First Barbel Trip, Canal Roach and The Hiden Jewel of the Lake!!

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  The weather has finally turned and we have gone from flooded banks with minimal options to a take your pick type situation with all rivers in fine fettle.   Again we are still in a back log situation with the blog, not helped by me getting out three times this weekend.  Last weeks blog format was well received with it being all about the fishing and with very little to talk about in the angling world for an introduction i reckon the same approach is worth another go.

This weeks blog update see's me hitting the bank for my first ever session just aimed at catching barbel,  we then jump into a pole session on the canal in a swim with plenty of features and we finish it off with a bumper session for carp where believe it or not i catch my 50th carp of the season (still shake my head as i type that as i can not believe i have actually caught some carp on this blog lol) in a session where it certainly was quality rather than quantity.

Sit back, grab a brew and a chocky biscuit, its what i do when i read blogs and lets get right into this update...

First Barbel Session.....

At the start of the week i had decided  to get my act together with the barbel fishing and as with all aspects of fishing preparation is the key.  I knew evenings would be the best time for a bite but i also knew that such a session was never going to happen after work as it stood right now as i had no hemp seed prepared and no meat hook baits prepared either.

There was always the option to go to the tackle shop and just buy loads of tins of hemp seed and pre prepared luncheon meat but come on have you seen the price of these products?? Yes they are convenient and i wont argue in the fact the missus wont kill you for using her best pan to cook your hemp or for turning the house air green with the smell of boiling hemp, but, when you do the sums you realise just how much money money is added to the price of the raw product of hemp seed when you buy it in this form.  Maybe I'm just tight but doing the sums a 20kg bag saves you at least the price of a new fishing rod and on the odd occasion i have bought a tin of hemp i found these tins don't even contain a pint of hemp!  Well in a blog with no introduction we snook a rant in somewhere ha-ha.

So with the hemp cooked in 2 pint bags and the luncheon meat happily marinating in my spicy mix it was a simple case of getting the bait out of the freezer before work so i could hit the bank right away that evening.  A quick check on the EA levels at 4pm showed the river dropping and about foot max above summer levels, this was at 2pm on my break.  I rushed home at 4pm grabbed the gear and then fought my way through rush hour traffic finally arriving on the river banks at around 5.15pm.

Opening the farmers gate i could see the river, odd i thought as you can not normally see her till a little more along the field.  Getting closer i could see she was well up and very very coloured.  I walked the banks to find most of the swims unfishable due to the bottom of the peg being submerged.  The only bit of the stretch that was fishable was the peg i fished the opening week on the stick float where the risen bank i was stood on had created a slack on the inside.  Down the middle it was bombing through with all types of stuff coming down.

I fed the inside heavy with hemp seed trying my best to judge the flow so the hemp was staying in the swim and nog getting washed away.  I set my stall and in went a big pieces of smelly meat.  Sat back well up the bank i was fishing my first ever barbel session on a rising river and although the text books say this is the best conditions, for me, it was a baptism of fire and i was using all my watercraft to try and read a river rising fast, i felt i was in the right spot.  If i was going to get one it would be here.

Bot long after casting in i began to get a few taps on the rod tip, then a few more and the excitement levers rose, i was at least in a spot where fish where holding.  The taps continued until the tip tap round and remained round, i stuck and there was a fish on!! in the flow it felt ok but soon up came a slimy slippery eel!  Not the species i was after but the blank was saved and i felt i was in the right area.

The next few hours i really questioned my sanity as zero taps on the rod and the sight of whole trees coming down the river really did have me thinking of packing in and calling it a wasted trip. A stick in the water was my marker and the river had fully submerged this as was the rise.  9pm and the flow on the river seemed to change and settle and the streams of rubbish had stopped coming down.  Being a stick float angler i rarely see the river in this state so i imagine this was when the river hit its peak and leveled off.

Thew light levels began to go and calm was all around me, it felt right it felt bite time and as soon as i thought that the tip wolloped round, a bite like nothing else i had ever seen,  grabbing the rod i was bent into a fish that felt massive in the flow yet it went from one side to the next effortlessly before coming into the middle of the river and again making hard runs, i felt sure it was a barbel.  It certainly was not a chub,too strong.  Holding in the flow and the fight i felt getting into the middle stages the line come flying back at me as the hook pulled!!    Writing this now the feeling i felt then comes flooding back, i was gutted, i sat there and in short was amazed how the fish had gone on such hard runs but when seemingly under control in the middle of the river the hook pulled.  Fished on into dark but nothing came but the extra time saw me reflecting on the situation.

"my first ever barbel trip on a new river in flooded conditions and i had read the river, fed a swim and got a bite from a barbel.  Yes i was gutted but there where more positives than negatives to take form this session."

Early Morning Canal Session - Bridgewater Canal

A stifling day midweek in work and i decided to escape the beige brick wall i face in work and escape for an opportunistic hour lunch break.  A short drive and i was soon heading down a narrow road leading to a humpback bridge.  A tight turn and i was literally along side the canal looking at a swim that was to die for reeds lined the far bank and all along the length there was sunken trees and surface lillys.  It screamed fish but alas my destiny that day lay back at my desk dreaming of the swim i had just been eating my sandwiches in.

Saturday morning arrived and in the dark i loaded the car and made my way to the swim.  I loaded in my MAP TKS 101 2G pole with two top kits and bait for the day would be ground bait and red maggot.  As regular readers will know i follow a set routine with my canal sessions and the first thing to be done was mixing up the ground bait, this is my opinion, when prepared in the right way, is the key to success on the canal.

I fed the far line just off the cover heavy with two big balls of ground bait loaded with hemp and castor and introduced one ball on my near side line just over the inside shelf.  The inside line was good from the off with skimmers and small roach and perch coming regularly.  Whilst catching these fish i kept the odd pouch of maggots going over the far bank line.

This really is a game of patience on the canal and judgement as the longer you leave that far bank line before fishing it the better the fishing will be but you don't want to leave it too long that the boat traffic starts not long after feeding it.  I think the beauty of this far bank line is the face its settled with no disturbance and there is a bed of bait on the bottom for them to settle over.

With canal sessions i think you get the best results early morning so i get out of the mindset that i will be fishing all day, all my canal sessions are form first light till around 10 to 11am max, earlier if boat traffic is really really heavy.  Early on the inside line fished well but as bank side disturbance grew i knew the fish had backed off and it was time to go over to the far bank.

The far bank line was instantly a bite a chuck and it was not a surprise with it being so close to the cover.  Bites would come on the drop mainly but a better fish was always the result should the bait settle on the bottom, a caster session on this canal is well over due.

