Piscatorial Quagswagging

...the diary of a specialist angler in around the Warwickshire Avon and its tributaries.

Thursday 6 June 2024

Canal Roach - The Sisyphean Task ? Pt.10

Apparently the UK experienced its warmest May and spring on record, Met Office figures show.
The average temperature across March, April and May was a balmy 9.37°C – 0.15°C warmer than the previous record, set back in 2017.

But if you felt like you permanently had your umbrella glued to your hand, you're not wrong, with agency also confirming is was among the wettest on history.


A Met Office Spokesperson said: 'Higher than average temperatures in March and May, either side of a slightly warmer than average April, means that Spring 2024 is the warmest on record according to mean temperature.

'Despite the warmth, sunshine hours during the season were well below average, though not troubling any national records.

'High overnight temperatures through the season have helped to push the mean temperature figure for the season beyond the previous record, while it has also been a wet spring for many.'



The weather does seem all over the shop at the minute, and those lovely sunny days we have from time to time only last a day, and then the following day is complete contrast.

It's been nice not to have to don a big jacket mind you a hoodie will suffice and even Sam is expressing an interest is coming fishing with his Dad again, so the weather is milder there is no denying that !!!
 
Anyway back to the fishing, after working from MIRA for the day and dropping in to see my mum afterwards I decided to stop off at an area where my biggest canal roach was caught.

To be honest since that capture my results have been nothing to write home about but I know for sure those bigger roach don't give up easily.

A lock not far from here has been closed for a while which has meant the boat traffic is (almost) non existent which has been rather nice indeed I must admit.

Nic from Avon Angling was here the other day mind you and a boater was reversing the stretch from lock to lock because he had to get to the local marina to get his poo tank pumped out 😀

Carnage ensued and will be in one of his videos I'm sure, so a lovely peaceful canal turned into a muddy jacuzzi with a overly active till turner.

You had to laugh because narrowboaters are not used to reversing especially when it might have been a couple of miles and quite a few locks.

Anyway back to the roach, I'd not fished near the far bank reeds for a while and that would be my main swim to fish as well as some nearside reeds that were sticking out into the water. 

Some bread slop went out and I'd fish a large piece of bread flake on the size 12 hook under the overdepth mini pellet waggler set-up. A little overgunned I suppose but it's a rig that seems to work and within ten minutes of getting the bait out I was already getting indications there were fish in the swim.


The culprit were small roach though where I assume after whittling down the large piece of bread eventually they could get the bait in their mouths. So a few caught before the swim went dead, so I tried another couple of swims without even a nibble, even the resident carp wasn't showing either. So I returned to the swim where after getting some more mash out within a few minutes I had a confident bite and a fish was on !!!

It felt like a big roach right from the off so I was really gentle with it where sadly 4 or 5 seconds in to the fight it just came off, WTF !! it's much better seeing the fish in this scenario but I didn't get to see it. I'm sure it was a big roach though, and after another half an hour biteless I decided to return soon where I'd have more time and also could fish in to dusk which is beneficial. 

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