A nippy start to the morning with 2 degrees showing in the car when I left at a couple of pieces of toast past 6.30am. I must be mad because looking back at my blog over the years fishing the canals can often be tough going when the water temperatures are still pretty low.
Still you cannot catch a fish if you haven't a bait in the water and with 13,5k steps covered in this 4.5 hour session it boosts the wellbeing no end, when most of the week I'm sat behind a computer screen.
The Wife is very busy during the week so she actively encourages me to go fishing because it means she can have her well deserved lie in and she can get to watch those TV programs in bed that she knows I wouldn't watch.
Anyway to the fishing it's a quiet stretch this and sees little foot traffic even in summer and there is a good reason for that, the catchment area is rural with sporadic houses and a small village. Boat traffic is more in the summer and holiday season and I've only seen one narrowboat in three days thus far, the one being today.
There are pike here as well, in-fact about the only stretch I fish I switch to wire on the lure rod and also the deadbait rods. It's clearer you see and that means this place is home to to some lovely dark coloured zander when they are biting.
So it was out with the lure rod for this session and also a deadbait rod to try and find the fish. There are plenty of locks and features here and the first swim I fished I rarely blank.
Well I say that, recently it had failed to give up any fish and it was the same for this session. I gave the deadbait a good 40 minutes in the swim and also the lure a good thrashing but nothing doing so it was time for a rove.
I bumped in to an angler from the Czech Republic who works in one of the local racehorse stables and had a nice half an hour natter all things fishing related. He was lure fishing and like me had been struggling recently but he'd caught some nice chub in the past here so it put me on to an area I'm going to try out with bait and also maybe a Salmo Hornet.
We went our separate ways and got on with the fishing. Same old story again sadly, swim after swim after swim, nothing. Not bites on the deadbait tight to cover and also in and around the lock mouths. The water clarity was a little bit less than a foot and ideal for the lure I thought, but not this morning.
The area that throws up some nice zander that I usually fish for bream was unusually quiet and I gave the bait rod much longer that I usually would do.
One swim I managed a hit on the lure, but sadly it was a PB chain that certainly tested the tackle to it's limits.
Talk about a tough few sessions, one lost fish and that was the only bite I've had in almost 12 hours of fishing I reckon. The blog archives show that it's not unusual as I mentioned before but some of the swims I fished looked perfect for a fish to be holding up in it.
I'll keep at it though, I think I might try in to dusk next time for the zander though, maybe if they are on short feeding spells because of the conditions, maybe the lower light levels will pay dividends.
Despite being cold a lovely morning overall and when the sun came out it was very pleasant indeed.
So another blank to add the growing collection, might dust off my golf clubs !!!
Looks a nice stretch.
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