Keeping the bait going in saw fish coming regular to the net and at times some quality roach would nip in and these are of course the jewel in the crown for any canal angler.  The session was the relaxing session i had craved in the week, a polar opposite form the beige wall i stared at all week long in work.  A 12lb net was the end outcome of lovely silver fish.

As with all fishing we should leave the banks how we find them, foot prints, spilt bait and the depression from my basket the only sign the bank had been visited.

Doubles Doubles and the Hidden Jewel Of the Lake....

There was no escaping at this point that early morning quick sessions for carp where flowing through my veins.  The sessions where both fun and whats even better, cheap, some sessions costing as little as 35p for a loaf of bread.  The tackle costs where just as minimal with one packet of hooks still going strong with a few left from a pack of ten.

To this point i had been taking two rods with me with one on the bait alarm on the bottom and one on the top with bread, never fishing both at the same time, but alternating between the two.  As the sessions went on it soon became noticeable that fishing a bait on the bottom was just too easy.  I don't say that in a cocky way but once i had found a clear spot, near cover, i found the fish would come and come and come and it was getting a little silly.  I had broke my personal best and i felt that i could possibly break this again with one big fish spotted but i was at the stage where i didn't want to plough through runs to catch one fish i wanted to go for a few hours and have some fun.

That said i started just going with one rod, a net, a bucket with my loaf of bread and unhooking mat in and my licence of course.  Free lining bread on the surface was what i wanted to do and it was such fun.  On this session the morning was very dark and there was plenty of cloud cover as i arrived and i doubted whether i would get the carp up on top at all.  Had i bitten off more than i could chew in taking up this fun challenge.

A few free offerings put in the margins and some in open water i waited with bread in hand ready to make my first cast.  Time would tell if the fish would come up on top.  After what seemed an age....Slurp! and then another Slurp, it was like music to my ears.  The fish was taking right close top a big snag but it was taking the bread down well so i knew if it saw my offering i would have him.  Sure enough up he came and with such a gentle take the bread disappeared, line tightened and i was into my first carp, a nice small common to open my account.

This fish was fish 48 of the season for me and i was hoping for the morning to bring me over the 50 mark.  The carp released i could see a carp taking some bread right on the edges of my baited area.  Using braid certainly caught me this fish as this fish came and looked at the bread and moved on but being able to quickly lift and mend the line as it turned I'm sure the better presentation fooled it as it had a second look.

A 10lb 9oz Carp was the reward and what a reward a stunning double figure ghosite.

I had been drip feeding some bread under my feet for a while and the natural tow of the lake was taking the bread over to the far bank just off a overhanging tree.  To this day i don't know how on earth a damp free lined piece of bread one, managed to stay on the hook after the cast and two managed to land inches off the over hanging tree on the far side.

Land it did with an ever so inviting plop and no sooner had it landed than a huge set of rubber lips rolled on the bread and nailed it.  No strike was need as the rod was nearly pulled out of my hand in a run of pure power!  The line cut across the surface as the fish bolted for open water and keeping deep i was luck it did.  Had it headed for the big snag i would have been in all kinds of trouble.

The rod hooped over it was a fantastic fight that i enjoyed, i don't think i would have been so relaxed had it been my PB a few weeks earlier, now i had a few doubles under my belt i was enjoying the battles more and there where little nerves.  Sliding the net under the fish i peered in and she was a nice common carp.  On the mat peeling back the mesh revealed a stunning fish and i mean stunning she was fin perfect.  Her mouth was clean and her scales immaculate, lifting her dorsal fin revealed, well i will let the pictures below do the talking.

14lb 8oz of pristine common carp, what a fish to bring up the 50!

The fish admired and returned safely back to the water i had a quick coffee break and while i did i fed under my feet again.  All this bread going in i had acquired myself a little pet carp under my feet, i don't think she knew i knew she was there, but i did.  She was there taking the odd piece of bread thinking she was getting one over on me and i hadn't seen her, unfortunately i had.  It was time to cash her in.

Coffee drank i stopped feeding bread for a few minutes  allowing her to mop up the bits as they went passed.  The next one down was the one with my hook in and good as gold she came out of the bank side reed cover and took the bait.  Now bear in mind i had seen this fish quite a bit taking bread but what i had not realised was she was quite a bit carp.  In fact she was one of the better specimens in the lake and she made me know it with a bruising encounter all under the rod tip.

Sliding her into the net i felt like my arm was going to fall off, another common and my third double of the morning at 16lb 10oz.

Two smaller carp got in on the act after this fish and i had noticed when these whipper snappers move in its a sure sign the better fish have moved out.  A quick change of swim i dropped back into a swim close to the car and just before leaving a managed a final double of the morning in a 10lb 6oz mirror carp.

I left around 9am having caught a few fish and certainly had my string pulled.  Home in time for the family to be waking up and ready for a day ahead spent relaxing with the family.  My mind occasionally drifting back to the lake that morning and that magical 14lb pristine carp, the hidden jewel of the lake.

Till next time

tight lines

danny

Bridgewater Canal Fishing On The Waggler...

A warm welcome to this week's blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  The weather of late has been so up and down it has been a lottery deciding what area to target.  On this weeks session i was looking to change things up a little and fish the waggler instead of the pole and for this i was hoping i would get a nice calm day and this horrible wind would drop a little.  It would also be good to see the difference in results from the pole to the waggler.

This year has been a huge time of change for me and my family and only now does it seem to be calming down a little so in this weeks introduction we look at what my plans are for the coming months with the blog, some good news around me getting some of my fishing gear replaced and fixed and then we look at plans to drastically change a local water to me as the concrete jungle closes in.  As mentioned above the session is a quick morning on the canal fishing the Waggler.

On to the update.

Getting Back Into The Swing...

The passed few months i have been really struggling balancing moving house, work, devoting my time to my family and also keeping my standards up with regards the how in depth my blogs on here are, you then add to that other commitments to companies like Pondip its been a real strain.  It may not seem like much has been going on as i think the last few weeks blogs have been some of the best i have wrote but it really has been hard work finding the time to put them together and to be honest there have been times when i have thought about just putting the blog to one side for a few weeks and coming back to it when the river season opens. 

I am so glad i stuck at it and stayed up late at night making sure i got the weekly blog out as you really do get out of the swing of blogging when you take a gap, it can be really hard to get back going again.  This past week or so though as we have moved into June i really am beginning to feel like the new routine is falling into place and it is so far so good with this week already getting out my monthly blog for Pondip and also a little surprise that might be coming in the next few months with Pondip so keep an eye open for that.

So all in all there is a lot to look forward too in the coming weeks and months with both things settling down and the new river season opening and then beyond that the start of the pike season.

