Canal Roach - The Sisyphean Task ? Pt.8

So I was back on the roach hunt this time on a stretch of canal I've fished plenty of time but never for the smaller species. I've only fished it for Zander but it has the 'Hallowed' green tinge to the water and I fancied trying to see if I was missing anything.

Naturally I'd have a deadbait rod out as well it would be rude not to wouldn't it !!

Again another early start to hopefully avoid the boats because I switched the float again to a 3BB Drennan Antenna float where I'd over shotted it by 1BB where I'd bulk all those shot a inch and a bit before the fine wire size 12 hook.

On route to the spot to fish there was fish spawning all over the gaff. I've never seen such activity like this before, they were properly on it. 

These were quite clearly bream though and after mashing some bread in the mild water I actually decided to measure the temperature and it had shot up to 15 degrees, which does explain them being on it so to speak.

I decided to leave them to it and fish around 30 yards away that looked perfect for a bite.I wasn't wrong either because after chucking out the sleeper rod with a partly frozen roach on, within around 10 seconds the float is getting some interest where after a few seconds of not doing much it confidently goes off an run. 

This was no Zander as expected though it was a small pike that had snaffled the bait almost on the drop. So with the predators on it I decided to fish for those instead leapfrogging sections and sections of cover, with to be honest no more bites.

With a few boats now moving I decided to fish the session as planned because to be honest the tow wasn't that bad and because it's quite a wide bit of canal here the boats don't tend to be that much of an issue.

So bread for the hook and bread slop as feeder a wallace cast distance out. The float I must admit worked perfectly where after 10 minutes or so there were some bubbles around the float which can only mean one thing, that there were fish feeding in the swim.

Sure enough the float acted out the classic lift bite where it almost seem to rise in slow-motion leaving me plenty of time to strike. I knew it was a bream straight away rather than a roach I fancied but at least I knew the method worked as intended.

It almost seems a little cumbersome with the 4 bb shot pinched on the line near the hook but like I said it worked perfectly. The next fish was a hard fighting roach bream hybrid where if it was just the former it would have ended the quest right there and then.

A side by side comparison shows just how slender the bream are and how built like brick outhouses the hybrids are. Anyway with a busy day ahead in the end I called the session slightly early because the boat traffic was becoming annoying and the Zander didn't seem up for a feed anyway to be honest. An enjoyable few hours though and the new float set-up worked perfectly. 👌 I just need to stumble on to some big roach now, fingers crossed for the next session in a couple of days time.