He is approached by screwballs, layabouts, lurkers, peeping Toms, meth drinkers, religious maniacs, vegetarians, bovver boys, and old ladies with strong views on the dreadfulness of it all. Curiously, in my own experience he is seldom approached by a beautiful nymphomaniac heiress whose old man owns a brewery.
Monday 30 May 2022
Canal Zander - The Hallowed II Chronicles Pt.6
He is approached by screwballs, layabouts, lurkers, peeping Toms, meth drinkers, religious maniacs, vegetarians, bovver boys, and old ladies with strong views on the dreadfulness of it all. Curiously, in my own experience he is seldom approached by a beautiful nymphomaniac heiress whose old man owns a brewery.
Tuesday 24 May 2022
Brook Trout - Warwickshire Tenkara Pt.2
Monday 23 May 2022
Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.34
Now blog reader Jon knows I want to try and catch a canal carp before the river season opens and he'd put me on to a very urban stretch of canal where he'd been 'bust' up when fishing for other species.
The carp once hooked shot under the boat and in to the reeds before you had a chance to say "Oh FFS !!". Now you know me, any location tips welcome because some of the best fish I've caught have been as I've been pointed in the right direction.
Now it was only when I took to Google maps where I realised where it was and to be fair I had fished it a few years ago for Zander and I'd not been back since. Why you would want to fish this sort of stretch is beyond me, because let's be honest, there are far nicer areas to fish where the footfall is nothing like it is here.
So an early one was on the cards and whilst the unwashed masses were adding to their bedsores I for some reason got myself out of a warm bed and a couple of large comforting plump pillows to head to a stretch of canal that is largely out of ones comfort zone. !!!
Obviously it was rude not to have a Zander sleeper rod out and being a quick smash and grab session I'd only fish this one swim. So bread on the dedicated carp rod and a small whole roach on my usual overdepth canal Zed set-up.
An hour and a half with the bread cast here there and everywhere not a sausage. The first half an hour the bait was tight to the boat with some freebies but nought doing despite it looking like a carp or two could be hiding there. The Zander rod as well, nada !!!
So once the waifs, strays and werewolf decided to surface I decided to up-sticks and move up to the chub swim, pack my carp rod away and get the float rod out.
It didn't take long to for the first bite either, not a chub though but a hard fighting hybrid. Not the biggest but at least it wasn't a blank. No more fish in that swim so I decided to head back to the car and fish a reedy area where I'd caught some small Zander from.
And sure enough there will still milling around, in-fact I caught 4 before I got bored and decided to end the session early.
Encouraging signs though as I said before, I don't usually catch them this small and despite their persecution from certain quarters they are still lovely fish to see from a turbid canal. And that was that, another session on the canal ticked off and still quite a few more to go.
Sunday 22 May 2022
Canal Zander - The Hallowed II Chronicles Pt.5
I cannot do that in the proper office now can I !!!
But lets be honest here any break however small it may be from family, work and life's pressures must be taken whenever it can.No let up is there, where if I was young free and single I'd have contemplated selling up, downsizing, retiring and living the simple life in a tiny house somewhere.
I bet it would have been dooable too if it wasn't for the pocket pilferers that are here to stay.
Friday 20 May 2022
Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.33
Mrs Thwaite, 44, who has two children with her 49-year-old husband, said the win will give them "time to dream".
There is a holiday company you see not far away and this is the first lock they come to so it's always quite funny to watch, as was the boat that passed with 7 half cut women onboard who looked like had already drank the top shelf twice over.
Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.32
Preparation in my cooking carries over to my fishing where the rods are pre-rigged, the baits are sorted and often the car already loaded prior to the session. It means less dillydallying around in the morning where often I roll out of bed and within 10 minutes after dropping the kids off at the pool I'm on my way.
I'm sure much of it is my engineering make-up where often planning and preparation is a key part of the job and it's just something I have done since day dot.
Holiday's like a military operation, the Wife rolling her eyes not getting the reason why I do it, humour me, you needn't get in the way my Dear !!!.
A 13lb'er caught on the lure witnessed by an angler I've shared towpaths with a few times Buffalo Si as he fishes the same waters as me, who not long after witnessing the lure angler putting the fish back caught a double himself, a fish of 12lb and 5 ounces.
His one session though would take up 5 of mine, but hey it's probably why his numbers came up far quicker than mine did, clearly more resolve but his probability massively reduced when he decided to spend time on a water that didn't appear on my radar until very late in the quest.
All very encouraging mind you, as in the Midlands we must have one of the best bits of canal for not only variety of fish but also the size of the predators. So before that kick up the backside I need to go and try for an even bigger canal Zander than my 11lb 8oz quest concluder it was back to the grime, back to the slime.A tiny CR322 battery provides the power to the LED within the tip and once they are assembled together the assembly is completed by mating the tip thread to the battery housing thread which is packaged in the main body.
Ok probably not the type of float I'd used for canal fishing as it's more of a trotting pattern but these are not tackle shy fish, but wild fish in the canal so despite being 5 and a half BB weighted the size of the float didn't bother me.
So an old rod (Middy White Knuckle CX 10ft Waggler Rod) gathering dust in the garage was dusted off and an unused centrepin in need of a service was fitted with 5lb line and I was all ready to go.