A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope find you all well and your nets wet. Two blogs in short succession it finally feels like i am getting stuck into this routine and finding the time to fit it all in. I am on top of the extra additional duties and sticking to my promise to be more proactive in my fishing this year.
Recent trips out on the bank have seen me bump into loads of people who read the blog, like buses you don't have many people mention it then all of a sudden you get people coming over for a chat everywhere you go. I love this side of the blog and if you do ever see me on the bank please do come over and have a chat its great to hear your fishing stories.
The past two weekends has seen me targeting carp for a product review i have got coming up for a carp sling and it was great to bump into a regular blog reader on the bank and share a moment that saw him catch his first ever chub! A keen predator angler it was good to hear his stories from the same canal we fish, share some of my hot spots i have come across for perch and then sat back and waited for a run whilst watching his roach swim get stalked by a small jack pike. We spend all winter chasing them on dedicated gear and how typical if fishing when you set up a roach rod and leave the pike gear at home, mr esox then finds you. Who would be a fishermen eh?
I can honestly say i am loving my fishing at the moment and in that i mean all aspects of it. The challenge of the fishing, different challenges with the writing and then the extreme challenge that is the youtube channel. Challenge is good in any part of life not just fishing it keeps you on your toes and makes the journey one to remember.
Cheshire Particle...
Cheshire Particle is a North West bait company run by Mark. Working from home to produce his own blends and mixes of particles he, in a short space of time, has gained a reputation for producing quality baits. The 2016 sponsor of the wales carp fishing is a testament to the hard work put in by mark and his team of anglers.
The range of products on offer is fantastic ranging from parti-mixes, pellets, nut mixes to his new range of snail boilies and of course his particle mixes with hemp tares and maize, it is a range where anyone can find a bait that fits into their fishing. I always like it when i come across anglers with an obvious passion for their sport and products and even more so when they are local, long term blog readers will remember me working with Beechwood baits a few years ago.
Of course this blog does stray into the world of carp fishing from time to time but when i was asked to work with Cheshire Particle i wanted to of course use items that compliment my fishing and dovetail nicely into my methods and ideas. The stand out was of course hemp seed and i was also very interested in the hemp oil the company produced and the different ways i could incorporate that into my fishing. A review of these two products will bin the coming blogs but here is a little taste of what this hemp and hemp oil can be used to catch.
Lymm Anglers Bailiff Role...
The world of fishing can be at times a world of gripes and discontent, certainly if you frequent facebook groups a lot you will certainly be open to this world. I, at times, have also been guilty of having a lot to say on certain subjects but offering little in the way of a solution to the problem but like i said earlier 2017 i made a resolution to be more positive and more proactive in my angling, April is fast approaching and i think i have been true to that word.
In the past 2 years i have seen the banks of my local canal, the bridge water, (Northern One) become a place i dont like, a place where you worry about its long term future and the effects certain types of behavior are having on the water. In the past two years i have seen the pike fishing be reduced to a shadow of its former self and increasingly in that time i was catching pike with large sea hooks in their mouths and trailing tackle where the angler had been snapped on really light lines with no traces.
More and more i was seeing anglers mistreating fish when handling them and after getting chatting to few anglers an ever increasing number of anglers with no licence. This year i got chatting to another bailiff and i decided to put my name down to join a team of dedicated bailiffs and as a group we are now completing checks on the canal and in only a short amount of time have i think got a message that the canal is now in safe hands and being well bailiffed.
For me a bailiff role does not just confine to the boundary of checking cards and i want it to become the canal i remember as a kid, i want to see anglers back on the banks fishing the canal, The lads and dads getting out and about to wet a line and create memories together on the local cut. To achieve this is going to take time and a lot of effort and hard work. I will certainly be covering in detail my sessions on there in the form of my youtube videos and on here and if you are local to the Cheshire area come and give this canal a go, you will not be disappointed.
So with a few product reviews in the past few weeks my fishing for once has been mainly dictated by the blog, not my normal way of doing things but some times it has to be done and carp fishing has been the area i have been spending most of mt time in recently.
As with all aspect of life it is always good to break away and spend a few hours doing something completely different, an evening on a local small pond with my uncle offered such an opportunity and it was away with the carp rods and out with the maggotts and hemp.
A small secluded pond situated in the ruins of an old monastery it holds a wealth of history and the pond itself is part of that with it being a stock pond for the monks when they inhabited the local area. How times change now someone taking carp from this pond for the pot would be seen in such a different light.
This pond is also quite sentimental to myself as both me and my dad helped to create the fishing pegs many years ago and s reward we where both granted with a fishing licence for life to fish the pond, a reward we drop in on from time to time, but in all honesty a place i fish quite infrequently. A place, like the local canal, that holds so many special memories of mine and my dads fishing trips.
So with only a few hours in the evening we decided to give this little pond a go. The margins lined with toads in quite a amorous mood it was one of those typical early spring evenings, a warm breeze and intermittent sun and cloud, i was interested to see how the fishing had changed.
Feeding red maggot via the catty over the top of my light pole float soon saw some roach coming on the drop. A decent pouch of hemp from the off would guarantee some feed on the bottom when the maggot arrived. A deep swim for a pond at 10ft i fished a rig full depth with little shot to catch in all the layers as the bait fell. Roach where soon coming steady on the drop.
As with all truly wild fish that need not our baits to sustain their existence their natural instincts soon kick in and caution outweighs the need to feed. Changing feed and depths can fool the stranglers but keeping the fish coming can really be a game of cat and mouse. My uncle was also getting steady bites and had actually landed a few small carp, distant ancestors of the very fish this pond was created for, the history of this place as i have said makes it so special.
