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.