Replacing Some Gear...

As i said above i am just coming out a mad few months and during that time money has been really tight indeed, canal trips have really helped with the saving on petrol with them being local and the bait costs being really cheap.  With that it has meant any accidents that happen can not just be as simple to remedy as just going online when you come home and buy a new one as with a house to decorate you can not justify £60.00 on a replacement section of rod.

In the past 3 months i have manged to snap the tip off my 17ft trotting rod and also seen my number 8 section of pole go rolling into the drink on the canal so its not been a great time for me trying to keep costs down and look after my gear.  These two items will both send me back over £60.00 so when i chance of two days overtime came up- last weekend i jumped at the opportunity, both days battered it meant no fishing but as it has meant i have been shattered all this week so that session on Saturday can not come soon enough on the canal.

The Ever Encrouching Concrete Jungle...

I logged into my own personal facebook this week to be met with the news that a local water is being ear marked for further land development.  The venue is Pheonix Park on the Warrington Anglers Card and although it is already situated in the middle of a densely populated suburb these plans show development will be right up to the waters edge.

Looking at this it is going to almost certainly mean more development all around this lake till the whole bank is houses and although there is huge demand for housing it just seems that the little oasis's among towns are now being eroded away. 

There is of course always two sides to the story and i can also see that these houses are needed on a national level and maybe it is better to build within the town boundary than encroach further out into the countryside.  There is also a part of me that looks at theses and thinks. well they are getting built anyway what a house it would be for an angler as you could literally fish on your front door step! Deep down though i would much prefer it to be the green area it is now.

On to this weeks fishing..

Waggler Fishing on the Bridgewater Canal

Fishing the canal as a kid with my dad all our fishing was done on either a small whip we called a "snatcher" or on the float rod.  Poles where in angling at this time but where a far cry from the poles we see today that are built for taming big carp.  The modern day poles we see today actually hold their origins in the match fishing scene where they where built for catching roach on the canal and this is where they got their name "roach pole".  A few anglers around our area had poles but they where very expensive and me and my dad certainly never fished on the pole.

This session i decided to go back to the old ways and leave the pole in the holdall and go all out for a session on the waggler.  I knew results would not be as good as on the pole as you lose all the accuracy you get with the pole as you can feed right on the same spot every time and then lay your bait right in the middle of that small patch of feed every time and this just is not possible with the waggle where feeding is a lot more spread out and you certainly lose accuracy in where you fish each cast.

Casting in with the float meant a move of swim for this session for a section that was a lot wider which allowed me to cast right against a far wall between a willow and a overhanging tree and then quickly sink the line and fish right up on the far bank shelf.  The bait for the day was maggots left over from last weeks session and in all honestly this session was a spare of the moment session on the bank that i only settled on the night before.  Like all previous sessions it was a early morning session from sunrise till around 10am.

As you can see from the swim pic above the canal was in top condition with just a tinge of colour and i was hopeful for a few bites i did however know from experience that the overhanging willow was a magnet for small jack pike in the 1-3lb bracket so i expected a few visitors during the morning.  As always the early exchanges where dominated by smaller fish and it seemed a good while the roach fed in the swim

I was catching steady over the far bank but the quality of fish just was not there.  I was not expecting monsters as i was fishing maggot but some of the fish i was catching were the stamp i would expect on a pinkie line and not a far bank maggot line.  I began to feed right far over against the wall almost and the stamp of fish improved.  It was really hard fishing as it meant casting right over tight and then quickly mending the line and winding hard to sink the line.   It seemed the better roach and odd bream where right over tight and when i got it right i was rewarded.

The session was no where near as prolific weight wise as previous pole sessions but in all honesty this session was not about that.  This session was a session back watching a self cocker float dotted right down shoot under and  strike into a fish, on some occasions.  It served its purpose as well and while the net dried i managed to get a few shots for a upcoming blog for Pondip so i left the bank a happy angler.

A typical mixed canal net that fed my angling addiction for that weekend and the weekend just gone where i was on overtime.  I hope this blog shows you don't always need a pole to catch a few fish on the canal.

Till next week its tight lines from me,

Danny

Chubbin..... at your age?

"I walked across an empty land,

I knew pathway like the back of my hand

I felt the earth beneath my feet,

Sat by the river and it made me complete"

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and I am sure we have all heard or been involved in a conversation about the song that the lyrics above were taken from.  It is of course the Christmas John Lewis advert about the Bear and the Hare, a very sad video and one that does tug on the heartstrings but it was the very first verse of the song, shown above, that stuck in my heart and there is a lot of truth in it for myself as when you are sat beside that river with the sight and sounds that go with such a scene you can sit back, look around, and the worries that go with life drift away like the very leaves passing down the river in front of your eyes, fishing offers so much more than the thrill of catching a fish sometimes.

The River Dane Valley on Sunday, i was all alone, the only one on the bank, perfect time for peace, quiet, relaxation, reflection and contemplation. 

Drifting slowly away from that sombre opening we move onto a subject that was posted on the River Dee facebook page this week which caught my eye, the Welsh Dee Salmon Conservation Fund.  The Fund is trying to raise funds for a Scientific investigation into the current and historical release patterns of water from Llyn Celyn.  The conservation believe that these unnatural releases of water are partly to blame for the decline of salmon spawning in the upper reaches of the River Dee area, an area it is suggested that should be the breeding area for 15-20% of the total breeding stock of salmon in the river dee system.  Money raised for this fund will go towards undertaking studies into the effects of these releases and see if they are in some part to blame for the decline.

You can check the Fund out on the link below and maybe purchase a raffle ticket to help towards this cause.

link: http://www.welshdeesalmonconservationfund.co.uk/

Last weeks Fishy Fact of Fiction drew some great comments both in the comments section on here, Blogs Facebook and Twitter Page and on Maggot Drowners Forum where i have been posting this subject up.  The most funny comment of the week has to go to one of the people who commented on Facebook, Andy Wareham (said you would be in haha) who commented the following to the debate and i quote "Nope, there as thick as s$$t, but smarter than a lot of the anglers that fish for em" Not the most scientific of comments that was posted in relation to this subject this week but the certainly the only one that saw me spewing out a gob full of nescafe gold blend. 

on to this weeks fishy Fact or Fiction:

 "The introduction of Commercial Fisheries Ruined Fishing"

  Commercial fisheries are now firmly part and parcel of our fishing world, like it or not the truth is that you are now normally no more than a few miles away from a heavily stocked pond, snake lake, canal or arena, its the current angling world we live in.  But has the introduction of these fisheries improved or damage fishing?  First of all lets look at the positives that commercials have brought to angling.