A solemn silence soon came over my peg and it all felt very atmospheric as the float sat lazily dancing to the ponds tune as the slight ripple lapped up against the float. A rhythm soon interrupted by the slightest of line bites, a fish moving on the bottom was the obvious culprit and when the float finally gave in the ever excited angler on the other end of the pole and sunk into to depths i knew little of what was going to be on the other end.
A hard fight seeing the drennan aqua elastic oozing from the end of the pole it was a good while before the fishes identity was certified especially with the severe depth of this pond. Eventually through the surface came the shimmer of dark olive green and that most iconic of spring fish was slid into the landing net. A teddy bear eye and a paint brush tail she was by far the fish of the session and a sign spring had finally sprung.
As the session wore on to its end and we reached that most mysterious time in any session, the last hour, the witching hour, a hour when you know those wise old fish are starting their hunt for food and if you get lucky maybe they will slip up and allow you to admire their beauty.
The last hour as the oily sun dropped below the horizon my palm was graced with bars of gold time and time again as some lovely crucian carp moved in over the bed of hemp seed. A sight that brought those childhood memories flooding straight back.
A session end came in just as fast as the darkness began to fall and a cool mist began to creed over the pond, many say the morning mist is the ghost of anglers past then surely this mist rolling in just had the be the ghosts of the monks moving in to protect their pool through the hours of darkness.
Two nets that held so many memories.
Till next time enjoy you fishing and creating those special memories that will last a lifetime.
A war welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet. A few days booked off work last weekend and to start it off was a session on the river. We knew little about whether the fish would be shoaled up on the spots but after a few hard weeks we knew it was time to go all out and see what was on offer and what a session awaited us.
The second part of the blog is a session i did recently on the canal where i decided to target an area with the idea of maximising the fish i could catch. More on my thought processes and reasons in the update but lets just say one fish had me walking up and down the bank. We start this update off thought with a bit of an introduction chat on the upcoming pike season that is well and truly in my thoughts right now.
On with the update.. Piking Just round the Corner...
So chilling out this week i get a message of my piking buddy Garry asking if i wanted in on our usual annual bait order and i have to say the text had me checking the calendar and low and behold we are just over a month away from the start of the pike season. My god this has sneaked up on my and to be honest it just does not feel right just now to be even thinking about pike, least not on days where the mercury is creeping up to 90 degrees.
The order does need doing though and after two years pike fishing i think i am starting to develop confidence in certain baits as this years order, without the value back, does only really contain around 3-5 species of dead baits. I will of course go more into the bait order when it arrives in a future blog but i thought i would just touch base with it here to let the blog know that piking is well and truly starting to weigh heavy in my thoughts.
One thing is for sure in this pike season and that is the fact there will be new adventures on new waters to me and with some big pike under my belt and nothing to really aim for the pressure is off and its time to build on past seasons and take this to brand new areas to see if i can tempt the odd big girl. As mentioned previous more on my hopes and aspirations closer to the start of the season. 23lb River Roach On The Bolo....
The passed few weeks have been really tough for me and my uncle on the rivers with low clear conditions on one river seeing the bites die as soon as the sun come up and the other river we fished being a bite a chuck but swims begin ravaged by pike and killing any sport. In short i had a choice to make i could either be selfish and go back the smaller river and try all out for barbel knowing i would be in for a shout but my uncle would be enduring a pike ridden time in a swim or we could go all out on a whim and try a completely different river all together and see if the fish had arrived in their summer and autumn haunts, we decided on the later.
The above paragraph illustrates just how fishing together you have to be a team and think of each others fishing. The river was a good walk from the parking spot and involved the odd hilly climb and a short section of dense brambles, it was clear no one was fishing these spots recently, just our cup of tea. We finally arrived in the swims and we decided to both fish the same swim, i was on the bolo and my uncle was going to try and fish the pole and stick float. The ultimate aim of the session was to get the odd bite and be close enough have a natter.
I shocks me when people email me saying they live near a river but are unsure how to fish it as it looks complicated when the truth is river fishing is so basic and simple in its design and the true learning of the art form comes form repetition and putting the time in to learn how to read a river and run a float through. A quick look at my side tray shows how simple the gear is i use, 1.7lb bayer perlon line for hook lengths, size 16 hooks 3 gram bolo float and some everyday weights. This in its entirety covers everything that goes on the line from top to bottom.
To those interested in fishing a bolo and wondering how you set it up i plum the depth with no weights at all on the line to get a true depth and then fishing a hook length around a foot long i place 3 number 8 droppers evenly spaced on the hook length. Above all these i put most of the weight in a bulk to cock the float so only the red of the float shows, doing this you leave enough weight to place a small number 8 weight beneath your float. This weight servers two purposes in of course stopping the float sliding on the line and i find it begins the settle the float as soon as it hits the water meaning its easier to pick up those bites on the drop.
Catching a lot on the river does not have to be expensive at all, you can make it expensive when you go down the ground bait line, but in general i take 2 pints of maggot and a pint of hemp for most of my river fishing, a great days fishing can be had on around 6 quids worth of bait it really can.
The swim was around 8 feet deep and was of a similar depth along its length till it felt like it shallowed up at its tail. Plumbing up a bit further out it did drop away again by a couple of inches but my initial thought was to see what i could catch on the deck and then see if the fish further out would have it just off bottom. It is sort of killing two birds with one stone way of working out how they are feeding better.
The first few trots down went by without a tap but then slowly the odd bite started to develop with a small billy perch and the odd small roach. A severe upstream wind was meaning the float was holding back lovely in the swim and on the day i think this certainly helped the swim.
Bites then started to come thick and fast as it was clear a big shoal of roach had moved into the swim. It seemed bites from smaller roach where hard to hit and i missed loads of bites on the day but when the float buried with a proper roach there was no missing the bite and on some occasions i cast in, fed with the catapult, saw the float go under and still had time to grab the rod and strike.
