Tales From The Towpath

Ahh, finally a chance to give my new pole a good workout. It seems ages since it hasn't been raining and blowing a gale, so a pole that reaches 16.5 metres has been useless. The wind dropped enough on Friday for me to pop down to the Tiverton Canal for a few hours and test it out properly. Conveniently, a boat had been moored in the basin for a few days so that provided some shelter in an area which has been hacked back as all good fishing swims on public water inevitably are. I fished two breadpunch lines; one at about five metres and the second one against the boat, which required all but the dolly butt section of my pole to reach, so 15.7 metres over.

I also put in a bit of chopped worm about 3 metres to the left of my longer bread line, but this only threw up a 2oz perch, so enough about that. I feel like I'm really getting to grips with the breadpunch though, particularly rigs which are so important, and I've found that the lighter the float the better, and a positive shotting pattern and short hooklength is best. I've been using a slim custom made pattern in 4x10 size, fishing a bulk of three number 11s to a number eleven and a number twelve dropper, both on a six inch hooklength, so nothing too fancy, and very positive. Getting your rig directly over the feed is also imperative; I fished literally a foot off it today and couldn't get a bite, yet the peg was obviously full of roach.

Feeding is pretty straightforward and it's surprising how roach will return to settle over even a small amount of liquidised bread without the need to always refeed when they back off. Swapping and resting lines is all that's needed initially. Of course, it'd probably be different if you were in a match and I'm yet to push swim with heavier feeding in the couple of sessions I've had this winter, so it would be interesting to see how the fish would respond. In total I ended up with 115 fish in four hours; mostly roach, with a handful of hybrids, plus a solitary skimmer and that perch.

As far as canal fishing goes, Exeter's Lime Kilns couldn't be more different to the Grand Western. Nobody uses breadpunch here, although I have a feeling that on a tough day when it is clear that the roach may respond. Although it would take a bit of thought, and certainly some aquarium gravel to get the feed down to the bottom in a straight line in ten feet of water.

As unpredictable as the weather has been, it has at least remained mild for some time, so I thought an unseasonal tench wasn't out of the question. And so it proved when my first fish today was a male of around 3-4lb, but unfortunately it was the only one. Ten roach and a rudd made up the rest of the catch, all on the feeder. I think the pole would've caught more but it's a busy towpath, so not an ideal method, and in fact quite risky.

A break from banging my mouse against the desk in frustration at having to work with Devon County Council's slowest computer has been needed this week. When I fished the Grand Western Canal the other day, there was a serious amount of pike activity, so I thought I would do a spot of wobbling on the town stretch for a few hours. Only my bait didn't even last "a few hours" and I'd nearly run out by the time I got halfway to the basin, where I had expected to get the majority, if not all, my takes.

I had ten hits, banking (well, sometimes unhooking in the water) six pike from Tidcombe bridge to School Bay, every one between about 12oz and a pound. A concerted effort at the basin brought only one pike of around a pound and a half, yet a dash back to the car to avoid the rain, and a few quick casts by where I was parked, resulted in three more mini-pike in quick succession.

That was it for the day, only around two hours actual fishing time, the rest of it spent nattering to a couple of other anglers. Although I always carry a big landing net and mat, even when adopting the mobile approach, neither was required today as I could easily pick the pike out of the margins and, more often than not, slip the single barbless treble out without even unclipping the forceps from my jacket.

As for those 2013 targets I referred to at the turn of the year, they may have to be put on the back-burner for a few more trips yet; this busy style of fishing is just far too much fun at present.

Aside from the decent fishing that canals can offer, they also bring the potential for contact with, or observing, some of the biggest oddballs and funniest social interactions that take place on the towpath. Yet again, I got my daily kingfisher update from a German chap who seems to walk the full length of the canal every time I am fishing it. Star of the show however, was 'world's angriest grandad', who switched from explaining the meaning of the word 'taxidermy' to his eight year old grandson, to telling him that he would never speak to him again about two seconds later. He then stormed off to the car shouting that he could "take no more of these ingrates!", leaving his young grandchildren perplexed, and me and Richard Higgs, who was fishing alongside me, in stitches.

Four of us met in the basin car park at just after eight o'clock for a bit of a knock up on the Tiverton Canal. Dave Pulman sat where I had been last week, Paul Carmell next to him, then I was in the narrowest part fishing to the tea barge, with Richard to my left. Things started quite promisingly, and I had a dozen roach on my top three before it dried up; for good, as it happened. I also lost a better fish of about 6oz. Richard and Dave also began well and Dave had the biggest roach of about 5oz in the first ten minutes. Unlike my pleasure sessions, the fish backed off completely at times, steadily getting smaller if that even seemed possible at the beginning of the day. Dave had a few on the waggler and pinkie to the barge, after swapping over from the whip, but found bites hard to hit due to the fish being so small. I could only catch my fish right against the tea barge after the first hour and a tiny pinch of liquidised bread every other fish kept them interested and brought reasonably regular bites.

Paul picked up section money in the Tiverton Christmas match about six weeks ago but struggled in our little sweep. Dave had 1lb 6oz, Richard a 'bream' (1oz skimmer) assisted 14oz, and my 86 fish weighed 2lb 8oz. To their credit, the guys all handed over a fiver, even though I confessed to thinking we were only fishing for a quid! Though of course I would have handed over a £5 note once everybody else did, had the result been different.

Honest.

It's been a while since I last blogged, but finding the time to fish, let alone write about it, has been difficult for the past couple of months. Some bitterly cold mornings have't helped to stir my enthusiasm to make the most of these shorter winter days, although the evenings are gradually lengthening and those depressing days when I get to work in the dark, and leave in the dark, are at least behind us until next winter.

It's been pretty chilly today but not unbearable, and I wish I'd made the trip to the River Tone with the club for a match there. I have no idea how they got on, but I didn't catch anything sat indoors, that's for sure.

