With no float rod to use at present, in the week I took the pole down to the Ilminster Canal to try and catch a carp or a tench before work. I didn't have much time but did have decent bait and so potted across a few casters and chopped worms before shipping a section of worm over to the far bank. It took half an hour or so before the elastic was pulled out by anything other than a half-ounce perch, resulting in a tench of maybe 12oz; a sad looking fish which appeared to have a cataract over one of its eyes.
It was odd perch and roach from then on, right up until the very last "last cast", which resulted in a familiar goldfish. I recognised this one from one of my earlier trips. Although they seem to prefer a falling bait, this one picked up a worm section from the bottom.
For company, I had this little fella, who always gets a pet and a stroke from me on the way back to the car. In fact, it was hard to keep him sat still for a couple of seconds whilst I took the photo, so keen for a fuss is he.
Otherwise, I managed a day-time session on the Taunton to Bridgwater Canal today, catching plenty of roach and silver bream on breadpunch, before the party was gate-crashed by a pike. I tried to ignore the disturbance, having seen a group of pike spawning on the Tiverton Canal last week, I didn't want to remove this one from the water unnecessarily. It was having a detrimental effect on my roach fishing however so I stuck a one ounce rudd on a single size 6 treble in an attempt to catch and relocate the intruder.
After ten minutes, the 11g zeppelin float disappeared from sight and I was soon bundling a very decent perch in the net. Forget about the fight, I was fishing a 20lb wire trace, 2.25lb test curve spinning rod and big barbless treble hook, which they always seem to find a way of throwing. In my experience, perch are nowhere near as trace and tackle shy as is often made out in angling publications. Wire is an absolute must, as evidenced by a 5lb pike on the very same rudd some fifteen minutes later, and then a further two perch of about 1lb 4oz and 1lb 12oz. The first, and biggest, weighed 2lb 7oz.
