Canal Session Broken Down and Knowlsey trip..

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Well as of writing this we are only a few days before the opening of the river season and if i am honest i have never been so un-prepared for the start, this hit me on Sunday and i decided to do something about it, more on that later. 

This weeks introduction See's me visiting Stapley Angling centre to stock up on gear. There is also a piece on a trip recently to Knowsley Safari Park with a few pictures and videos and we finish the introduction with a few pictures of a family that visited my peg during this weeks session on the canal.  The fishing this week is a session on the canal but blogged with a difference as i break the session down a little on how it went from hour to hour.

On the the Update..

Disappointing Trip To Stapley Angling Centre....

With the river season right upon us the realisation that i was totally unprepared hit me on Saturday night.  The forecast for the Sunday was for warm weather and a nice sunny day so a nice family trip out was the order of the day.  The plan was to head to Stapley Angling Centre then a nice hour with the kids on the Farm adjacent and then a nice drive back home with a surprise stop at Snugburrys Ice cream farm.

I have been making the long trip to Stapley Angling Centre two or three times a tear since it was situated back on its old site that included the Garden Centre.  When the shop moved location it actually knocked a good number of miles of the trip for me so it was great news and with the move the amount and depth of the tackle seemed to have moved with it.  Stapley has always been a place i love going to just because you can walk round at your own leisure and look in depth at tackle before you buy.  It was always a place i could guarantee i would get what i wanted for my trips and also have a good look at all the latest tackle.

Around 3 months ago i had a trip down to stapley for some bits and pieces for the rivers and was a little threw then by the lack of items on the shelves for the coarse angling side of things and i left with a few items missing from my shopping list, i thought nothing of it though.  The trip this week was a different matter, i had a list that was quite short, bayer perlon line for my hook lengths, greys clip lock bait box, drennan float fish line for my main line and a few stick floats.

Walking in and to the coarse section i quickly picked up my box but i was genuinely shocked at the little amount of tackle on the shelves.  The Guru stock was brimming and could not be faulted but every thing else left a lot to be desired.  There was one spool of float fish in 2lb breaking strain, no bayer perlon and one solitary stick float in a really light 4 number 4 pattern.  I grabbed the bait box and left.  Second trip there now where i have not got anywhere near what i wanted so this will be my last unless they have the bank holiday sales on, just not worth the long trip and risk of not getting what you need.

Knowsely Safari Trip....

I like to include as much form my life away form angling as possible in the blog and our yearly trips to Chester Zoo and Knowsley Safari Park offer a great opportunity for this.  Wildlife is a huge part of the reason why i love getting out on the bank and going fishing.  I of course go fishing to catch fish and admire the beauty of the fish as you get to see them up close but along the path of these journeys i get to also enjoy the other love i have with the outdoors and that's the wildlife.

There is a special offer on at the moment with the park where you only pay £10.00 per car if you go during the week.  A sneaky day off was booked and we made our way to the park.  I Have to say it was one of the best times we have been as it was quite quiet which meant we could spend a bit of time pulled over without having cars behind you waiting for you to move.  These three male lions where really active on the day and amazing to see so close.

The pride in the enclosure where also equally as active and thought nothing of coming right closer to the car!! Although the older heads knew better and just took it easy.

It was a day enjoyed by all and held so many happy memories with close encounters with rhino's, giraffes, camels and of course the adorable sea lions.  A great trip that all the family enjoyed including our little girl.

Early Visitors On The Canal

One of the things i love about getting out nice and early in the morning to go fishing is how you get to see things the rest of the world that is still asleep just misses out on.  When fishing the river out in the sticks it can be the sight of a fox or a badger scurrying home after a nights feeding or if you are really lucky a barn own.  Walking the fields normally in the dark you can always guarantee a halo of bats swooping around your head.  All these are part and parcel of my angling life. 