On Tuesday, me and my dad made the short trip to the Grand Western Canal with the promise of plenty of bites from small roach on the punch. On arrival, just before noon, it was obvious that there would be the chance of a bream or two as they were 'blowing' like on a summer morning. It was a cracking day; a bit bright for bream, but particularly warm for February also, and I sat there in a long sleeved t-shirt until it was time to pack away. Dad's catch of bream and big skimmers was pretty impressive for winter and must have gone well in excess of 20lb in total. And all he'd packed was a fold up stool containing a few bits, and an eight metre margin pole!

My somewhat more expensive set-up was found wanting then, even though I managed what would be a decent result on most days; two bream (the larger one a good three-pounder), three good skimmers, an 8oz roach and a handful of plips. A good day to have off work, as the following day was bloody freezing.

Speaking of bloody freezing, it was nice to get out for just a couple of hours whilst all that snow was on the ground. It didn't put the pike off, and I even had a few takes as my wobbled roach worked its tantalising way beneath some frozen bays. Frustratingly, three quarters of takes met with thin air on the strike, including five consecutive hits in one swim. Surely the same fish, which was eventually landed.

Again no monsters, but again plenty of action and some serious fun with micro-pike...

Much less fruitful was a trip to Exeter Canal to try and grab a piece of the action that my pal Dave Sellick has been enjoying this winter. I only managed a rudd on the tip, in addition to a roach and perch on the pole - a lot of hard work for three little fish - but Dave's swim at least came alive in the afternoon, and I endured/enjoyed the sight of him bringing a tench to the net on five occasions.

It does get surprisingly busy down there. Even on a weekday in winter the banks were lined on both sides. There's some hardy, committed souls down there on them Lime Kilns, I just haven't decided if I'm one of them yet!

The opportunity to avenge an angling battering from my dad is not usually swift these days, as we don't get to fish together as often as we used to. In the week, however, I managed to wangle a day off and we both headed over to the Wellington Basins for round 2. I like these two little ponds and have known of their existence for more than a year now, but still haven't fished them properly. The last visit was cut short by severe weather, but threw up a surprise pike.

The above photograph is slightly deceptive and my dad looks a fair distance away, but I could probably have clonked him on the head with a ball of groundbait if I really fancied it. The water was clear and, being a public park, I really fancied a netful of roach on bread as I'm sure plenty of the stuff gets chucked in there for the ducks. Things started well, and despite taking longer to set up, I had four nice roach in the net before my dad had his first bite. I put the bread line in too close though, as it dried up within twenty minutes and then I never got another bite on it. My inkling that the pond holds some decent perch wasn't proved today by my results on a chopped worm line to a weedbed, which only threw up the odd 2-3oz perch.

The successful tactic today was pinkie and red maggot over groundbait at 13 metres, with my punch rig doubling up perfectly to catch some quality ronnies on the drop on a single pinkie. Conversely, my heavier 4x14 rig, touching bottom or just over, didn't bring anything larger, and bites were far less frequent.

I didn't have any bream but dad again found them, catching four between 1lb-2lb, in what turned out to be a slightly deeper swim and probably the prime point for duck-feeding on the lake. Not that he caught any of his fish on bread, instead using red maggot over groundbait. After five hours we agreed to declare myself the winner before lifting the keepnets from the water, so there was no weigh-in and I was able to salvage some pride after last weeks trip. Oh, and it was flippin' freezing, to the point where my hands felt like I'd buried them in stinging nettles, when feeling did eventually return to them in the car.

Yesterday my day was taken up with a trip to Taunton to purchase a new cricket bat from the county ground shop, but after feeling slightly self-conscious picking up bats and playing my imaginary cover drives whilst Arul Suppiah and James Hildreth looked on, I dropped in on the Tiverton Canal for what I'm now starting to think is a guaranteed pike. In a couple of hours I had four pike. Three of them the usual twelve inch critters, and a realtive monster for this end of the canal; a fat fish of about 4lb, and of the most beautiful emerald sheen. I also had another four or five missed takes.

Despite a positive weather forecast a few days previous, it continued to turn cold, with my mat freezing together several times. Further proof that any forecast more than two days in advance is not overly reliable, though they are generally accurate the day before. Even more disappointingly, I returned at midday today to find the canal frozen over more or less everywhere.

Eventually I located a clear area where the wind was gusting through the arch of a bridge and set about preparing three rigs to search out the central track primarily, with no far bank cover worth fishing to. Chopped worm and caster was fed sparingly thirteen metres down the peg, on the line of the dog bin in the picture. I then put some liquidised bread in, a section past the weedbed to my left, although I later moved this round to one o'clock, to make things easier in the wind and started another chopped worm line by the weedbed instead.

Well, what can I say, it was a fantastic session. I had roach throughout on bread, though they were generally on the small side, aswell as some quality perch, and a real bonus for such a harsh day in the form of a 5lb 10oz pike on the chopped worm. Just shy of 13lb in total in five hours, and plenty of bait left over for another day off work tomorrow.

The temperature has been gradually picking up over the course of the week and looks set to plummet again tomorrow, so prospects were good for today's trip with Jason Parr, in the hope of finally locating a few fish in the Taunton to Bridgwater Canal.

Seeing some rudd in the margins whilst undertaking a preliminary walk of the towpath raised our confidence, before Jason upped it further by sighting a couple of tench, also within a few metres of the bank. I set up opposite a floating raft of weed which I was confident would produce my first tench from the venue, but started on the top two catching rudd whilst regularly flicking in some leftover maggots and pinkies, before then trying out the breadpunch line down the middle.

There were rudd everywhere; barely did the bait get to the bottom before it was snatched by fish between half an ounce and 3oz. I actually find catching fish shallow quite irritating to be honest, as I think it makes the fishing become a bit predictable. But that's not to say that quality fish won't show, and on about the fifth put in I brought a podgy 1lb rudd to the net. When the bait did occasionally make it to the bottom, I would catch a roach or silver bream.

