my approach was to be pinkies to start with, I put in a small amount of liquidised bread and let the rig settle,My peg choice was to prove fortunate as I had about 6 feet of water in front of me and the deeper water would possibly be holding some fish. The float was dotted right down to show the slightest touch, after half an hour I had my first bite and landed a small roach.

I was catching fish everynow and again, Steve had a small tench on breadpunch while Nelson had a very small carp on maggot.Nelson moved to the side of me after his swim had blanked, possibly due to his peg being at the shallower end of the pool.Fishing was hard work but I managed to catch over twenty fish, not bad considering the conditions

Our final day out of 2010 came to an end and it was time to head for home and look forward to a New Years Night Out down the local pub. Thanks to everybody who has visited my site in 2010, I hope you have enjoyed the articles and fished some of the fisheries I have reviewed. Hope you have caught plenty of fish and will return for 2011 articles.