Between starting renovation work on a stock pond I have recently acquired and mother nature testing my commitment with what seems to have been eternal rain, my time on the bank this winter has been limited to say the least.

However, when the snow fell this weekend, I had no hesitation in filling the thermos, loading the car and heading off in search of an ever-prized snow shot.

I decided to head over to the syndicate and have a go on the smaller of the two lakes. I haven’t fished the smaller lake for a year or so but it holds a good head of carp to low twenties and I was pretty sure I could get a quick bite.

Pulling into the car park, it was immediately apparent that half of the lake was frozen. Having had success in the past fishing right to the edge of ice, I decided this is where I would start.

I quickly attached a fluro pop up and flicked the rig out towards the edge of the freeze. The rig chosen was a hinged stiff rig comprising of 25lb Chod Skin for the boom section attached to a 15lb Trip Wire stiff section and completed with an ever-faithful size 6 Covert Chod hook.

I was only planning to be at the lake for a couple of hours and with the first hour having past with no action, I was beginning to think I was being slightly over ambitious.

Shortly into the 2nd hour I decided to fire a few pouches of pellet and crushed boilie out. Initially I had thought the single fluro hook bait might be enough to tempt a bite but as no action was forthcoming I figured some added attraction might do the trick.

It seemed to work, as fifteen minutes later I was playing a fish out from under the ice. After a surprisingly good scrap I slid a frozen stiff net under a perfect little common.

After a couple of ‘Snow Shots’ I slipped the fish back, chucked the gear back in the car and headed off home. It was brief but all had gone to plan.