After the first hour the swim was alive with roach as time and time again the bolo would slide away. I knew with so much prey about a pike would soon be attracted and no sooner had i mentioned this fact to my uncle than a flash of green appeared under the surface as a small jack nailed a nice roach. I could see the jack pike and it was no bigger than the roach.
On the day it shocked me how the swim recovered after the pike attacks, this pike would nail the odd fish but being too big to swallow it would let go and in would come a roach with a small half moon crescent bite on it. He was on me all day but thankfully it didn't seem to bother the swim.
As the session wore on a pattern began to emerge and i started to notice that the bigger roach where holding just that bite further out than i was feeding my hemp. A few of the better ones below.
You would nail a couple on the bounce and then a move back into the nearside line would see you pickling up an average stamp roach of a few ounces. As the session wore on i could feel i was putting a decent net of roach together and chatting to my uncle he was sure i had over 15lb in the net as the average size of the fish was steady.
I actually ran out of hemp on the session but kindly my uncle provided me with a nice top up for the last hour. I did think about changing over to corn but in my head i was thinking "why change anything? i am catching steady and a nice stamp" I guess a bigger bait like corn might have picked out these better roach time and time again but given i was a bite a chuck i felt i needed not to change anything in my approach.
As with all memorable river sessions it all went by too fast and before i knew it the sun had come over and it was time to pack in. It is always a killer packing in when the fish are still having it and i am sure had i fished on into the evening the fish would have come on even more and we would possibly have been looking at a very special net indeed.
The final net went 23lb 8oz! and was mainly made up of roach with the odd chublet, hybrid and 1 dace!
All in all a very special session on the river and although as i write this now terrible weather is battering at the window i can not wait to get out tomorrow morning back on the river and this time armed with more bait i pray i find the fish hungry, although in these conditions a fish might be a result.
Bridgewater Canal Fishing Session - Battles with a Tinca.....
A warm day previous saw me arriving on the canal to be met by one of the most beautiful red skies i have ever seen. When people ask what will you miss most about fishing if you packed in tomorrow i would certainly say the special moments you experience like this when you know the world around you is asleep and there in that moment you are completely worry free and in ore of mother natures beauty.
First things first and it was as always mixing up the ground bait so by the time i had set up it was ready to be riddled. Swim choice on the day was a bit factor for me, in the stretch there is no shortage of cover and fishy looking spots but on this session i was a man with a plan.
I walked the length till i found what i was looking for and i found it just after a boating dock. A canal boat on the far side and the fact the canal narrowed slightly here meant i could fish a line on only a few sections of pole and be right by the boat and i could also fish another line on the 2m whip under feet. My hopes for the session where to really be aggressive and attack the swim to see how much i could catch before the boats started up.
Over the far bank line went 3 big balls of ground bait laced with hemp and red maggot and i left this to settle while i fished the whip close in. Feeding small balls of slop i was soon picking up roach a chuck under my feet and i would say in that first hour i picked up a steady weight of fish with the odd better roach.
The swim under my feet began to slow down, this is normal for the canal it seems, so it was time to try over my far bank line. The float slid away straight away with a nice skimmer so i straight away went in with another big ball of ground bait. My hope was for the better bronze bream to settle in the swim and the extra feed to keep them there.
Fishing maggot i knew i would be picking up anything that swims and it was literally a bite a chuck on the far bank line as the float slid away each time it settled. For a canal it was fantastic fishing and thoroughly enjoyed the early exchanges. The swim did die momentarily and with fish up in the net i am sure i was visited by a toothy visitor but never actually saw any signs.
The far bank line then again come alive and it felt like the swim had breathed a huge sigh of relief. Steady bites continued and you can imagine my surprise when i lifted into a fish and it all went sold and then the elastic went zooming down the canal, a carp i was sure. The fish went right into the thick week and all went solid, shipping back to my top kit i felt sure i was about to be ducking out of the way of a float and hook coming back at me but then something gave and the fish came free, it was still on!
Up and down the canal i walked trying to tire the fish out on a light elastic till eventually i managed to slip my net under a beautiful tench. A perfect sight on a perfect morning.
The tench in the net i settled back into catching the silvers and it was good fishing till the boats revved up around 9am, one at first and you can cope with them when they come every 10 to 15 minutes one at a time but when they where coming along in threes and fours every five minutes i knew time was called.
A cracking 16lb canal net was my reward.
I think my only regret on this session was not taking corn as i think a bigger bait might have nailed more bream and maybe more tench but still 16lb in only a few hours on the cut i left a happy angler.
tight lines if you are out this weekend and stay safe,
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.
A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet. It has been great to see this week how well last weeks blog update around how quiet canals are has been received it has drew debate on all forms of social media and hopefully the debate has stoked a few anglers to give the canals a try.
It has been a busy week for myself with the blog putting together videos and getting pictures for this update and others to come. This way of writing a blog is not really why i wrote the blog as fishing and the voyage of discovery that goes with learning the art of fishing should be down to the individual. There is no better feeling than blanking and getting it wrong, sticking at it and then starting to get results as you learn. I am fully aware though that some anglers don't know where to start with canals and are quite daunted by them so it can do no harm me sharing all i have learnt fishing canals and how approach them if it at least helps someone out wanting to fish the canal but not knowing where to start.
I hope the previous blog and this one don't come across as preaching or me saying this is the way to do it. The blogs are just my way of fishing canals and how i approach them so always bear that in mind when reading them. It may also be the case that the canal you fish is completely different to the Bridgewater and you may need bigger baits or stronger line.