An hour and a half later, I could resist the temptation of the chop and caster line no longer, and shipped over to fifteen metres with two halves of a dendrabena on the hook. The first bite, within a minute, was so positive that I didn't really expect a tench to be responsible, but a steaming run through the weed, followed by a few metres of elastic, told me that one was. This was quickly followed by five more in consecutive chucks, mostly on the small side compared to Exeter and Tiverton Canal fish. Not that I was complaining

Jason then started to find some bonus fish of his own on his chopped worm line at thirteen metres. First to show was a pound-plus perch, which was joined a bit later by one slightly smaller, before the first of seven tench, for a total of around 20lb at the end of the session.

I rested my tench line occasionally to drop in on the bread to see if I could find more roach, but the rudd were still there waiting for it in the upper layers. The tench kept coming though and the only thing that stopped me catching even more was a trio of kayaks ploughing through my far line and disturbing it, but most annoyingly completely reshaping the weedbed which I was fishing to, making it difficult to drop in over my feed.

It took a while to get things running smoothly again, but it seemed that the more I fed, the more the tench responded. I landed my first nine but then lost three of the next nine I hooked, leaving me with an end result of 15 canal tench in five and a half hours fishing. The smallest was around 1lb, with the best being up to about 3½lb, so we estimated that there was somewhere in the region of 40lb of tench.

An imminent shower saw us packing the kit away as quickly as possible at half three, but unfortunately it reached us before we could get our tackle back to the car dry. We then wasted the remaining hour or so walking around wobbling small deadbaits, having pinched a couple of rudd each for this purpose.

The result on the pike front wasn't as hectic as our last trip together back in October, but a 2lb jack to my rod at least provided some variety to what had already been a very productive day. By this point we were absolute sodden, and the warm air from the car heater was most welcome when we eventually made it back.

There are several decent clubs within an hour's drive of my house, all reasonably priced and offering excellent fishing on a real variety of waters. Taunton AA's 'Fast Stretch' of the River Tone is incomparable, both in terms of the venue and quality of fishing. Due to the pace of the water, it fishes in the winter even when the level is low and river running clear.

I haven't done any river fishing for a long time, due mainly to the flooding, meaning the canals have been more reliable for consistent sport. I headed to a swim that had been good to me last winter but those floods have of course altered things somewhat. Last year I caught my fish standing twenty yards or so above the weir and running the float down to it. I had a few swingable chublets like that this time, feeding in front of me, over the top of a submerged snag consisting of a few branches and some orange traffic management barriers. I then had a better chub almost immediately downstream of the snag and another one after that, which I lost.

Bites were hard to come by thereafter, so I made the decision to move another twenty yards upstream and fish down to the snag, hoping to draw the fish out that way. Feeding lightly to start with, I had a trio of decent roach, a dace, and then eventually some chub. Dominic waded over from the other side of the river where he'd been trotting below the same weir, and took a few snaps. I was just explaining the reasons for my move and the inkling I had that I might get a better chub if my float would make it as far as the snag itself, when it buried just above it, resulting in the biggest fish of the session, around two and a half pounds. My total bag was probably in excess of 15lb in three hours, made up of this lot, plus another 2lb chub which made its escape during the transfer from keepnet to landing net.

It was to be a split session, as we then headed down to the sluggish lower river for some piking, after first stopping off for a sightly pretentious all-day breakfast in a local pub (which came served on a breadboard!). My favourite wobbling tactics brought me two fish of around 3-4lbs each, but Dominic's fly approach selected the first and largest, at around 5lb plus. The lower river was holding a surprising amount of colour considering how low it was, and the banks were particularly treachorous after so many months of having been covered by floodwater. We packed up to avoid a hailstorm, which lashed the vast open levels mercilessly for around an hour, and then hopped over to the canal for some more sheltered fishing.

Just to top things off, I had four decent (for a small canal) pike on float-fished dead roach, up to 10lb 5oz. A great day out, and it's surprising just how much water you can cover in a day, even in the darker months. Club books give you the opportunity to move from one water to another easily and offer great value for money, so it makes sense to have one or two in your wallet.

Silver bream are pretty rare, right? Not so. I've actually found them to be quite plentiful in a number of venues I've fished on the Somerset Levels, and so far, they've been more reliable than the roach for me on the Taunton - Bridgwater Canal. It amazes me how few people are able to differentiate between silver bream and juvenile common bream, and I never hear them talked about, by pleasure anglers or matchmen. In fact I'm often corrected when I bring them up in conversation! Yet it is important to be able to tell them apart, because they don't behave like skimmers at all, and generally require a different approach.

My half price Bridgwater AA season ticket that I purchased last week was to be put into use again today, this time to permit me to fish one of the more grubbier stretches of this waterway. The first place I pulled up beside though was rougher than sandpaper and looked spot on for catching something, most probably hepatitis.

The next section I visited was scarcely less dreary, but at least there was what appeared to be more angler friendly banks, until I got closer and could see that it was absolutely ruined by dog-fouling. Swim selection then became less about fish-holding features and more about finding a clean area on the bank that was large enough to allow me to set down my kit. This was a big shame really as there were some very inviting and perchy looking trees lining the far bank that I simply could not fish to, thanks to ignorant dog-owners.

I had to settle then into a featureless, and what turned out to be very shallow, bay for the afternoon. Then along came some rather inexperienced rowers who clattered along the far bank for around half an hour, so I spent this time flicking a few maggots down the edge and catching whatever I could, which always seems like good fun when you turn up somewhere new for the first time. Predictably, this resulted in mainly rudd.

Once they'd gone I put some bread in at six metres and some chopped worm down the peg at 12m (it was too shallow to fish up against a featureless far bank).