Saturday and whilst sat on the quiet and tranquil banks of the Bridgewater Canal i glanced to my left to see a beautiful sight of a pair of swans slowly working their way along the canal with their family of cygnets.  There was only me around at this silly hour so the birds made a beeline over to myself and i took the opportunity to down tools and enjoy their company.  They stayed around for half an hour before moving on up the canal in search of their early morning breakfast.

After the story a couple of weeks ago about the eggs of another pair being smashed this sight held so much more power.  Almost as nature was showing its defiance at these sick beings and saying look at us.  The sad part for me about the rivers opening is i generally move away from these waterways and don't see the family growing up week on week but who knows we may cross paths again when the pike season starts.

On to this weeks Fishing...

In Focus Session on the Bridgewater Canal....

3am - Wake up call - The alarm buzzing away in my ear was met with the groggy reacting it gets in the week until the realization set in it was the weekend and time to get out fishing.  Amazing how quickly and easily you get out of bed, showered and get a breakfast down you when its time to go fishing compared to a days work.

4.20am - Ready for the Off - The local Canal was my chosen venue so there was no rush at all in getting the gear into the car,  These
trips to the canal involve minimal packing with just a seat box, rod holdall and a net bad to put into the car it was all soon in and ready for the off although in typical fashion i got to the end of the road and remembered i had left my bait in the fridge!!  I always forget something at least this time i remembered before i got to the bottom of a farmers field.

4.40am - All set!! - As i said it was a local trip for me so in no time at all i was pulled up and unloading the gear from the car.  The birds in full song in the bushes behind me and the canal like a plane of glass it was a peaceful and beautiful time to be on the bank.  

Many people i work with are amazed about my love for peace and quiet as i am quite vocal in work but i really do work and live for these few hours of tranquility on the bank, pure bliss.


4.45am - The Bait Plan - The plan of attack for the session was a simple but i was hoping effective attack fishing Hemp and Castor on two lines.  One line would be at the bottom of the inside shelf and the other was at the base of the far bank margin shelf.  These areas have been where i have found the better fish in past trips and i was hoping today would be similar.  Recent trips had shown the tench had possibly moved on after spawning and nice shoals of roach bream hybrids had shoaled up in their absence.  I fed two cad pots of hemp and castor on both lines before starting to fish on the inside shelf line.

5am - Understanding Caster - It normally does not take to long to get the fish biting on the canal and i knew had i fished pinkie or maggot on the lines i would have certainly been into fish a lot earlier than the 15 minutes it took on castor.  The size of fish was nothing to shout home about but i knew they would come.  Castor is a bait that will pick out the better fish but only when they arrive, you have to see past the early exchanges with these fish, then hope the better fish you expect move in.


5,30am Better fish come - It took a while but eventually the better stamp of bream hybrids moved in,  There is no denying though it was hard going and taking a short break i remember replying to a post on the blogs facebook page stating it was slow going.

5.35am visitors - Not long after returning this fish i had the visit from the swans and their family and as mentioned above i spent a good half hour just enjoying having this family so close to me and admiring the beauty of these birds.  I firmly believe wildlife knows who hey can trust and there was no spitting or raised feathers at all from the parents and after they left i got back to the fishing.



6.30am - Pike... - Returning to the swim i fed a pit of bait on each line and again settled in on the inside line.  The inside line is a weird line on this section of canal as it does seem to die really quickly.  Its not a line that sustains a great number of fish and for a long time i have thought that pike are to blame.  Again on this session the fish where coming steady and then nothing and then the presence of a pike was confirmed to me, not by a pike attack but a look down at my keep net.  All the fish right up in the neck of the net, a sure sign a pike is about.

06.40am - Amazing - Not a touch on the inside line and fish up in the keep net i shipped out over my far bank line and instantly i was back into fish again.  Bringing the fish in over the top i expected a swirl at any minute.  The attack never did come all session but the pike was there for sure.  The far bank line had been rested for some time and the bites where steady on this line.  Not a bite a chuck but steady bites.

