Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.125 (Canal Zander, Bread Munchers and Captain Quagswag)

Another fantastic lunch at Stratford-Upon-Avon's Beleza Rodizio, meat, meat and more meat, Brazilian rodizio-style. 

Now Brazilian rodízio-style is a type of all-you-can-eat dining experience, especially popular in Brazilian steakhouses (churrascarias), where a wide variety of meats are served continuously at your table until you say stop.

If you've not tried these type of restaurants servers, called passadores, come around with large skewers of freshly grilled meats beef, pork, chicken, lamb, sausage, etc. and you help yourself to the self service salad bar., which is also superb to be honest.

You usually get a red or green card (or in Straford's case a block of wood shaped like an egg timer, red one end, green the other) Green "yes, bring more" and red "I'm taking a break" or "I'm full".

No rush, just pace yourself, the highlights well, the Picanha is hard to fault which is a cap of rump, the Alcatra (the wife's favorite) which is top sirloin cut, Cordeiro which is lamb with mint and then my favorite, the beef in garlic marinade. I love the chicken hearts they do, but sadly not on the lunch menu, oddly the garlic beef wasn't either, but I wasn't complaining !!!

Greedy, you betcha, but not that horrible full feeling you get when you've consumed a pizza for example. The service well, it was absolutely superb, we will be back !!  Anyway talking of greedy !!

In the heart of Birmingham, the bin crisis had reached apocalyptic proportions. Rubbish heaps were so high, local pigeons were getting vertigo. 

Out of the chaos emerged a new kind of urban legend: a heroic, caped rat named Captain Quagswag, riding a sleek black cat and rallying the city's rodent population to reclaim the streets… and the bins.

But Captain Quagswag was no ordinary rodent. He had a dream a dream that didn’t stink of old kebabs and leaking nappies. He longed for fresh air, calm waters, and the gentle tug of a fish on a line. So, after rallying his crew of bin-diving rat warriors, he announced:

"We're going fishing, lads. And not just anywhere we’re hitting the canals of Stratford-upon-Avon!"

With a trail of wheelie bins behind them and a stolen mobility scooter leading the charge, Captain Quagswag and his rat brigade made their way down the canal towpath. They dodged swans, jumped over barbecues, and even stopped briefly to battle a gang of angry geese.

Upon arrival at the marina, they commandeered an abandoned canal boat—“The HMS Stinkbait”—painted it bright red, and set sail (slowly) into open waters. The rats cast their makeshift fishing lines (recycled coat hangers with cheese strings for bait) and waited.

To everyone’s shock, Captain Quagswag soon hooked something massive. The boat rocked. The black cat, acting as first mate, hissed in excitement. After a 30-minute battle that involved three rats getting flung into the canal and a small explosion involving a camping stove, Quagswag landed it—a shopping trolley filled with fish fingers and a half-eaten Greggs sausage roll.

Cheers erupted. It was a feast. The Birmingham rats had gone from bin-bothered scavengers to canal-fishing legends. From that day forward, canal-goers in Stratford spoke of the strange boat manned by a masked rat and his feline companion. And the sign on the back of the boat said it all:

“Captain Quagswag’s Piscatorial Patrol – Bin There, Fished That.”

Now I've fished this marina many a time and to be honest I've not done brilliantly. Ok I've had some Zander but nothing big, but this time I fancied also trying for some other species so I had some bread slop with me and bread for the hook. Was I missing a trick ? quite possibly as Blog Reader Nick (Waves to Nick) emailed me over winter to say he was doing ok when he fished it. 

You cannot really get much cruder than this set-up, a 2 SSG Guru Pellet waggler sits on the surface like my Zander deadbait setup and a SSG shot an inch from the size 12 hook provides the anchor and plummet. 

Feed some groundbait and wait for a bite. It didn't take long either however the first fish I bumped off, still I need not have worried because the fish were on it straight away. You see I managed 9 or so fish within the first hour where I should have used a keepnet, here a small selection of the fish caught. Mainly bream but some nice hard fighting hybrids kept me entertained.

The swim went dead when the sun came out so I decided to put the zander rod out when chilling out with a cup of tea and ten minutes later it bobs and sails confidently under and I'm in to a fish. A proper hard fighting Zander this one and it gave me the run around for a while, trying to get under the boat to my right at one point. 

I didn't weigh it but it was a decent one and certainly worth getting out of bed early for. I tried another 2 spots but the fish after the initial madness were just not up for feeding for some reason. The sun was illuminating the whole marina though so not ideal.

I went for a nose at another marina entrance a short walk away but there was nothing doing whatsoever and when the first boat was heading away from its moorings I called it a day. I've not been doing that well for a while, so it was nice to get a few bites for a change.