The bread line brought me roach, rudd and an ever-increasing number of silver bream as I fished the initial feed out. As the swim got stronger I topped up by hand rather than pole cup, sometimes fishing over the odd stray ball of liquidised bread when it dropped short. Eventually I realised that coming closer in was not in any way detrimental, and managed to bring the line back to my top two. In around eighteen inches of water I caught roach and silver bream to 4oz literally every chuck, even when I was too lazy to change my bread when it had really dried out, and more than once catching up to three fish on the same piece of punch (which was a 5mm piece).

I did spend a large amount of time fishing the worm after being given false hope by a decent perch (approx 1½lb) on the first put in, but wasn't unduly rewarded for my efforts, catching only four smaller perch and the odd rudd and palm-sized silver bream.

In total I ended up with 16lb 9oz of silvers, most of which I caught within three metres of the bank on a bulked down 0.5g rig. I also used a barbless hook for this rig aswell and bumped very few fish, which is maybe not too surprising when fishing to hand, but I forgot to mention that I also switched over to a barbless hook for those chub on the fast stretch the other day and lost no fish at all then, including roach and the bigger chub, so worth bearing in mind.

Sneaking out for a couple of hours in the afternoon to try and catch a single fish wasn't quite what I had in mind when I booked this week off some months ago, but thoughts of catching a netful of tench have had to be abandoned, as I'm sure they will not be willing to feed in these conditions, which are actually too uncomfortable for me to fish in a stationary position anyway. I know this because I tried it on Saturday and couldn't hack any more than about two hours of fishing the punch, despite plenty of bites from roach, a 1lb+ skimmer and even a 4oz rudd from behind Wilcombe School.

A shower, and a few hours warming up after that, left me with horribly dried, cracked and bleeding knuckles; as sure a sign as any that busy, match-style fishing is impossible to enjoy in such conditions. For that reason, and because sitting indoors for one day drove me insane, I decided to use up the few remaining deadbaits in my freezer and get out in search of a fish that I wouldn't have to exchange all feeling in my hands for.

Yesterday it was out with two rods and sardine tails to try and tempt something half-decent, as I played mostly a patient, waiting game, which would at least allow me to keep my thermal gloves on for long periods. I had two bites; the first I missed, and then a dropped take on a wobbled sprat, employed in desperation as the light faded.

Wanting to remember what a fish looks like, I decided to take the one rod and wobble for a couple of hours in town this afternoon. The three pike I took this way were small even for Tiverton Canal, and the tiniest could not have been six ounces. I also turfed in some crappy old sardines from the freezer at the end of the day. Not that I've come across a pike yet big enough to eat them down this end of the canal.

Fishing can be an expensive hobby to pursue. It could be tackle, costly syndicate membership, petrol or even bait that makes it that way. How perverse that something so simple and readily available as worms can be so pricey. I also think it's a price worth paying though, and even though the initial outlay for a kilo of dendrobenas or a hundred lobs might seem extortionate, at £15-25 a bag, the confidence I get from using this bait and feeding it in decent quantities is massive. Even then, I would expect to get at least two sessions out of one purchase.

Armed with a bagful of lobworms and a full tank of petrol, I made the journey across rural Devon to meet Dom Garnett at a fishery new to both of us, but one we were told held decent roach and perch. My swim was a hazard to get to - an absolute mud pit of a peg - but made up for that in perchy features. Some marginal trees looked appealing, as did a snaggy island at 14m, which I earmarked for a personal best perch, or two...

In went four chopped lobs and a few casters over to the island, then three balls of groundbait laced with squats at around eight metres. What was surprising (and reassuring) was very little deviation in depth between the two lines. Although I had only around four foot of water, I knew this would be more than enough on the long line at least. The squat produced roach immediately, and typical squat fish they were too, at 1-2oz each. After around twenty of these, I slipped on a red maggot and immediately lost a very heavy fish which had me flummoxed as the lake contains no carp, but does hold decent tench, bream, elusive large chub and of course, the aforementioned perch. By the end of the session, a big perch seemed the most likely culprit.

1lb 15oz

I kept busy with little roach, occasionally adding a few more casters and chopped lobs to the long line, before dropping my light rig over it after an hour and a half of prep. A single maggot was taken instantly and I was surprised to see my 4-6 elastic come streaming out of the pole as I was expecting another roach. It took a good five minutes to subdue the perch, which for all the world looked a two-pounder, and would have been my first over that weight for a couple of seasons. In the end it fell an ounce short, but a cracking fish nonetheless, without a scale out of place.

That fish ensured that I didn't use the light rig to the far bank again, instead opting for my lobworm rig, with a size ten hook and blue hydrolastic more up to the job of extracting those big perch from near the snag. As the squat line continued to throw up more of the same in the way of small roach, and the catch rate was so high, I decided to abandon that line and feed maggots by hand close in instead. If anything the roach were now bigger, and I also had a 1lb 11oz perch this way aswell. The lobworm line however was taking a long time to settle again. Whilst waiting for the perch to switch back on, I managed some decent hybrids on half a lob, including a roach/bream of about a pound and a quarter, and then this rudd/bream hybrid of just over a pound; a personal best, as I've never weighed one before.

1lb 0oz 8dr

A plethora of roach on the top two prevented me from over-pressuring the island swim, and eventually I gained reward for both my patience and perseverance with two stonking perch towards the end of the day. The first one beat my personal best by an ounce, before the second upped it again to 2lb 11oz. Incredible to think how long it can take to catch a fish which I often consider to be greedy and aggressive in its feeding habits. We did stop to wonder how much these fish move about or whether they are present in the swim all along and just require that trigger to make them feed, whether it be changing light levels, rising water temperature through the day, or just regular feeding.

2lb 7oz

My grand total in the end was nine perch, the best being 2lb 11oz, 2lb 7oz, 1lb 15oz, 1lb 11oz, aswell as a smaller one of approx 1¼lb, and another four of around 12-14oz. Well worth shelling out for half a bag of lobworms I'd say.