In this weeks update we look at what baits i use on the canal and we look at each one in detail and the benefits they bring. The next section is a video on how i prepare my ground bait for fishing the canal so it is working and prepared to do the job i want it to do. We finish the introduction with a surprise i received this week when out of the blue last weeks blog was featured in an online magazine!! The fishing sees me again fising the canal and i begin to change things up based on what i have learnt from previous sessions on this new section of canal.
So onto the update..
What Baits For Fishing Canals??
So in last weeks blog we covered location and picking where on a canal you want to target. You have gone out and you now have a fair idea where on the canal holds a few fish and the locations along them stretches to look out for when planning to fish. The next step is to look at baits for fishing the canal and there is a whole host to choose from.
We will start with the smallest baits and work form there..
Pinkie/Squatts
These tiny maggots are the larvae of the small little house fly that pester you in summer and these tiny baits are deadly on canals. On a canal when you are trying to build a picture of an area you really want a bait that will catch everything that swims. This includes some fish that may only be 1oz in size but fishing normal baits your float will be going under but you will miss the fish if you are not using a bait small enough for these fish. You could literally be getting a bite every put in but not hook a single fish if you where using a bigger bait like maggot and its only when using this bait you see what the fish are.
This bait is best fished down the middle and mixed in with your ground bait, fed accurately via a pole cad pot will ensure these maggots get to the bottom and you are fishing right over the baited area. A single our double pinkie or squatt on the hook and your away, an excellent bait and one i always take the canal.
Bread Punch
Normally regarded as a winter bait for canals liquidised bread and bread punch is great bait for silver species like roach and bream. A bait that i normally feed down the middle track instead of pinkie and ground bait. It is a bait you have to feed carefully as it is very easy to over feed the fish on it. A chap days fishing can be had on a few slices of bread liquidised and two slices for on the hook. A top tip is to place the bread in the microwave for 10 seconds and roll it thin this way its easier to punch.
Maggot
The larvae of the bluebottle these baits come in all manner of colours but over the years i have found white, red and bronze to be the best. These baits are great fed on their own on a far bank line for better fish on your first sessions out learning a water as they will pick up the better fish that hug the far bank. The white and red are great also when you know your pinkie or squatt line has better fish to be had but you are getting hammered by tiny fish. This bigger bair is the same colour as the smaller pinkie or squatt but to a fish this bigger bait is too much to resist and can ofter see you picking up the better fish on your pinkie and squatt line.
Once you have fished an area for a while you will build a picture of the size of fish in the section and later on in the blog you will see after past trips hitting better fish i go completely over to maggot instead of pinkie and squatt to single out these better fish i know are there. read on to see the results.
Caster
Casters are the cryssalis form of a maggot before it turns into a blue bottle. There is no getting away from it castors are "THE" bait on canals for the better fish. There is a saying "You catch more fish on maggot but you catch better quality fish on Caster". As a bait if you can get fish feeding on castor you are in for a special session indeed as it normally means you are getting the better fish in the canal.
The beauty of casters are the fact they will stay where you feed them. I normally feed this bait with hemp, a bait we will talk about later and these two baits together make a deadly combination for big canal roach and bream.
I normally feed casters on my far bank line once i kn ow thee are better fish in the area. Firing over 5-6 castors every 10-15 minutes while fishing my pinkie line down the middle it allows the better fish to move in and get comfortable on the bait. The longer its left the more confident the fish feel and once you move over to the far bank caster line after a few hours you need to be prepared for the better fish to be there. Remember though you are fishing for better fish, the small fish are more feeding on the movement of a maggot where as this static bait seems to only pick out by the better fish. Also remember you are fishing for better fish so you wont normally get as quick bites on castor as say maggot but the fish will be better quality.
I will be including a top tip for getting your castors just right in a upcoming blog.
Sweetcorn
No explanation needed here good old sweetcorn out of the tin add the juice from the tin to your ground bait, of course, we all know it works haha. A lot say freezer bought stuff but its got to be jollly green giant for me it just smells so much more....well sweetcorny (not even a word). I use this bait when i am going all out on the canal for tench, bream, carp or really big roach a few grains fed on the far bank line and then it gives you the option to try it on the hook. A fantastic bait but careful not to over feed it.
Hempseed
The seeds of the cannabis plant these seeds are treated before they are brought into the UK so plants cannot be germinated from the seeds. When cooked they turn jet black and a white kernal appears from inside the seed. This bait fish love and there is one species in particular, the roach, roach absolutely love hemp and if you can get them feeding on it you would be amazed at the size of fish.
There are many theories to why hemp works but i believe the thought process that these when on the bottom of the canal resemble a bed of water snails and the crunch of the shell with the soft white centre i imagine they are similar to the feeling of eating water snails when the fish eat them. Mixed with castor or corn its a deadly bait for feeding into the swim.
Pellets
Being quite and old school angler that generally fishes using tactics used 30-40 years ago i still see pellets as new when in reality they have been around for a number of years now and to some fish are now probably regarded as their natural diet. There is no doubting the attraction of pellets to fish and although i never actually fish with pellets on the canal i know a number of lads who do quite well.
The pellets i use are the 1mil micro pellets and they are simplicity itself to prepare simply empty into a bait box when you arrive, cover in water and then straight away drain all the water out, it 10 minutes they will be ready to go. Excellent for attracting and keeping bream and skimmers in your swim and for this reason i mix them into my ground bait mix.
So that's it for baits i use on the canal next weeks update will cover what terminal tackle i use for fishing the canal
How to Mix Ground Bait For a Canal Session..
There is one bait missing off the list above and in my opinion it is the most important bait for canal fishing and a must for any session going the canal. I would go as far to say that if i did not have ground bait in my tackle box for a session on the canal i would pick another venue to fish.