There is no doubt that commercial fisheries offer older anglers a chance to go fishing till a much older age the comfort of parking behind your peg so you can literally park behind your peg and your fishing and the same can be said for any disabled anglers out there are some of these fisheries have exceptional fishing platforms and facilities.  The angling industry has dramatically benefited financially from these commercials as well just look at the wide variety of tackle that has exploded thanks to these commercial fisheries, walk in any tackle shop these days and the shelves are stacked with all manner of pellets and infinite gadgets a gizmo's to get that bait into your swim not to mention the money generated by the countless poles on the market.  There is no doubting that had commercials not come about you would not have seen as many poles aimed at carp fishing with extra strong carbon fibre and power kits to tackle the large carp in these pools.  The fishing industry are not the only ones to benefit financially from the angling worlds lust for easy access fishing with plenty of bites, its safe to say the Farming industry has seen great financial benefits from building fishing ponds on their land and the very one i fish, Flushing Meadows, is exactly that, set up by a farmer to supplement their income during what has been a terrible time for farming in this country, these ventures have saved a lot of farms from going under. 

These commercial fisheries also serve as a great place to introduce youngsters and new people to the sport.  The pools are generally stocked to over the recommended level suggested by the EA meaning, in the summer at least, catching is guaranteed, if you can put a rod with a maggot in the water you will catch a fish and this showed when we fished flushing this year when Ricky, who had never ever fished before came along and left catching countless silvers and a few carp.  The bottom of these commercials are generally of the same mould with 3ft margin shelves dropping down to 8-9ft then back up to a shelf on the far bank so they make for quite simple fishing meaning they are a great place for new people to the sport to start and the fact they catch fish can hook them for life.  Many think they offer invaluable places to test out new methods and to learn new techniques but as you will read in a bit i do not necessarily agree with this.  The boom in these fisheries has also seen increased revenue for fish farms that are paid to stock fish into these ventures.  In summary i feel that commercials offer quite a lot of good into our sport both financially and into the grass roots levels.

Of course there are always two sides to the story and i have to say for the good that commercial fisheries have done for angling the bad damage they have done is just as dramatic.  Pre the rise of commercial fisheries the banks of the local rivers where well populated with anglers, my very own local canal the Bridgewater regularly held open matches being fished by a 100 plus anglers, a sight you no linger see.  The river Dee had matches and anglers all along its lengths where now there is no sign they were there at all as nature has completely reclaimed to pegs they made and gaps in the trees that once where there are now thick with shrubs and new trees.  This exodus of people from canal and rivers is definitely down to the rise of commercial fishing, no doubt in my mind about that, as just look at it this way why would anyone, on a cold, wet and overcast day want to walk two or three farmers fields to fish a river or lug their gear along a canal bank where they may only catch 10lb of silver fish when they can pull up at their local commercial, pay 6 quid, park behind their peg and be certain to catch double maybe triple the weight of fish they would have done.  As a country, over the past 20 or so years, have become very lazy look at the introduction of cars now and how people get in a car to go the local shop rather than walk and the same can be said for angling with the introduction of these commercials, walk fields or roll out of your car, many choose the easy option, and on some days who can blame them.  So i would certainly say commercials have had a devastating effect on river fishing in this country and i only think things will improve once people get fed up with the repetitive nature of the different commercial fisheries. 

The general findings are that most commercial fisheries are stocked to around 25% more than what the Environment Agency state is suitable for a water and the only reason this is allowed id the fact that the anglers bait going in regular provides enough food for these fish to survive at such a population, but is this right? should fish be forced to feed so willingly that they lose their natural fear because the need to feed.  Earlier on in the piece i suggested that commercial fisheries offer great places for people to learn fishing and that is correct but what they do not do is teach people anything about proper fishing in this country away from commercials, these people who have only ever learnt to fish a commercial go to a local canal and feed it the same as they would the commercial and soon find the fish away from commercials are not so easy to catch and a lot soon lose interest where as if they learnt the sport the other way round, i.e learnt to fish on a canal they would find that they were a lot more successful in their commercial fishing.  These commercials teach people how to fish but not how to catch fish in my opinion. 

On the final note and this has nothing to do with financial gains to the fishing world, its more personal and emotional to me than that and its the fact that commercials have created this aura that if you are not catching carp on these commercials then its a bad day and the measure of how good a day is going is by how many carp you have caught.  Match weights in this arena of anglers displaying like peacocks are not worth mentioning unless they are over 100lb in weight and they do create a feeling amongst young anglers that silver fish are a nuisance i see it all the time of flushing meadows, a kid gets a bite, strikes and pulls in a big roach approaching a pound, a cracking fish! yet why does he look so upset with this capture? its because its not the carp he was after, meanwhile i am sat there getting funny looks as i am hurriedly looking for my camera to photograph a roach half the size, its a sad sight to see and it kills me every time i see it to the point i feel like going over and taking the lad to a canal to teach him to appreciate all he catches.

Well there is is, more writing than you will probably see in your weekly fishing rag and i haven't even got onto my fishing yet haha.  Over to you guys what do you think?? 

I did have something else to talk about but that will have to wait, on to this weeks fishing:

Saturday 9th November 2013 - Canal Roulette

Speaking to my uncle on the phone late on Friday night as i walked to the local shop i had a fear inside that our panned trip to the canal the next day could well be a tough encounter.  A glance up to the sky revealed a dark blanket of deep blue speckled with all the stars of the solar system in full display, there was not a cloud in sight, this could only mean one thing if it continued into the late evening, an over night frost.   Frosts are a welcome sight for myself as it means the fishing in our rivers is about to come into its own but an over night frost just before a session on a canal is a killer.  Frosts and still water fishing generally follow a set way of thinking that the day after the first frost will be really poor fishing wise but if that frosts continues and the temperature remains low for a few days the fish do get used to it and you can have some really good days fishing once the low temperatures have settled, our session would be the first day after a hard frost, not good.

Our chosen canal was the Sankey Canal in Widnes, we chose this purely because of its depth, it is a lot deeper in general than the Bridgewater and we hoped this would improve our chances of the frost not effecting the fishing.  Walking down the path to our chosen area of the canal the sun rose over the Mersey estuary illuminating it in a warm red glow that turned the sky a deep red colour which was reflected in the rivers watery surface providing us both with a beautiful scene across the estuary.  Most of the country was still in bed and did not knew what they were missing, i have to say that when the day comes that i can no longer get out and wet a line it wont be the fishing i will miss be the beautiful scenery and atmospheres i have experienced during the early morning, it was a privilege to have witnessed such a lovely sunrise.

