Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt. 5

As anglers we hate losing big fish don't we and the last session here up at dog poo alley something gave me the middle finger and waved the hook goodbye with a huge boil on the canals turbid surface. 

What that fish was who knows, but a couple of blog readers came to the rescue and put the suspicion and likely suspect as an eel, and a good'un at that.

Now considering the hundreds of time I've fished deadbaits on the canal under a float to my knowledge I've never banked an eel let alone one take make my bait, but the characteristic bite I received it maybe well have been.

You see the float bobbed violently a couple of times before disappearing from view and that had happened before when targeting Zander on the river using a similar overdepth float set-up when the culprit has been an eel. 

This is the largest landing let I own and I do remember a session where I lost a decent one at the net on the river where I tried and failed a couple of times to scoop it in to the waiting net. 

One last powerful wriggle the hook pulled and the snake was off leaving me with a slime tainted mesh that till this day is still visible despite the a good going over by the aging Kärcher. 

 

So anyway I was back for this post work session and this time I would fish in to dusk and slightly beyond. 

A short wire running set-up with a bunch of worms on a quick stop and a size 6 barbless hook and bite indication from an alarm and a roll-over.

These work very well indeed and provide almost resistance free indication when the ball bearing within the main arm moves when a bite is received. 

When it moves along the arm and then cantilevers about the pivot point it lifts the line stop vertically, which then means that the line is free to run from the spool and the quarry unaware of any extra baggage than the bait itself.

The other rod was my standard overdepth Zander float rod and that would be fished with a whole small roach bait, barely 3 inches in length.

The problem became evident an hour in to the session. 

You need fish around to catch and no bites on either rod, and they were suspicious in their absence. The crud on the surface didn't help matters either as there was lots of recasting to do as the bouncing between locks meant that the debris was collecting on the line going back and fore.  

Dusk came and went and even the Zander were not interested having moved the bait all around the swim. The worms as well you would have though any small fish or bream would be up for a nibble, but a couple of liners and that was it.

So I left when the headtorch was required with a dry net !!!

Heading towards the tail-end of this week we have a couple of frosts so I suspect the fishing ain't going to improve significantly. 

Anyway how long till the rivers are back open again ?, bit bored of this already, might have to dust off my dry fly Tenkara gear and go and hit those local streams for those brook trout. They should be looking skywards for those mayflies I'm sure.