 8am - switching lines - The sun coming onto the water made the bites go really finicky and i spent the next hour moving form line to line picking up fish before moving over to the next one.  This rinse and repeat saw me putting a few fish together and the odd better skimmer. At this point i was expecting a big bream or tench to show every time to float went under as the swims where building up a nice bed of bait.

8.30am - Wind Wind Wind - The wind had been steadily building from around 7am, the odd ripple at first and then it had slowly built to a right hoolie.  The far shelf line was producing the better stamp of fish  but it was getting almost impossible to fish this line as each gust made it impossible to hold the pole against the wind without risking it snapping.

9.15am - Tough - The ever increasing wind which was swirling in all directions made presentation on the far bank line a real battle.  when the wind dropped the bite was instant but during the gusts it was hard work.  It made the fishing a chore and not enjoyable and in fact had me looking at the clock to see how close to 10am and wrapping up time it was.

10am - Great little Chat - Around 10am i had two anglers arrive at my peg both getting ready to start fishing.  These anglers where regulars on this stretch and it was great to share experiences with two anglers who fish here on a regular basis.  Our results had been similar barring a few differences and it was great to learn and share some information with two like minded anglers.

10.30am - Packing up time - The time came to pack in and see how much i had caught.  The net went just under 13lb of mainly bream and hybrids.  I had planned to write this one blog like this before i fished the session and i must admit it was a session where i picked up bites here and bites there which left the session with little structure to work on.  A bit of me wishes i had done this with the previous sessions where i moved lines and stayed on the final far out line.  I guess that is fishing though.

This weekend marks the last session before the opening of the river season so i am hoping to get out on Sunday for one more crack on the canal or local pond.  One day will be spent though sorting my gear out and giving it all a good clean and sort out ready for the season ahead.

To all the anglers out there venturing onto the banks of the river in the coming week its a huge tight lines and stay safe out there.

Danny

Maybe Maggots Was Not the Best Idea........

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update.  This week my mind has been switching on to the upcoming start to the traditional pike season which runs from 01st October through to march next year.  In all honesty my relationship with the pike started as a very young boy on the Bridgewater canal where i used to whittle away my afternoons after school whipping the water into a foam with a wide selection of shallow diving plugs, admittedly in those early days I spent more time casting around than catching but the successes I did have live on with me to this day.

I am not going to lie here, although it would be easier to and wax lyrical about my undying love for this species that has lay dormant for years, but the truth of the matter is that these early days taught me the basics of pike fishing like how to handle and work around the dentistry of a pike but it was not till a few years ago when I started river fishing and i began to brush shoulders with the big wild crocodiles that inhabit the river that i began to not only enjoy catching the fish but started to fall in love with their enigmatic personality and their fantastic colourings they have to be one of the most beautiful fish the live in our waters.

This year esox-lucious has crossed my path a few times that has allowed me an insight as to where there are good numbers of pike to be had and none more so than on the Bridgewater canal so apart from my river outings targeting this species i am also going to try and spend some time on the local canals and my aim is to target them with dead baits which again will be a whole new world of discovery or me and as some of you may have guessed over the years i am always trying to improve my angling knowledge and skill in all areas of this fantastic sport we all love.

This week there has been a few things that have taken me away form actually writing this weeks blog well one thing in fact GTA5 cough cough which has meant I am now writing my blog late on a Friday evening whilst now being distracted by Matt Hayes's new 24 hour rod race on Discovery Shed.  I had planned to talk about my plans for this upcoming weekends fishing but after just watching this programme i have got to say how impressed i was by the fact this programme was aired it must have taken a lot of guts for Matt Hayes to go ahead with allowing this programme to be aired given the fact the hour long show see's him struggling in freezing cold conditions with only a few small grayling to show for his efforts.

In these times where angling shows are full of fish after fish being landed making our sport look incredibly easy I think it is truly inspirational for one of the greats of our sport to show that along with all us normal everyday anglers the professionals still have days where they struggle, hats off to you Mr Hayes.  I do understand that this concept does not work week in week out but its great that this series shows a true representation of what the angling year is truly like for an all seasons all weather angler.