As we examined our chosen swims we were both amazed by how clear the water was, it was in stark contrast to our trips a few weeks ago where you could not see the bottom clearly at all but now snags and rises in the bottom where plain for all to see and worryingly there was little sign of any fish.  I set up two lines, one straight down the middle and another against the far reeds and to my amazement the depths where very similar, surely there had to be fish holding in water this deep.  My uncle had set up a short distance down the canal but between us there was a whole bank of white crunchy grass that bore the evidence that we had in fact experienced a hard frost.

I fed the swim as lightly as a dared and only introduced a small amount of bait, my ground bait mixed as slop to produce a cloud and colour the water up to try and give the fish confidence to feed but with no substance in the ground bait slop to feed the fish at all.  the bait was a humble white maggot, a sign of the times again was that the local tackle shop did not have and pinkies or squats for sale on Friday.  The short story about this is the only action either of our swims saw was the sight of two swans passing through and in fact i think as one passed through it might of been the only time the top of my float threatened to get wet.

Three hours in and neither of us had had as much as a knock, it was time to stick or twist, stay and maybe the the fishing would pick up or twist and head of straight away to the stretch of the bridgewater we fished last week where we had both caught a decent weight of fish.  We both decided that it was highly unlikely that the fishing where we where was going to improve so we decided to pack up and head off to the Bridgewater Canal.

Its safe to say that autumn is definitely slowly giving way to winter and almost all the trees are know a mixture of the colours of the fall and it was amazing to see such the colours of the end of autumn in the trees on the far bank of the canal when we arrived.  We are on the banks every week and it really does put you in situations where you can see the seasons change and i must say even the most famous of artists can not compare to natures vast palette.

the trees of late autumn, beautiful.

trees pic

The fishing here started off like a house on fire with 3 instant bites and i thought, yes! here we go but the reality was that this brief early flurry would make up the majority of the action as i tinkered and searched around for the remaining few hours picking up another one or two fish.  The two nets from this week and last week put side by side shows just how much a frost effects the fishing, i have no doubt the fish where still there but where just not feeding. I guess that is fishing for you, one week 10lb next week 10 fish.

Sunday 10th November - Chubbin'.........at your age?

The cold still tingling in my finger tips i woke early on Sunday with one intention and that was to get out on a river.  Rivers run cold all year and as the fish are constantly swimming against the flow they are not effected as much by the frosts, in fact on some rivers the frosts are actually the start of the really good fishing.  There are of course fish , like barbel, that's metabolism slows down as the weather cools but I had my heart set on a fish who's veracious appetite is as large as their mouths, the gregarious Chub.

There River Dane was my destination a river that i have not fished as much as i would like to over the past year but as it one of the small rivers i began fishing when i started fishing rivers it holds a special place in my heart.  As i turned off the motorway and start passing along the back roads my heart begins to beat that little bit faster in anticipation of that first glimpse of the Dane Valley.

Arriving at the car park i had the minimum of tackle with me, a ruck sack with my bait and tackle box, feeder rod, trotting rod, landing net, rod rest and a unhooking mat that would double up as something to sit on.  I walked straight to the nearest point i could find where i could see the river and like i had thought she was carrying a good bit of extra water and was really pushing through at some speed but the one thing that that i did notice in this early look at her was that the colour was dropping nicely and the river had that almost tea colour to it, it was not going to be easy but i was in with a shout if i used my head and read the river correctly.

To my amazement, on such a fantastic morning, the car park was empty, i was the only angler and i had the whole two fields to explore.  I was a man with a plan and i quickly set in my mind 4 swims across the two fields that i wanted to fish.  I knew from experience where the different pockets of chub would be so it would be a case of reading the river to work out where i thought they would be in the conditions i was faced with.

I started off in a swim where i have caught many chub in the past its an area with plenty of cover where the main flow kisses some nice snags as it moves through. Normally this is a swim i would trot a float through but that was certainly out of the question today as the float would be in and out in a matter of seconds, it was going to be a day on the feeder for sure.  The rig I use has developed over time and i must say my time chasing carp on the blogs carp quest has seen me develop my rig from a simple running lead stopped by a shot to the rig in the picture below.

my rig

The rig itself is still the simple rig i used when i first started in its principle and the additions are there to improve the functionality and reliability of the rig.  I never add something to a rig if it does not add something substantial for me and every aspect of this rig does.  The lead clip system not only allows me to quickly change the weight of the lead i am using quickly but it is also free running and the reason for this is when the fish takes the bait it feels no resistance from the lead as the line pulls straight through the lead clip yet i get a lot of reaction on the tip as the chub is pulling directly on the tip and not against a fixed lead.  The rig sleeve below the swivel is something that come from the carping and helps to kick the line away from the lead to reduce the chances of the rig tangling as lets face it you do not want to be sitting there watching a tip if below the water your rig is not fishing so this aides that and the quick change link allows me to quickly change the length of my hook length with east should i need too.  You may also notice the hook has no hair rig on it, in my experience chub and hair rigs do not go together all bait for my chub fishing goes directly on the hook which in this case is a size 10 and of course the line is Maxima, old school till the end.

I purchased a bait dropper a few months ago for my fishing on the River dee when the fish are coming up in the water and i feel no bait is getting down so i can introduce some bait on the bottom and get the fish feeding where i want them.  I have since found this to be a invaluable tool in my fishing on smaller rivers, i used it on the session i caught the chub and barbel on another river earlier on in the year to great effect.  It is safe to say my fishing style on these rivers has changed dramatically since i first started out, as my knowledge of rivers has built up i have developed a new found patience, years ago i could not wait to get a bait in the water but time has taught me differently and with that i introduced two bait droppers of maggot, corn and my secret chub bait into the area i thought the chub would be in and i sat back, poured myself a warming cup of hot vimto and admired the beautiful, crisp cold morning as the world around me woke up.

Chub are not really a fish you are going to see topping to give their presence in the swim away and unless it is really clear and you can see the fish in the swim, you have to trust to your judgement that you are doing the right thing.  I lowered my rig into position as to not spook any fish that may have been attracted by the bait, placed the rod on the rod rest and laid the line across my finger waiting for that unmistakable pluck on the tip.  I was confident and sure i was doing the right thing and for once there was no doubts in my head, had read the river and this is where i thought the chub would be.

The river in front of me continued to plough through and along its continuous conveyor belt was an endless stream of autumnal leaves, yellows, browns and reds all fluttering through the swim with the odd one plucking the line as it moved through but to strike at these would be foolish no matter how violent the pulls where they were no chub bite.  When i am roaming the river i normally only give each swim around 30 minutes but i had around 5 hours of fishing time today and as the swim i was in was a swim i knew held a good number of chub i decided early on to give this swim the more time than the others.