Although canals look quite small in width we have to remember that canals when considered by how much water and miles they cover are huge. When you see shoals on the canal in summer you will see they travel along the canal in shoals in search of food and even a small shoal of roach can cover a large length of canal in a day. What we want is for the fish to be attracted down to the bottom to feed as they pass over our swim and ground bait is what we use for this.
Canals also are major highways for boats and some canals can literally be a boat every 10 minutes. This activity stirs up the bottom and leaves the canal quite coloured. When this is the case the fish we are fishing for stop don't just stop feeding, this is their home remember and they are used to boats and the water colouring up, they still have to feed to survive. The fish then move over to smell to locate their food and all baits even maggot and worms give of smells into the water that attract fish but ground bait is by far the best for attracting fish into the swim when its coloured.
With canals our approach has to be a lot more refined and as such we need to give extra attention to our ground bait. When first mixed it will contain a lot of lumps of ground bait and these fed into the swim will over feed the fish so we riddle the ground bait. I have put together a short video below on how i prepare mine.
Blog Featured In Online Magazine..
Sat in work on my dinner break this week i got a notification through the blogs Twitter account, @satonmyperch, that the blog had bee selected to be featured in an online magazine. The magazine article can be found on the following link.
It is always great when i am contacted to say my blog is being featured in top ten lists, magazines and other bloggers pages but it is special when it comes as a surprise to you. I was having a pretty poor day in work on this day and this cheered me right up!! Thank you for selecting my blog to be featured it means a lot.
On to this weeks Fishing...
Pole Fishing The Bridgewater Canal - A Plan comes togehter..
Although the information I am sharing about how i fish a canal might seem like i know a thing or two about canal fishing the reality is I am still very much learning. In this weeks blog i talk about how i approach a new stretch of canal by using Pinkie and maggot to catch any fish that swims to give me a picture of what is in the stretch and then build a game plan from there with the final outcome of this to be me fishing the section of canal and getting the most i can out of it. This may range from me finding out the stretch is full of tiny fish and skimmer so my approach to get the most might be to fish close in and get the fish feeding shallow so i can catch as many as possible quickly but it has been the other way with this section i am fishing.
In past trips i have caught a lot of small fish on pinkie down the middle and quite a few better sized skimmers and roach and i have also hit the odd really big fish that on my light elastic i have had no chance of stopping. I was at a quandary to what these fish where but the answer came on the previous session as sat on the bank setting up in the early morning, well it was only just light enough to set up, i saw a tench roll right in the middle of the swim and there my answer was. I didnt not have the tackle to land the fish on that session as i did again hit a better fish.
When asked for advice on fishing i always say there is no substitute for getting out on the bank, you can read and watch content online till the cows come home but there is nothing that will teach you more than getting out on the bank at the crack of dawn and fishing the water. With all this in mind the process of formulating a plan began.
So on past trips i had fished pinkie down the middle and fed maggot over my far bank line. The middle line had brought small to medium sized fish and the odd better skimmer and when i went over to the far line the maggot swim consistently was producing a sustained line of quality fish with the odd special roach capture. I drew from this this that the pinkie was doing what i wanted it to do i was catching all fish that swim including the odd better fish that was keeping the net ticking over while my far bank line built up. This part of my set up i was not going to change as it was doing what i wanted it to do, it was strangely enough my far bank line i was to make all the changes on.
Changes to far bank line attack
The first change on my far bank line attack was the pole top kit, i replaced my match kit loaded with blue hydro elastic for white hydro to give me that extra back bone i needed to get the tench under control. The second change i made was with bait i moved over to feeding caster on the far bank line instead of maggot and teamed this up with hemp seed. I was slightly worried about bumping fish with the heavier elastic but then again i knew fishing caster that if the fish was of the quality i was expecting then i would have no problems with hook pulls. The next change was u upped my line from 1.7lb line to 2.1lb breaking strain and fished this all the way through. It was only a half a pound difference but on a canal it can make the difference and feared 3lb plus line would see me not fishing fine enough for the roach. The final change i was making was in my policy of leaving the far bank line hours before fishing it, normally around 9-9.30 when the boats come, on this session i would be going over earlier around 7.30am just a hour and half into my fishing.
Starting off just over the marginal shelf where the canal begins to flatten out i fed two balls of ground bait and pinkie, even before i had attached any lines to plum up my rigs. I knew from past trips where i was going to fish so feeding the swim now and leaving it while i sorted out my top kits for the far bank line and for this swim would give the fish time to settle on the bait ready for my first put in. The lines prepped i fed the far bank line with caster and hemp, initially with the cad pot for accuracy and get a set area to fish when i go over there but i knew later feedings of Castor would be by the catapult. The lines plumed up i put my far bank rig down for a bit and fed a small nugget of ground bait and pinkie down the middle line and lay the float right over the baited area, as predicted it was not too long before the float slid away and a small skimmer was heading into my palms.
As i have said previously, with canal fishing you have to be realistic with your fishing as very rarely do you go in first time and pick up a really high quality fish, unless you are just targeting them of course. Most of the time your first fish will be a small skimmer or roach and some times these can be tiny. This is where i feel canals offer new anglers something that i feel some of the angling world is really beginning to miss and that is the appreciation of better fish. When you have caught small 1-2oz fish and then say a 6-10 oz skimmer or roach comes along you really see this fish in a different light and appreciate it, better fish looked at like this then become something special and as they should be the jewels of a session rather than the expectation as they can be with commercials.
Any how i digress, as the swim built so the bites became more confident and the quality of the fish improved slightly. The fish really got their heads down at one point and it was a fish a chuck with quite a few fish coming in quick succession. On this bit of canal i have noticed the swim can die really quickly down the middle and i think the main reason is pike. I did have my pike rod on me with this session but if i am honest my whole mindset is on pole fishing at the moment and having a go for a pike in the swim is really being looked at as a last resort to relocate them further down the canal away from the swim.
