With fishing trips recently lasting less than a couple of hours, putting almost as much time aside to blog about them has been a task I have not really been relishing in all honesty. Nevertheless, the recent capture of a big little fish, a personal best, has forced me to put fingers to keys. Before I get to that, however, I will let you know what else I have been up to.
Casting back a few weeks, I did slip off to the Taunton to Bridgwater Canal with some red maggots and lobworms hoping for perch, and possibly tench, seeing as the latter keeps causing bother on the whip and bread approach. Suffice to say, a hard frost put paid to any tinca activity and to start it was touch and go whether I would catch anything at all. I started on a size ten hook and lob tail but with no interest in 15 minutes (short attention span, I know!), I slipped off the big hook and replaced it with a size 18 to take two red maggots. The result of this was a few welcome roach, and several perch, to a best of 1lb 7½oz.
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I have also been trying to squeeze in some after work sessions on the Exeter Canal, but the two trips so far have proved cold, dark and biteless. Indeed, on the first occasion, all my kit was covered in a thick layer of frost when it came to packing away at 7.30pm. The second trip was eventful only for my fishing partner Alan nearly being flattened by a bike, which veered off the path and lost control inches from Alan's position. It was very close.
I have also been trying to squeeze in some after work sessions on the Exeter Canal, but the two trips so far have proved cold, dark and biteless. Indeed, on the first occasion, all my kit was covered in a thick layer of frost when it came to packing away at 7.30pm. The second trip was eventful only for my fishing partner Alan nearly being flattened by a bike, which veered off the path and lost control inches from Alan's position. It was very close.
Oh yes, onto the minnow, which came last Sunday from the River Tone. I honestly thought it was a small dace. I had already taken 5 grayling, to a best of 1½lb, three plump dace and six spotties when I rounded of the session with a couple of minnows. Now, I am sure, like me, that everyone who reads this has had those moments when you catch a gudgeon or a minnow or [insert other mini species here] and think "blimey, that's a big minnow", but this wasn't one of those moments. It was far bigger than that! Strangely, for such a small fish, it was instantly recognisable as my biggest ever of the species.
I knew I needed some way of measuring the big little guy, and really wished I had some tiny digital scales weighing to a tenth of a gram. In the end, I decided that a length measurement was the sensible way forward, and so whipped out the tape measure which, incidentally, cost me 3p and was shipped from China. Quite how that is possible I'm not sure. Anyway, the minnow was 107mm from end to end, or 97mm from the root of the tail to tip of the snout. A monster minnow indeed!