The tip danced as the odd bit of extra flow boiled along the crease in the river almost as if it was dancing to the rivers beat and it was just after one of these flows in the rod tip i felt a sharp pluck across my finger and the tip wrap round, it all happens in a split second and to be honest you never really remember the sight of the wrap on your tip as the instinct to strike takes over and you feel the vibrations through the carbon rod.  i struck and was met with solid resistance as the chub held its ground for a split second before making a lunge for the cover, no room for niceties here its time to trust in your knots and keep the rod low and your finger on the spool to not let the fish take any line, if you do its over as if the fish makes the labyrinth of tree roots and branches for sure.  The rod, a drennan heavy feeder was working a treat as it cushioned the lunges really well whilst having the back bone to turn the fish.  The fish in the middle of the river now presented me with another problem and that was moving the fish up to the net against the almighty torrent it was tough going with the fish now beaten and on the top but with my new long handled landing net i was able to net the fish quite far into the river so this really eased the problem and with the fish now resting in the landing net i took a second to catch my breath before wetting the unhooking mat and unhooking the fish.

The fish went 5lb 5oz on the sclales but the net weight 1lb 8oz so that makes this chub 3lb 13oz.

The pictures done and weight taken it was back into the landing net to be fully rested in a slack before releasing the fish back.  I must add here i do normally carry a keep net with me as putting chub back into a swim, if you intend to fish on, is not the best idea as it does spook the shoal  but today i did not want any extra weight to carry that would make me think twice about moving, i wanted to be mobile.

The fish returned i introduced another bait dropper of bait and celebrated my chub with another hot vimto as although i was fully prepared for the cold conditions with my thermal bib and brace, two T shirts, a thick hoodie and my skee tex thermal boots you still need that warm drink inside you.  Testament to how cold it was during the morning was the fact that after these chub pictures where taken my phone had 70% battery, not long after its return i wanted to take a picture of the rig on the box for the blog and i was met with a blank screen and the picture for me to plug my phone into to charge before i could use it again!! The phone made its way into my fleece lined pockets to warm her up whilst i warmed my inside with some good old vimto and after that chub it tasted as sweet as could be.

I spent the next hour or so in this swim with only a tiny grayling as reward for my perseverance although it was a fin perfect example of the species and does show the grayling are breeding in this area, which is good news.

Eventually my expectations for this swim dwindled and the inner explorer in me was itching to try the next swim and my hope was that the fish would be ready and waiting as i had nipped along all the swims with a dropper of bait before fishing.  This next swim was  a tough swim to fish as the area i wanted to fish was on the other side of the flow but i knew it just had to hold a chub or two.  Over went my rig and the rod rest was held high to keep all the line out to the main flow.  This next bit shows the importance of having your finger on the line as it was while i was not looking at the rod tip and replying to Mr Munro's comment on the blogs Facebook page i felt that tell take pluck on my finger tip and instinct took over as i dropped the phone and struck into the fish, had i just been watching the tip and looked away i would of missed the bite for sure.

The fight from this fish was weird to say the least as it did not feel like a chub at all in fact the fight felt more like a roach as it zigged and zagged in the swim.  It had the weight of a nice fish and i did wonder if it was a big trout or grayling at one point but then the fish dropped down into the flow and with it being quite shallow here i could see the tell take big white rubber lips that only chub posses silhouetted against the sandstone bottom of the river.  Again the flow provided me with a problem but the long landing net pole again helped me out.

The chub went 5lb 2oz on the scales so slightly smaller than the previous one.

It is worth mentioning here a bit about safety on the bank and especially on the river banks.  I was alone on the river on Sunday but i had told two members of my family the exact stretch of river i was going and i had made plans to get home for the football in the afternoon so they knew what time to expect me back home.  Safety on the bank is also important, especially when you are alone, as although the river may be shallow enough that if you did go in you would be able to stand up in most places, you turn your ankle on the way down or worse break a leg and you are in serious trouble, those heavy thermals that are there to keep you warm, when wet become your undoing.  One bit of kit, apart from a mobile phone of course, that i have found invaluable on the rivers is my long handled landing net as the picture shows below i could land the fish and rest it in the margins all from the top of the high bank without ever having to go down the bank to land the fish, be safe out there.

This swim and the remaining two swims produced no bites at all for myself but it was not through want of trying i feel i gave every swim my all and maybe the only thing i may have done better was to not have spent as much time on the first swim as i dad and maybe i would have been able to get around a few more swims.  I left one happy angler i really felt i had read the river, in tough conditions and user my watercraft to find the fish, i have no doubt had i been fishing this a year or two ago i would have blanked as i would have gone for the same places i normally fish and not where the fish are.  The dane really is a great river to learn about creases, undercuts and slacks, i am sure the river will be in fine fettle this weekend so why not give it a go and let me know how you got on.

One thing i did notice on my way back to the car was this shallow pond that has been filled by the recent rains.  I remember passing it and having a chuckle to myself as i thought please god do not let Warrington  Anglers committee see this pool as they will have it stocked with 3lb carp in no time at all!! On the upside at least it will mean the road down to the stretch will be kept in pristine condition, maybe we should dig one on the Dee at Worthenbury haha.

Well that is the blog for another week i do hope you enjoy reading about my adventures on the bank.

till next time

Tight lines

Danny

Storming Session on The Bridgewater Canal

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and it was great to see last weeks Fishy Fact or fiction get such great reviews.  When coming up with new ideas it is always touch or go as the blog in its current format is very popular so tinkering with it can be risky but i guess this will add some variety to the blog and the main structure of the update is still there as well, so its the best of both worlds.

This week on my dinner hour this week i was just checking on the blog and i was really pleased to see in the "blogs i follow" widget that a certain Stuart Maddocks had updated his blog.  Stuart Maddocks blog along with Stewart Bloors were the first blogs i read many years ago and i remember being inspired by the fantastic fish captures on Stuart Maddocks blogs and at the time i was relatively new to river fishing and i always remember being inspired by Stuarts blogs updates as they more often than not included fishing on the River Dee.  Stuarts love and passion for his local River Dee was evident in the way he wrote about this river and his descriptions of the sights and sounds he witnessed while on her banks have stuck with me to this day.  I was very fortunate to have been contacted by Stuart via email in those early days of my blog and his sound advice on blogging and piking etiquette are ones i still to this day try to stick too.

