I've been fishing a relatively big, shallow (3-4ft) silt lake most of this year. It's got an island, some snaggy margins, marginal reeds - and it's a fairly uniform 3-4ft across. There's a couple of very subtle deeper areas where it goes 4 - 4.5ft, but nothing much more than that.

I haven't seen a single fish since it got cold, and I'm wondering... where would you bet the fish are likely to hold up during the Winter? Snaggy island? A bush in the margins? Midwater? Deeper hole?

It hasn't got a huge head of fish, I've done pretty well this year mainly stalking and sight-fishing, but it's just like the fish have disappeared as soon as it got cold, and I'm trying to work out what my best strategy is during Winter - trickle a bit of bait in somewhere, just not sure where would be best to start...

In reply to Post #1
My lake is much the same. small, very silty, island, reed lined, weedy in places and much the same depth as yours.

It fishes fairly well in the cooler months and i wouldn't say its cool at the moment so the fish are fairly easy to locate. I do however trickle small, but often amounts of bait in 3 or 4 spots, but i don't over feed it.

One thing i would ask, is your lake fenced?

One of the things ive noticed over a long period of time is that carp almost switch off feeding if there's an otter present!

If its not fenced, and you pre bait, ive also found that pre baiting carp also attracts otters

In reply to Post #1
I used to fish a place similar to yours, always found they followed the sun in the winter, 9am bite time on one side of the pond and 3pm on the other when the sun was out, other than that they seemed to be held up in the middle within the dead lily's

In reply to Post #1
If the marginal reeds are of an appreciable depth the carp Will get in there reeds moving without wind is a dead giveaway.