Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.26

I knew I should have gone home but glutton for punishment I suppose and I wanted to try and track down a canal carp. When I first started fishing this canal there were those carp holding spots that would be the same year on year, and if it wasn't for the canal Zander quest taking all my time, they would have been well worth targeting.

To be fair I did catch one and also lost two, the two that were lost were always tucked up in thick cover (now sadly thinned to an inch of its life) and when hooked despite fishing as tight as I'd dare, the initial run was far too violent and they always knew where they were going. 

Anyway on route to the first bit of cover early doors are jogger was heading towards me when out of nowhere a deer came from a field to my left, proceeded to jump straight in to the middle of the canal and they unlike some I've seen recently managed to get out without much issue. 

But that was a lively as it got as lift float and bread zilch, a sleeper bread bomb, naff all but there is one big issue here and that is that the thick cover the carp used to hold up here in their numbers, like lots of the local canal stretches for some reason has been removed in huge quantities.  

Cover provides sanctuary and safety for fish especially the larger fish and the reality is if it's not there anymore the fish have likely moved on.

How would you feel if the Canal and Rivers Trust turned up at your gaff, proceeded to remove your roof and then for good measure gave you a kidney punch and then with the overly engineered clippers gave you a no.1. 

Yeah you wouldn't like it either.....

Boat traffic was nonexistent for the duration of the session and yet even the bream, roach or hybrids didn't seem to be interested. 

So I decided to venture to the next bit of cover which had held carp in the past but the Zander seemed to have muscled them out over the years. Same story here nothing on either of the tactics leaving me thinking whether I should I brought my Zander gear. 

On route to the last area a 30 metre section of reeds was alive with Zander spawning the video below taken as I was leaving, at 7.45am there was splashing and fish properly breaking surface, this sadly only the post session cigarette, believe you me, they definitely looked like they were having fun. 

I left them to it and went to the last bit of cover where it went like this....

The first bite on the lift method bread rod missed !!!

The second bite exactly the same as the first, struck in to nothing despite a classic 4 inch lift !!!!

The third bite, YES, a fish on !!!! well for a couple of seconds anyway as it dropped off 😬

Hmmm great, not going well is it...

....to be fair there was one saving grace as a carp revealed its back clear of the water and at least raised my eyebrows. The problem was there no chance in hell getting a bait to it as it was beyond a tangled mess of branches. I positioned the bread bomb as close as I'd dared but it didn't budge at all and even some bread thrown to plop straight out in front of it were completely ignored. Not unusual with canal carp because in my limited experience you cannot provoke them in to feeding. 

So that was a wrap, a blank and hardly any bites sadly. There is much warmer weather on the way though so better for fish spotting as its amazing with strong sun over their heads they often dust off their sandals and head for the sun beds.