I am often asked for hints and tips for people wanting to start up writing a blog and for me personally writing a blog that is successful you have to have a love for the sport and be willing to put a lot of your own time into it as it really does take up a lot more time than you first think when you start writing one.  The blogs that capture me are always the ones that are updated regular whether the catch or blank as i feel more connected with the writer and the fact that when they do succeed me as a reader can fully appreciate the effort that has gone into catching that fish and this is something i always aim to achieve with my blog.

Finally before we get into this weeks fishing i visited Stapley Water gardens today (Sunday) to purchase some supplies for the upcoming season ahead, why not support your local tackle shop? well i do shop at the local tackle shop each week for my bait and bits and bobs but believe it or not one of my local tackle shops no longer supply size 20 hooks as there is no demand for them! So i decided rather than risking being caught short i went to stapley today where i can walk round and try things out, well needless to say i spent more than i intended but the basics where covered!

2 spools of 5lb Drennan Float fish line
1 spool of Bayer Perlon 2lb line
2 paternoster pike rigs
2 x Animal size 18 eyed hooks
4 x Animal size 20 eyed hooks
1 x number 8 weights
1 x number 10 weights
4 floats covering 8 no 4 to `10 no 4
3m landing net pole
and the purchase i did not go for a new Shakespeare reduced form 45.99 to 29.99 :-)

The above should see me through a few months fishing all that remains now is to sort out another bulk buy of hemp seed to see us through the winter and a few more wire traces for the piking and we are all set for the winter season to come.

on to this weeks fishing:

Maybe Maggots Was not the Best Idea...

With our usual haunt the River Dee very much out of sorts we where a bit stuck this week as to where to wet a line it was a real battle between our heads and hearts in a choice of two venues the River we night fished a few weeks ago or the sankey canal in Widnes.  In our heads we knew the sankey canal would see us catching a steady net of fish and no doubt consistently through out the day to boot but our in our hearts we both wanted to fish the river the only down side being the river we where thinking of fishing can be very hit or miss and could see us completely blanking all together. 

We decided to go with our hearts and two pints of maggot and a hemp was purchased but i also popped into my bag a few frozen sprats as last time we had seen a few jack pike patrolling the inside margin so the plan was if one of these turned up we would try and tempt them with a sprat using the sink and draw method.  

We set up in the deeper sections of the river that just screamed out chub and dace and had a good 40-50 yards between our pegs.  We settled down in our swims and i decided to go with my 17ft float rod over my smaller 13ft rod and this was just down the the fact i wanted as much control as possible and to be able to hold that float back hard over my bed of hemp seed this 17ft rod would cover at least half the river but would give me this much needed extra control over the line and float.  With the chance of a barbel and chub and not wanting to loose any fish i hooked i went with my main line all the way through instead of my usually 1lb 7oz hook length i normally use on the river. 

I kicked off the swim with a few good bait droppers full of hemp seed and maggot to make sure i had a decent amount of food on the bottom of the river and began trotting away fishing slightly over depth so the bait trickled along the river bed at a slower speed than the river, this was a method that has worked on this river before so i was confident it would catch me few fish.

The method worked all right and caught me endless amounts of fish the only problem being they were all small "barry minnalows" time and time again the float buried and on the end was one of these small fish.  When you look closely at a minnow its amazing to see just how colourful these fish are i have never really taken the time to take a close look at these smaller species of fish in our rivers they really are a nice looking fish and if they went to a couple of ounces i am sure you would struggle to find a more colourful species of fish swimming in our lakes and rivers. 

