01/01/2026
Don’t like spamming you with fish pictures but I couldn’t let this one go without wishing you all a happy new year.
Jack Barrow’s been having it right off on Willows again, I’ll let him tell you about in his own words.
‘With my annual trip between Christmas and the new year coming up, i decided to jump on ‘Willows’. I arrived on the 27th around 14.30 with 48 hours ahead of me.
Once I got to the lake, the light was fading fast, so I opted to fish the central body of water to begin with where I previously had a 20 fish hit at the start of november.
Within an hour off getting the rods out, I was away. Rod back out on the spot, and 5 mins later, the same rod rattles off again. I then moved another rod on the spot and had 2 more bites within the next hour, 1 on each rod.
2 mid-20s, a double and the biggest of the session at 38lb 12oz landed within 3ish hours of having the rods out. Buzzing.
I managed a further 11 takes within the first 24 hours.
At this point, I opted to just use 2 rods and have the 3rd wrapped and ready to go as soon as I landed a fish.
Once the bites started to dry up, I started to move around the lake and make the most of the empty banks. I caught fish in 5 different pegs and areas of the lake.
The 48-hour session turned to 96 ha, and I managed to keep plucking them off till I left on New years Eve.
Even after temperatures dropped down to minus 4 and sheets off patchy ice coverd the surface of the lake.
In the end, I managed 21 takes, landing 17 to 38lb 12oz.
The majority of the captures are 20lb +, with 3 over 25lb and 2 being over 30lb.
What a pit willow is, I have had some great sessions on there over the last 2 seasons and topped it off with my best winter session to date.
It was a great session to leave 2025’