2lb 11oz

Another little sweep with some friends; this time on the Taunton - Bridgwater Canal. Given that there has been very little rain for the past week and that there was far more about when I was here last and the water was clear, we were surprised to find the canal very coloured when we pulled up.

This put the roach off big time, because we only managed around thirty or so between the four of us, after I'd anticipated this might turn out to be more of a roach contest, given how severely cold it has been of late. I was actually so confident of this that I didn't even set up a light punch rig for fishing on a short line, instead opting to set up a positive rig for fishing to hand... well I didn't catch a fish on it!

We drew the short straw to determine who had first choice of swim, then set up in a line, something like twenty yards apart. Without setting a starting time beforehand, we all seemed to be ready to go at the convenient time of 10am, fishing until four o'clock.

I saw Dave Pulman and Richard Higgs catch the odd fish on punch, which made me think I should have set up a rig with slightly more finesse for fishing bread. However, I then put in over my groundbait and squat line at ten metres and had a 2oz roach pretty sharpish, so felt slightly more confident after that. Nothing followed other than a tiny hybrid though, before I decided to slip on a red maggot. After five minutes a tiny lift on the float resulted in a hairy battle with a 2lb+ tench which weeded me once, before eventually ending up in the net. At that point, catching enough small fish to wipe off that jammy tench seemed an insurmountable task.

With things failing to pick up for any of us, and Paul yet to get a bite, I tried over my 16m chopped worm line with a bunch of red maggots and had a second tench immediately. No more followed, and then I saw Dave catch one from his long line, although he'd been trying it for longer than me. I had another one half an hour later before each of us began wandering and eating lunch as bites were at a premium. I had a decent break from fishing whilst I had my sandwiches, then about ten minutes after returning to my stuff, the peg just came alive and I had five tench in about half an hour. Then Paul had his first tench, which must've wound Rich up who'd been working hard to start catching some roach again.

I picked up four more in the next hour and a half, whilst the last hour was really frustrating as my peg finally began to show signs that tench were present in the way of bubbles, but it was at that point that I stopped getting bites. Seeing Paul catch his tench made Richard abandon his efforts with the roach and concentrate on his chopped worm line, which was an inspired move as he made a late surge with seven tench in the last couple of hours. By the end of the six hours, 24 tench had been caught, and I think only one of them on worm (the bait I caught on the last time I was here), which was my fourth fish, as triple red maggot seemed to be the best hookbait on the day.

Russell Hilton - 33lb 10oz (twelve tench)

Richard Higgs - 21lb 8oz (seven tench)

Dave Pulman - 10lb 6oz (three tench, one big rudd)

Paul Carmell - 6lb 10oz (two tench)

Bit tired and short of time after a third consecutive fishing trip (hard life I know, but then my week's holiday was a dud thanks to the weather), so I'll just sum it up briefly. I try to keep varying my fishing to stop particular venues or methods becoming boring, so today I fancied some out and out roach fishing on breadpunch, and stayed reasonably local after two longish trips, heading for the Grand Western Canal.

I started at 12:40 and fished until 18:40, alternating between a light punch rig, consisting of a slim 4x10 float to 0.08mm hooklength and a size 20 B511, on a short line, and a heavier, five-metres-to-hand jobbie, with a barbless hook.

I had ten fish in the first twenty minutes and the catch rate remained pretty similar, if not better at times, for the rest of the session. The heavy rig selected some bigger roach up to 1lb exactly, and I also lost four or five others that felt equally decent. The catch was mostly roach, with perhaps 40 or so rudd thrown in for good measure, although these were all on the small side. I did keep topping up a chopped worm and caster line to the far bank at regular intervals, but three or four looks on this failed to bring a single bite.

As the session drew to a close, I fed a walnut-sized pinch of liquidised bread every cast to try and encourage some better roach, as they do tend to show as dusk approaches. This definitely worked, and I added section to my 'to-hand' rig to aid presentation in the wind, which helped me get through the rudd and down to some quality roach. I varied my punch size between 4mm and 7mm today, and even had some better roach on a pinch of flake.

The water was heavily coloured in places, so I walked along the towpath until I noticed the colour beginning to drop out, and set up there. Another brilliant canal trip.

13lb

I've fished some rough, dirty polluted stretches of canal in my life, but this particular stretch of the Bridgwater Canal takes some beating. I took one look at it back in March, and decided not to fish; an overgrown, narrow stretch of canal, more bottles and carrier bags than water, and - today - even a dead duck bobbing up and down mid-channel.

Downstream I could see the docks, which are out of bounds for fishing, whilst to my right the banks were too difficult really to negotiate, though they were far from ideal where I sat either, but I could see fry dimpling so at least there was some activity. I carefully climbed down the bank to position my seatbox where the ground was already somewhat worn and flat, if a bit squidgy. Down went the front legs on my footplate into a couple of inches of water, and as they hit the bed of the canal, up burst an alarming oil slick. This really is the sort of place that reminds you of the threat of Weil's Disease.

I half expected to catch "Blinky" - the three-eyed mutant fish which anyone who watches The Simpsons might be familiar with, but instead was pleasantly surprised when my first put-in resulted in a little roach on breadpunch. It was solid, even if the fish were half an ounce to an ounce. Eventually I caught a 2oz rudd which seemed a better fish, only for my next bite to result in a heavy, plodding fish. "Bream" was the first thing to spring to mind, but flash of scarlet when the fish rolled gave the game away. I hardly expected such a decent rudd in the shallow muddy waters here, but evidently they are present as I had another around the pound mark a little bit later.

I then slipped my chopped worm rig over to the far bank and the float immediately dragged around the peg as the rudd seemed to be there too. Increasing the hook size to a ten and using a whole lobworm still didn't solve the problem, but between the rudd I had half a dozen perch to 1lb 14oz. I'm sure a two pounder was on the cards, but unfortunately the canal began to tow as some gates were opened in the docks, and a mass of floating debris collected and choked solid my entire swim. I had no choice but to pack up, after fishing for just 2¾ hours.