The fish will always back off on the canal so adding just a few feet onto the line your fishing can see you picking up bites and I mooched and etched my way to 7.30am picking up a bites here and there whilst pinging castor over the far bank line. The time had come to have a look if anything had settled in over there.
It can be quite hard work on castor at times as you know in your head bites will take longer to come than maggot and i knew had i fed maggot over there or even put maggot on the hook i would be catching a few fish and maybe the off better stamp of fish as well but i was a man with a plan and i waited it out on castor. The float knocked and slowly moved along the top before slipping away, fishing over depth to lay as much line on the bottom as possible to not spook the fish this was how i wanted it to work except i expected the elastic to move but to prove all the best laid plans don't work a small roach was the culprit.
Feeding the far bank line again, only with 4-5 castors, i went back over and re started my vigil. lifting and dropping the bait adds a little attraction and it was just after letting it settle again the pole float zoomed under and upon lifting the white hydro came oozing out of the end of the pole. I knew the fish where about and i was expecting them all the time so as soon as i knew i was into a better fish i began shipping back straight away to coax it away from the snags. It worked a treat and the fish being played down the middle of the canal was a different animal as it plodded up and down and in knew it was just a case of letting the elastic tire it out.
As with all better fish it knew where home was so there where a few nervous moments but eventually and more a puff of the cheeks in relief than excitement the tench slid into the landing net. Weighed it went 3lb 9oz, i knew there was a chance of more and i also knew i was not going to be around till much after 11.30am so i placed it in the keep net and to be extra careful i staked the net along the bank.
The tench returned i fed the swim with a good pot of hemp and caster and over i went again. The plan had worked a treat but i must admit to being a bit lost at this point as i really did not know what to expect. The better fish i target using this tactic are normally bronze bream that are normally in shoals so you expect maybe some more but with tench i was happily in unknown territory and learning a new lesson.
The next few bites where from roach and the odd better skimmer but then the swim died a little and i thought to myself, wait this out it could be better fish. A good 10-15 minutes latter the float slid away again and this time the water erupted with a big swirl as i struck and i knew i was into a better fish. The fish was strong and powerful and in the early exchanges i never had it under control as it snagged me up and come off on a number of occasions, luck pays a huge part some times. The pole tip under the water i hoped and prayed the fish stopped and turned and came round back towards me as it headed off down the canal. In my head i was carp all the way for sure.
Thankfully the fish turned and a battle of me letting the elastic wear out the fish in the middle of the canal endured as held the pole above the fish adding a removing sections. It eventually felt like i was beginning to win as my float came up through the water and broke the surface. A glimpse of olive dark green as she turned and i knew i was into a nice tench which added a whole host of pressure! She finally saw my side and in the landing net i could not believe how lightly hooked she was as the size 20 hook was just nipped through her top lip! At 5lb she was a fish i was ecstatic over and am still buzzing about now as i write. A run of the mill fish in some places but for a canal on the pole on light medium elastic a battle i will remember forever.
I guess i had not returned this tench long when i was again into a better fish, this fish from the outset was not in the league of the past two fish and the elastic had it well under control from beginning to the end of the fight. Another tench and i was made up to have had three tench in the morning.
Going back over i got bites from roach and skimmers straight away and i knew there and then the tench game was up really. Time moved on and the clock ticked round to 11am and with the warmth came a regular stream of boats and people on the towpath. The last fish of the session was this nice bream below.
I decided to call it a day after this fish as i had a mountain of decorating to do at home and in my head i thought i had caught the best of the fish and was happy with what i had sitting in my keep net. I was also conscious that the fish had been in there for around 3 hours at this point and although settled with plenty of room the increased temperatures i knew it was time to pack in.
The final net went 15.8lb and of course a quick cheeky shot of the three tench was a must.
A quick Reflection
So packed in i looked back on the session and began to analyse it. Firstly it was very apparent the castor was picking out the better fish and although i was waiting for bites when they come they where worth waiting for. The odd better skimmer also showed there must be a good head of these to try and directly target on future sessions. The tactic of going over the far line earlier really had paid off well and i was made up with that. I feel the whole collection of sessions has shown how you can build up a picture and tailor your techniques to get the best out of a situation and i hope this blog in particular has shown that.
A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet. It has been a while since i have typed that and i feels it. A break is as good as a rest as they say and although i have not felt like taking a break from the blog this gap in updates has been totally out of my control what with moving house and all that goes with it as you will read in a bit. Fishing wise i have been on the odd session but i did take a break from the fishing for a week or two but am now firmly back into a weekly fishing groove,
In this update i will be covering the changes away from angling that have been going on, a little on what i have been writing while the Internet has been down and will finish the introduction off with a new purchase for the next pike season. The fishing sees me fishing a little pond you could literally jump across and a session on the Bridgewater Canal on the pole.
With that its on to this weeks update..
New House and No Time....
For some time now we have been living in a two bedroom apartment but it was never ever going to be a permanent residence due to us having a boy and girl that would eventually need a room each. We decided to make the change early on in their lives so they where not being disrupted when they need stability most around the ages of 10 and 8 where we have had to move by law. A property came up and with a garden front and back and 3 bedrooms it on paper was ideal. Inside was a different story as the previous residents had left the house in a right mess with money owing on the bills and the house in a general state of disrepair it has meant long hard hours in an evening and weekend just to get it to the stage where it needs decorating.
The garden was like a jungle and every bit of painting needed doing so as you can imagine fishing time has been of a minimum but to be honest fishing has been the last thing on my mind as with so many jobs to do i could not justify going out fishing. As i said the previous residents where not the best and predictably there was money outstanding on the Telephone line which has meant a long 3 week battle for BT to take control of the line and allow us to get an Internet line up and running. This inconvenience was probably a good thing as it has taken away the distraction of writing a blog of an evening.