One night on Facebook i asked a question around line i should be using for my pike fishing and it was clear from the off I was under-gunned for piking on a river and it was Stuart who was straight in there helping me out along with a few of his piking friends and again there was no air of your doing this wrong, your doing that wrong it was plain and simple advice and educating a new angler to pike fishing on his part and you can tell how stuart is on his blog is how he is in real life whether that is being a gillie on the River Severn or helping out a fellow blogger on Facebook, a sound bloke and a man who's blog updates cannot help but motivate people to venture onto our local rivers.  In recent times Stuart has moved away from angling and has pursued his love of photography and wildlife and it has been great seeing the fruits of his trips on the few updates on his blog over the past year but that need to go angling was only ever subdued flame waiting to be ignited again and how fitting this close to bonfire night that stuart chose to set that need to go fishing alight with this PB chub below from the River Severn, congratulations, is this the King returning back to his blogging throne?, i do hope so.

Link to Stuart Maddocks blog: http://gonnfishin.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/back-in-flow-for-big-chub.html

Next up is this week's Fish Fact of Fiction and as said earlier i was really pleased to see this new part of the blog get such positive feedback and a few anglers got in touch with their views on the matter but the one that stood out was JAYZS who posted in the comments about his thoughts on the factors that can effect the chances of a fishes survival but it was his final paragraph that captured me "I suspect that keep nets kill more fish than hooks, fish jostling around in close company, and against the mesh, must put their protective slime coats at serious risk. And I still see some anglers holding fish in a towel, whilst they unhook them!"
Being an angler that does use a keep net i am sure we have a future Fishy Fact or Fiction hidden in that comments there, maybe even two and i am sure we will have great fun in upcoming blogs with those questions but for now its onto this weeks and it is in keeping with the fishing in this update.

"boats on a Canal are a pain and Ruin anglers fishing"

So this weeks question is all around canal fishing and the effect boats have on an anglers fortunes.  Many anglers who fish the canals are put off by the boats and curse as the boats begin to come through of a morning to the point some anglers only fish the morning sessions till the boats begin before packing up and heading home, so is that the best tactic and in my opinion do i think boats effect my fishing?

Firstly we have to take into account the different types of fishing you can do on the canal as each is definitely effected differently by boat traffic in my opinion.  In my late teen years on the canal i spent many an hour on the canal chasing pike, to many in fact i should have been in college, i would nip up the road to the canal armed with a few plugs, landing net and tools to unhook the pike.  It became apparent very early on that colour in the canal imparted by the boats was bad for the fishing and i got many more takes when the canal was clear as opposed to when it was coloured and it did get to the stage where i would only fish till the boats started.  This season i have spent many hours in the early morning fishing and i have noticed that the pike are a lot more active in the morning before the boats start with plenty of splashing as the pike crash into the shoals of fish, do not get me wrong i am not saying you don't catch pike when the canal is coloured or saying pike don't eat during the daytime as there is no doubt they do but i certainly have seen more action from this in the mornings than when the boats get going, it does seem strange as you would think the pike would take full advantage of the disorientation caused by a boat going through to ambush unsuspecting prey, so for this aspect i would certainly say boats do effect pike fishing for the worse.

Moving onto pole fishing for silvers and i do think this part of it is where most of the frustration is caused with boat traffic.  I fish mainly on the bridge water canal and the sankey canal and this puts me in a good place to comment as one has a height level of boat traffic and one has completely zero boat traffic as it is blocked at one end by silt and a bridge at the other.  I often have anglers stop by my peg on the bridgewater and a lot of them say the same thing "too many boats on here for my liking" and "bloody boats ruin the fishing on here" and i honestly feel it is completely the opposite as long as you choose your area of the canal to fish carefully.  I always choose a peg on the canal where i can put a line up out of the boat traffic, preferably up the side of a reed bed and this is purely to give me a line that i know is receiving little or disturbance from boats and i know my bait is there on the deck and not being spread far a wide but i also put another line just on the bottom of the far boat channel.  Take this weeks swim for example:

I put one line up the side of the reed bed and another line to the right of me right in front of the reeds right in the boats line of path,  i do this for one reason, i know the boats don't effect the fishing there and in fact the fishing gets better when the boats arrive and you can actually catch fish as a boat is approaching or straight after one has gone through, the fish are that used to it.  There is of course tactics in baits and feeding that change with each swim and i will go into that in the actual update on this session but for this type of fishing i would certainly say that boats do not directly effect fishing on the canal, however,  there is always an exception to every rule and this comes when in the depths on winter when bread fishing comes into its own and it is undoubtedly a fact that too much boat traffic in winter on your bread fishing can destroys your fishing as Alex Ferguson always says "No doubt about that".

These again are just my thoughts on the matter and born through my experiences on the canals, maybe your thoughts on it differ, if so why not get involved with the discussion on the blogs Twitter account or Facebook page or in the comments section of this post.  I post this question on each page during the week for people to discuss so why not come and put your two cents into the debate.

Storming Fishing on The Bridgewater Canal

This week and i guess it will be forever remembered as a week the country stood in wait for the storm of all storms to hit the UK.  The sad thing about these times is there are always those people in the wrong place at the wrong time and late on Saturday night word was spreading on Facebook that an angler on the River kennet had not returned home from the previous nights session, as of writing this blog he is still missing and i do hope that this story has a happy ending for this anglers family and my best wishes go out to the family and all concerned, fingers crossed for a positive outcome. This picture i captured after work on Thursday perfectly sums up the weather the week leading up to the weekend, heavy showers followed by bright warm gaps in the cloud.

The weather was due to hit late on Sunday evening but as i finished work on Friday it was plain to see the tone the weather was going to take the next day on the bank.  The one thing this weather did guarantee was the fact there would be no trip to the river to trot a float through the next day, a session on a still water was going to be the destination.

I knew from early on in that week that it would be a solitary vigil for me on the the canal as my uncle had a chance of overtime in work and at this time of the year especially work does come first and that may well prove to be the case for me in the coming weeks if some overtime comes up.  With first light not arriving till well come 7am and being only a 10 minute drive from my chosen swim it was gone 7.15am before i even loaded the car up for the trip and as predicted it was already raining quite heavy.  I am not an angler that is too bothered by the weather, 15 years of playing Rugby League saw to that but i must admit i never look forward to setting up in the rain as it just makes life that little bit more difficult.

The area of canal i had in mind, as mentioned earlier on, was an area of canal that contained a reed bed on the far bank.  I am a firm believer that you get out what you put in and this is also the case with my preparation and research as if myself and my uncle are looking to fish a new venue or stretch or river i will spend every dinner hour that week in work looking at the stretch on google earth just scouting out those areas on the stretch that are deep along with any obvious features i can see.  This coming weekend is a great example of this as we are looking at fishing a canal and i have spent all this week just looking for a new area for us to fish and i already cant wait to fish there, all you can do is your best, if the fish don't oblige then at least i know i could have done t no more in preparation.  It is a sound philosophy to live by and will day dividends in the long run i have lost count on how many times looking on google earth has saw us walk that little but further on a stretch but found a gem of a swim at the end of it.