I made a half-hearted effort to weigh the catch, just to get an idea. A few fish fell back and I deducted the net afterwards so the process was pretty haphazard but at least quick. In total there was between 12lb and 13lb, which was crazy considering I spent a lot of time bumping fish on the chopped worm rig where the rudd repeatedly folded the bait over the hook. It was also a laborious process unshipping, as I had to break the pole down three times each cast. At least I got home for cricket training (in the rain), but I would liked to have had a good crack at those perch before they spawn. I'd love one of 2lb plus from a canal.

Today's trip was fruitful, if a little boring. Sometimes fishing can be a little too easy, even on the canals of the south-west region. I'd forgotten to bring my worms, and deliberately left behind any bread as I thought I'd quite like to target some better fish as I was fishing on my own and building a netful of fish that can be swung in can be quite tedious. Without any worms or bread though, I could do neither particularly effectively.

I did have a pint of casters, half a pint of red maggots and some groundbait though. I fished in the docks for the first time, and found some plump hand-sized silver bream immediately, and also managed to awaken a pike in the near-side margin within about three chucks. After five minutes of toing and froing it made of with a 4oz silver bream, and two or three inches of hooklength.

The swim stayed reasonably consistent considering I only fished the one line at about 8m, though I flirted with the feeder on and off for the last three hours or so. This brought indications every chuck, but the same stamp silver bream as the pole line was producing, even on triple dead red maggot, which was about as selective as my hookbait got. Caster didn't produce anything better, even when the roach turned up in the afternoon. Other than hooking a pike on two more occasions, the only other fish to pull back significantly on the pole was a 2lb tench, although I did catch some better perch to about 12oz. Another rough tot up at the end put the total around 21lb, made up mostly of fish I was hoping to avoid! At least spring seems to have finally arrived and my russian hat (which is very warm, but gives me a searing headache every time I wear it) can be consigned to the bottom of the cupboard until next winter.

I also got out for a short session on Sunday evening. The plan was to try for a tench from the Grand Western Canal, as I've yet to catch one since the breach. I left the bread at home and adopted a little and often approach with chopped worm, and casters which had been kept in the freezer. I'm not a big fan of frozen casters really except for bulking out groundbait when really filling a swim in, but in the absence of anything else to accompany the worm, apart from a few red maggots, I decided to clear some freezer space.

After three hours fishing I had no tench to show for my efforts, but a handful of rudd to 5oz plus a couple of 8-10oz perch prevented me becoming completely bored. I thought I'd finally latched into a tench with the final throw of the dice - a whole worm cut in half and hooked both ends - which gave a slow bite and solid resistance on the strike. In fact I actually thought it was a bream as the fish surfaced slowly on the far bank without running, only to give a shake of the head and part company. Bringing the pole back in I could see that I'd lost the hook.

Those pike love a worm.

It's been a case of a week of intense fishing at the end of April for me and then more or less nothing since, other than a single tench of 4lb 8oz in a four hour session on the Exeter Canal, and a broken sixth section on the new pole, which I await a replacement for as I type. Cricket, as ever, has taken over. Having another major hobby makes you realise just how time-consuming preparing to go fishing really is. And sleep. At least I can have a lie in and play cricket.

Really at this time of year I should be looking for a personal best tench. I catch loads from the canals but always at the 'wrong' time of year and I've only ever had one from a canal over 6lb. Without a pole though, that becomes an even bigger task. More likely is that I will spend what limited time I have over the next couple of weeks in search of some decent carp on an evening ticket, but I'll be almost certainly float fishing and trying to avoid relying on pellets and paste - far too boring. I just hope the fish aren't spawning when I finally do get round to taking a rod out of the car.

Otherwise I've been sifting through endless streams of photographs, some taken on my own camera, and others far superior which Dom has kindly sent over to me. Trying to decide on a way to organise them is causing me a bit of a headache really. If I made any sort of sustained campaign towards one target at a time it might be easy but there seems to a real mish-mash of pictures floating about on about four different memory sticks; some catch photos, others of landscapes/scenery and a smattering of action and technical shots too. Anyone with a decent system, let me know!

Here's a few photographs from the last six weeks or so, as I never blogged for the whole of June, though I did get out fishing a couple of times.

I only managed two full days fishing, the first of which was a trip to the Bude Canal with my old man. I've always though that living near Tiverton or Exeter, you really are on the edge of any decent coarse fishing, and any further west you are left with carp puddles and trout fishing. Not so. The Bude Canal is a belter of a venue, although a recent introduction of carp made it feel a bit strange, seeing as I landed eight and lost as many again. The aim was to catch a canal carp to be honest, but hooking so many, with a largest of around 4lb, and then being told they'd just been stocked, ruined it a bit for me.

Besides the carp though, there were a ton of fish to go at which had been in the canal a long time, although maggots were a dead loss and resulted in five consecutive bootlace eels at one point. And when they come in in knots and you have to unhook them in front of about a hundred excitable schoolkids, its not the funnest experience, so corn and expander pellets were much the order of the day. In fact, I got away with using two tiny expanders to cover a size 12 and this seemed to work really well for bream, skimmers, and carp.

I was quite surprised to see someone fishing hemp in an evening match that started just as we were leaving, as I would've thought bream would be a safer bet at this time of year, but was intrigued to discover that he'd had double-figures the week before with roach to 1lb 6oz. He also told me of flounders and even a small bass being caught in matches. Quite a strange venue, where you can one minute be catching wild brown trout, then feel like you are on a commercial, then be catching fish from the estuary.

