Another short canal session today of between three and three and a half hours. This time I fished in the afternoon rather than from first light, and headed to the Bridgwater end. I settled down quite close to a lock where a concrete pipe was discharging water at a fair old lick from the opposite bank. A bit of work with a plummet revealed that my swim was very shallow, no more than 2.5ft at its deepest. This didn't put me off too much as I thought that with a bit of colour in the water, the swim looked like it might hold roach at least.
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I found two areas of equal depth at around eight metres and 13m. The latter was approximately two metres off of the far bank. In went a small amount of chopped worm, casters and groundbait to start with, at 13m, and a ball of liquidised bread down the track. I then set up a heavy pole rig to fish the long line (0.5g float, 0.13 hooklength, size 14 super spade), and a much lighter waggler rig for fishing the breadpunch line primarily, but also single maggot and caster over the long pole line.
I started on the bread, as any true cut angler always does. Things were a little tricky on the waggler as my float was travelling downstream whilst a load of flotsam was swirling back towards the lock in the eddy on the inside of my float. Nonetheless, I did get bites, and started connecting with the hoped-for roach. After doing this for a bit, I cast a single maggot over the long pole line and picked up a few roach, rudd and even a little chublet. There are very few chub in this canal so it was a real surprise to see signs that those that are there are successfully breeding.
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Around an hour in, I hit a solid fish on a single red maggot, which turned out to be a lovely bream of about two pounds. That was my cue to pick up the pole and ship over two halves of a worm. This worked straight away, and a second bream, nearer to 3lb, was soon netted. I was starting to think in terms of a real netful, but when the next put-in resulted in a 1lb perch, I suspected that might be it. And so it proved.
I carried on picking off roach, rudd and silver bream on the waggler, before another perch, slightly bigger than the first, took a single caster. I tried on and off with the pole and worm, but other than a few nips and tugs, a proper bite never materialised. In between, some 2oz roach and rudd were caught on bread, and I also removed a jack of two to three pounds from my swim. A middle-aged couple were walking past as I was netting this pike, and the lady decided to give me the most unimpressed look and tell me I was fishing out of season! I did explain, but by the look on her face she remained unconvinced...
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I planned to pack up at 7pm, unless I could manage another bream. At 6.59, I went out on the pole with three red maggots and had a slow bite as soon as the float settled. Bream! I shipped back as a heavy, ponderous fish made its half-hearted efforts to escape at the other end. Then, just as I picked up the landing net, up popped a big perch! A most unperchlike fight, as they usually stay deeper and are much more dogged than bream. The perch weighed 2lb 1oz, but looked bigger. Of course, I carried on for another ten minutes, but I never had a proper bite.
So, a mixed bag in the end; 7 different species, and none of those was a tench. The chub was a surprise, as were the bream and, to a slightly lesser extent, the big perch. They came on a real variety of bait and method combinations too. It was especially nice to have a bend put through my waggler rod on a couple of occasions. In all, 12lb 12oz of fish (plus the pike), and another stretch of this canal to tick off my list.
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I found two areas of equal depth at around eight metres and 13m. The latter was approximately two metres off of the far bank. In went a small amount of chopped worm, casters and groundbait to start with, at 13m, and a ball of liquidised bread down the track. I then set up a heavy pole rig to fish the long line (0.5g float, 0.13 hooklength, size 14 super spade), and a much lighter waggler rig for fishing the breadpunch line primarily, but also single maggot and caster over the long pole line.
I started on the bread, as any true cut angler always does. Things were a little tricky on the waggler as my float was travelling downstream whilst a load of flotsam was swirling back towards the lock in the eddy on the inside of my float. Nonetheless, I did get bites, and started connecting with the hoped-for roach. After doing this for a bit, I cast a single maggot over the long pole line and picked up a few roach, rudd and even a little chublet. There are very few chub in this canal so it was a real surprise to see signs that those that are there are successfully breeding.
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Around an hour in, I hit a solid fish on a single red maggot, which turned out to be a lovely bream of about two pounds. That was my cue to pick up the pole and ship over two halves of a worm. This worked straight away, and a second bream, nearer to 3lb, was soon netted. I was starting to think in terms of a real netful, but when the next put-in resulted in a 1lb perch, I suspected that might be it. And so it proved.
I carried on picking off roach, rudd and silver bream on the waggler, before another perch, slightly bigger than the first, took a single caster. I tried on and off with the pole and worm, but other than a few nips and tugs, a proper bite never materialised. In between, some 2oz roach and rudd were caught on bread, and I also removed a jack of two to three pounds from my swim. A middle-aged couple were walking past as I was netting this pike, and the lady decided to give me the most unimpressed look and tell me I was fishing out of season! I did explain, but by the look on her face she remained unconvinced...
.JPG&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*)
I planned to pack up at 7pm, unless I could manage another bream. At 6.59, I went out on the pole with three red maggots and had a slow bite as soon as the float settled. Bream! I shipped back as a heavy, ponderous fish made its half-hearted efforts to escape at the other end. Then, just as I picked up the landing net, up popped a big perch! A most unperchlike fight, as they usually stay deeper and are much more dogged than bream. The perch weighed 2lb 1oz, but looked bigger. Of course, I carried on for another ten minutes, but I never had a proper bite.
So, a mixed bag in the end; 7 different species, and none of those was a tench. The chub was a surprise, as were the bream and, to a slightly lesser extent, the big perch. They came on a real variety of bait and method combinations too. It was especially nice to have a bend put through my waggler rod on a couple of occasions. In all, 12lb 12oz of fish (plus the pike), and another stretch of this canal to tick off my list.
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