The swim as shown above was opposite a reed bed and even before i arrived at the swim i had a plan in my head to how i wanted to fish this peg.  The plan was to feed a swim in around 3ft of water up the side of the reeds straight out in front of me with three balls of Dynamite Baits Silver X ground bait laced with pinkie and as i was setting up my top kits i fed my second line right of the reeds to my right with the catapult but i only fed loose maggot on this line.  It was important on the day to get my elastic choice right so i went with my preston number 4 solid elastic on the far line and fished my blue hydro elastic against the reeds the reason for this being i was expecting to catch small silvers over the groundbait line but i expected to hut nice perch and roach off the reeds so my thinking was the extra power would be needed there to get the fish away from the sanctuary of the reed bed.   The thinking behind not feeding groundbait on the reed line was the fact i knew boats would be coming through there so any groundbait would be all over the place but by feeding just a few maggots i was expecting all them to be eaten by the fish each put in thus leaving little to be spread by the boats, that was the thinking and the logic behind it.

I started off on the line in front of the reeds whilst feeding the far line every now and again with pinkie,  it did not take long for the first fish of the day and if i had to put my money on one fish to be the first fish of the day on a canal it would be a gudgeon and today was no different.  The canal is normally a place where your swim builds up over time and so do the size of the fish so i am never disheartened to see gudgeon as i know that the other fish like roach and perch will come later on.  The first sign of these better fish getting on the feed and pushing the gudgeon out was when i started connecting with some skimmer bream, only small mind but their a fish that is never alone.

The hunch they were not alone was correct as a few more of his friends joined him in the keep net and as expected a few of the better size skimmers showed up early on too.  Where you find skimmers and roach you will almost certainly find hybrids between the two and i am finding i am connecting with these fish quite a lot on this stretch of the canal which is great as they don't half out up a fight.   It was not long after this hybrid i had a very early visit from the first barge of the day a quick smile through the rain and a comment of "you must be as mad as me" was a exchange that brought a smile to my face.

The swim in front of the reeds was fishing steady with small roach and perch coming with great regularity and i was well on my way to putting together a nice net of canal fish and the swim was building nicely.  I have to say now that although swims on a canal generally build through the day very rarely do they build as well as they did on this day, the fish where having it and the main swim in front of the reeds went into overdrive.   It started with the swim going quiet for around five minutes before the float slid away and a lifted into solid resistance and nothing really prepared you for that feeling of striking into a fish and you're elastic shooting out but the float stays set in the water almost like you have stuck on bottom but there is a fish on the other end.

This spilt second where you lift and the float remains in the water always gives the identity of the fish away as a perch on this section of canal as their defiant nature is to stand its ground and fight and its that stance that lets you know its a perch, any other big fish just shoots off for the nearest cover and the only fish i encounter that does anything similar to a perch is a chub on the river as they have this stand and fight stance for a split second before heading for cover. The fish fought all the way in and when it ran it was well in the reeds when it did decide to flight instead of fight, it was a battle of wills and eventually the blur hydro elastic came through an the fish came into the middle and eventually into the net.

I was lucky to get this fish in, i should have lost it.  I learnt my lesson with that fish and for the rest of the session i was shipping back before the fish even knew it was hooked and it worked.  The day seemed to take an age to get light although it was 9.30-10am it was still really dark and grim but i had no complaints as it was keeping people off the tow path so shipping back, re-baiting and feeding the far line was done at leisure in my own time without a jogger huffing waiting for me to move my fishing pole from across the path.  Saturday  morning taught me one thing in that there are not only fair weather anglers out there, there is fair weather boaters, fair weather dog walkers, fair weather bikers and even fair weather joggers as no sooner had that rain stopped and the clouds broke and the sun came out the place was alive with all of the above you had to see it to believe it.

The perch in the net i filled the cad pot and shipped out again, only a sprinkling of maggots and a pinch of pinkie went over to the swim up the side of the reeds by this stage i was thinking i could be on for a good session especially as i hadn't touched that line yet and i imagined that would be gathering a fair few fish.  The line in front of the reeds then got into a steady rhythm of bites from smaller roach and perched followed by a lull and then a better fish and i was amazed at the quality of the fish coming out of this one line, firstly a nice fin perfect roach and then another big perch, by this time i had the striking and shipping straight back down to a fine art.

The swim did dry up around 11am and all of a sudden the bites that were roach and perch were replaced with gudgeon.  This is just how it is on a canal i find, you rarely catch all day form the same swim so that's why i always have at least two swims.  I had fed the swim up the side of the reeds steady all morning and introduced one or two more balls of groundbait in that time, it was time to see what it had attracted.  I went over on a single white maggot and i full expected the float to go under, but, it didn't, why was this the case?  I tried all manor of things from fining down to a single pinkie and a size 20 hook to messing around with depth and even tried fishing beyond my baited line to see if the fish had backed off.  I had to pack in around 1pm as i had jobs to do later on in the day and i have to say i messed around with this line for far too long as it was gone 12 by the time i admitted defeat on this line and with my tail between my legs went back onto the line in front of the reeds.

What could have been the reasons for this? was the question going over in my head and i think now looking back the two swims might have been too close together either this or as the temperature had dropped slightly the fish where in the slightly deeper water now rather than up on the shelf. I aim to learn from each session i go on and this was a lesson in both feeding and bait placement for the time of year.

I went back over the reed line for the rest of the session and it seemed that resting this swim had seen some more decent fish move in and another nice perch and the best bream of the day came to the net in the early stages of the last hour.

The best fish of the session was reserved for the last fish that came during the session as just as i was about to pack ship back and start wrapping in the float slid away and this beautiful redfin came to the net, as it broke the surface i was taken back by its shimmering flanks in the midday sun and it felt like the right moment to end the session on.

The final net went 10.5lb and was a net i was over the moon with as it contained no big bronze bream to bump the weight up, it was a net of pure silver fish and shows how well the canal is fishing this year and fingers crossed it continues to be a safe haven for our fish for many years to come.

The one thing the day did show me is just how the seasons have changed since my last visit to the swim a few weeks ago as the sight of the family of buzzards soaring on the midday thermals was replaced with a solitary Robin looking to steal a meal from my maggot tray.  The leaves of the trees around me, now either being relieved of their brown leaves or still clinging onto the last of their green ones gave all the trees around me a diverse mix on autumnal colours with dark greens mixed with browns and yellow ochres.

That is it for this week i hope you all enjoy my weekly blog and till next time its tight lines from me,

thank you

Danny