I have also had a couple of dabbles at carp the last month, the target being fish in the upper-double range. I spent a few hours one Friday evening with Ben at Upham Farm, knowing that it holds fish of this size, but I was amazed to see just how small the specimen lake is there. Not the most inspirational place I'm afraid, especially when crammed with other anglers all fishing two rods. My paste in the edge approach brought three positive bites but for some reason the fish slipped the hook every time within about five seconds. This was after I'd just spent four quid on a pack of Korda hooks, when I should have stuck with my trusty budget Drennan Barbless Carp Feeders. The one fish I did get in was hooked outside the mouth (which was definitely not the case with the others that I lost), and I have to say the fight was a bit tight with so many other anglers around the pond. A 1¼lb test curve rod should be fine on a lake like this where there are no snags, but its the close proximity to other anglers which causes problems. In the end I got it in without anyone else noticing, and slung it on the scales anyway despite it being foul-hooked; 15lb 7oz, just half a pound or so heavier than one I legitimately caught in my other evening trip, this time to Creedy Lakes near Crediton.

An early morning canal trip this week didn't really result in the sort of action me and Jason were hoping for, with a tench each and a few other other bits, but I think we are discovering that pellet waggler rods are ideal for catching tench in weedy canals as you can really put a bend through the rod and not be scared about breaking them or them being too heavy for the job, like say an Avon rod might be.

The other highlight of the month, besides that Creedy common was a dash to the Taunton-Bridgwater Canal for a crack at rudd primarily, although I always enjoy a trip here just for the sake of walking and seeing fish in their habitat. It was a great day for spotting too as there was barely any wind and the sun was obliging. Yet I'm sure many of the better fish somehow manage to keep out of view, even though there are long sections where the bottom (although covered by weed) can be seen across the full width of the canal.

I've yet to see a carp here, but there are always a few tench milling around, and the smaller roach, rudd and silver bream are reasonably easy to catch on bread. I freelined that bait, whilst Dom fished the fly. Although I prefer a slow sinking piece of bread in general (especially for roach), the best rudd of the day - around 1lb 4oz - actually came to a floating bit of bread, nailing it almost as soon as it hit the water.

Wow - well I was only going to post a few pics with basic descriptions but it seems I've reeled off that load of twaddle without even blinking. Next stop is to purchase a digital SLR, but it's a daunting market, probably much like anyone stepping into a tackle shop for the first time.

Oh, and here's one for George Burton seeing as he expressed an interest. An unbroken fifth wicket stand of 218 to win a game for my Sunday league side, Witheridge. I won't tell you how many of those I made, but it was definitely the anchor role!

As a canal angler you often get the luxury of choosing almost any swim you like, but that doesn't always mean we get the place to ourselves. Such was the case for my second visit to Bude Canal - this time with Dom Garnett - and it was actually quieter on the water than on my previous visit, although there was more variety in the type of vessel that I had to allow passage through my swim this time round.

The kayaks were out in force, as were the rowing boats and pedalos. Plenty of walkers too, but I get the impression that these fish are used to disturbance. I dropped in behind a pedalo and had this carp before it had barely moved a metre beyond my baited patch.

At its busiest, this canal can be nigh-on unfishable, but then I've been quite selective in my approach to fishing it on both occasions that I've been there, using the long pole almost exclusively. A maggot just a rod-length out would probably produce rudd and skimmers whilst you let the children's regatta pass through, although there's no guarantee then that their steering won't go slightly awry, and still force a few hasty retreats! And then there are those that think they are doing you a favour by passing under your far bank cover... But as I say, these Bude Canal fish really don't seem to mind.

We enjoyed some decent weather in the afternoon, and still the skimmers and odd bream continued to feed. I picked up my fish on corn and pellets, baring in mind the problems I had last time around with eels. Paste brought the most bites but there could perhaps be no more frustrating bait to use when you are being constantly interrupted by boats. Bit close to commercial fishing too in style, but hey ho. I also used luncheon meat, which the carp seemed to enjoy, but even the small ones are difficult to get in.

The bream cause far less headaches on black hydrolastic, even the larger ones over 4lb. Above is the pick of the total net of around 30lb taken by early afternoon, consisting mostly of bream and skimmers, plus a couple of small carp. The bigger fish were very long and lean, and incredibly snotty, unlike the ones we seem to find in the clear Devon canals. Meanwhile, Dom aquainted himself with my old nemesis, despite only using maggots on the hook:

A lot of people reflect on the past 12 months and set their angling targets for the next twelve at the turn of the year, or at the end of traditional fishing season. It never seems an appropriate time for me to do so. May to the end of August is the window where I do the least fishing because of cricket commitments, and so the end of the cricket season is the time I've decided to take stock and look at what I want to achieve. I made some rather loose targets at the end of 2012, but the problem with that is that I get grand thoughts of big tench because they are my favourite species, only to forget how interrupted the best months for targeting them are. So really, I've failed to follow through on anything I might have mentioned then.

The big preparation I've done for the start of the next year is to buy my first SLR camera, so hopefully followers of this blog will notice an increase in the quality of photography when I'm not fishing in the company Dom Garnett, who has provided the better images so far. Thus, some of my targets are based really on what I would like to get photographs of. I want a big carp still, but it has to be from a natural water, I really don't think I can stick the commercials except for predators and ornamentals. We'll see.

So long cricket season; I can now go fishing regularly again. I suppose September might seem a funny time of year to take stock and set targets for the next twelve months - most anglers would use the new year or closed season to reflect and look ahead - but for me, it represents the start of a period where I can concentrate on fishing without any interruptions. With that in mind, it was disappointing to chalk up a blank on my first proper trip back; a dedicated attempt at catching just my second mullet ever. I had one last summer, but dropped it back in without weighing or photographing it, which also meant that I was unable to identify which of the three mullet species I had caught.

For this trip I met up with Jamie Rich, a fellow blogger and relative mullet veteran with a whole two mullet to his name. Those fish came from Seaton Harbour, whereas mine hung itself one day whilst I was feeder fishing on the Tidal Exe, our venue for today. With the tide dropping out on our arrival, there were signs of fish, big and small, everywhere. Starting on a mashed bread feeder it wasn't long before a the tip began to rattle and a 4oz roach was banked.

