Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.25

Sam turns eleven years old this weekend and seven years in to his angling pastime he has caught some really nice fish over the years. In-fact he still holds the Newey roach / bream hybrid record a fish that he caught at the rather large lake at Center Parcs @ Elvedon Forest when he was just four years old.

Scary how time seems to fly by now I'm on the countdown to my 50th birthday. Still Sam is still interested in fishing which is encouraging and he still recalls the hybrid he caught that is still bigger than Daddies !!!!

Now that lake produced some really nice perch in the end and if I think about it, apart from the odd work match I used to fish, that was the last still water I fished. I prefer more natural venues if I'm honest and in the closed season, canals are about the closest to a natural venue I can get. 

Anyway that was quite a memorable holiday as he was chased by the "big bad duck'" and even till this day unlike his Fatty Arbuckles frequenting Dad he is afraid of large birds and gives them a wide birth every time he sees them. 

A confident lure fisherman, caster and rod user he has decided himself he wants to go back to basics hence the use of a whip recently because let's be honest here, to see a float bury under the water is very addictive indeed.

We had planned to go to the 'hallowed' the evening before but I decided to postpone it for another week when there was less threat of rain and quite a bit warmer.

Some reports from the ground were mixed with the fishing tough somedays and very good the other. For Sam to enjoy fishing these days he needs bites and lots of them.

The rain didn't really materialise till much later on than predicted but then I made the mistake of relying on the various weather predictors that get it wrong more often than not !!! 

This local canal is not that type of canal sadly, so he is less than keen to join me bankside where often a good session is a fish or two. 

So for this early morning session with Sam still welded to his duvet I was back in the area with high footfall, but this time I'd stay in one swim rather than move around and also I'd have a Zander sleeper rod out.

The gear was still in the car so a lift float set-up with bread discs and liquidised bread as feed, with some roach coriander and hemp ground bait added as well as some 3mm feed pellets. I'm no match angler you know as blog readers that but it's nice to experiment on waters I rarely fish this way. 

I've been enjoying it though to be fair and even this area is quite busy as a misanthrope, weirdly its not got to me like I thought it would. Well until this session I suppose, because a boat was moored up exactly where I wanted to fish and despite me getting there early doors the first boat came through literally as I'd just fed the swim.

Not an issue in itself because we all share the water but not long after 6.00am is a little early to start moving a boat. The bottom is stirred up you see and a canal that had 6 inches of visibility now had naff all. After it settled I thought it looked good for a bite but nada, zilch, nought !!!!

On a positive note I spotted some Zander spawning in some cover on the far side between two boats and almost coincided with a Canal and River Trust pick-up driving past !!!!

Nothing to see here !!!!

Anyway I moved swims with the same result with nothing doing whatsoever and with two boats making their way towards me I decided to end the session early and head to the tackle shop that had just opened to buy some large roach deadbaits. The hallowed here we come !!!!