It is not all doom and gloom as the house is starting to get there and when we gave the garden an much needed hair cut we uncovered a wildlife oasis in our own back yard. There are so many birds attracted to our garden by the trees and cover offered by an i have on the far boundary wall we just had to get a bird feeder out there. Sat of an evening with a cuppa in hand it has been fantastic to see such an array of wildlife in my garden, i have never had a garden as grew up in a mid terrace so for me i have been like a kid in a sweet shop. So far we have a pair of resident robins, a pair of wood pigeons, loads of small birds like blue tits and sparrow, a mob of black birds who really boss things until the real bullies move in and take over in the magpies!
The garden is a working progress at the moment as the house take priority but it is my hope in the years to come to turn this quite wild and messy back garden into a haven for wildlife. We are boxed in by 3 other gardens so getting animals like hedgehogs and foxes etc around is impossible but it would be nice to provide a habitat for maybe a pond and flowers to attract butterfly's and bees in. With two big gardens its also my hope to get a wormery or a compost heap up and running which is a bait i don't really use much but could be interesting on some of the places i know contain perch.
I try to include as much about myself in this blog as i do my fishing so it is going to be great to include updates on this from time to time and also who knows what we might see visiting the bird table :-)
Pike Season Roundup
The Internet being off in the house has meant i have been unable to get on line whilst at home to write my blogs on here but what i have been doing is chipping away at some content for a new page on the blog on here. It will cover from start to finish my first season dead baiting for pike. It does go into some detail and i must admit some heavy editing is needed as at the end of November i was up around 2500 words!!
I covers the piking from the first sessions before the start of the season and then the entire pike season its self. The milestone captures and also some of the lessons i have learnt along the way. I have included some some of my thoughts during the season and what i was trying to achieve. It will sit as a complete page on its own on the tool bar at the to of the page and the page is already in place to select waiting for the content to go live.
This new way of writing about the sessions might be the way forward for things like carp quests etc as in the past i have wrote them live as i am on the quest and although this helps capture how i feel each session it does add pressure to them. Any how look out for that round up going live in the next few days.
Savage Gear Purchase...
Wobbling for pike has been a huge part of my pike season this year and for it i have been using a very old spinning rod fro my childhood. It cost me £6 and it has done me proud this year but its lack of back bone has been questioned on a number of occasions when i have hooked into any better fish into double figures. With that i thought it was time to give this old warrior a rest before she literally gets snapped and i recently picked up a new lure rod in this Savage gear rod below.
This rod breaks down into 4 pieces so it will easily fit into my car and will mean i will be able to sneak it into my car boot for those opportunistic times where you have a few hours to spare. I don't know if it will get any use for lure fishing as its not something that i am looking to delve into at the moment but who knows. I cant wait to get out and catch a pike on it.
With that its on to this weeks fishing...
Morning on a Pond....
There is nothing that gets me more excited when the river season is closed than the thought of a fishing session on a pond of canal. These completely wild places are where it is at for me and although i do fish on a commercial from time to time these wild waters hold the magic of all that is angling for me.
Some ponds i fish you could literally walk across and maybe even jump across but taking time to actually wet a line in these waters can unearth some really exceptional fishing especially for harden species like roach and perch who can survive in any conditions really. These places are not always desirably places to fish and are rarely places you are going to find neatly pruned banks and flat pegs but more than often they are worth the effort. The fact these places are also places where people dump fish that have got to big for their home pond so they can also hold some surprises.
The morning of this session i set up on the Bridgewater canal initially with a view of a canal session and all was going fine from 6am till around 8.30am where i had put together the odd fish including a very surprising DACE! At 8.30am the predictable boat came and i thought nothing of it but when it was followed by 10 more boats i knew something was up and changes needed to be made, especially when i over heard the word regatta. I thought more a minute and made the decision to drop on a pond.
Arriving at the pond i quickly set up and i knew from experience the rig i was using on the canal would be fine on here. The bait was 1/2 pint of pinkies and a pint of maggot which would be fished on the pole with a size 20 hook and 1.7lb line straight through. The bites where instant as i went in with small roach and the odd perch showing early one to white maggot fished over the bed of pinkie.
The swim would die from time to time and eventually a better fish would be the result and this, early on it was a better roach.
The margins where alive with frogs dancing and merry dance with each other and occasionally hitching a ride if you get my drift, a sure sign of the benefits to wildlife a little pond can bring. The bites where coming steady now and i was getting a bite most times my bait missed the weed on the way down and got through to the bottom but i was waiting a little bit for the bites to develop and i was missing quite a few sharp dinks on the float.
I made a few changes by adding a small number 12 shot to the line which took the float down to a mere pimple on the surface and i also started to fish double pinkie on the hook. These two changes saw the missed bites turned into fish and i also found out the swim was fully of skimmers.
These skimmer bream would come into the swim and i would catch a number of them before the swim would again die and a better fish would either get into the weed or i would get it in. These better fish ranged from perch, incidental these killed the swim stone dead, and also crucian carp or the fan tail gold fish shown below.
During the session i hit a number of fish that there was no stopping at all and the odd visitor t the place i spoke to did talk of some big carp and tench so it might well be worth a trip on bigger baits one morning to try and tame one of these fish. I ended the session with 11lb mixed net of fish that included skimmers, roach, rudd, crucian carp, perch and fantail goldfish. A very enjoyable session.
Pole Fishing on The Bridgewater Canal..