As the sun gave way to overcast skies and rain though, all signs of fish activity ceased and Jamie switched over to a small chubber float after seeing odd mullet coming in close to the bank. They were spooky though and after around 4 or so hours enduring the rain, we decided to pack it in. That was until I took a walk and spotted scores of the blighters in no more than a few inches of water. After some debate, we decided this was an opportunity too good to miss and tackled up again. It was difficult fishing, trying to run a bait through a swim that was shallower than the shortest stick float I possessed. Jamie managed some modicum of presentation with his chubber, which was true to its name, accounting as it did for a couple of small chub. Those mullet just weren't interested though, despite regular small helpings of mashed bread and literally hundreds of casts through masses of them, pointed fins cutting through the surface like middle fingers.

There seemed to be one short window of opportunity among those many hours, and it was literally the turning of the tide. As the pace of the water slowed to almost a standstill, the mullet began to move around, rather than holding station in the current as they had been before. I slid my float up to around twelve inches overdepth (in only eight inches of water at best), and waited for them to find the bait. Gordon Bennett! One actually did, and the float zipped along before dragging under. I struck, and the mullet seemed to know little of what was happening, as it wallowed towards me on the surface. The hook pulled. Jamie laughed.

There is surely no more frustrating species in British freshwater than the mullet. Hours and hours of observing them so disinterested, and then a window of no more than ten to fifteen minutes where they could be seen hoovering up the mashed bread in their mouths. For such a fickle creature, to witness them feeding so confidently for that brief moment was almost unbelievable. I do think that perhaps the harbours are the way forward where the pace of the water is not such an issue. We seemed up against it when the water was low and flowing.

Apologies for a lack of photographs aswell as fish, but the weather was largely miserable, and by the time it had cleared again in the afternoon I had since slipped and fallen in the mud whilst retreating the incoming tide! I think the following picture pretty much sums up the day though; Jamie making yet another cast at those bloody mullet.

As an aside, the river became alive again at high tide and we took a couple of good-sized dace of our less than delicate approaches and breadflake. I think some chubber floats and waders might be required before the next trip, which will probably be next summer now unless we're lucky enough to experience another heat wave.

I don't think there is one hookbait more singularly associated with a particular species than hemp. Hemp is a roach bait, right? Well, no. A recent trip out with my good friend, and top angling writer, Dom Garnett, revealed that silver bream are absolute suckers for the seed and, it turns out, elderberries too.

If you live in Somerset and have never caught a silver bream then my response to that is that you probably don't know what one looks like! They are everywhere. In fact I'm convinced that the tiny 'skimmers' we used to catch on the Lee Navigation where I grew up in North London were actually silver bream. That is also the place where I first saw elderberries in use. My dad was a big fan, and used to catch roach from the Lee that you would never have known were there without using hemp, or a combination of the two. Anyway, I digress, there are silver bream everywhere on the Somerset Levels. In the canals, rivers and even some commercials.

The Bridgwater Docks were a mass of dimpling roach and rudd on our arrival; a relatively late start as it had easily passed midday. We both set up waggler rods and I perched myself on the edge of a high wall, fishing no more than a few rodlengths out. Some groundbait was introduced whilst maggots, casters and hemp were loosefed over the top. Predictably, the roach, rudd and perch started coming, along with, of course, silver bream.

Attempts were made to sort out the better fish on casters and corn but there was no concrete evidence to suggest any one bait was better than the others. I began loosefeeding hemp, and whilst it took an unusually short period of time to start catching on this classically slow bait, the fish were small. It was at this point that Dom found the answer, an elderberry bush, situated on his left shoulder! Within the first three casts on an decent sized elderberry I managed a 4oz silver bream, a 10oz rudd and that belter of a roach pictured above, which must have been getting on for 1lb. A similarly sized silver bream later followed (below), and Dom even hooked and lost an unseen lump, with us both fancying a tench as the culprit.

This catch of quality silvers came in just the last two hours, as falling light levels and the selectiveness of the berry as hookbait combined to bring a better stamp of fish than the caster approach had produced in the early afternoon. Even better than corn for winkling out the goers, it would seem.

Thanks to Dom, I have some cracking pictures of our outing to the Docks, but this did mean that my own SLR failed to make it out of the camera bag again. Fortunately, amidst a busy time of late, I also snuck in a three hour stint on the Grand Western Canal closer to home. Drab weather didn't make for brilliant photography but I was able to mess around with the manual settings and get one or two half-decent shots of surroundings:

Red maggots were the order of the day (partly because I couldn't get hold of anything else), and a softly, softly approach. I started with no initial feed and instead decided to trickle in bait using a kinder pot. This involved a walnut sized pinch of active Supermatch and a few grains of hemp, as well as, of course, red maggots.

I was into perch right away on a single line down the middle, and later added roach, rudd and a 3lb tench. I soon found that my regular groundbait clouding the water was a magnet for pike, attracted as they were by the activity surrounding masses of motherless minnows. There's no mistaking a pike when you hook them on the pole for it often takes them quite a while to work out what is going on. Usually they just rise in the water as you lift them before a couple of head shakes and a fierce sprint to the nearest cover. I lost one as well as landing one of 3-4lb - hooked fair and square in the top lip on double red maggot - reminding me why I always used to carry a few piking bits with me on any trip to the Grand Western Canal.

A Tale of Two Canals

Throwing a Wobbly

Mini Sweep On Tivvy

Catching Up

This pond ain't big enough for the both of us...

Chopping and Changing

Two Tones; fast and slow

Silver Lining

Micro-piking

Paying The Price

Bridgwater Canal Knock-Up

A Pinch and a Punch

Docks and Dead Ducks

Catching The Sun

Musings of what is being missed

Canal carping? (and other outings)

Commercial style canal fishing

This is where it begins...

Tidal Exe Mullet

Bridgwater Docks - Silver Bream on Elderberries