What a stunning day this was with the mercury reaching a rather nice 28 degrees. After enjoying the beer garden in the pub a few hours after lunch, later I was trudging the towpaths for carp. I'd not been up at this bit for a good while but I'd spotted carp in the past so with the sun beating down to illuminate the canal this would be one of those rare days that it might be easier to spot them.
There was a nice breeze and the towpaths were a little quieter than I thought they would be, but then many were probably BBQ'ing like I would do later, and enjoying their own gardens or someone else's.
The two mile stretch I ended walking really is a rather nice place to be. Often the canal is in shade because of the trees that shroud it but any carp on the surface would be pretty easy to spot.
What I did spot in a few areas were shoals of snack sized roach which were lovely to see. One particular shoal was a thousand strong I'd imagine. Very spooky mind you as a small piece of bread thrown in amongst them they scarpered never to be seen again.
I've rarely wet a line here apart from a few of the lock mouths for zander but the results have been mediocre so it's been off my radar. I have caught them here don't get me wrong, but it's never really got me thinking I need to do a bit of a campaign down here.
Some of the swims look perfect for a decent fish to be laying up though with plenty of overhanging cover that stretches over the canal. A couple of the swims also were full with snags where trees and branches litter these turbid waters.
With the two miles covers though I didn't see any sign of carp whatsoever. One particular where area I'd seen them before, was a couple enjoying some Pimm's on the towpath that had been moored up for a few days and they'd seen naff all.
I was really hopeful in stumbling upon one on the return and after fishing a few of the lock mouths to see if there were any chub about I spent a little more time scoping out any likely spots. Talking of chub I've really missed them I must admit. The more I think it about, probably my favourite river species.
After passing the lazy otter not long after on one particular secluded stretch I spot the tell-tale bubbles from an otter. This was 5.30pm or something where you wouldn't expect to see them, but as anglers we know that not to be the case.
Now look away blog reader Nick Duffy from the National Anguilla Club because I watched it take a reasonable sized eel up on to the bank, play about with it for a bit then it went off hunting again. Not the best footage sadly as I had to grab my phone quick as my 72x zoom camera in my bag would have been far better, but still you can make it out pretty clearly. Well I can on my phone anyway but then you can zoom in closer on that, not sure about a YouTube video.
I've seen Otters not far from here before to be fair and filmed them too and it turns out a local club lake literally a stones throw where I captured them that did contain carp, is now not a patch on it's former self for obvious reasons. This stretch also has mink and they happily live together, brothers in arms !!
On the return back to the car again no carp spotted, so that pint and some pork scratchings to reward myself again for catching one of the rare carp that swim in these turbid troubled waters, sadly never happened. And yes you guessed it, I'm not going to return any time soon.
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