I have been working in Exeter for a couple of months now and often on my lunch break I like to take a walk down to the River Exe and the Exeter Canal basin for a bit off fish spotting (plenty of fry seen but nothing bigger yet noted). Yesterday, I diverted from my usual course and discovered something quite dangerous; a beautiful little brook running behind the crematorium off Topsham Road. Although only inches deep for the most part, I spotted quite a lot of chublets and the odd roach.
Today it was my turn to drive to work, and as I always have a rod in the car, I took the opportunity to have a long lunch and headed down to the brook with a few slices of bread and a rod in hand. It was a beautiful walk once I got off the main road, along a wooded path, kerb lined with dandelion clocks. I scrambled through the undergrowth to get to the stream, in my haste catching the tackle on brambles and the like, several times. I flicked a pinch of flake out into mid river and a four ounce chublet appeared like a shot to engulf it in one. It was a case of one fish from a swim and then walk on until I could find another access point from which I could make a cast, and try to catch another. The inevitable happened though, and I became so absorbed catching a dozen or so chublets to 14oz, plus three roach, that I arrived back at work a quarter of an hour late and very sweaty.
Following that, and once the working day was over, I decided on a few more hours when I got back to Tiverton. I had considered another crack at some carp at Lakeside but instead opted for some rudd fishing on the Grand Western Canal, which would mean a slightly shorter drive home should I stay late.
I begun by introducing a few crusts into some likely spots, but the roach and rudd were slow in showing any interest. Eventually I located some small fish and had a few on the same tactic I had employed in my lunch break, that of freelining a slow sinking piece of bread on a size 10 hook. Every now and then a very big fish would attack the free offerings, displacing an almighty amount of water. It was a weighty fish for sure, and definitely not a pike. A monster rudd? It seemed far too big. Perhaps it was a surface feeding tench, or even a large hybrid, which I suppose seems plausible.
In spite of the blazing heat, there were patches of bubbles along much of the stretch. I decided to mash up some bread and bait an area just beyond a marginal patch of small lily pads, then set up a float rig the like of which I have never used before on a canal, consisting of 6lb line straight through to a size six hook. I fished the lift method, using a piece of peacock quill and single swan shot. I'm not sure I really believed I would catch anything at first, rather that I just intended to sit in the shade, having felt the full force of the sun for an hour or so. A classic lift was missed, before the quill slid away fifteen minutes later and a memorable fight ensued as I tried to prevent a very good canal rudd from boring into the lily stems. Eventually it was coaxed away from danger and into the landing net. It was a long, pigeon chested fish; quite an unusual shape really so I had no idea what its weight would be. Once on the scales it weighed 1lb 11oz, and was later followed by two others around the pound mark. In between those I also snared a classic, big Tivvy tench of five pounds exactly. The tench looked like it had been through the mill a bit and had a lot of fin damage, perhaps from being kept in a keepnet, spawning, or even one of the survivors from the breach and subsequent netting of the field? Now there's a thought.
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