As soon as I got here I realised I would have a problem, my landing net is compact and generally ok for fishing the canal towpath but here many of the swims were elevated with near and far bank cover so to land anything decent would be a nightmare.
I didn’t really want to get in to that sort of situation so I had to pick and choose the swims to fish carefully.
It’s very sheltered and again sees little flow or movement apart from the odd passing boat. The water seems almost stagnant…
Over the two hour session I spotted a huge dead rat and weirdly a severed lambs head floating on the water which only added to the lifeless feel about the stretch.
I’m sure the neglected stretches are ideal havens for the larger fish though but with the Zander’s strange feeding patterns and the fact the bigger fish turn up in the most unlikely of places it was out with the deadbaits.
The first boat came through as I was dismantling the roads but I’ve found the disturbance can sometime be more of a help than a hindrance, maybe the predator is after any fish that may have been injured by the boats prop or the extra colour in the water gives them the extra cover they need.
Sure enough the first swim produced 2 fish in quick succession, one a tiny scrapper who took a roach section bigger than its head and the second fish nearly 3 lb or so. With the swim disturbed I moved 200 yards further down to the next tasty looking swim.
Again two more schoolies caught in quick succession, encouraging, good sport, but not what I’m after.
The next section of thick cover I lost a reasonable fish that took the float on a merry dance but eventually managed to head-shake the hook free.
The next swim narrowed past a bridge and was also elevated but luckily there was enough foot hold on the lower bank to be able to land a fish if necessary. I don’t fish the near bank enough but I dropped one of the floats more or less by my feet and that was the first float to move. I could tell this was a tiny fish though as they seem very eager to get the float on the move.
Talking of floats I couldn’t get any Drennan No1 Zepplers so had to settle for the No2 which is 11g if I recall. To be honest the only difference I noticed being larger they are more visible, the float still moves in the exact same way. The rig I’ve chopped and changed over the many session and the hundreds of fish I’ve caught works brilliantly, the sensitivity is excellent and it holds station in most movements of the cut.
The final swim sadly 2 more schoolies, they were definitely on the feed again tonight.
The session planned the weekend, again, is pastures new and another whole area to explore before I start at the bottom all over again.
I’m beginning to realise, this section apart from holding my PB it also holds a huge amount of small fish, I need to wade through the scrappers and get lucky.
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