Been a bit lax on the blog of late - have been working on a contract in London and been dead busy with work changes (of which, more to follow). Have just discovered a “work off-line” option in Drivel (my blog editor of choice) so can now catch up with it on the train in and out - hurrah!
Meanwhile, back on the canal
I had an awesome session on the canal recently which I wanted to write about. I’ve been doing a lot of float fishing on the river lately with not much to report as I’m still really finding my feet with baits, techniques and all. I decided to have a go back on the canal as I’ve got a much better idea of how to feed properly and how to keep a swim going, all of which meant I thought I had a good chance of getting in to some of the skimmers in the canal. As most of what I have caught recently is around half a pound, the promise of some over-a-pound fish was a strong draw. I found a good swim with good far bank cover which reached out almost to the far shelf, and I decided I’d fish just out from there. I know the bream like the middle best, but I was hoping to get the best of both worlds and also connect with some of the larger roach I thought would be under the cover.
I was putting in loose feed of garlic hemp and strawberry corn (main course and dessert!) and fishing 2-3 red maggots on a size 16. I set the hook an inch or so over depth to start with and got started. Usually on the canal I will feed loose maggots as well, and the bites come thick and fast - usually from hordes of tiny perch - so the start was a little less than promising as it took 10-15 minutes to get the first fish. A roach of about 2-3 ounces to kick off, which was a good start. Some gudgeon followed that, and the perch did move in, but in far smaller numbers than usual given that there was no loose feed floating around that they would be interested in. Some more roach were coming, but nothing bigger than before. However, I was certain that the approach was right and it was going to be a case of waiting until the larger fish moved in and kicked the little ones off the bait.
And so they come…
After an hour or so the float lifted and dithered a bit before sliding under. I struck expecting a skimmer, but met with a lot more resistance than I am used to. There was clearly a bigger fish on the end, and I was elated to see a bream of at least 3 pound come into view. It put up little resistance as I netted it, and posed very obligingly for a photo:
This is a definite personal best for me and I was cursing the fact that I left my scales at home, but I slipped it back and carried on. I upped the loose feed a bit as I would expect a shoal of fish this size to need a lot to keep them occupied, and I had a second fish out of the same size about 10 minutes later. I was excited now. No more bream came out, but I did start to get some slightly larger roach (3-5 oz) coming out so it was clear that the little fish were losing ground to the big ‘uns. About 30 minutes on and ready to pack up, the float went again and I struck into another bream of about the same size…
Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it a bream?
Except this one stayed down low and didn’t come straight up like the others. And after 20 seconds or so it woke up and charged off at a rate of knots - a carp? I only had 2 pound line on and I don’t trust the clutch on my reel so I had flipped the reverse-wind on and was having to do a lot to keep the pressure on while trying not to get snapped off. The fish did a circuit of the swim twice and then tried to head off down the canal before admitting defeat and coming in. As it rose to the surface I saw a gorgeous green back and the thick tail of a nice size tench:
I was ecstatic! My Dad used to fish for tench when he was younger and this fish has reached an almost mythical state for me as, despite always trying, I have never caught one before. I reckoned this one was over four pounds, but without my scales I had no way of knowing. I didn’t mind though, a childhood dream was fulfilled today and that has to count as a personal best, whatever the weight.
Coda
I did a lot right today, but I’d also be the first to admit that I got lucky. There are a lot of good fish on the canal but you have to get on them to catch them. I did well to get them in front of me and I think the approach I used got the best out of the swim. However, I feel that a better angler would have had more than two bream out, and I wonder how to approach this situation next time. A few thoughts:
- I didn’t use a keepnet, and I generally don’t for smaller fish. Even though I put the bream back in 10 yards down the bank, I can’t help but think that, in a swim less than 20 feet across, a fish of that size must communicate to its brethren that there is trouble afoot. Should I use a keepnet for the bigger fish?
- If it’s not the above that limited the bream to two fish only - do I need to up the feed even more if they are about? Or, are the canal shoals small enough that the extra feed I put in effectively filled the bream up and they moved on?
- Or did the bream move on when the tench moved in? I didn’t stay much longer after I had the tench. Partly because time was up, but partly because the fight seemed to have scared everything else off as that was my last fish. I only had 2lb line on so I think I need to scale this up to 4lb in future, then I can take charge a bit more. I can always use a lighter hooklink if the bites don’t come.
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