I was not too bothered by the minnows as i have fished the River Dane for a few years now and on there you can catch minnows for quite some time and then you will trot through a few times with nothing and you know that a group of chub have moved on so i was working on that principle on this river.  Three hours in and there was no let up on the constant stream of minnows and i was more shocked at not even getting a dace or a perch like i had last time the only consolation i had was if i was getting the minnows i knew i was going down on the same line as my bait and surely it was only a matter of time and with that same thought in my head i thought maybe giving the swim a rest might do the trick so i fed two more droppers of hemp and went to see how my uncle was faring. 

Settling down into my uncles peg with my flask of hot vimto in hand we discussed our predicament as he had experienced the same session as me apart from the fact he had caught a few dace.  It was during our chat we both saw a pike lying towards the bottom of my uncles keep net and then it literally rolled on top of his keep net, never seen a pike literally lying on top of a keep net before, i have seen the attacking the net trying to get at the fish but not just lying on the net, a quick movement from one of us saw the pike shoot off into the river even a jack like this could be the reason the fishing was so slow especially on such a narrow river.  We both decided to give it another hour in the swim before we would consider changing swims. 

Returning back along the path to my swim i glanced through the trees at my box and low and behold sat on my bait waiter as bold as brass was a young robin just helping himself to my box of maggots.  As i approached he nicked one last maggot and made a fast exit from the swim.  As i settled back into my swim this cheeky chap kept on nipping back to my side tray but could i get a picture could i hell as like!  I did manage though over the next hour to get this video of the cheeky chap.

The hour passed with little change so i quickly packed away my gear and got out my pike kit and one of the deadbaits and headed off to my uncles swim.  He had also not had any joy but did say the pike had been about again, he let his fish go and i had a quick 10 minutes trying for the pike, it took two casts to trick the little jack into taking and boy did he fight above his weight! finally on the bank he was a beautifully marked little jack and as you can see from the bottom picture even at this age he is more than equipped for the job of eating other fish.

We moved onto another swim and in this swim we could literally see each other fishing as we where only around 20 yards  apart.  My uncle got the ball rolling with a few grayling and dace and of course more minnows while i had around 10 minutes of catching minnows before i struck into something solid and like an electric shock up my arm i felt the fish kick and go hard for the roots of a tree it did not half wake me up as all morning i had been striking into no resistance so to be smacked round the face with something so solid really took me by surprise.  

i kept the rod low and dipped the tip under the water to reduce the chance of the fish snagging me on any roots and held firm putting my faith in my knots and the size 18 hook on the other end in these situations you have to give no quarter at all and only give line if you really don't feel your gear is going to hold.  The line and hook held and the fish moved slowly into the middle flow and i got a glimpse of a golden flank but not enough to show whether it was a barbel or a chub and with that the fish made another break for the tree roots which luckily i managed to halt and that run seemed to take the fight from the fish and a big pair of white rubber lips surfaced as the chub took a big breath of air and slip over the landing net! on a poor days fishing this was a result and i was made up. 

At a smidgen under 4lb it was not the biggest fish but more than welcome on a day like we had experienced and goes to show a few minutes in the right swim is work more than hours in the wrong one and with that i decided next time we fish this river i am going to be a lot more mobile and fish as many swims as i can during the day as the one swim approach just does not seem the way to go on this river.

Sunday: Rixton clay pits 7am till 12

This weekend i managed to get out on the bank on both Saturday and Sunday which has been unusual for me since the birth of out little girl because i always like to spend the Sunday with the family but this week was different as there was a short window on the Sunday for me to wet a line.

With only a few hours available in the morning i chose to fish rixton clay pits on the pole i fed a line straight out in front on maggot and a swim to the tree line margin to my right where i pinged over the odd few casters.  To be honest the action was slow and it was not till the last hour and a half the bream moved in and i caught the majority of the fish.  I think it was down to using maggot as i have experienced a few times on this water that pinkie can be what they want and they just don't settle on taking maggot and on reflection i am almost certain this was the case on this session as well.

The session was an enjoyable one none the less and it was great to get a few fish on the pole but the session really did fly by and it was time to pack up in no time what so ever.

till next week 

tight lines 

Danny