I think I may have made some prebaiting progress over the last week or so. My results up to now have not really justified the effort I have put in when it comes to prepping a swim for tench and bream particularly, so every day for the past week I visited the same spot on the Grand Western Canal and deposited a modest spread of hemp and sweetcorn.
Tench were on my wish list, so I had deliberately selected a narrow section where the water was clear, as the more coloured areas predominately hold bream. There was some cover afforded in a lily bed which stretched along the far bank for around fifteen feet, but otherwise the stretch is quite featureless.
In the eight years I have been fishing this canal, I have noticed a marked decline in tench numbers as bream seem to have taken a hold in many sections. I'm a big fan of both species, but this does give me cause for concern.
I have started to move away from pole fishing and fine lines on the canal, and on Friday my waggler set up comprised a 3BB insert waggler, and a 4lb hook length to a size 10 hook. When I got to my swim, it was around 8.30pm so I gave it another liberal helping of hemp to mirror the six previous nights' visits. I then fed about twenty grains of corn and a few broken lob worms.
Tench were on my wish list, so I had deliberately selected a narrow section where the water was clear, as the more coloured areas predominately hold bream. There was some cover afforded in a lily bed which stretched along the far bank for around fifteen feet, but otherwise the stretch is quite featureless.
In the eight years I have been fishing this canal, I have noticed a marked decline in tench numbers as bream seem to have taken a hold in many sections. I'm a big fan of both species, but this does give me cause for concern.
I have started to move away from pole fishing and fine lines on the canal, and on Friday my waggler set up comprised a 3BB insert waggler, and a 4lb hook length to a size 10 hook. When I got to my swim, it was around 8.30pm so I gave it another liberal helping of hemp to mirror the six previous nights' visits. I then fed about twenty grains of corn and a few broken lob worms.
I had an instant response and swung in a perch first cast on a half a lobworm and sweetcorn cocktail. I took eight perch on that first night to five or six ounces, as well as a smallish tench and three bream to three and a half pounds. I fished until it was too dark to see the float, by which time there were definitely a lot of bream in the swim. A glow in the dark tip insert is my next item to buy in the tackle shop, I reckon.
I tried again this evening, getting there and leaving about two hours earlier than on Friday. Again there were plenty of perch (10) to be caught, but after landing a 2lb 12oz bream, the swim was trashed by a big eel which I got all the way to the landing net before it saw me off. It looked to be 2lb+. I did hook another bream which did a Usain Bolt impersonation before coming adrift. Despite letting the bite develop fully, I can only assume it was foul-hooked. There was just a 6oz roach/bream hybrid and more perch to report after that, so either the eel was to blame, or I should have fished later. I did enjoy watching the swallows dipping in and out of the swim though.
