With another blustery, very cold day upon us on Sunday, anglers on venues all over the region, like myself, were more than likely to be thinking ‘what on earth are we doing here’.

In a nutshell, winter fishing does at times take the best out of even the hardiest of anglers and again, just like me, my call home by mid-afternoon saw me wishing I was right there in the comfort of my own living room.

Now it’s a thought this week, that after giving some feedback on what I’d been up to last weekend, friends too were found to be questioning me over just what it is that attracts anglers out on what was always going to be as predicted, another cold one.

Quite openly ,I actually admitted I never had a reasonable answer to this one given some difficult and trying day’s that I’d experienced recently, but in the main, my response identified only my love for fishing in order to eliminate any other excuses to be offered.

As to my trip out, well it was Carr Mill Dam that played host to me along with a good field of hardy Northwest anglers on Sunday.

Not in its best form given the hard winter weather of late, the ‘grand old lady’ as she’s affectionately known in our circles has been in all a hard one to crack of late.

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That though has not deterred the many regulars to still pit their wits against each other by any means of entering these regular weekly association members matches that take place at St Helens.

One man certainly informed recently is St Helens local John Bates and in this one, after drawing within the favoured ‘Sunnies’ area, last week’s winner Bate’s made no mistake as he took an early lead with two quality bream on the feeder.

Company for the day in the next peg and I have to say catching the force of a freezing north easterly wind was yours truly.

This one saw me practically motionless for much of the match, apart from a regular cast and my day consisted of me making just four bites throughout which saw two decent skimmers and two bream for 8.7.0. A weight which saw me take second overall place.

Winner on the day, you’ve guessed it, was John Bates. A third bream for him saw his three fish weigh a match winning 9.4.0. Third on the day, describing more so a very difficult days fishing all around was Boydan Krupnyckyj from Wigan who took 5.3.0.

Over on the more local commercial venue at Downholland’s Mescar Fishery, another regular angler here and very much on top of his own game in winning form of late, was Ian Cowie from Kirkby.

No stranger to understanding the ways and the moods on Mistral Lake which hosts these Sunday openings, Cowie’s approach, taking in the weather conditions, saw him again tackle up with ‘tip’ tactics.

Here, with maggot complimenting his confident tactic chosen within the cold easterly wind in mind, Cowie took 45lb of carp to 8lb which saw him take the top honours in this one.

Second place went to Wigan’s Gary Taylor who opted for another winter favourite bait to many anglers by using corn.

Taylor took 35.4.0 which in a close one saw him closely pip Maghull & Lydiate rod James Doran’s third-placed 34.4.0.

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