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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.