Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.35

A very busy time of late, you see in addition to the daily work grind family 'stuff' has dictated the days events which have been unpredictable to the extreme. Fishing obviously has to take a back seat in these circumstances but luckily after one of those seemingly ever lengthening days a treat was in store.

You see the Wife had taken the kids to Cadburys World and came back with a wellbeing right'erer, yeap an Old Jamaica bar, which if you are struggling to read the wrapper is dark chocolate with rum and raisin which is a great combination for the uninitiated.  

The recipe hasn't changed over the years but you cannot please some people as if you look at the recent reviews, vegans are up in arms.

You see due to use of shared manufacturing equipment, Cadbury's must now declare that their products may contain milk solids, the recipe for Cadbury Bournville hasn't changed apparently but it seems the additional text to conform to industry standards ain't gone down to well. 

Now what hasn't gone down well in certain quarters is the non-native fish the Zander. The 'invasive' fish that frequents these turbid shallow waters in my geographical location and others a short car journey away. Specific locations where to be honest all and sundry know where they are, yes that's correct 'all over the shop'.

Removing Zander is merely papering over the cracks, because they are so naturalised and established in these quarters now, the wands wavers and bucket fillers are wasting their time, unless there is another reason for their neuron nudging ? 🤔. 

Imagine trying to remove the Ex Pats from their caravans in Benidorm and from their 1 Euro pints of mediocre beer, yeah it ain't going to happen.

Anyway with all that has been going on I didn't think I would be able to get out for this evening session. But a quick smash and grab with the Zander rods in a swim where I'd managed some recently. The fish seemed to tuck themselves tight to reeds over at the far bank despite the swim being shallower than I was 25 years ago (hands up 🙌)

A lovely quiet stretch this and that's why I like it, the sound of birdsong mainly with the feint drone of a main road which luckily doesn't spoil the solitude.

A muggy evening but it looked good for a bite but an hour and a half in moving the baits around the 100 yard stretch not a sausage. So it was time for a move to a lock mouth which has some turbulent water.

It is a little deeper here due to the boat track and lock make-up but again half an hour in with two roach deadbaits the floats remained motionless.

Look on the positives though, no phone signal whatsoever which for me is a Godsend at the minute. Those messages on hold till the 4G signal pops its head over the towpath and those bars unfortunately appear.

I was on for another move when out of the blue the left hand float moves an inch and after a short pull on the float after a few seconds a bite develops.

At first I thought it was a perch the way it was fighting but no it turned out to be a small schoolie. The target species but about 5 times smaller than I'd like. That was that, no more bites and as the sun was setting I decided to end the session early head back to reality.