After a week in work and every evening spent decorating or painting i was more than ready for a days fishing in fact i would go as far as saying it was a necessity for my sanity i got out to wet a line. I put my faith in Accuweather that Sunday would be a dry day and that it would be over cast and not too sunny. I Spent the evening before preparing my rigs for the canal and i arrived on the bank with two rigs ready to go. My first rig was 1.7oz line down to a pound bottom hooklength with a size 20 hook and this was to be fished down the middle on my pinkie line with a light size 6 elastic. I also made up a similar rig line with but with a size 18 hook for my far bank line and this was to be fished with a blue hydroelastic.
I knew the area of canal i was going to target on this session so a recce early on in the week identified the swim i was going to fish. The swim above was my swim for the day and my plan of attack was simple, like all my fishing normally is. I was going to fish pinkie and ground bait just off the inside shelf for anything that swims whilst occasionally firing white maggot over the far side up the side of the reeds out of the boat line hoping that while i was fishing down the middle this line would build up some fish who would be ready once the boats got to much. This is a tactic i have used for years on the canal and it has never let me down and again it worked on the day. Just for information i find the longer you leave going over the far line the better the fishing is in general but leaving it till the sun is right up and on the water you can miss out on the better fish that feed in the early morning like tench and big perch.
Canal fishing is really like no other in you never really can have any expectations when fishing them as there are so many factors that can effect your success on the day. Canals can range in size but the one if fish is very long running from runcorn old town to Manchester with a split where it is also connected the the large Trent and Mersey Canal. success on the day can be simply down to a shoal of roach being in that area on that day and being on the feed, the next week they may well be moved on.
All canals hold big fish like bream, tench, perch and better stamps of roach but you very rarely catch these fish from the off on a session on the canal i fish. Your swim for the day is like a baby, it needs to be nurtured and built slowly during the session, done right the swim will normally start with small fish like this small roach below and the better fish should slowly move in. The swim fed with a ball of ground bait and pinkie and first put in the float sailed away and out came the light size 6 elastic, yes even a fish this small needs the light elastic.
My thoughts on fishing canal is i want to make sure i turn as many bites into fish as i can so in my opinion a light elastic is a must for not bumping those smaller fish, some fish might only be the 1--3oz in size but on sessions where the better fish don't show this might be all you catch all day and its better than nothing. I continued to catch small roach and skimmers on my middle line and every so ofter would ping over a few maggots over the far bank reed line. As the swim built during those early hours the steady stream of maggots on the bottom eventually attracted the attention of the local bully's, the perch.
I had started fishing around 6.30am and it was 9.30am before i noticed the line down the middle start to die off. I had been waiting anything from 30 seconds to 5 minutes for a bite but now the bites where seriously dying off and with all the tricks in the book utilised like moving slightly past my feed and lifting and dropping the bait slightly it was time to think about the far bank line. As soon as the line had shown signs of dying i had upped the feeding of the far bank line to every 5 minutes, not loads of bait just 5-6 maggots. Enough to attract but not to over feed.
Over the far side i was expecting better fish but i knew i would also be still running into a smaller stamp as well so i used my blue hydro elastic for the far bank line. I hoped this would be soft enough hit the small fish but also give me some back bone if i connected with a better fish like a bream, perch or tench. First put in over the far side and the float had not even settled before it was away and like i predicted it was a better stamp of fish over that far side as shown by this perch.
Isn't it amazing how a swim probably 4-5 metres away from the middle line where i could no longer buy a bite was a bite a chuck. The swim had been fed for a good few hours and the fish where literally lining up as each put in the float would slide away with either a skimmer of a roach coming to the net and i was beginning to think that i had a few fish in the net.
When pole fishing in general its important to get into a rhythm, don't rush but get into a set rhythm of how you are fishing. On the day for me it was unhook a fish then feed the swim with a catapult then ship out over the bait, float under strike and ship back in. Working like this you are quickly putting together a weight of fish without realising it. The hard part in any fishing session is feeding and even more so on a canal as although bites are coming thick and fast you can easily over feed the swim at this point so its a time not to be carried away.
Boats play a huge part in canals and i hear a lot of anglers complain about boat traffic on them. Don't get me wrong 5-6 boats on the bounce going fast through the swim is not going to help it at all but a steady stream of boats through the day actually helps the fishing especially on hot days where clear water would certainly spook the fish. A boat coming through on this session saw the quality of the fish improve as the quality of the skimmers improve it was certainly evident on the far bank line and slowly but surely most fish where of the stamp above.
Earlier on in the blog i mentioned about feeding a swim and it building during the session as at 6am i started fishing i was getting tiny small roach and skimmers and through feeding that far bank line correctly and slowly the swim had built and like predicted the better roach moved in on the action. On the session i caught some nice skimmers but this roach below for me was the fish of the session.
I only had a set time to fish till and it was quickly approaching 2pm and the end of the session and it was going to kill me to leave especially when some nice bream started showing like the one below. A proper fish full of skimmer.
Bringing in the fish i noticed a dark shape under neath the fish as it came in, a pike. I had seen activity in the area all session and during the session i had thought a pike was about as all the signs where there with fish up in the neck of my net and the swim going though very patchy periods. After putting the skimmer in the keep net i continued to fish on but noticed the fish going made in my keep net and then a flash of olive green up the side of it was a sure sight the pike that followed the skimmer in was after the fish in my net and slowly my keep net moved out into the canal signalling the pike was tugging at the mesh. Lifting my keep net up there was a pike attached to the side of the net, some nerve i thought!! and with that if fell back in a swam off.
It was time to end the session so i quickly hook a few pics of the 10.5lb net/
It was going to take a bit for the net to dry and pack away so i thought i would chance my arm and have a serious word with mr pike so out went a small roach live bait. It did not take long for the free meal to attract his attention. In the warm weather he put up a great fight compared to the ones i had caught in winter.
Eventually he saw sense and a quick picture and a telling off before he was returned to hunt the roach shoals.
We that's it for another update i hope the gap between the next ones isn't as great as this.
